“And he is a model of someone who rejects God and puts himself in that place.”
I’m not sure when the Christian missionaries were kicked out, but when China was open again the missionaries went back in, anticipating that there would be no Christians and they would have to start from scratch.
Instead they found a huge underground Christian Church of believers - exponential growth since they had left - millions. I was at a conference and one of the native Chinese gave a talk and ended it saying that the Christians in China prayed that America would see such persecution - so that our faith would increase.
I caught up with him afterwards. “Thank you for your presentation. And thank you for your prayers. But can you knock it off!?”
God has done amazing things in China. People like Hudson Taylor, Pastor Hsi, Gladys Alyward (great biographies have been written about these giants of the Faith) may have laid the seed, but I understand that many millions have come to Christ in that land. Numerically speaking, there are probably more Christians in the PRC than America.
I agree though - although no one likes the idea of persecution - I have to admit that history has shown that persecution tends to revitalize the Church ('the seeds are watered by the blood of the martyrs') and unfortunately America has lost her way and we need revitalizing.