China: CCP moves to fully subjugate the Church, the arrival of a new era of intense repression and severe persecution

 China. Ps. 23:1-6 (ESV)

- On February 11, 2021 Bitter Winter published the first English translation of a text converting the clergy in apparatchiks (blindly devoted officials) under a system of awards and penalties based on their loyalty to the CCP. The “Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy”, announced in November 2020, (approved on 8 January) will come into force on May 1. The measures create an Orwellian system of surveillance, and strengthen the already strict control on all clergy and the tool is a national data base. It is difficult to be registered and easy to lose the registration./my summary.

Bitter Winter writes: "To be registered in the data base, it is not enough to be proficient in one of the authorized religions. The clergy should prove that they “support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and support the socialist system” 

Bitter Winter February 11, 2021: "Enter the “Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy”: Be afraid, be very afraid" (full text and the translation of "Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy" 

https://bitterwinter.org/enter-the-administrative-measures-for-religious-clergy/

- Elizabeth Kendal also writes about China in Religious Prayer Bulletin 585 and refers to Bitter Winter. Kendal's conclusion is as follows: 

"For clergy (religious workers), as with churches, the choice is now between (1) compliance (serving the CCP), (2) open resistance (resulting in prison), or (3) secret resistance (moving ministry deep underground). It is highly likely that, within a few years, all China's resisting 'clergy' will be either suffering in prison or hidden underground. The CCP's plan is, that is much the same way that the cross is being eliminated from China's skyline, so too will the evangel be eliminated from the land.": 

RLP February 16, 2021: "China: CCP moves to fully subjugate the Church" (full text) 

http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/2021/02/rlpb-585-china-ccp-moves-to-fully.html

- Elizabeth Kendal's bulletin 586 on February 23, is about a number of other countries as well, but as regarding China, she notes that the measures "herald the arrival of a new era of intense repression and severe persecution":

RLP Bulletin 586, February, 23, 2021 (full text)

http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/2021/02/rlpb-586-february-update-incl-india.html

Kendals comments: "Christian clergy in China have long had to decide whether or not they can work within the official CCP-approved Church. Those who had decided they could, will now have to decide whether or not they are prepared to work for the CCP, doing its bidding, as its agents. The new 'Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy' will unleash a period of severe persecution in which many Christian teachers and evangelists will be imprisoned, and much of the Church will be driven underground. However, as is commonly the case with persecution, it will also sort the sheep from the goats - and the CCP can keep the goats! Our Sovereign God has a plan for the Chinese Church and HE is preparing her for his 'great commission'. But as this painful sorting of church leaders takes place, the Church in China will need our prayers."

Follow news from China by China aid: 

https://www.chinaaid.org/2021/02/bob-fu-report-premiere-expands-on.html

***

Psalm 23:1-6 (ESV)

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

 your rod and your staff,

 they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

 in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

 my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

forever."