As our students toured China, we interacted with various influences of China’s religion – the primary three are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Historically, China’s people celebrate various folk religion such as worshiping ancestors and local deities. The officially recognized religions of China include Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, a form of Catholicism, and Protestantism (as an officially recognized church). The communist party though is officially atheist. Over 75% of the Chinese people fall into the categories of Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese Buddhism, and ancestor worship.
Regarding our experience of the Chinese culture and religious practices, we toured two temples and observed practices all over the culture.
It is difficult to know anything specific about the Christians in China. This is how the state of Christianity is described in Wikipedia:
On the other hand, many Christians practice in informal networks and unregistered congregations, often described as house churches or underground churches, the proliferation of which began in the 1950s when many Chinese Protestants and Catholics began to reject state-controlled structures purported to represent them.[9] Members of such groups are said to represent the “silent majority” of Chinese Christians and represent many diverse theological traditions.[10]
According to a recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations regarding Christianity in China, Christians face growing regression or persecution. The report reads: “Recent repression efforts target both house and state-sanctioned churches through the harassment and detention of Christian believers, blocking entry to sites of worship, interrupting gatherings, dismantling crosses, demolishing churches, or disbanding congregations.” It further states that the communist government fears Christians and people growing in faith in Christ. It “identifies religious groups as potential threats to national security, social harmony, and core interests.” As a political group, Christians are the most scary group to the communist party.According to a recent report by the CFR, Christians face growing regression or persecution. Therefore, outside of a legally sanction and controlled church, it is illegal to follow Christ and meet as Christians in China. Click To Tweet
Therefore, outside of a legally sanction and controlled church, it is illegal to follow Christ and meet as Christians in China. Those who follow Jesus Christ as Christians are persecuted in various ways. The Chinese government allows no tolerance for the Christian faith and as indicated above view it as is a threat its power. Christians are forced underground per se, meaning they must practice secretly for fear of governmental persecution. According to this report, there is a major push by the government to crack down on illegal religion – or in other words – Christianity. Christians are going to prison for terms of three to seven years for meeting together to worship Jesus Christ.
Hengshan Temple at Longwangtang
We visited the Buddhist temple near Dalian. Unlike the second temple we visited, the Temple of Heaven, this is both a park and an active Buddhist temple. This was heartbreaking in every way. We watched as people bought incense sticks to burn, performed their rituals, lit candles, gave offerings, and brought food. There were hundreds of Buddha statues, the largest over ten stories high.
(click to make images larger)
The disciple of Buddha believes in reincarnation and karma. He or she strives to live a good life where eventually he or she will escape the suffering of this life (Saṃsāra) and reach a state of nirvana. They strive to live a middle path of virtue gaining better karma or merit accumulation for a better next life.
The Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven (天壇) is an imperial complex of religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing and is regarded as a Taoist temple. This over 600 acre site near the Forbidden City is a national park. At this site, emperors would come to sacrifice to the god of heaven for greater harvest. Three additional temple sites to the earth, sun, and moon make up a series of four temples.
The Taoist idea is similar to being one with nature (my words to describe the practice). The goal of the practice by the emperors was to ensure a good year of harvest. Any problems in the rituals would be a bad omen for the following year’s harvest. Worship here was done biannually, although the primary worship was at the winter solstice.
The Heartbreaking Reality
The idols and gods served by the Chinese people lead them to an eternity apart from God, away from the delights of forgiveness through Jesus, away from the power of the Spirit, and toward an eternal destiny of hell.The idols and gods served by the Chinese people lead them to an eternity apart from God, away from the delights of forgiveness through Jesus, away from the power of the Spirit, and toward an eternal destiny of hell. Click To Tweet
Habakkuk writes, “What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, the molded image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mold should trust in it, to make mute idols? Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all. But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him” (Habakkuk 2:18-20).
Paul referred to the idols that are speechless (1 Corinthians 12:2).
In various places the Bible warns about idols that have mouths, but they do not speak; that have eyes, but they do not see (Deut 4:28; Ps 115:5; Ps 135:16; Dan 5:23; Rev 9:20). Idols made with hands and then worshiped.
The verse that haunts my thinking so often is in Jeremiah 2:9-13. God is speaking.
“Therefore I will yet bring charges against you,” says the Lord,
“And against your children’s children I will bring charges.
For pass beyond the coasts of Cyprus and see,
Send to Kedar and consider diligently,
And see if there has been such a thing.
Has a nation changed its gods,
Which are not gods?
But My people have changed their Glory
For what does not profit.
Be astonished, O heavens, at this,
And be horribly afraid;
Be very desolate,” says the Lord.
“For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.
God personifies the heavens in this quote and asks them if they have ever seen something so crazy. Israel had given up their God for gods which are no gods. Although they worship them in various ways, at the end of the day they are not gods. They had walked away from the living God. He used the example of the cistern, which is a hole dug in the ground to collect water. He compared the poor water in a cistern to that of a water fountain flowing out of a hill or rock. Essentially, there is no comparison. No one in their right mind would leave a flowing fountain for a cistern. A cistern would at least keep you alive, but the quality and refreshing nature of it is not even comparable.
However, there’s another much bigger problem! It is not just a cistern; but instead, it is a broken cistern. A broken cistern only means one thing – death! A broken cistern will hold no water. So what will happen to the person depending upon it? That person will starve and die.
God makes a perfect analogy. When you walk away from God, you walk away from what provides life to what can only provide death. Oh friends, that is what is happening in China. The people use beads, light candles, give offerings, pray, perform various acts of worship, but for what? Ultimately, to only die and face eternal damnation.The people use beads, light candles, give offerings, pray, perform various acts of worship, but for what? Ultimately, to only die and face eternal damnation. Click To Tweet
Jesus makes this clear in John. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man can come to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). The only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. Heaven is impossible to earn and only a dream without Jesus Christ. There’s no nirvana. There’s no reincarnation. There is only judgement.
Jesus also said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Jesus continued, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).
The sad part is this. For all those in China who follow one of the many local, ancestral, and traditional Chinese religions will ultimately have no hope.
Will you pray for the people of China that they may hear of Jesus?
KevinCarson.com | Walking together through life as friends in Christ sharing wisdom along the journey
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