The Christians Risking Prison to Keep the Faith Alive

The courage of China's underground Christians is a reminder that religious freedom is precious, fragile, and always worth defending.

The argument: The witness of China's underground Church should inspire the West not with guilt, but with renewed determination to protect and exercise the freedoms that generations fought to secure.

WHY IT MATTERS

The release of Pastor Ezra Jin is news worthy of great celebration, but it is also a powerful reminder of what millions of Christians still endure around the world. While Jin has been reunited with his family after months behind bars , many of his fellow believers remain in prison simply for practising their faith. Their courage should strengthen our resolve never to take religious liberty for granted.

Pastor Jin founded Beijing’s Zion Church in 2007 with just twenty members. Before the Chinese Communist Party shut it down in 2018 for refusing state surveillance and control, the church had grown into one of China’s largest underground churches, reaching around 10,000 believers across forty cities.. Coordinated raids in late 2025 led to Jin and dozens of other church leaders being imprisoned in one of the most significant crackdowns on Christianity in modern China. His eventual release, following international pressure and diplomatic intervention, does not change the reality that countless Christians still worship under constant threat.

The remarkable story is not simply that Christians survive persecution, but how they respond to it. Across China, believers continue gathering in homes, discipling new Christians, baptizing converts, and raising faithful families despite knowing that every meeting could cost them their freedom, or even their lives. Churches continue to grow not because they enjoy legal protection, but because ordinary men and women believe Christ is worth every sacrifice. Their witness echoes the earliest Christians, who endured persecution under Rome rather than abandon their faith. History has repeatedly shown that governments may demolish church buildings, but they cannot extinguish a Church rooted in conviction.

Some will argue that this is China’s problem, not ours. After all, Christians in the West are not imprisoned simply for attending church. But the persecution of believers should concern every Christian because we are one Body in Christ; when one part suffers, all suffer. It should also remind us how easily religious freedom can be eroded if it is no longer valued or defended. Across the West, pressures are emerging in more subtle/less overt forms: prosecutions for silent prayer outside abortion clinics, growing concerns over laws affecting Christian teaching on sexuality, and increasing regulation of home education that many religious families fear could limit their freedom. Liberty is rarely lost overnight. It is usually surrendered gradually, one compromise at a time.

The courage of China’s underground Church reminds us that Christianity has never depended primarily on political power. It has advanced through faithful witness. Restoring the West requires more than defending Christian heritage in theory; it requires Christians who actively live, practice, and protect their faith in public. We should pray for persecuted believers, speak up whenever religious liberty is threatened, and make full use of the freedoms we still possess to worship, evangelize, serve our communities, and raise the next generation in the faith. A civilization confident enough to defend religious freedom is one far more capable of defending every other freedom that depends upon it.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Pastor Ezra Jin’s release is a cause for thanksgiving, but the story does not end with one man’s freedom. It is a testimony to the resilience of Christians who continue to proclaim Christ despite immense personal cost. Their witness should inspire us to cherish and defend the freedoms we still possess before they are quietly lost.