China is currently in conflict between Christianity and Communism.

Christianity was there first. It entered China as early as the seventh century, though it wouldn’t be firmly rooted until after the arrival of the Jesuits in the 16th century. The Jesuit Matteo Ricci sought to express Christian truth in a way compatible with Chinese culture, mastering the language, adopting the Chinese style of dress, and striving to show respect for Chinese thought and classics.

The communist government sent the Western missionaries, Protestant as well as Catholic, packing in the mid-1950s; hoping that would be the end of it. Instead, Christianity grew and became thoroughly Chinese. Now many Missions organizations estimate there are over 200 million Christians in China.

Communism was a European creation, the brainchild of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Its first big export was eastward to Russia, with Lenin arriving in 1917 by sealed railway car to a St. Petersburg. Mao Zedong would soon import the same to China.

As you have heard me state in these blogs, Marxism and Communism are blatantly anti-God, anti-Christian and anti-freedom. China’s president, Xi Jinping, recently had the Chinese constitution changed to cancel term limits, essentially making himself the president for life, if he so desires. Mr. Xi’s authority rests on one thing: the communism instituted by Mao.

Mr. Xi, who leads China by virtue of imported Marxist ideology, is pursuing a purification campaign based on rooting out other ideas…most notably Christianity. All Chinese citizens are to instill in themselves “Chinese characteristics,” the most critical being loyalty to the atheist Communist Party. Atheism is central to Marxism and Communism because it makes it easier to control people and treat them as wards of the state when they don’t believe they are created in the image of God with gifts and talents.

What hope does the Christian church have in this conflict? The same hope that freedom has over control. The same hope that good has over evil. The same hope that Truth has over deception. Time will tell, but my money is on and my prayers are for, the Christians to prevail over time.

Source: China’s Worst Western Import by William McGurn – Wall Street Journal -Appeared in the September 25, 2018, print edition.