I received an e-mail sometime in 2016 with some common questions about Christianity
in China. Its common to hear some version of these questions almost anywhere we go
to share about missionary work in China. I've edited my answers slightly for this post.
Are Millions of Chinese Coming to Christ Each Year?
China has experienced phenomenal growth in its number of Christians since 1950,
but I'm not sure its quite the "revival" its made out to be. Here's what I mean:
even reports of millions of new believers doesn't necessarily mean that hundreds
of thousands are coming to Christ every week in large meetings, or in one place.
Divided up between China's 1.4 billion people, 30+ provinces, hundreds of major
cities, and 2400 counties, an increase of millions of new believers might look
similar to what it looks like in many other nations around the world: new people
coming to Jesus all the time, but generally one by one, or two by two, or perhaps
in small groups! But if you add it all up in such a heavily populated nation, you
will count hundreds of thousands each year, or maybe even millions!
Is There a Difference Between Eastern and Western China?
China can also be divided roughly into two major zones: East and West. The flatter
and more fertile East is more developed economically, has a greater population and
many times more churches and Christians (as high as 30%) than Western China. It is
also ethnically "Han Chinese", with the vast majority being of pure Chinese descent.
But in the rugged, mountainous West, while the population in general decreases, the
diversity is unbelievable: tens of millions of Chinese Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists,
as well as many millions more among dozens of distinct ethnic groups. Even among the
Han Chinese of Western China, church growth in most places has been much less than any
seen by their counterparts in the East.
If you compare these two parts halves of China to other nations in the world you could
say that Eastern China resembles something like Argentina, Russia, or Brazil (somewhat
developed with a small, but growing church), while Western China is more like Pakistan
or Afganistan or Indonesia: largely unevangelized and a melting pot of people groups!
Will China Ever Become a "Christian Nation"?
I don't think China will become a "Christian" nation in the sense that more than 50%
will be genuine evangelical Christians, but I don't think its far fetched even now to
say that China might have more true Christians (in pure numbers) than America today...
simply because of how large its population is!
For instance, let's be generous and estimate that 1 in 4 Americans are born-again. That
would make for something north of 75 million American Christians. Well, China only needs
5% of its people to be Christian for there to be 70 million believers (5% of 1.4 billion).
And that is definitely a possibility in the near future, if not a reality already in 2017!
