Are Chinese Christians threatened by freedom?

For decades Christianity in China has been officially and forcibly repressed: Believers have been arrested, house churches broken up and Bibles restricted. And the community of the faithful has grown by estimates as high as thousands per day.

Now, religious freedom is growing along with Westernization in the Middle Kingdom and the discovery that businesses that operate by Christian concepts often are the most successful.

Is that good for Christianity?

Maybe not completely, says one expert.

"One of the ironies is that the great teacher for the global church of how the church thrives not in prosperity but under persecution is the Chinese Christian movement from the time of the Cultural Revolution until the present," said Open Doors President Carl Moeller.

"Chinese Christians themselves are really the great teachers to the Western church in this area that they in fact know that the secret to a healthy, growing and powerful Christian movement is not a wealthy, prosperous, materially affluent church but a church that has learned to endure hardship because of the truth of their message," Moeller told WND.

"In that refining fire of persecution, it's come away with a more rigorous, tested faith. So, one sense or another, maybe the seeds of the future weakness of the Chinese church might be planted if they are now being more sympathetic to a prosperity theology," he said.

Did he say "seeds of the future weakness?"

His concern is partly because of how Chinese society is impacting the growth of the Christian church in China.

Recent reports from Christian human rights and missions groups say the Chinese church is experiencing explosive growth. Moeller notes that the church is growing quickly among young people, because they have discovered a powerful dynamic.

"The younger generation is, in fact, now seeing as an addition to the spiritual dynamic of Christian theology a very practical dynamic of Christianity being an advantage economically," Moeller said.

"There's real tangible evidence that those Chinese business people who are following Christian doctrine in their business practices tend to be more successful," he said. "I think we have a very unique dynamic both spiritual and economic helping to facilitate church growth in China."

He said the benefits of church growth as a byproduct of economic growth, capitalism and social networking, however, also could be its downfall.

"We are recognizing that as a potential threat to the growth of the Christian movement in China. I think the dynamic of prosperity theology is superficially very attractive, but unfortunately it leaves in its wake a lot of disillusionment and disappointment from those that believe every bit of Christian theology centers around the prosperity we can materially have here on earth," Moeller said.

Listen to an interview with Moeller:

Moeller says marrying the Gospel to prosperity is a step that needs to be watched.

The estimates for the number of Christians in China range from between 60 million to 100 million, and International Christian Concern's China analyst Kris Elliott says the increase is the result of several social factors.

"From what I've seen until the recent months, Christianity was allowed to operate in China without much persecution. There had been substantial progress in getting Christians more freedom there," Elliott said.

"Even though we talk about the fact that there are illegal house churches there, the government pretty much knew in some places where those churches were and they were allowed to operate under the radar without much interference from the government," Elliott said.

But she said the advent of the so-called "Arab Spring" of revolutionary actions across the Middle East and in northern Africa prompted Chinese officials again to begin pulling the reins.

"With revolutions taking place in other places in the world such as Egypt and Syria, the government has been tightening up control on its people to try to ensure that a revolution couldn't take place," Elliott said.

She said that in itself may not necessary be bad for Christians.

"In that environment of persecution we know the church always grows very strongly. The Lord told us that would happen and that has happened for 2,000 years," Elliott said.

China's culture, economy and even government have been heavily influenced by capitalism in recent decades. And the result of that has been a greater return for the workers, business operators and others. It also has allowed Christianity a greater platform.

"Because the regime in China has opened the doors to capitalism over
the past 20 years, that has opened up the nation to Western ideas and that goes
together with the idea of Christianity," Elliott said. "Capitalism has been influenced very heavily by Christianity and Chinese have been learning more and more about Western religion."

She said the fact that people see the answers as coming not from the government or communisms but from God is good.

Elliott said that there's no way to facilitate an accurate estimate of how many Christians are in China.

But while the numbers are growing significantly, veteran observers of the Chinese mission field say there also are red flags.

"The number [of Christians] is growing. You have churches there with thousands of members and are really thriving especially in the younger population," Elliott said.

"They're looking for the social aspect of the church as well that offers them acceptance and connections to finding people who offer intimate relationships rather than just getting ahead in the world," Elliott said.

Moeller said one of the expected byproducts of a more Western culture and civilization is that the government will find it harder and harder to control people without a clearly defined communism.

"There are powerful dynamics at play here because I do think there is a linkage between the freedoms that Christian and Judeo Christian theology helped provide for Western civilization historically," Moeller explained.

"We may be deep into abandoning those ideals and in so doing may be also abandoning our position of being able to look at our prosperity as the direct result of the blessings of God, but the dynamic of the church in China recognizing the value of Christian morality and Christian liberty is not a bad thing," Moeller said.

"It is certainly a powerful, and in this context a politically powerful ideology to link up with especially as the Chinese government continues to find itself in the unenviable position of trying to restrict peoples access to information and ideas," Moeller said.

Elliott added that prospects are good for continued growth of the church in China, but Moeller suggests that with that growth, the tension between the church, capitalism and the Chinese government will only grow.

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