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Persecution watchdog documents over 100 incidents of China’s
crackdown on Christians in 1 year
By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor|
Saturday, September 18, 2021
on April 4, 2021. | JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images
A U.S.-based persecution watchdog says it has documented more than 100 incidents of Christian persecution in China between July 2020 and June 2021 as the country's communist regime seeks to forcefully convert independent religious groups into mechanisms of the Chinese Communist Party.
A significant trend throughout the past year was an increase in church raids, says a report published by International Christian Concern. It notes that "not only were churches shut down or demolished, but pastors and church attendees were often arrested.”
One example of this crackdown happened earlier this month when more than 30 officials from the CCP, including SWAT officers, police officers, religious affairs bureau officials and local school district administrators raided Maizi Christian Music High School (3rd story on link) in Harbin city in China’s Heilongjiang province, the U.S.-based rights group China Aid reported at the time.
In August, officers from Chenghua District Mengzhuiwang office in Sichuan province forcibly entered the home of a church member, He Shan, where the small group of Early Rain Covenant Church members were meeting for worship, CBN News said at the time.
ICC has also tracked 23 incidents of authorities demolishing religious structures and symbols during its reporting period. “The CCP has torn down, destroyed, and removed numerous churches in China, especially those that refused to submit to its control,” the report says.
The persecution watchdog adds in the report that it recorded 14 cases of “Sinicization,” which is a state campaign to forcefully assimilate religious groups into CCP-defined Chinese culture.
As an example, ICC highlights the plight of a church bookstore that was forced to display Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book instead of the Bible. The Administration for Religious Affairs also ordered Christians to study President Xi’s book and memorize his speeches.
Chinese authorities are also removing Bible apps and Christian WeChat public accounts as new highly restrictive administrative measures on religious staff went into effect earlier this year.
The ICC report says that almost every province in China has seen an increase in Christian persecution, and this rise has been especially apparent in Sichuan, Hebei and Fujian provinces.
“China tightening down on people of faith comes as no surprise to observers,” says Gina Goh, ICC’s Regional Manager for Southeast Asia, in a statement about the report.
“What is concerning is the depth and width of persecution and that it continues to expand. From Xinjiang to Sichuan, from state-sanctioned groups to underground churches, from verbal threats to imprisonment, believers in China are constantly watched and persecuted,” Goh adds.
Under the direction of President Xi Jinping, officials from the CCP have been enforcing strict controls on religion, according to another report released in March by China Aid.
Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that there are about 97 million Christians in China, a large percentage of whom worship in what China considers to be “illegal” and unregistered underground house churches.
Christians are not the only religious minority to face persecution at the hands of the CCP.
Estimates suggest that as many as 1 million to 3 million Uyghur and other ethnic Muslims have been subject to internment camps in the western Xinjiang province, where they are taught to be secular citizens who fall in line with the CCP. In January, the U.S. State Department recognized China's treatment of Uyghurs as a “genocide.”
China has also reportedly violated the rights of Falun Gong practitioners and Tibetan Buddhists.
Televangelist Kenneth Copeland Asks Viewers for Money to
Buy Private Jet to Avoid Vaccine Mandates
Milton Quintanilla |
Contributor for ChristianHeadlines.com |
Monday, September 27, 2021
Controversial prosperity preacher Kenneth Copeland is asking his supporters for money to help him buy a private jet so that he can avoid vaccine mandates and still travel freely.
Copeland, 84, made the plea during a “VICTORYthon” fundraiser last Tuesday during which he called vaccine mandates “the mark of the beast,” a reference from the book of Revelations.
“The time has come for ministries, particularly traveling ministries, to have some other method of travel other than the airlines,” the televangelist explained.
“You get into this situation, ‘We’re not going to let you fly unless you’re vaccinated.’ Well, to me, that’s the mark of the beast,” Copeland claimed. “Not the vaccination,” he later clarified. “I’m not taking the vaccination, but you can do what you wanna do.”
Whaaaat?
According to Inside Edition, Copeland reportedly owns three jets and a private airport. In a 2019 interview with the outlet, the televangelist explained that the reason he needed a private jet was so that he wouldn’t have to fly commercial with “a bunch of demons.”
