Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain Covenant Church was sentenced to nine years in prison last month during a secret hearing held by the Communist Party in China. Yi and his church are just part of a much larger crackdown taking place in China, whereby the government is seeking to intimidate and control Christians, Muslims, and Tibetan Buddhists. Pastor Yi prepared an inspiring “Declaration of Faithful Disobedience” sharing his determination to share the gospel even in the face of persecution at the hands of his government. Persecution of Christians is not only increasingly normal in China, it’s normal around the world. Currently 245 million Christians suffer intense persecution for their faith in Jesus. This is far from the norm in the west—we here in the US almost never worry about our well-being because of our faith. But as our society moves further away from Biblical truths, we are going to be increasingly obvious. In my opinion that’s good news because we will be even brighter lights in a darker place. But are we ready? As the apostle Peter admonishes, are we ready for the certain fiery trials that come to all Christians? If not, what can we do to prepare?

The following links were helpful in preparing this episode:

https://time.com/5757591/wang-yi-prison-sentence-china-christianity/

https://world.wng.org/2020/01/long_expected_sentence

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/world/asia/china-wang-yi-christian-sentence.html

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/december/chinese-pastor-wang-yi-early-rain-house-church-sentence-pri.html

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/an-eerie-unacceptable-silence

https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/

https://www.christianpost.com/news/nigerian-pastor-who-praised-god-in-ransom-video-beheaded-after-refusing-to-deny-christ.html