And the irony is that they have more Christians than most so-called "christian countries".
RE: And the irony is that they have more Christians than most so-called “christian countries”.
When China closed its doors to Christian Missionaries for over 25 years under Mao, people thought that the atheistic philosophy of the Communist Party would kill any traces of Christianity in that country for good.
After 1977, Christian Missiologists visited the country and were amazed to discover that there were an estimated 40 million Christians in CHINA! The church never died. Many Christians in fact SUFFERED tremendous persecution for their faith!
The church actually held steady in suffering while in many other places in the west, the church declined under material comfort.
Today, it is estimated that if you add ALL branches of Christianity ( Protestant, Evangelical, Catholic, Officially recognized or not ), there are over 100 million Christians in China and the numbers are growing rapidly everyday!
If this rate continues, China will have the LARGEST CHRISTIAN POPULATION IN THE WORLD WITHIN A GENERATION!
The irony is, it was the West that brought Christianity to China, and it is now the west that needs missionaries preaching the gospel back to them.
I will not be surprised to see missionaries from the East like China (or even Africa) bring Christianity back to places like Sweden someday.