As reported by The Christian Post, Copeland has also made controversial claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last June, Copeland claimed that his faith in God would shield him from the coronavirus. He also accused Christians of not having enough faith, arguing that they spent too much time watching news reports about the disease.
“I’m talking now to Holy Spirit born-again, Holy Spirit baptized, Holy Spirit speaking in other tongues, healing, believing Christians that don’t watch anything but COVID-19 on the television. Your faith is idle and dumb,” Copeland said at the time.
He added that by consuming media about the pandemic instead of absorbing faith-building content, Christians were subjecting themselves to further attacks by the devil.
“Your angel has nothing to do because all you’re listening to is the news broadcast, and you’re exalting this creep that you have authority over,” Copeland said.
Shortly after the start of the pandemic, Copeland called for a supernatural heatwave to kill the coronavirus as it spread across the United States.
We had a 'supernatural' heatwave in southwest British Columbia, but it came a year and a half after the pandemic started, and it failed to kill the virus.
Copeland is, in my humble opinion, far off base with this request for another jet, and his preaching is far off base with its selfish, prosperity gospel. Jesus never taught anything close to that.
According to Wikipedia, Copeland spent close to $40 million on a Gulfstream V luxury jet and airport facilities to use it. Copeland is himself a pilot and his ministry owns 5 airplanes including 3 jets.
He is claimed to have a wealth of between $300 - 760 million dollars. He can afford to buy another jet already. Why is he robbing Christians of the blessing of giving money to the poor and needy instead of to the rich and greedy?
Preacher like Copeland are destroying the church from within rather than building it. He is manifesting the character of wealthy, worldly, aristocrats, rather than the sweet, humble nature of Jesus Christ.
We Can 'Speed Up' Jesus' Return by Giving Money to TV Ministry,
Jesse Duplantis Says
Michael Foust |
ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor |
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Christians can "speed up" the time of Jesus' return by giving more money so the gospel can be shared across the globe, Louisiana pastor and televangelist Jesse Duplantis said during the Kenneth Copeland Ministries "VICTORYton" fundraiser.
Duplantis urged viewers recently to donate to the Victory Channel, which currently can be viewed on the Dish Channel, DirectTV and YouTube and is a network of Kenneth Copeland Ministries.
Duplantis' sermons are broadcast on the Victory Channel.
"The reason why Jesus hasn't come is because people are not giving away what God told them to give," Duplantis said. "You see what I'm saying? I mean, when you understand it – you can speed up the time."
Duplantis continued, "What is God saying to you? And I really believe this. If people would call this number and put this Victory all over the world — every available voice, every available outlet. The Father would say, 'Jesus, go get them.' Because you see, He wants to see us as much as we want to see Him."
The reason Jesus has not returned, Duplantis concluded, is "because people are not doing in the financial realm – because we live in an economic world – what God's called them to do."
His comments were posted on social media by Right Wing Watch.
Duplantis is the pastor and co-founder of Covenant Church in the New Orleans area, and the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries.
The Victory Channel is a non-profit, free-to-air television network that "fills the airways with the hope and healing from the Word of God," according to its website, which also says it features "faith-filled, Spirit-led ministers" such as those of Jerry Savelle, Jesse Duplantis, Creflo Dollar, Keith Moore, Bill Winston and Nicole Crank.
A year or two ago, Creflo Dollar begged his supporters for a new Gulfstream luxury jet 'for his ministry'! Prosperity gospel preachers are mostly concerned about their own prosperity, IMHO.
I'm not sure why they would want to hurry the return of Jesus, because that just hurries the day they will have to stand before Him. That will not be a pretty sight.
Decision Magazine, a publication of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, warned in a 2011 article that "although the Scriptures say the Gospel will be preached to the whole world and then the end will come, it does not say that the coming of Christ will follow immediately after the completion of the Great Commission."
"And even if it is to follow immediately, our understanding of completing the Great Commission may not match God's," the article said. "A day may come when we think the task has been completed, but we may be unaware of other people whom God still intends for us to reach. If Christ delays His coming for another hundred years, we must be faithful to proclaim His name to every generation, for as long as He tarries."
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