A Weekly Meditation of Pastor Chang (March 14, 2010)

<Futurology, Soothsaying, Fortunetelling, and Biblical Prophecy> (13)

Almost every Chinese hopes that China will be strong and good soon. But if China wants to be truly strong and good in God’s sight, she needs to be humble and accepts Christ Jesus as the Lord and Savior. Why? Non-Christians probably would disagree and doubt or disbelieve. Let me give the following reasons:

1. In the past several thousand years, China has many different religions; some are imported and some are domestic made. But so far never a solo religion provides true peace and joy for the Chinese society. In the past, some religions probably provided temporary relief of pain after long suffering. Yet, from the historical point of view, none of any religion truly provides a true foundation of freedom, truth, and hope for the entire nation, not even to see people’s hearts are truly transformed, and the nation moves toward a better direction.

2. China has no war happened because of religious reason. It was good. Yet, each time when the war occurred, hundreds of thousands of people were killed because of political reasons. It seems that Chinese has a great capacity to accept all kinds of religions because of that. Especially Buddhism in the past 2000 years spread well, except only three emperors who tried to destroy Buddhism and other religions, but their periods of time were not long. Buddhism has rooted well on Chinese soil because their teaching about the concept of suffering seems attractive. Moslem is quite the same; I never heard any persecution or discrimination in China against Moslem. And those who believe in Moslem are the Chinese Moslems; they become one of the major tribes. The only religion which faced a lot of misunderstanding, slanders, attacks, and persecutions is Christianity. I believe now it is time for the Christian faith to be openly accepted, spread, and preached. Let us see!

3. In the past, Christianity was accused to be an agent and a serving dog of the European Imperialism. I believe this kind of misunderstanding is gone. Now, the Chinese Christians can stand up strongly and maturely already. I believe that the so called: “3-self movement can be truly rooted in the Chinese soil. Actually the 3-self concept: Self-independent, self-propagate, and self-support are the mission policy of the Reformed Church which later on was almost adopted by every mission board of the mother churches in Europe and America. Now Chinese Christians are good enough to sit with any other nations’ Christians to dialogue and communicate about the Christian faith. I believe if it can be encouraged, that will be a great benefit to the Chinese society.

4. If China can provide a fair and open platform for Christians, I believe that Christianity will grow and become a great contributor to the Chinese future development. Why? I can provide at least 10 reasons to describe the special and unique characteristics of Christian faith:

(1). The characteristics of love: There is no any religion which can describe “love” (agape) so powerfully as Christianity, especially the love of God to human beings. And only this kind of love can transform human life and any culture.

(2). Uniqueness: the uniqueness of Christianity includes, only one God (monotheism) who is Triune God; only one Scripture – the Bible is the word of God; only one salvation through Jesus Christ. These are so simple and easy to accept. If Satan did not block the way of truth, everyone everywhere would understand and accept easily.

(3). Ethics: Since there is only one true God, God and human relationship can be built up through His Son Jesus Christ. And because of this God, He is the God of ethics; human relationship needs to follow His way ethically and orderly.

(4). Truth: Christianity believes that human beings are created by God. Therefore, everyone is equal and has dignity. This kind of saying only can be found in Christian faith.

(5). Bright side: Christianity never despises the suffering and asks people to retreat or withdrew from the world to hide inside of the mountains. But encourage people move on and trust in the Lord Jesus to overcome and conquer the trouble.

(6). Very scientific: The Bible teaches that God is the Creator who makes things in good order, traceable, stable, marvelous, and learnable. And because of these concepts, the science starts.

(7). Loyalty: Human beings are the highest creatures made by God, according to the Bible. Therefore, the only object that human beings need to serve and be loyal to is this God, the Creator. And because of that whatever we do we need to be loyal to this God.

(8). Eternal concept: Regarding the concepts of Heaven and hell, there is no book which can describe and articulate better than the Bible, because it tells the truth revealed by God Himself. People who believe in the Bible will be comforted and find true peace.

(9). Positive and motivational thinking: There is no religion as Christianity which values the human life so highly. It is because we as human beings are created after the image and likeness of God. We have the gifts of ability to pursue the truth, goodness, and beauty. Therefore, while we are still alive in this world we need to cultivate our life and make it meaningful and beneficial to others.

(10). Democratic thinking: Since we are created equal. We need to treat each other fairly. God never despises anyone badly, no matter what kind of color, ethnic backgrounds. And because of that, we need to have democratic thinking which will provide equal right and opportunity for everyone to act and live in this world as a human being.

I pray that the Chinese people will become Christians more and more. Hopefully within these 10 years more than 30% of Chinese population will become Christians. If that is the case, the world will be more blessed by the Chinese.