Is the West Following in China’s Footsteps?

In the sixties and the seventies, China went through a time we now call ‘The Cultural Revolution’. It was a time of unprecedented destruction of anything that had kept China going for millennia. Mao wanted to build a new China and the old had to go, including traditions, authority structures, customs, culture and religion.

The cultural revolution was wildly successful, and China would never be the same again. But all that was lost during this time left a gaping hole in the soul of China, one which the communist party tried to fill with their new ideas and economic programs. The people had been cut off from their roots, often literally, as millions were displaced from their communities and sent to places thousands of miles away. Words and ideas could not replace the deep connections they had once felt with their communities, their ancestors and their gods.

This is the context of the numerically greatest revival in the world, which is still ongoing. In search of meaning and hope, people were touched by the gospel. They found new roots in a community of faith stretching back through the millennia. They met a God greater than any of the gods their ancestors had worshipped. They found citizenship of a kingdom much more glorious than the New China created by the communists.

I wonder if we are seeing something similar happen in the West. We don’t do things as quickly or rigorously as China, but our societies have also steadily cut off their spiritual and communal roots, and left a whole generation empty and restless. Churches have emptied. Society has become a collection of individuals with very little cohesion. Any sense of identity has to be self-made, nothing can be taken for granted based on biology, geography or family history. You are what you want to be. Life has no other meaning besides enjoying it as much as you can before you inevitably get sick and die.

I meet young people who see no point in living and would much rather just die, as they see no meaning and no hope, and feel deeply disconnected. But this is also the context in which we see young people turn back to Jesus. They hear the gospel and it just clicks. The deep inner thirst meets a spring of living water.

No, I don’t expect we will see a turning to Christ in the West as drastic numerically as what we have seen and are seeing in China. At least, not yet. But the same principle seems to be at work. Cut off people’s roots to their spiritual heritage, destroy their sense of identity and belonging, and you are creating a hole that must be filled by something, or Someone. May many of these lost young people find hope in the same Jesus who was found by the Chinese!