Christian Witness at Beijing's Olympics
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (05/21/07)
Christians will testify to salvation through Christ at the Olympic games, per AP.
Believers have been at previous Olympic games. They plan on being in China, too.
If the Chinese government outlaws their efforts, the whole world will witness that anti-Christian witness and in that will be a witness.
Christ commissioned His disciples prior to His ascension to go into the entire world preaching the gospel. Contemporary believers consider that two thousand-year-old order to be applicable to any age, including present tense.
Biblical Christians have never backed down when it comes to informing the world concerning their faith in Christ as God incarnate. By their own conversion experiences, they feel the biblical impress to be all important, even if it means their life safety.
Presently countless numbers of believers are being persecuted and slain for heeding just that simple commission. The same will continue till the end of time.
"Christian missionaries have worked the crowds at past Olympic games, and even though China outlaws what they do, they'll be on the ground next summer in Beijing as well.
"Christian mission groups from around the world plan to quietly defy the Chinese ban on foreign missionaries and send thousands of volunteer evangelists to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"At worst, they could be expelled from the country; Chinese officials aren't likely to risk anything harsher with the whole world watching. Many foreign missionaries are traveling through China now as tourists to learn their way around.
"Next summer, just before the games begin, several Christian groups plan to rally in an Asian nation that they won't name, then head out in small teams to Olympic sites and beyond."
China is not the only mission field traveled by believers determined to share their understanding of the salvation message. America is now considered by many biblical believers as a mission field, particularly with secularists working hard to eliminate the Judeo-Christian heritage.
A recent example focuses on a teen’s mentioning of God sliced from his yearbook bio sketch.
Anthony Sciubba, 18, included "God" in his thanks in his yearbook write-up. When he checked the page, "God" was missing.
School authorities informed the student of "church and state." So once again, so-called educators don’t get it. There is no reasonable, legal separation of church and state in the United States. It’s a cliché pushed by irreligious liberals.
Instead the First Amendment upholds religious expression from shore to shore, no exceptions.
According to CitizenLink of Focus on the Family, this honor student and athlete at Higley High School in Gilbert, Arizona, was axed. He was "one of 13 seniors to receive a special full-page tribute in the yearbook.
"But when he received his copy Tuesday, he noticed something had been edited from his biography: God.
"Sciubba had credited God for his success, but his bio read, ‘He owed all of his success to others.’"
It is appalling that those in American education are so uninformed that they still represent a cultural lag that the intelligent concluded was disappearing quickly and widely. Evidently, the intelligent are not all that realistic in their appraisal. There is still a lot of dumb and dumber out there in our schools.
"Jennifer Wojtulewicz, the yearbook’s faculty adviser, told Sciubba that ‘God’ could not be printed because of concerns over separation of church and state, according to The Arizona Republic.
"Sciubba met with the school’s vice principal Wednesday and was told the school would consult with lawyers on the matter."
Whether China or America, the Christian witness must go forth.
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