China Edits Pastor’s Sermon, Deletes ‘God Made Heaven and Earth’

Chinese government officials within the past year have closed churches, removed crosses, buried Bibles and beaten Christians. 

Now, they’re apparently editing the Bible out of sermons, too.

A pastor in Shangqiu city in Henan province told Bitter Winter that local communist officials told him to delete a theological statement from his sermon – “God made heaven and earth, and created everything” – and to include more Chinese traditions and beliefs.

The pastor leads a government-registered Three-Self Protestant church and had sent his sermon to local authorities for approval. 

“The censorship of sermons is a common occurrence in today’s China,” Bitter Winter’s Xin Lu wrote. Bitter Winter is a religious liberty watchdog that monitors human rights violations within China. 

Three-Self pastors are required to “submit for authorities’ review everything they plan to say to their congregations.” It’s one of the reasons millions of Chinese Christians worship in illegal unregistered churches. 

The Shangqui city pastor was chastised and told the Bible quotes in his sermon should include “Chinese interpretations.” The sermon also should examine Scripture within the context of Chinese culture, officials told him.

“We’re in a very difficult position now,” the preacher told Bitter Winter. “By making us write these ‘sinicized’…