New Developments Regarding Wang Yi's Congregation in Chengdu and the Arrests in Zhejiang Province

https://www.asianews.it/news-en/New-arrests-of-house-church-members-in-China-64608.html

There are some serious problems with this article - with the reporting as well as the underlying assumptions.

Imagine if a US-based pastor went over to China, met with the most militant members of the People's Congress and CCP, men that openly speak of war with the United States and the threat it represents.

Further, he aligns himself with monied interests in China, receives awards, and then returns to the United States and agitates - flouts the laws, tax and building codes, and speaks openly of transforming US culture into something conformable to China.

How would US authorities likely respond?

Undoubtedly he'd be investigated and there would be calls for his arrest and the shutting down of his church.

This is what Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church did, except he visited the United States and met with high-ranking Anti-Beijing members of the Republican Party, men that want to see China and America go to war, men that collaborate with Beijing's enemies and seek to subvert rule within its borders. He also met with Bush, and prominent Anti-Beijing dissidents based in the United States.

Then he went back to Chengdu and while unregistered worked toward defying authorities by insisting on meeting in a large building crowned by a cross - an act of public and legal defiance - moves that pertain to cultural Christianity but really have nothing to do with New Testament ecclesiology.

Human Rights Watch is not always helpful, or we might say is rather selective in how it chooses to report stories. It is certainly biased. And ChinaAid is the platform of Bob Fu who basically is an asset of the US government and the GOP in particular.

That said, the CCP is undoubtedly a wicked and bestial entity that is hostile to the gospel and seeks to subvert it. But it's odd to read these accounts. The CCP wants Chinese flags in the entrance - American Christians voluntarily put them in their meetings, often alongside the pulpit. Many churches also pledge allegiance to it, sing patriotic songs, show patriotic videos, laud military members, veterans, law enforcement, and the like.

And of course they voluntarily register with the state and turn over their financial information in order to be eligible for what are effectively subsidies and credits - the rest of the community being forced to pay and make up the difference.

It would seem that once again we have unregistered churches in China defying the state with large-scale building projects which incorporate sacral architecture - which the CCP rightly understands makes a statement or claim about the locale, the very kinds of temporal claims that Christ Himself refused to make. The eschatological Kingdom of Christ proclaims the doom of the nations but does not challenge their authority during the Last Days in which we live.

It's ironic that Calvinism in this context embraces cultural engagement and transformation but Wang Yi is well known for his advocacy of the Separation of Church and State and his appeal to US constitutional idealism - an indication of his confusion, a reliance on both sacralist and Enlightenment categories. He's hardly alone in this. Of course this interpretation (legally correct but doctrinally astray) is actually antithetical to what most American Evangelicals advocate - they want the elimination of the Separation of Church and State and for the state to become more explicitly Christian (in some sense, whatever that happens to mean). They are of course wrong on both counts.

It's also noteworthy that Calvinism in China is apparently falling into the same historic patterns - it appeals to the bourgeoisie, an indication of its ethics and values concerning social status and wealth.

The whole affair is distressing as I have no desire to be critical of these Chinese Christians, but once again the line between being punished for political activism as opposed to actual persecution is rather blurry. Wang Yi is not a martyr, suffering for the faith, but a political prisoner.

Again, the promise of doom levied at the nations of the world and proclaimed when we partake of the Lord's Supper is eschatological. Kuyperian Calvinism makes the threat in terms of the now - they seek to topple thrones, seize power, and transform society. If this is not the gospel (or worse, a perversion of it), the clampdown by bestial powers does not qualify as persecution.

Peter warned of those who seek to cast down powers and make celestial claims, who make merchandise of God's people, and by reason of whom the way of truth is evil spoken of. These same people are quick to form evil alliances, chase after money and power - all the while promising liberty - even while they are entangled in covetous and the pollutions of the world. The apostle's warning is broad and applies in different contexts but it's still pertinent. Hellenistic Judaizing plagued the Early Church in different forms and it's still with us today.

This reporting strategically avoids the critical questions. There's only one way to read it and in addition to being somewhat dishonest, it papers over the erroneous assumptions at work. All the reader needs to know is that the government in Beijing is brutal and persecutes Christians. That may in fact be true, but the reporting still qualifies as being something less than accurate or sound.

See also:

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-fool-wang-yi-and-dark-side-of.html

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2020/01/wang-yi-isnt-being-persecuted-hes-being.html