Re: "From the sky shall come the great king of terror"

actually the chinese did start a war, they have started war on christians in
1999 and went on through 2000, as of 5/18/2000 have found and closed most of
the underground churches. the were empasizeing strengthing management of
relegious affairs through out the country and putiing themwithin the laws of
china.

makes me wonder why china is afraid of christianity? wait no it doesn't,
its already happened here!
heres an insight of whats going on five hours before this post:
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=21680

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The Christian faith is alive and well in China,
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land told the SBC
entity's trustees during their Sept. 13-14 meeting in Nashville.

He had returned Aug. 28 from a two-week trip to China as a member of the
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, during which he logged
more than 21,000 air miles.

As a member of the U.S. commission focusing on international religious
liberty issues, Land and other USCIRF members met with religious leaders and
government officials, including the vice premier of China, during their
visit to China.

The high-level series of meetings had been in the making for several years,
at the request of President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Land said. The visit was agreed to
by the United States and China in the December 2002 U.S-China bilateral
human rights dialogue. The USCIRF delegation had meetings in the Chinese
cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Kashgar, Urumqi, Lhasa and Shanghai.

The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal commission that advises the
president, secretary of state and Congress on how to promote religious
freedom and related human rights around the world. It was created by the
U.S. Congress in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA). It
consists of nine appointed commissioners.

The ERLC was instrumental in the passage of the International Religious
Freedom Act in 1998, which mandated the creation of a commission on
religious liberty within the U.S. State Department, Land said. Religious
freedom and freedom of conscience for matters of worship were issues being
overlooked by the human rights movement and were for the most part being
"ignored and left behind the door when our State Department and others were
dealing with human rights issues," he continued.

Land said the establishment of the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom has sensitized a whole segment of the Foreign Service
Corps to the issue of religious liberty. "They have become conversant with
this issue in a way they never would have before," Land said. "We are seeing
more and more sympathy on the part of foreign service officers in the State
Department to this issue."

He explained that every U.S. embassy around the globe now has to have a
person responsible for submitting a report on the state of religious freedom
in the country where they serve. "It is no longer everybody's
responsibility; it is somebody's responsibility," he said. Land was first
appointed to the commission in 2001 by President Bush, and the president
reappointed him to a second term in 2003. After his term expired in 2004,
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tapped Land to join the panel again
earlier this year as a senatorial appointee.

Land said even the staff members of the U.S. commission were amazed at the
material wealth being generated by China's robust economy. He said the
Chinese economy was currently the fourth-largest in the world and is
expected to be the largest economy within 20 years.

"The economic miracle that is China is real. No country in the history of
the world has managed to do what they have done since 1988. Since that year,
they have had a growth in Gross National Product of at least 9 percent every
year. If the Chinese continue that rate of growth and the U.S. continues a
healthy rate of growth, they will overtake us in 2025," Land said,
explaining China will still be a far poorer country per capita because there
are 1.5 billion Chinese compared to 285 million Americans.

"Even the Communist officials are amazed at what has happened. None of them
ever expected to see the degree of material wealth that the economy of China
has generated in the last two decades," Land said.

Yet Land said the country's religious climate is not as vibrant -- at least
not publicly. The commissioners held official meetings with Buddhists,
Daoists, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants as they crisscrossed the
country. Land said while the Chinese government is more accommodating to
people of faith than in the past -- the government has built religious
structures and seminaries -- those who want to worship openly must register
with the state. He said there are an estimated five times more Christians
who decline to register than those who actually do register.

"The reason many do not register is that they are unwilling to have the
government regulate what they do," Land said. "Yet there is more space for
the Christian church," he added, saying, "There is a widening zone of
toleration for religious groups since China's Cultural Revolution."

Interestingly, Land said, the Chinese government is printing 3 million
Bibles a year and allowing them to be distributed in China. This is a very
promising development, he said. "If you let the Bible loose it will defend
itself," Land said, noting that Chinese translations of the Bible are more
available to Chinese citizens than ever before.

"There is more space for the Christian faith in China -- even controlled by
the state -- than there ever was in the Soviet Union or there used to be in
China," Land acknowledged.

"Yet the government continues to define what constitutes a religion. Unless
you fit within the government's definition, you're not a recognized
religion," Land said. Any participants in religious activity not under the
auspices of the sanctioning state bodies can be arrested and have their
buildings destroyed, he pointed out.

While Land and the others with the USCIRF were surprised at the increased
degree of space available to practice personal religious belief in China, he
said it was "still a cage, maybe a gilded cage, but it is still a cage" for
citizens there who want to exercise their faith. Religious freedom means
there is no cage, he said, explaining he has the "distinct feeling that the
Chinese government is extremely worried about religion in China." There are
between 80 and 100 million Christians in China, Land said, telling of a
noticeable receptivity to spiritual things among young Chinese. "This is
despite the fact that if you want to get to the top of Chinese society you
have to be a member of the Communist Party, which means you have to be an
atheist," he explained.

"There is tremendous hunger and discussion about spiritual things on college
campuses," Land continued. "The government is absolutely terrified about
religion and the growth of religion. They understand they can't stamp it out
by persecution so they are trying to control it." They don't want anybody
meeting for any reason unless they know what the meeting is about, Land
said.

Those Christians who decline to register are interested in freedom, not mere
toleration by the government, Land said. "Despite the growth in registered
churches, there is a vibrancy and growth and evangelism and a fervor among
the unregistered Christians that can't be matched in the registered
churches," he said.


"Finch (evincer) VIA d'Shawnee biome esq." <evince@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:1127272987.040469.154860@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> mirandajoanhowe@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> china itself remember we bombed their embassy?
>
> "And a terrible king shall decend from the sky wearing a turban". The
> date was for 1999. 2000. Somewhere around there, if memory serves.
>
> That's a quote of Nostradamus I remember seeing translated ... on
> microfilm ... in one of the top 100 research libraries in the US. That
> was back in the early 80s. I've looked for it again since without
> success.
>
> What can we say? Dude simply could not spell.
>
> hilater
>
> via
>


.