“Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’” – Exodus 8:1
After a house church in China’s coastal province held a baptism in the ocean during the Easter weekend, the members were raided by local police and asked to submit personal information.
According to China Aid, on April 15, Pastor Mao Zhibin from Shenzhen Trinity Gospel Harvest church and six members awaiting to be baptized drove two hours to a nearby coastal city for the Easter baptism. Given their experience last September, where a five-year anniversary celebration at the beach was disrupted and members harassed, this time, they carefully planned and the baptism went smoothly.
However, after a person carelessly uploaded the photos and videos of the April 16 baptism to social media, about 30 minutes after they began lunch, Pastor Mao received a phone call in the name of pandemic measures requesting to confirm his identity and origin.
A few minutes later, a police car showed up at the restaurant. A local official along with several police officers came out from the car, asking the group to provide their IDs, health code (to prove that they are COVID-free), and allow the police to scan their faces.
To Pastor Mao’s surprise, the police officers already had the baptism videos on their cell phones. Although they were polite and waited until the group finished lunch to execute their duties, the pastor was shocked to see several photos of him show up after the police scanned his face. The artificial intelligence employed by the Chinese government is potent and scary.
“The technology used by the government surpasses traditional authoritarian reign and should be called super authoritarianism! However, I also believe that God is and must still reign over all. We just need to trust in him, walk humbly with God,” said Pastor Mao, whose major was information management engineering in college.
Pastor Mao and his church have been targeted by the government for their vocal support for religious freedom.
Freedom to worship the Lord does not exist in many areas of the world. Today in prayer, pray for those who face persecution for desiring to worship Jesus.
“No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness. To pray for peace is to pray for justice, for a right-ordering of relations within and among nations and peoples. It is to pray for freedom, especially for the religious freedom that is a basic human and civil right of every individual. To pray for peace is to seek God's forgiveness, and to implore the courage to forgive those who have trespassed against us.” – John Paul II
God’s Word: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’’” – Exodus 9:1
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