As we reach the end of our look at the wonderful things God has done in Zhejiang Province, one thing is clear: despite decades of battering and persecution, the Lord Jesus Christ has raised up a vibrant Body from among Zhejiang's population of more than 60 million people.
The early Evangelical missionaries in the nineteenth century overcame overwhelming obstacles to plant the seed of the gospel in the province. Instead of God sending the strong to establish His kingdom in Zhejiang, He sent the one-legged George Stott who was pelted with stones by hostile locals. Many other faithful missionaries served in the coastal province, including James Meadows, who spent more than half a century in Zhejiang, and the intrepid Hudson Taylor, who first had to overcome deep hostility from the mission community to marry the woman God had set apart to be his wife.
The 1920s and 1930s witnessed an outbreak of revival in Zhejiang, with Chinese evangelists at the forefront. 'China's greatest preacher' John Sung visited several times, and Dora Yu Cidu was used greatly by the Holy Spirit to bring spiritual life and vitality to Christians when they needed a boost due to the distressed conditions of the time.
As the Church gradually passed from foreign to Chinese control, it matured and strengthened into a powerful remnant that was able to withstand decades of hardship. The early missionaries had steadfastly refused to finance the Chinese in any gospel work that they themselves should fund, and their tenacious approach paid off. When all foreigners were expelled from China, the Church in Zhejiang continued preaching the gospel with few interruptions, whereas in other provinces the Church struggled to survive when the foreign support was taken away.
Zhejiang's Christians saw the dark storm clouds gathering on the horizon as the Communists swept to power in the 1940s, so they strengthened one another and braced themselves for difficult times ahead. The severe hardship arrived in the 1950s. Forty-nine church leaders from the city of Wenzhou were sent to prison labor camps. Only one man, Miao Zizhong, returned home alive. His remarkable testimony earned him the nickname 'The Cedar of Lebanon' from other believers.
In the 1960s the government strongly attacked the Christians in Zhejiang, but the more the Church was persecuted, the stronger it seemed to become. At one stage, infuriated by the continuing expansion of Christianity, the authorities launched a campaign to make Wenzhou a 'religion-free zone,' but their attempts proved futile. Instead, the city emerged as an engine room for Christianity, and earned the nickname 'the Jerusalem of China'.
When China awoke from decades of brutal persecution in the 1980s, Christians around the world were amazed to discover that not only had Christianity survived in Zhejiang, but in many places it had grown and prospered! Miracles occurred throughout the province, as a massive revival gained momentum, transforming the lives of millions of people from all walks of life.
Today, Zhejiang holds the honor of being the province of China with the highest percentage of Christians. It also appears to be unique in China in that the majority of Christians are men. In many other provinces the churches are dominated by female believers.
As the table in the back of this book reveals, there are more than ten million Evangelical Christians throughout Zhejiang Province today, with approximately 4.2 million believers attending the registered Three-Self churches, and 6.2 million who are part of house church networks found throughout every part of the province.
An additional 2.8 million Catholics are estimated to reside in Zhejiang today, most of whom are part of independent house churches. In total, 13.3 million people in Zhejiang are estimated to now profess faith in Jesus Christ, which amounts to more than one-fifth (21.2 percent) of the entire population of the province. Zhejiang sits comfortably ahead of the province in second-place, Henan, where 15.7 percent of the population are professing Christians.
There is much to praise God for as we consider the marvelous things He has done in Zhejiang! At the same time, developments in the last 20 years give cause for concern. As the Chinese economy boomed, the savvy Christian business people of cities like Wenzhou and Hangzhou took advantage of the new freedoms, and the churches in those cities became very wealthy.
To start with, church leaders used the newfound wealth to spread the gospel throughout China and even overseas. In more recent times, however, the construction of elaborate church buildings has become a wasteful infatuation for many church leaders. They rushed headlong into the same error as the Church in other parts of the world, believing that massive edifices are pleasing to God and indicative of His blessing. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the construction of church buildings in Zhejiang, many of which have subsequently been demolished or closed by the government.
In recent years the world's media has reported the cutting down of crosses from thousands of church buildings in Wenzhou, but the campaign has been of little consequence to the real work of the gospel in Zhejiang. At the time of this book going to print, the churches in the province were a diverse group, ranging from mega-churches in the wealthy coastal cities, to poor rural fellowships in inland areas, where impoverished members struggle to eke out a living.
Although Zhejiang today contains many believers who are wrapped up in the empty prosperity gospel, millions of other Christians daily present their lives as living sacrifices to the Lord Jesus Christ. They continue to be persecuted for their faith, and they simply love the Lord and long for His Name to be glorified among people everywhere.
Starting in 2016, the situation began to change dramatically for believers in Zhejiang, as the government signalled its intention to control, and ultimately destroy, grassroots Christianity. Thousands of churches throughout the province were forced to close their doors, and numerous house church pastors were instructed to register with the Three-Self Church or face dire consequences. Sunday schools were made illegal, and wide-ranging pressure was placed on Christians to renounce their faith and embrace atheistic Communist ideology.
The impending implementation of China's 'social credit' system in 2020, which has the potential to take away the ability of Christians to travel, work, and ultimately to buy and sell, threatens to pose the greatest challenge for the faith in Zhejiang—greater even than the excesses of the Cultural Revolution or the aggressive persecutions against the Church in recent years.
For nearly 200 years the Evangelical enterprise in Zhejiang has been characterized by deep devotion to Christ, simple faith, and fervent preaching of the gospel.
How the Church in Zhejiang handles the present crisis will determine the future for Christianity in the province. Either it will continue to enjoy a bright era, or it will compromise and lose the sharp spiritual edge that has characterized it throughout history, when generations of believers emptied their lives before God, gaining a vibrant and unbreakable faith that catapulted the province into its current position of having the highest concentration of Christians in China today.
