It is unfortunately a good news, bad news scenario.

Bitter Winter, an online magazine reporting on religious freedom in Communist China, recently reported that pastors of churches, closed due to COVID, are being told that in order to reopen, they must both praise China’s current Communist tyrant, Xi Jinping, and criticize America in their sermons.

These involve churches that are part of the Communist party approved Three-self churches. Essentially, the church pastors must preach Communist Party propaganda instead of sermons from the Bible.

Bitter Winter reports that in Henan, 11 churches were not allowed to reopen, because Communist censors did not pre-approve the sermons prepared by their pastors.

When pastors did comply, church members were very critical of sermons that lacked any spiritual message.

One church member from Henan told Bitter Winter:

The government said that churches must preach about national affairs if they want to reopen. With Xi Jinping’s speeches as the main content, it’s better for churches not to reopen.”

“Those preachers who agree to preach politics just want their churches to be reopened as soon as possible. But they are secularized instead. They have no way to retreat and become politicized.”

So you wonder where the good news is in all of this?

Well, it reveals that Xi Jinping, China’s self-appointed tyrant for life, is facing increased criticism for his mishandling of the China’s economy and the Coronavirus pandemic and must resort to forcing people to show public approval of his leadership.

It was Chinese researchers who first reported that the Coronavirus leaked out of a level 4 virology lab in Wuhan. This was not a made-in-America accusation. The Chinese people suspected this well before it showed up in the Western media. READ: Did coronavirus originate in Chinese government laboratory? Scientists believe killer disease may have begun in research facility 300 yards from the Wuhan wet fish market.

If Jinping was doing a good job in China, these type of despotic demands put on pastors would be completely unnecessary. And it is not just happening in churches, several are reporting on the personality cult that is purposefully been developed around Jinping’s rule.

Wikipedia describes it this way:

Xi has had a cult of personality constructed around himself since entering office^[4][5] with books, cartoons, pop songs and dance routines honouring his rule.^[127] Following Xi’s ascension to the leadership core of the CCP, he has been referred to as Xi Dada (Uncle or Papa Xi).^[127][128] The village of Liangjiahe, where Xi was sent to work, has become a “modern-day shrine” decorated with Communist propaganda and murals extolling the formative years of his life.^[129]

But Jinping’s political strength in China seems to be waning as criticism grows of his leadership.

WION TV is reporting that two generals in the China’s People Liberation Army have been openly critical of Jinping’s mishandling of the pandemic, America, and the economy.

The critics were retired Major General Qiao Liang, who now teaches at one of China’s military universities and current general, Dai Xi.

The two were also critical of how Jinping is handling international relations, as countries around the world are turning against the communist regime and noted even China’s supposed allies are not coming to the country’s defence.

Of course any kind of criticism of Jinping in the Communist regime is a dangerous thing to do, but these generals must feel they have enough support to publicly make such critical statements.

So in the midst of bad news, there is some good news.

And God is in the business of removing leaders. Luke writes in the Book of Acts, that God dispatched an angel to purposefully remove King Herod:

²¹ On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. ²² They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” ²³ Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. (Acts 12:21-23 NIV)

READ: Chinese pastors ordered to praise Xi Jinping, slander US from pulpit or risk closure AND Only ‘Politically Correct’ Religious Venues Allowed to Reopen AND Prominent Chinese hawks warn Xi Jinping to avoid ‘serious mistakes’