China Gives Underground Pastor 9 Years in Prison
Yesterday, a Chinese court sentenced Pastor Wang Yi to nine years in prison. The Chinese court in the western province of Chengdu ruled that his Christian beliefs were dangerous for the nation and charged him with inciting subversion of state power and illegally operating a business. Pastor Wang does not own a business, but because he is a pastor of
Continue ReadingIran is falling
Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi has compared Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Shah, the monarch deposed in a 1979 revolution, following the government’s crackdown on protests this month. The unrest began on Nov. 15 and have only intensified. Not much news is coming out about it, but BTJ partners inside have been reporting massive problems throughout the nation.
Continue ReadingA Look Inside China’s Secret Prison System
You have heard about the re-education camps inside China, but where are they and what do they look like inside for the prisoners? Here is a basic overview What is a Re-education Camp? A re-education camp is basically a prison that were introduced in China since the new religious laws were implemented last year. They operate outside of the legal
Continue ReadingAnswer to Prayer at Indian Village Tribunal
On Monday night, a family in small rural village in India was forced to stand trial at a local tribunal. The charge? The family had all become Christian and would not deny the name of Jesus Christ. The village has been having problems with disaster and sickness and the village concluded that it was because the gods were angry. In
Continue ReadingChildren Turned Away At Church in China
Rachel (not her real name) got a text message on her phone that her church in Shanghai was going to meet today on Sunday. Her church had not come together on Sunday for more than six months. Because of the increase of persecution against Christians in Shanghai, Rachel’s church had to change the meeting to days of the week that
Continue ReadingBTJ Banned From Fundraising by Facebook
The Back to Jerusalem Facebook page has been blocked from fund raising efforts. Back to Jerusalem currently has more than 35,000 followers on Facebook. That is not a lot, but it has been constant organic growth for several years. On average we see a new follower join our page every 3 or 4 hours. About ten years ago, every post
Continue ReadingChristian Leaders Renouncing their Faith??? Not in China – Why?
We should all be saddened by the prominent Christian leaders who have publicly renounced their faith in the last couple of weeks, but as someone who works with the underground house church in China, the thing that has stood out to me has been the fact that they renounced their faith “publicly.” These western Christian leaders did something willingly and
Continue ReadingThe New BTJ Office that Isn’t
Ministries in China are different in the way that they do not necessarily have church buildings and ministry headquarters from which to run their operations. They can’t. They are illegal. In many ways they operate as they did in the book of Acts when Christian outreach was conducted underground from places that operate in clandestine locations. The first century church
Continue ReadingGod Made Three Trees
“For in all the world there is nothing to equal the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the writings are Holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.” Such is the importance expressed by Rabbi Aqiba in the year 90 A.D and echoes my recent fascination with the Biblical writings
Continue ReadingNorth Korean’s Secret Plague
There is a major crisis in North Korea that most people are not aware of. North Korea is experiencing the largest drought in decades and it is plaguing the nation. They have just had 2 inches of rain in the first five months. This drought has directly affected the planting season for crops this year. For most nations, a five
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