Bible exhibition called 'propaganda' by house church leaders

ChinaAid 17 November 2011

Shi Weihan, Liu Zhenying and Bob Fu
at the entrance of the Chinese Bible
exhibition in Dallas.
Photo: ChinaAid

A deceptive exhibit in the United States that displays Chinese Bibles is causing North Americans to believe there is religious freedom in China, say three former Chinese house church leaders.

The Christian leaders, who were all imprisoned in China for their beliefs, voiced their disdain for the display while visiting the exhibition "Thy Word is Truth" on the campus of Dallas Theological Seminary. The exhibition has already been viewed in Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

On November 1, a forum regarding the exhibition was held at Northwest Bible Church in Dallas. The participants -- representatives of China's government-controlled church and two professors from Dallas Theological Seminary -- strongly supported the notion that China respects religious freedom and that scriptures are readily available to believers. However, this is simply not the case.

Despite the government-run Amity Press' reports that millions of Bibles have been published in China, about two-thirds of them are exported, leaving many Christians without a Bible (for more on the need for Bibles in China, click here).

Please pray along with ChinaAid's founder and president, Bob Fu: "We hope and pray to our Lord Jesus Christ that China's house churches can soon be legally recognized, that all our brothers and sisters who are in prison for the sake of their faith would be quickly released, and that the Bible in China could be freely printed and transported."

For more on our suffering brothers and sisters in China, please visit the China Country Report.

China

Current Ministry Projects
The Voice of the Martyrs Canada continues to help distribute Bibles to Christians in the country, making it possible for them to have their own printed version of God's Word. Additionally, VOMC works with various mission partners to facilitate a Biblical understanding of persecution and discipleship, while presenting ways to effectively respond and minister within the context of hostility.

Project Funds: Underground Church, Bible, Relief & Development
Country Information
Population
1,413,142,846 (2023 est.)

Ethnicity (%)
Han Chinese (91.1), ethnic minorities (8.9 - includes Zhang, Hui, Manchu, Uighur, Miao, Yi, Tujia, Tibetan, Mongol, Dong, Buyei, Yao, Bai, Korean, Hani, Li, Kazakh, Dai, and other nationalities) (2021 est.)

Religion (%)
Folk religion (21.9), Buddhist (18.2), Christian (5.1), Muslim (1.8), Hindu (< 0.1), Jewish (< 0.1), other (0.7 - includes Daoist [Taoist]), unaffiliated (52.1) (2021 est.)

Leader
President Xi Jinping (2013)

Government type
Communist party-led state

Legal system
Based on civil law system; influenced by Soviet and continental European civil law systems

Sources: CIA World Factbook
Pray for China
Pray that the Gospel will be proclaimed throughout China without government interference so many more names can be added to the Lamb's "Book of Life." May there also be a spirit of unity demonstrated among the country's growing churches, further strengthening existing believers and spurring them on in their ministry service and evangelistic outreach within the country's numerous communities.