"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Timothy 3:12 KJV

Christianity has always been a stumbling block to governments that want their people to obey all rules without question, and for that reason, when looking at China in the view of just Christianity in China, the 160-200 Million Christians in China today are truly a very small and suppressed segment of the country's population.

Back when China was establishing Christian-majority countries as trading partners, Presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jinta tried to make a show of tolerating the unlawful Christian "house churches" to bolster coöperation with the west. But, when current President Xi Jinping came to power, he was much less tolerant of Christian house churches and ordered tighter control and better intelligence data about Christian house churches and clergy.

As stated In a previous article that I wrote about President Xi Jimping's intolerance of Christian house churches, all Christians are expected to attend one of the government's 57,000 Three Self Church locations and no one under the age of 18 will be allowed to attend church or even be taught religion by their parents. None of this sets well with the Christian community and their continued resistance is forcing the government react more and more harshly to eliminate Christian house churches in China.

There has never been a good time to be a Christian in China since 1920 and judging by the current sizable drop in the numbers of bibles being illegally brought into China, the future will bring continuing tribulation and more severe crackdowns to all who resist the demands of the Chinese Government.

Rik Charbonneaux is a retired NE Iowan who loves all of God's Word and all of His creatures.