and more challenging because, “Not only are there far more than 23 million
worshipping at official ‘legal’ congregations but China also has tens of millions
more believers attending underground ‘house churches’ not recognized or
approved by the state.”
During the bloody days of the Cultural Revolution from 1966-76, when
the official “Three Self ” church was charged with wiping out Protestantism,
the number of worshippers in underground churches in Wenzhou increased
ten-fold. There is even a Bible factory in a suburb of Nanjing where the
government-controlled China Christian Council publishes and distributes
Bibles to 57,000 churches throughout the country.
Victor Hugo once said, “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not
an idea whose time has come” – especially if the idea is Divine and powered by
providence.
(BMH)
in harmony with order
American novelist Henry Miller, author of such controversial novels as Tropic
of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, isn’t a man I would normally turn to for
guidance in this chaotic world. But in a moment of moral clarity he once said:
“The world is not to be put in order; the world is order incarnate. It is for us to
put ourselves in unison with this order.”
(BMH)
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