House church Pastor Phillip Xu has been sentenced to 18 months "re-education through [hard] labor" for leading an unregistered church service. Arrested in December by officers from the Public Security Bureau, he faces "inhumane treatment" --the kinds of cruelties that few Americans can imagine.
"This is 12 hours a day of work, very minimal food -- maybe a bowl of rice in the morning and a bowl of rice in the evening -- and being forced to work to meet some kind of a quota," said Todd Nettleton, a spokesman with Voice of the Martyrs. "We've had reports of prisoners being forced to do some kind of intricate labor, like wiring Christmas lights, and being forced to do so without their glasses. And yet they're forced to maintain a standard to meet a quota every day."
Todd Nettleton reminds us to pray for this persecuted brother in Christ: "Once we have started to pray, we can contact the Chinese embassy. We are encouraging Christians in America to make an inquiry on behalf of Pastor Xu, asking why this is happening to this pastor. The Chinese constitution guarantees religious freedom -- yet here is a religious leader who has been put in prison for his activities."
Like many others who have freely given their lives to God, Pastor Xu had opportunities to serve His people in safer places. He could have stayed in the United States after his years of study there. But, like many of God's faithful friends through the ages, "he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God... He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward." Hebrews 11:24-27 (Agape Press Newswire, 1-23-03)
Euphemisms that hide totalitarian concepts:
Global Management System. The U.N. ain't what it ought to be: "Just look at who's heading up the United Nations Human Rights Commission: Libya.... Colonel Moammar Gadhafi was able to buy the chairmanship because it's Africa's turn to select the head of the HRC.... In return for Gadhafi's largesse, Libya's African neighbors actually let Libya run unopposed for the HRC chairmanship.'...
"It was just two years ago when the United States was kicked off the 53-member commission in order to make room for Syria.... [I think he meant the Sudan]. We're back on the commission this year, but we're sitting next to representatives from Algeria, Burkina Faso, China, Cuba, Congo, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe." Yet the rest of the world submits to this corrupt system. See
Repeat "U.S. is Voted Off Rights Panel of the UN for the First Time [New York Times, 5-4-01]:
"The ouster of the United States from the commission while nations like Sudan and Pakistan were chosen for membership was certain to generate further hostility to the United Nations...." To grasp this amazing anti-US and anti-Christian bias, reviewControl. Bush Plans to Let Religious Groups Get Building Aid:
"The Bush administration plans to allow religious groups for the first time to use federal housing money to help build centers where religious worship is held, as long as part of the building is also used for social services." Does this mean that the state can help build mosques for thousands of Muslim immigrants -- as France plans to do? See the next link:Islam. Secular France mulls mosque subsidies:
"French officials have called for a revision of a century-old law on the separation of church and state, to allow government bodies to subsidise mosques. An estimated five million Muslims live in France - making Islam the country's second religion." SeeJay Gary's chart versus Richard Spady and
The Changing Church. Planting High Impact Churches: "Dr. Linus Morris in his book, High Impact Churches and Leaders, defines a high impact church as a church with these five measurable criteria: LIFE TRANSFORMATION: Are lives being transformed for Christ? VISION TRANSFORMATION: Are members committed to the Great Commission? Are they active in prayer, worship, Bible study? Are they good stewards of their time, talent and money using them for the cause of Christ? GROWTH: God's charge to the church is to grow and be fruitful. Growth is not the goal of a high impact church, but it typically occurs. MULTIPLICATION: The high impact church multiplies leadership: ministers and ministries. REPRODUCTION: The high impact church sends trained and equipped people out to extend the kingdom by planting sister and daughter churches.
"Morris adds that high impact churches are: purpose centered, values driven, and Spirit directed. Morris is the President of Christian Associates International (CAI) which is planting high impact churches in major European cities."
How can man establish a "measurable criteria" for assessing churches? Within the new church management system, such measurements are defined according to human standards for growth, "participation" and "transformation," not God's. God's guidelines are too offensive for the kind of growth most "high impact" leaders envision. See
The Changing Church. Reaching New Cities: "CAI's vision is to impact Europe by planting High Impact churches, and developing High Impact leaders, across Europe. ...We have a list of cities that we think are strategic. On the list are cities such as London, Vienna, Frankfurt, Rome, Marseille and Kopenhagen. We would like to see a churchplanting team in each city. Different projects are in different phases; for some projects we are still in the data-collection phase, others are already in the team-assembly phase."
More on Jay Gary::
The Making of Transmillennialism: "In June 2000, some forty leaders, representing authors, congregations and ministries came together in Ohio for four days to launch the Council on Transmillennialism™. The Council is an emerging network of ministries committed to the transformation of the church and society....
"INTERNATIONAL: Today Transmillennialism™ is an international movement and is considered to be the fastest growing field of Christian millennialism....
"WORLD-VIEW: The Council's quest is to encourage the development of a post-modern Christian worldview, based on narrative theology, religious humanism and authentic religious futurism....The aim of Transmillennialism™ is to help the church 'Recover Humanity's Hope.'...
"SOCIAL PARADIGM: The current 'sustainability' paradigm or 'millennial myth' of the West is seen as a three legged stool: Economy, Ecology and Eschatology, with Eschatology being that pool of cultures, images, values and meta-narratives upon which society draws meaning....
"OPENNESS: Transmillennialism embraces the 'openness of God' and the 'open society.' Eschatology is not realized in the state, church or ideology, but in the human person and their context. The healing of the planet and the human spirit is embraced through a 'new creation' faith that trusts God to make all things new....
"...'missio Dei' is seen as encompassing all generations, all peoples, all cultures, all sciences and all technologies. As in math or physics, a centered-set paradigm for conversion, rather than a boundary-set is envisioned....
"FUTURES: While impossible to clearly predict the future, Transmillennialism™ affirms human potential to shape the future. The future is viewed as plural, i.e. futures. Within a "cone of plausibility" many futures can emerge from the present. Each future or scenario can be examined, critiqued and shaped. In addition to learning from cultural history, societal futures are embraced. By teaching future fluency" Transmillennialism™ aims to empower people to be creators, rather than reactors, in their personal and vocational lives. It draws upon the futures study movement as expressed by the World Future Society .