(China – November 8, 2024) On the morning of the first Sunday in November (the 3rd), churches in several parts of the country were simultaneously stormed by national security brigades as they met. Two of these churches were particularly notable.
Persecution of House churches in Nanjing
First, several house churches in Nanjing were hit at the same time. According to a female believer’s account, at about 10:00 a.m. in her church, while the elders were in the middle of a sermon, more than 50 national security police officers, officials from the Civil Religion Bureau, police officers from the local police station, auxiliary police officers, and patrolmen rushed in, and one of them, who appeared to be the chief leader, led this group of people through the door and into the meeting hall, and then roared with great ferocity and hatred, “Don’t move, put your cell phones away, and don’t talk. ” Then he asked who was in charge here. Our pastor bravely stepped forward and said, “I am the pastor here. Even though the pastor was not preaching at the time, he did not hesitate to confess his identity. The police did not explain, and directly handcuffed the pastor, and later the elders, and several female believers, a total of eight people. They began to take pictures of all the female believers present one by one and registered their identity cards. According to the female believer’s account, she said that,
“God’s grace was with us during this persecution.”
After intimidating the church members, the police warned them that the place was not registered with the Religious Affairs Bureau and was an illegal meeting place. All of the detained women believers were released at around ten o’clock last night, but at the same time, the female believer recalled that the police let out a stern message that if they gather again, the next time they will punish the pastors, elders and believers according to the law.
The Nanjing churches have always been important bases for Christianity in China because Nanjing is the only place in China where Bibles are legally printed. It is also the home base of the Three-Self Patriotic Churches and the location of the Jinling Theological Seminary. In the past, the Nanjing government’s crackdown on house churches was relatively mild. But this time, it was much more severe.
Against one house church, the government mobilized more than fifty police officers and Religious Affairs Bureau personnels, and if we count the police forces of several other impacted churches, it was estimated to have had at least more than two hundred police officers.
Persecution of House Churches in Changsha, Hunan Province
Another city where house meetings were persecuted on November 3 was Changsha, Hunan Province. Several house meetings were also impacted on this day, with the Changsha Grace and Light Church being the most severely persecuted.
The Changsha Grace Light Church has a history of over 30 years. In the beginning, the church was founded by blind Christian Zhang Zhongliang. Later, Elder Dai joined the church, and Pastor Wen and Pastor Liu, who were expelled from Nanjing Theological Seminary, later joined the church.
Under God’s preservation, Grace Light Church has gradually grown and developed into a church of more than 1,000 people. It is not only the largest house church in Changsha, but also the largest and most influential church in Hunan Province.
Seven or eight years ago, Grace Light Church was started being persecuted. They had their own acquired church, but the Public Security Bureau declared it an illegal church and banned it.
Last year, the founder, Zhang Zhongliang, was attacked by the Public Security Bureau at his home. Zhang Zhongliang, who was 86 years old at the time, was bullied by more than 20 police officers who broke into his home. A blind old man, who could not even walk steadily, had to be constantly interrogated by the public security officers, which was undoubtedly a kind of abuse for such an old man.
Afterward, the Grace Light Church was divided into five congregations. Among them, the larger meeting point rented a hotel and had two meetings in the morning and hosted a total of three hundred people. On this day, November 3, about 50 people from the Public Security and Religious Affairs Bureaus stormed this Grace Light Gathering Point in this hotel. At the same time, a considerable number of other police forces stormed four other locations.
The police have learned their lesson, and now the first thing they do when they storm every meeting point is to collect cell phones, and when they don’t collect cell phones, they have to warn people that they are not allowed to take pictures with their cell phones. The purpose of this is obviously to keep their brutal and illegal behavior from coming to light and leaving no evidence.
Some members of the Grace Light Church protested on the spot, saying,
“the Constitution explicitly states that law enforcement officers should accept the supervision of the people when enforcing the law. But how could we supervise when the police takes away our cell phones? They have violated the law and we cannot gather evidence, so how could we report the situation to the higher authorities?”
Such protests undoubtedly seemed very powerless in front of this group of police officers who were shouting loudly. Several young female believers who had just been brought to faith in Christ were frightened and cried because of the situation in front of them. They could never have imagined that their good impression of their country, which was usually very favorable, and they always thought that law enforcement officers nowadays were reasonable, would be so brutal and unreasonable, that their good impression of the police collapsed and they began to cry loudly.
In retrospect, this total police siege of Grace Light Church was by and large not too bad. No church members were detained and no one was taken to the police station. But there were verbal warnings not to meet again. Therefore, the leaders of Grace Light Church are now challenged to continue to gather. If they continue to gather for worship, there is a chance that next time someone would have to go to jail.
Grace Light Church members are sending out prayer requests to the all the brothers and sisters worldwide. As persecution grows, please pray that the Lord would give them strength in the midst of it.
Nov. 3: A Coincidence or a Deliberation to Persecute?
November 3 is a special day. It is a day of prayer for persecuted churches and persecuted Christians worldwide. Is it a coincidence that national public security is taking concerted action against house churches all over the country on this day? Or did they deliberately choose this day to persecute the churches?
(Reported by Matai, ChinaAid’s Special Correspondent)
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