Story from the UK Telegraph.
Excerpt:
Officially, the People’s Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.
Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao’s death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world’s number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation.
“By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon,” said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.
“It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change.”
China’s Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.
By 2030, China’s total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.
“Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this,” Prof Yang said. “It’s ironic – they didn’t. They actually failed completely.”
Previously, I had blogged about how the Christians in China were rebelling against the Chinese authorities to prevent them from demolishing their churches. It’s not a perfect country at all, but at least there is some good news there.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
There is no more faithful believer than a Chinese house church Christian! These folks will suffer everything for the Name above all names. They have a great in-country printing house now, but they need more Bibles. American Bible Society, Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs, Billy Graham Evangelical Association, maybe Gospel for Asia, and others provide Bibles or paper to print Bibles on to distribute to the Chinese. Many have waited decades just to see an entire Bible. Most have only seen small portions that have been circulated around the house churches. To actually own a personal Bible is a cause for intense jubilation. If I had just 1% of the faith of these beautiful people …
LikeLiked by 1 person
agreed, WGC. It is shaming, or should be, to any western church to see how much faith they have given how little they possess and how much struggle they endure for the sake of the Name.
I had the privilege to visit there some time ago and what I found, amongst a country that is ancient in history and awash in natural wonder, is a group of brothers and sisters whom I wish I could do more for and whose reliance on God I hope I can one day match. I wept the day I left.
I have to say it is evidence once more that the church does best when it is oppressed. When we are forced to choose between God and the world in that way, it seems to breed people who will give all, who are glad to give all.
LikeLike
Great news! Nevertheless I do think there’s still a lot work for evangelizing China.
LikeLike
Get a pretty up-to-date scoop on the situation of the Church in China by reading these two books:
(1) Jesus In Beijing (978-1596980259)
(2) Lilies Amongst the Thorns (978-1852400958)
Or you could just spend 2 hours watching this incredible documentary on them by China Soul (in English):
Protestant Christianity in China during the 1800s and Christianity in Chinese history are two of my areas of interest. Anyone who researches either would tell you: I don’t use the word precious often, but Christians should know that there have been many, many precious people of God who have died — or worse (been forced to spend their entire lives in labor camps or be given some dreaded disease) — in that country.
I and many other people pray for it often. In fact, I live in right next door to China and I pray that it becomes a light to all the dark nations surrounding it…
LikeLike