Chinese Christians Must 'Stand Up' Amid Gov't Plans to 'Rewrite' Bible to Include Buddhist Teachings, Says Watchdog

By Leah Marieann Klett
China
A church member prays at Jiu'en Tang, a Christian church in Wenzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang Province. Reuters

Chinese Christians must stand up for their faith as the communist government furthers efforts to rewrite the Bible, a persecution watchdog group has warned.

"The Church in China needs to move out of the passive zone and be actively integrating their faith into every part of their walk in China, including standing up if the Chinese government decides it wants to 'edit' the Bible," Open Doors CEO David Curry told Mission Network News.

The Church canot afford to avoid such atrocities, Curry said, adding that Christians have an obligation to "call it out."

"I think it's an issue of prayer and letting people know in the global community, that we're aware," he said. "Whenever Christians are persecuted, we need to stand up and let our voice be heard."

Currently, the government is pressuring an estimated 20,000 underground house churches to close and join the state-sanctioned church. Their leaders are being forced to pledge their loyalty to the Communist party, notes MNN.

"Governments like to do this sort of thing," said Curry. "What is important is that the Church remain fully followers of Jesus, not first, citizens of some country here, but first, kingdom citizens and follow the Scriptures, as they are written, and abide by that."

As earlier reported, Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid, previously said that the Chinese government plans to rewrite the Bible to include more communist characteristics. The rewrite, he said, is part of the initiative to "Sincize" Christianity, or make it more compatible with the state ideology.

He explained that the government plans to re-translate the Old Testament of the Bible, provide new commentary also to the New Testament, and infuse it with Buddhist scripture and Confucian teachings.

"There are outlines that the new Bible should not look westernized and [should look] Chinese and reflect Chinese ethics of Confucianism and socialism," Fu said."The Old Testament will be messed up. The New Testament will have new commentaries to interpret it." 

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