The Underground Church

The following is and excerpt from the book written by Rev. Richard Wurmbrand; published by Living Sacrifice Book Company; P.O. Box 2273, Bartlesville, Ok 74005

"The Underground Church works under very difficult conditions. Atheism is the state religion in all the Com­munist countries. They give relative freedom for the elderly to believe, but children and youth must not believe. Everything in these countries and other kinds of captive nations—radio, television, cinema, theater, press, and publishing houses—has the aim of stamping out belief in Jesus Christ.
The Underground Church has very little means of opposing the huge forces of the totalitarian state. The underground ministers in Russia had no theological training. There are Chinese pastors today who have never read the entire Bible."

As China prepares for the Olympics, they are putting on their best face and showing more tolerance for the underground churches. There is only on recognized official Church in China, and that is the Three Persons Patriotic Movement. As recently as just a few months ago, the Chinese government persecuted underground churches and their members, arresting pastors and some members anad spying on the members to intimidate them.

The whole world is looking at China as the countdown to the Olympics ticks away. They don't want a ral Public Relations problem because of their usual treatment of the underground church movement which is Evangelical in nature.

The question is this, "What will the Communist Government do concerning the underground churches after all the foreign officials, athletes, and tourists have departed China"?

They may crack back down, and even more harshly, or, there is a possibilty that they may realize how good it is for China to have these brave Christians as citizens, who are obedient in all ways, except for meeting illegally. This they do because a Christian is to be obedient to the government, unless the government orders them to commit an act that is contrary to Gods will.

At least one former Communist Party member has left the Party and joined the underground church, and is now a pastor.

Pray for these brave Christians, that they will have greater freedom to worship as they choose, and that the Communist Party leaders have their eyes opened to the fact that the Evangelicals are sober, not stealing, run their businesses by Christian standards, and generally make a valuable contribution to China.