. 

According to reports from associations in Beijing, the CCP continues to entwine itself into church leadership and practice, most recently through its guidelines for sacred music. They include the following points, as outlined in : 

“It’s a sense of some control and direction that is coming from outside the church, which historically has not been a good thing,” Rovenstine says. 

The latest squeeze on Chinese believers has the team at Bibles for China asking, “Is the Bible enough?” Rovenstine answers with a resounding yes.

“The Bible is central to the practice of faith,” he says. 

It is on this unchanging rock that believers can stand against the swells of political and cultural tides. For the CCP, that’s the rub. 

“Sacred music is sacred not because it is from a particular culture or from the Middle East or from great writers of the West,” Rovenstine says. “It’s sacred because it expresses the truth of Scripture.”

In terms of religious freedom, the news is concerning for brothers and sisters in China. 

“But in another sense, it affirms the work we do as being very very important: that we’re able to distribute unaltered, unchanged, unfiltered Scriptures to people who will have the opportunity to read it,” says Rovenstine. 

After all, music is an easier target than Scripture. 

“You start with a song or two, and you add a cultural or patriotic element to it – a Chinese value alongside a Christian value – and people go, ‘Well that’s not so bad,’” he says. 

Please pray for Christian leaders facing attacks on the music of their faith. 

Pray that Chinese Christians would have Gospel-focused clarity and discernment as they prayerfully consider how to incorporate music into their worship services. 

Pray that they would stand on the firm foundation of Scriptural truth when faced with pressure to deviate from God’s Word. 

And consider singing over them words from the modern hymn “Christ is Mine Forevermore,” by CityAlight: 

Mine are days here as a stranger
Pilgrim on a narrow way
One with Christ I will encounter
Harm and hatred for His Name

But mine is armor for this battle
Strong enough to last the war
And He has said He will deliver
Safely to the golden shore

And mine are keys to Zion city
Where beside the King I’ll walk
For there my heart has found its treasure;
Christ is mine forevermore

¹Charles Wesley (2014). “Wesley’s Hymns and the Methodist Sunday-School Hymn-Book”, p.237, Ravenio Books

Featured image courtesy of Huynh Van via Pexels; article image courtesy of Zack Smith via Unsplash