World in Brief

A Communist textbook used in Chinese schools falsifies the Biblical account of John 8:3-11 and claims that Jesus murdered the woman who was found in adultery and writes that Jesus says He Himself is a sinner.

One Christian, distressed about the distortion of the Biblical account, reportedly wrote on a social media post: ‘I want everyone to know that the Chinese Communist Party has always tried to distort the history of the church, to slander our church, and to make people hate our church.’

Chinese officials in at least two provinces have asked citizens to provide the government with evidence or reports of illegal religious activities in exchange for money.

In Henan, the government asked people to provide them with photos, recordings, or other materials evidencing illegal religious activity, in exchange for a sum of the equivalent of around £50.

As people rejoiced over the release of 69 Christian prisoners of faith, five more were arrested.

One of those released had been locked up for 16 years. None have ever been sent to trial. As people went into the street celebrating the good news, the authorities seized five women who stepped outside to pray. One had five children, another was the mother of four.

A church, called L’église ‘comme à la Maison’ (Like at Home Church), which started in 2019 with two home groups, has trebled in size after God worked miraculously in a suburb of Lyon.

The church started after three friends, including a Muslim and a Buddhist, were converted. God then revealed Himself to 15 other friends via dreams and miracles. With a focus on leadership development and being an attractive church family, their aim is to reflect God’s desire to welcome people into His family and home.

Pastor Jean Philippe Quetant and his wife Erna Plancher-Quetant were both gunned down in their home while serving as missionaries building a church and orphanage.

During the attack, their house was also ransacked and their belongings stolen. Their five children are still trying to bring their parents’ bodies home to Florida.

A pastor was beaten and paraded through the streets along with four other Christians, and then tonsured by Hindu extremists.

One attacker said: ‘This Christian should be grateful that I am only using the razor on his head and not on his neck.’ The extremists told them to chant ‘victory to god Ram’ and when the Christians did not comply, they were beaten with wooden sticks. They were accused of defamation for being Christians. The wife of one of the Christians was molested by the mob.

Christians were warned ‘to leave their faith or face fatal consequences’ before around 16 of their homes were razed by extremists in Chhattisgarh State on 22 and 23 September.

The series of brazen and perilous attacks by extremists on three villages in the district of Kondagaon left the Christian victims in a state of fear and shock.

A survey by a Netherlands-based research group has supported the claims of rapid church growth inside Iran in recent years, where growth among evangelicals has been almost 20%.

GAMAAN found that 1.5% of all respondents identified as Christian, a number that surpasses 1 million when extrapolated across all 80 million Iranian citizens. The global growth rate for evangelicals is 2.6%

Three Iranians successfully escaped Iran after facing a combined 35 years in prison for converting to Christianity, it was reported in September.

The men were arrested in 2014, but the cases had taken years to go through court appeals and they had been sentenced without in-person hearings. They said they were praying for the rulers, and ‘for those who harassed us, insulted and slandered us, humiliated and ridiculed us, tortured and destroyed us, harmed us and our families, confiscated our property. We pray for them and forgive them’.

Susanna Liew was named International Woman of the Year by the US Department of State for her courage in pursuing the case of her abducted husband, Raymond Koh. He was taken in 2017 and is still missing.

The Human Rights Commission said it was a case of enforced disappearance which means state agents were involved. Cars surrounded Koh’s vehicle and within 40 seconds he had been taken and the scene cleared. The family have since been under surveillance. It was all recorded on local CCTV: https://youtu.be/XWSXqPf32QI

Four school children and their teacher who were forcefully abducted by armed men from their school in Kaduna State in August are still in captivity despite the payment of some money for their ransom.

Ezra Bako, 17; Miracle Saitu Danjuma, 15; Favour Danjuma, 10; Happiness Odoji, 16 and their teacher, Miss Christiana Madugu, 29, were abducted from Prince Academy School in Damba. The kidnappers burnt a church and killed a man before abducting the group.

Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi and his family are ‘grateful for all your prayers, messages and Christian love and care’.

Diagnosed as having colon cancer, the archbishop had his first chemotherapy in September. ‘After a rough first week, he is now feeling much stronger and has even been able to come into the diocesan office. Surgery may follow after more treatment. We give God all the glory, thanks and praise.’

A pastor’s son, his cousin and their 20-year-old aunt were assaulted in Khartoum on 6 October as Muslims continued targeting church members, despite religious freedoms favoured by the new transitional government.

Those who joined the attack said they were upset with the continued presence of Christians in the area. The assailants referred to the pastor’s son as ‘another one of them [Christians]’ as they beat the 16-year-old.

The new co-secretary of the Swiss Evangelical Alliance, Andi Bachmann-Roth, says that although Switzerland is rapidly leaving behind its Christian roots, secularisation ‘opens new conversations’ to share Jesus.

‘Traditional evangelistic methods are coming to their frontiers. Sometimes we are a bit lost about how we can better speak about Jesus,’ said Bachmann-Roth. A national study showed that only 17% of the Swiss are ‘institutional believers’. Around 2% are members of free evangelical churches.

Tim Keller pleaded with Americans to stop demonising each other as the election for President approached.

With fierce differences over everything, the 2020 presidential election season is proving especially rancorous. The former New York pastor and respected author, who is battling cancer, wrote: ‘The demonisation and dehumanisation of the other side must stop.’ Keller said everyone fell short of the standards of God and that a central tenet of the Christian faith was being saved by grace. ‘Christians can never feel morally superior to anyone else at all.’

A report by Barna Group showed that half of pastors expect worship attendance at their churches to decline after the pandemic is over.

46% of pastors said that they expect attendance to have declined slightly by the end of the crisis, while 6% responded that they expect it to have declined dramatically. Those contacted by en said attendance was good in the churches they lead, but some churches do seem to be staying online, as younger people prefer ‘church in their pyjamas’.

Bob Fu of China Aid has been forced into hiding in the US after threats were made against him and his family.

A Chinese Communist Party operative is believed to have urged his supporters to eliminate Bob and other well-known Chinese dissidents. The directive was made over social media channels. China Aid says Beijing wants Bob Fu silenced because he is a leading advocate for persecuted Christians in China.

Bible Society teams worldwide provided almost 3.7 million Scripture items for children in 2019. In excess of 1.1 million pieces of children’s literature were distributed in Egypt alone.

Brazil came second after Egypt with about 500,000 Scriptures distributed to children. 1.3 million Scriptures were provided in Africa, where children under 15 account for around 40% of the population.