I have a couple things on my heart today. My friends who are serving in India informed me that 2 Indian young people, who I believe were followers of Jesus, that they discipled several years ago along with a handful of other kids, were murdered just before thanksgiving. It was a brother and sister and they were killed by an older brother of theirs. Basically, the older brother wanted his sister to marry a specific hindu man and she stood up for herself, and possibly her faith, that she would not marry him, so her brother stabbed her. Her other brother then also stood up for her and the older brother stabbed him too. My friends Alan and Anne are really struggling with this. They were close to these two. They are having feelings of anger, sadness, bitterness. Please be in prayer for them. Pray that they would know how to use this opportunity to reach others affected. Pray for the older brother who killed them, that somehow God would reveal Himself to him. Pray for the other friends and any family that is still alive.
I'm sorry if this is too much for one post, but I also received another email today and felt I should share it with you. People are dying without Christ and people are dying for their faith. There's intense spiritual warfare overseas and our brothers and sisters and those who don't know Christ need us to fight for them! This stuff is real. So is prayer. So is our God who hears and responds to our prayer. Please take the time to read this and then let's get on our knees together and intercede for the families, the work going on in China, as well as the Chinese government. Thank you
30 November 2006
THREE HOUSE CHURCH LEADERS SECRETLY EXECUTED IN NORTHEAST CHINA
http://www.asiaharvest.org/
(This Press Release may be circulated freely)
Xu Shuangfu
(courtesy of the China Aid Association)
Friends,
When we sent out our email two days ago with news of the martyrdom of brother Bashir Ahmed Tantray in India , we never imagined we would be following it up with this announcement.
The
San Ban Puren, or ‘Three Grades of Servants’ church, was established by Xu Shuangfu and is believed to number between 500,000 and one million adherents nationwide. Having devoted his life to evangelism at the age of 12, Xu was arrested on numerous occasions and spent three years in prison on six different occasions a combined 18 years behind bars for his faith.
The Chinese government outlawed the ‘Three Grades of Servant’ organization in the 1990s, labelling it an ‘evil cult’. Publications such as
Tianfeng, the official mouthpiece of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, then published articles exposing the supposed heresies and wicked practices of the group. These were translated into English and some well-meaning Western Christian journalists joined the chorus of disapproval, denouncing the group as a cult deserving of punishment because they were dangerous law-breakers. None of these journalists travelled to China to independently verify the information coming from the Three-Self Church . It is a dangerous foundation to base a judgement solely upon information provided by the TSPM who are an organ of the Chinese Communist Party avowed atheists and the persecutors of millions of Christians since they took power in China . Because of this controversy, many Christian ministries have avoided making mention of the Three Grades of Servants or the brutal persecution they have endured the past three years.
In Chinese-church circles today much confusion exists regarding the classification of cults. Many of the house churches in China have been labelled ‘evil cults’ by the Communist government simply because of their refusal to register with the authorities. These include almost all the large house church networks based in
Henan and
Anhui provinces. To complicate matters, some of the groups the government has labelled ‘evil cults’
are, in fact, cults and sects that deny the essential doctrines of Biblical Christianity. By classifying a church group as a cult, the government deceitfully opens up the way for Christians to be
prosecuted for breaking the law, rather than directly for religious reasons. Western governments and human rights organizations are therefore largely silenced in their outcry against incidents of persecution, as often when they ask about a certain pastor who has been arrested they are told he was arrested because he broke the law, and not because of his faith. This subtle manoeuvre has resulted in much confusion within the Chinese Church and outside China , as believers disagree on which groups really are cults, and which are genuine followers of Christ who have been targeted by a hostile government bent on their destruction. The
San Ban Puren, or ‘Three Grades of Servants’ church, is one such group.
In 2003 the group’s founder, Xu Shuangfu, spoke with some senior house church leaders from other groups who wanted to confront him over the reported heretical beliefs and practices of his group. Xu came to the meeting with booklets and video tapes detailing what the Three Grades of Servants teach and practice. The house church leaders examined the evidence and questioned Xu at great length, concluding that his beliefs to be quite orthodox. Xu said to the house church leaders, “If my church is in error and really a cult, then please come and rebuke us and show us the error of our ways so we can repent! Please be brothers to us in this way. If you do not point out our errors, how can we ever change and walk with Jesus like you?”
These words do not sound like those of a typical cult leader!
On April 17, 2004, Xu Shuangfu was kidnapped by armed men as he made his way from the airport to the city of
Harbin , Heilongjiang Province . Two days later Xu’s goddaughter was contacted by the kidnappers, and was told to pay three million Yuan (approximately US $365,000) for his release. They told her if she didn’t pay the money within 24 hours they would “kill the old man.” She went to the police station for help, only to be treated like a criminal and interrogated for several hours. It became apparent that the police had no interest in solving the case, and only let her go when she indicated she needed to leave to gather the ransom money. Later information made it clear that the Public Security Bureau had been the kidnappers all along. In the following weeks a widespread crackdown was launched in a bid to demolish the Three Grades of Servants. More than 90 leaders were arrested, most of them enduring horrible torture. Fifty believers were arrested during a meeting in Harbin on April 26. Relatives and family members of those arrested were themselves detained when they went to the authorities asking for information.
After being held for more than two years, the Three Grades of Servants leaders Xu Shuangfu, Li Maoxing, and Wang Jun were found guilty of involvement in the murders of 20 cult members and were sentenced to death in June 2006. Three more, Zhang Min, Zhu Lixin, and Ben Zhongjia were given two-year suspended death sentences. Eleven more Christians received between three to 15-year prison sentences. The police claimed Xu Shuangfu had admitted involvement in the crimes, but Xu’s lawyers claimed he had been so brutally tortured while in custody that he had signed a confession under extreme duress in order to save his life. According to a report from the China Aid Association, “Xu described to the court that in order to get false confessions, the interrogators tied his fingers, toes and genitals with wire and then connected the wire with electricity. Mr. Li Maoxing showed his wounded fingers to the court and said that the torture experts used a new way of torture called
Pi Long Pao (means put-up-dragon-robe) by making him hang in the air with a very thick blanket and then electrifying him after he got extremely wet…. Mr. Xu was described as ‘calm and peaceful’ by his daughter Ms. Xu Baiyin. ‘My father told the court he was very sad after hearing the murdering activities today and he said murdering is evil and forbidden by God. In his final remark he urged everyone in the court to believe in Jesus otherwise they will one day face eternal judgments in heaven. He also urged his children to continue to follow Christ without fear.”
Today, the China Aid Association reported that the three leaders, Xu, Li, and Wang, had been secretly executed last week in Heilongjiang Province . The first anyone knew about it was on November 28 when Li Maoxing’s wife was asked to collect her husband’s ashes at the court as soon as possible. Neither the families or the attorneys of the three martyrs were informed of the execution in advance.
* Please pray for the families of the three martyrs. Ask God to strengthen and comfort them.
* Pray that the fire of the Gospel will continue to burn brightly throughout China , so that even the leaders and corrupt judges and authorities might repent and find faith in Jesus Christ.
* Pray believers inside and outside China will have wisdom to discern which groups are cults, and which are just accused of being cults by the government.
