September 2011
My dear Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
As I stood in front of the binding machine and watched the Bibles coming out, I started to think of the time when these very Bibles were forbidden, and sometimes burnt, in China. God can transform nations!
He has a big plan for the whole universe and no one can change this plan. Things can happen which make us ask, “where is God?” But at the end His plan will be completely fulfilled. The Church in China once persecuted and suppressed, is now the fastest growing in the world. Huge church buildings and large seminaries are being erected. No one can believe this, but this is what I have seen by my eyes!
It was an honour for us, the Primates of the Global South Anglicans, to be invited and hosted by the Ministry of Religious Affairs in China. We are grateful to Archbishop John Chew, highly respected by the
Chinese Government, who organized this visit.
For many years China was closed but it was Deng XiaoPing who said in 1976, “I don’t care if the cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice.” This new dictum opened the doors of China to the world””and
now it leads the world in many ways. The impact of China on Africa is remarkable! While the United States of America invests 17 billion USD in Africa each year, China invests 127 billion USD!
It was a true joy for me to hold in my hands an Arabic Bible, printed in China! While many countries print currency 24 hours a day, China is now printing Bibles 24 hours a day (in fact, one every two seconds).
They are third in the world (in printing Bibles) only behind Brazil and Korea.
If God transformed China, the largest Communist country in the world, can He change the whole region of the Middle East, so that all citizens can enjojoy democracy, freedom, and more important, the love
of God?
–The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer H. Anis is Bishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of Egyptwith North Africa and the Horn of Africa, and President Bishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East
Amazing. No, miraculous.
#1, agreed, And YET…
it was only a year ago that I and 4000+ other delegates to the Lausanne III Congress on World Evangelism in Capetown South Africa were lamenting the 200 or so empty chairs of Chinese delegates not given permission to leave the country to attend the conference.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130540715
http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/china/26999
By the way, I don’t mean my comment to be critical of Bp. Mouneer. He, in fact, was one of the delegates at Lausanne (where I had the great joy and privilege of getting to meet and speak with him at some length!), so he knows the “other side” of the story too.
So, yes, let’s praise God for the miracle of how the church has exploded in China and pray for the influence of Chinese Christians to grow as China’s influence in the world increases. (And yes, China’s influence is huge, particularly in Africa – the new Chinese embassy in the African country where I work is bigger than the US & French embassies combined!!!)
But let’s pray as well that compromise not creep in as the church is allowed more of an official presence. May the passion for Jesus that flourished when the church in China was mostly “underground” continue to burn strong.
Amen, Karen B.
I find this letter very encouraging, as I do almost everything that ++Mouneer Anis writes and does. The steady, dramatic growth of the Church in China despite all odds is astonishing, and inspiring. Thanks for reminding us, however, of the other side of the story, the not-yet part.
I’ll just add two thoughts.
1. Rodney Stark, the famous sociologist of religion, has estimated that the Christian population had only reached 10% of the total in the Roman Empire when Constantine was converted in AD 312. There are very divergent estimates as to how large the Christian proportion of the Chinese population currently is, generally ranging from 4-8 %. So the question naturally arises, when will China reach the tipping point, as the Roman Empire did? Will it be at 10%? 15%? 20% maybe?
Regardless of what the actual figure might prove to be, I believe at some point China WILL tip toward Christinaity and away from Communism.
2. Rick Warren has prophesied that by the end of the 21st century, China will be the largest and most important Christian country in the world. What an incredible change that would be!
He may well be right. May it be so!
Hudson Yaylor, Nelson Bell (Billy Graham’s father-n-law), and other departed missionaries to China must be rejoicing all the time in heaven, as the tide of new Chinese converts continue to swell day by day.
So why can’t it happen in Egypt and other Muslim countries?
Or in the USA and other secularized nations?
David Handy+