Editor's Note: After the Cultural Revolution, Christianity began to spring up in the rural areas of China. From the 1980s to 1990s, Christianity revived in China with a great momentum. In the 21st century, the church in the city grows while the rural church declines. The reasons are manifold.
I went back to my hometown recently, which is a village located in the northern part of Shanxi province. I have some feelings and thoughts after seeing the situation of the rural church.
There are more than a thousand people in the village with less than 10 religionists. They belong to four different denominations-- the Church, Catholic, The Word of Life and Eastern Lightning Cult.
As early as 1989, Christianity was preached among my village when I was in primary school. I also heard there's an activity venue of Christianity in the west of the village. Most believers are old and weak.
The Word of Life was introduced into the village by a woman. She left the village after getting married.
What is The Word of Life? An older sister told me what matters in The Word of Life is the revival meeting. Believers can only be saved after attending the revival meeting, which will be held in a family for continuous 7 days. The believers must thoroughly repent of sins according to the Mosaic commandments and prayed with tears again and again.
Believers should not stop crying until they burst into laughter or hear the voice of god. They must throw up "their crime" which was in the form of vomit out of the belly. As a result, they could be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The believers from other churches also called The Word of Life The Fraction of Tears. Later on, the old sister moved to Datong and started to serve in a normal Christian church. She found that The Word of Life was actually a heretical sect.
The World of Life kept organizing regular activities for more than ten years with dozens of believers. Then some people moved out of the village and the number of believers got smaller.
However, Eastern Lightning Cult started to infiltrate into the village. A female believer jumped into the river to commit suicide. Another female believer regretted joining the Eastern Lightning Cult and withdrew from it in the end. A female believer still often goes out for the so-called evangelism.
The woman claimed that Jesus had already come back. Her words and behavior had a bad influence on villagers and kept them from knowing about the true God.
The knowledge level of believers in the village was generally low so the foundation of their faith was not solid. It was easy for them to deviate from the normal track. Some villagers even took Christianity as a folk religion.
The Word of Life is an example. One sister of mine is almost blind. Several Catholics in the village said that they could pray for her. They also promised that my sister's eyes could be cured with water. This is why Christians are not accepted by most of the villagers.
The villages next to ours have formal and stable activity venues of Christianity. However, it is hard to preach the gospel in our village. The lack of good visions and the intrusion of heresy led to such phenomenon.
I published this article in my WeChat Moment (to share with my WeChat friends). A sister sent me a message from Shanxi. She said that the situation of her hometown was just the same.
"Many young people take drugs. We are in great need of the gospel. However, once hearing that you believe in Jesus, people will walk away. I hope that more souls here will be saved by God."
About the author:
The author is a post-80s Christian with critical thinking. He grew up in the Loess Plateau of Shanxi Province. He has won a master of economics.
He began to believe in God in Wuhan in 2006. In 2007 he was baptized in the south of Fujian province. Now he is settled in Hefei, working as a university teacher. He serves in a family church.
