“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood…” (Ephesians 6:12, NIV)
Christians throughout history have seen themselves engaged in a battle that is ultimately spiritual in nature. Forces arrayed against them, political or otherwise, are physical manifestations of this unseen battle, which will ultimately conclude with the return of Christ.
For a large part of the past century, China’s Christians experienced this warfare as an ongoing conflict with a state that, if not intent on destroying the church altogether, was committed to limiting its size and influence. The battle lines were drawn between the church and those political entities (including, in the minds of many believers, the Three Self Patriotic Movement) charged with carrying out the Party’s restrictive religious policy. The enemy wielded a variety of weapons that included, at different times, personal coercion, intimidation, legal restrictions, harassment, imprisonment, and raw physical force. Staying ahead of the enemy required not only prayer and spiritual disciplines, but also a host of creative survival tactics ranging from limited acquiescence or passive resistance to creating elaborate clandestine networks that enabled believers to advance the gospel message while staying one step ahead of the law.
Today the nature of the battle has changed as the implementation of religious policy has shifted from aggressive control to the construction of a large “box” within which believers have a fair degree of space to maneuver as they carry out the work of the church. The enemy, still seen as ultimately spiritual, is now attacking in new ways as the benefits to the church that have accompanied urbanization – access to material resources, greater freedom of thought and expression, and new options for family life – form the new battle lines that define the church’s current spiritual conflict.
The current struggle is essentially a battle for the spiritual vitality and purity of the church over and against the forces of materialism, secularism and moral decline. Church leaders consistently point to China’s rampant consumerism – including a trend toward “religious consumerism” – and to the desire for wealth and status among young believers as presenting the most serious dangers to the future of the church. In the words of one pastor, “At present the main problem facing the church is not government persecution; in fact, this is unimportant to the church. No, the main problem is holiness. If the church is not holy, its witness is destroyed.”
Image Credit: Shanghai February 2011 by Remko Tanis, on Flickr
