As previously reported, Pastor Ezra Jin, founder of Zion Church, has been released, but eight Zion Church pastors remain incarcerated and the global church must remain vigilant in prayer.
Pastor Franklin Wang, one of those still imprisoned (pictured above), said that with the latest government charges, financial offerings made by Christians are being classified as “fraud” by the Chinese Government authorities.
Pastor Wang said that this “is not a denial of any individual or group, but a denial of the two-thousand-year-old Christian tradition and faith itself.”
The original charge brought against Pastor Wang, and others, was “illegally using information networks.” This charge has now been changed to “illegal business operations” and “fraud.”
To date, attorneys, for those still in custody, have not been allowed to review the case files and they do not know the contents of the formal indictment. Pastor Wang is personally requesting that all Christians join him in praying that God will lead and guide the prosecutor: “To make the correct legal judgment—that is, to determine if the law was misapplied, if the charges are not valid, and to dismiss the case.”
Pastor Wang’s wife, Sara Su, was also initially arrested and then released. She said the government authorities used her arrest and the safety of their two children, to coerce her husband into pleading guilty, accepting punishment, and signing a confession.
She also said that: “As a husband and a father, fearing that his wife and children would be implicated, he was placed under immense psychological pressure and, with no apparent alternative, was forced to sign the relevant documents.”
But she solemnly declares his innocence.
She is also earnestly asking, “that churches around the world to continue standing watch and praying until Pastor Wang and all the pastors, brothers, and sisters who remain detained are set free.”
