Chinese Pastor Li Sentenced to Five Years for Defying Communist Regime

For years Pastor Li Juncai led a large church in the Henan Province of China that was part of a network of government controlled churches.  However, as time went on he grew increasingly uncomfortable as he began to understand how much control that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had over the churches.  In China, the CCP monitors who attends the churches and regulates what the Pastors are permitted to preach.  In time, Pastor Li realized that the congregation had to choose their loyalty.  It either had to be with God, or the CCP.  They chose God.  


Pastor Li and his congregation chose to leave and join an unregistered church known as the Yuanyang County Central House Church.  It soon grew to over 700 worshippers.  However, in the early 2000's, the CCP launched a new wave of persecution against the unregistered churches.  In 2014, over 4,000 crosses were removed from church buildings in the Zhejiang Province.  Pastors who resisted this were imprisoned and their churches seized and often destroyed.  In 2018, the CCP began issuing new religious restrictions such as flying the Chinese Flag in all churches, posting images of President Xi Jinping, and allowing surveillance equipment to be installed.  To ensure compliance, the CCP began to offer rewards to those who denounced churches that refused to comply to the demands.  


CCP Remove Cross from
Yuanyang Church

Pastor Li was one of the pastors who chose not to bow to the orders of the CCP.  On Feb. 20, 2019, CCP authorities arrested Pastor Li along with three members of his congregation for "obstructing government administration.  A short time later, the CCP removed the cross from his church.  Less than a year after Pastor Li's arrest, the CCP declared the Yuanyang Church illegal and demolished it.  In January of 2020, Pastor Li was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison and a fine of $7000.  Sadly, Pastor Li is only one of many religious leaders currently sitting in Chinese Prisons for refusing to bow to the demands of the CCP.  







Sources:

"In Prison for Christ."  Voice of the Martyrs.  Dec. 2021.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hamas Invasion of Israel

Image
The brutal invasion of Israel by Hamas caught the entire world by surprise.  Over the last few years Israel has become accustomed to turning back rocket attacks and occasional cross-border raids by Hamas terrorists, but nobody anticipated this brutal full-out invasion.  Already being dubbed as "Israel's 9/11," militants stormed across the Gaza border and attacked towns across southern Israel.  Already over 900 Israelis are confirmed dead, thousands more wounded, and over 100 hostages, including women & children, have been taken back to Gaza ( Video Footage of Massacres ).   Israeli Woman Taken Hostage by Hamas The deadliest massacre so far took place at the Nova Music Festival in the Negev Desert close to Urim, a Jewish community that lives close to the Gaza Strip.  At 6am on Oct. 7th, the attack on the festival began as rockets rained down and Hamas gunmen appeared and opened fire.  As of now over 260 Israelis are confirmed dead from this attack alone with a number o
Read more

Jihadists World-Wide Celebrate Massacres in Israel

Image
The Plague of Jihad is all over the world.  The past few days has witnessed Israel suffer the most horrific attack that it has endured since the October War of 1973, yet for all of the senseless death, for all of the footage that we see of Hamas militants murdering Israelis in cold blood, many in the world are in fact celebrating this atrocity.   Hamas Supporters in Canada In Iran, crowds of Hamas supporters took to the streets to celebrate the slaughter of Israelis by Hamas while their government leaders lavished praise on the terrorists ( Link to Article ).  In the nation of Turkey, Hamas supporters crowded the streets of Istanbul chanting "Allahu Akbar" & "Khaybar Khaybar Ya Yahud" ( Link to Video ).  "Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, jaish Muhammad soufa ya'oud" is the full version of the chant.  It translates to "Khaybar Khaybar or Jews, the Army of Muhammad will return."  For those unfamiliar with the context of this chant, Khaybar was the
Read more

Hamas and Their Child Soldier Training Camps

Image
For years the world has known that Hamas deliberately targets children for indoctrination and training to carry out terrorist missions.  They have camps throughout Gaza and other areas of the Middle East where children are taught to hate, & trained to kill.  These camps are often referred to as "Summer Youth Camps."  The titles sound harmless enough, but unlike the summer youth camps in the U.S. and other Western nations where children play games, do crafts, and in general, have fun, the Hamas "Summer Youth Camps" are nothing like this.  They're training camps, where children are trained in weapons handling, military drills, and are indoctrinated to "hate the Infidel," particularly Jews.   Link to Video On videos that have circulated across the online world, these children have openly confessed that they have come here for the purpose of learning to fight.  One such video surfaced on MEMRI with a child openly stating "We did not come here to e
Read more