(ChinaAid) The following is a public prayer and joint statement for the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
“O world, the LORD has shown you what is good. What does He want from you? If only you would do justice, and be merciful, and walk in humility with your God.” (Micah 6:7-8)
Dear Abba Father God, we are a group of Chinese Christians who have received Your saving grace. We thank and praise You, and exalt Your name alone. You created heaven and earth and gave life, breath, and all things to the world. But all men have sinned in self-exaltation, and have fallen short of your glory, and will die in their sins, for you are a just God, and will never take the guilty for the innocent. But you are a loving and merciful God, who is determined to save those who look to you for salvation by grace. For this reason, You gave Your beloved Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for the sins of unbelief, to rise again after three days, to ascend to heaven and reign, and to come again, that whoever believes in Him, through repentance and confession, may not perish but have eternal life. Abba Father God, you saved us in Jesus Christ, so that we might become new creatures, humbled and taught to walk with you in one accord and to be manifested in this crooked and perverse generation, as the blameless children of God.
O righteous Abba Father God, because we are called to walk with You in righteousness and love, we cannot ignore the tragic events of June 4, 1989, in Beijing, which shocked the world. Thousands of young students and people fell under the guns of the Chinese Communist regime in that tragedy. Their blood streams converged into rivers, sobbing and lamenting like tears. When will Thou seek to redress their grievances? For Thou hast said, “Whosoever sheddeth the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed: for God created man in his own image.” (Genesis 9:6)
O holy Abba Father God, Your words of rebuke against the sin of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!” (Nahum 3:1), have been reproduced in all the perversions of the Chinese Communist regime. Thirty-four years later, “lies and violence” have been the authorities’ “way of survival” to maintain stability. The Chinese Communist Party has blocked all truths about June 4, leaving the people of China to live in distorted and numb oblivion due to the deceptive propaganda. The few who do understand have been silenced by the fear of authoritarian oppression, and even when faced with the pain of the “Tiananmen Mothers” who lost their sons, they dare not reach out and show their compassion and care. As a sign of the government’s guilt, as long as the victims are not rehabilitated, and as long as the victims’ families and the public are not allowed to mourn publicly, the “lies and violence” of this country will not be cleared, and the people will never have peace!
O faithful Abba Father God, since Xi Jinping came to power, the Chinese Communist Party has openly declared itself to be an enemy of the universal values of constitutionalism and the rule of law – that is, of Your universal revelation. With the resurgence of the Cultural Revolution of idolatry of leaders and condemnation by words, a large number of dissidents, human rights lawyers, and Christian preachers have been arrested, imprisoned, and persecuted. There is no doubt that all this madness of the Chinese Communist Party is storing up wrath for itself before You, waiting for the day of Your righteous judgment. May the oath you swore to Nineveh in those days, “I will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame” (Nahum 3:5) be greatly fulfilled at the end of the Chinese Communist Party’s internal and external difficulties.
O loving Father God, many of us would have been partakers in the sins of the Chinese Communist Party if we had not, by Your mercy, come to our senses and accepted Jesus as our Savior.
We were deceived by communist propaganda, fed by the milk of wolves, and then held hostage by communist violence, and were afraid to rise up and speak out. Therefore, may Your beloved Son, in judging the Chinese Communist Party, set apart the vast number of our fellow countrymen and give them the same grace and mercy that was given to us. This is just as You sent the prophet Jonah to preach the way of confession and repentance before You judged the city of Nineveh, saying, “And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:11).
Almighty Abba Father God, may You raise up in the land of China churches that are faithful to You, and give them strong and loving hearts to walk with You and boldly preach Your gospel. Father, through the memory of June 4 in the church, may you make the nation realize that the lawless and evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party comes from the communist ghost of the Antichrist. The June 4 tragedy revealed the brutality of the totalitarian rule of man on the one hand, and the cowardice, numbness, and internal strife of the world on the other. There is no way out of the struggle between man and man, from violence to violence. Father, the end of man is the beginning of God. May You make them see Your righteousness and holiness in the sin of man, Your mercy and love in the suffering of man, and Your hope in eternity in the despair of man. Only by confessing their sins and repenting, and firmly abandoning the materialistic atheism propagated by the Chinese Communists, can the nation be reunited with You in Christ, for Jesus Christ is the only salvation.
O Father God, who keeps the covenant, we finally ask you to have mercy on the weakness of the church, and to forgive us for our sins of being too cowardly to speak out for the truth with strength and courage. Some of us, as saved Christians, even consecrated pastors and preachers, because of our biased theological position, confine ourselves to the kingdom of self-righteousness where we are indifferent to the sufferings and sins of the world; some are too timid and fearful to “fight against sin” in doing righteousness, let alone “resist to the point of bloodshed. (Hebrews 12:4), and often show their deficiency in good mercy, not even daring to express their concern and offer prayers to the members of the prison. Father, give us a brave heart to put on the full armor you have given us and fight the good fight for you! In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!
