With the explosive growth of the church in China in recent decades, it could transpire that the world’s most populous country will one day be the global centre of Christianity. If that does happen, it could be Reformed Christianity that carries the day: Chinese Calvinism flourishes. Why?

Calvinism isn’t a religion of subservience to any government. The great national myths of Calvinist cultures are all of wars against imperialist oppressors: the Dutch against the Spanish, the Scots against the English; the Americans against the British. So when the Chinese house churches first emerged from the rubble of the Cultural Revolution in the 80s and 90s “They began to search what theology will support and inform [them]. They read Luther and said, ‘not him’. So they read Calvin, and they said ‘him, because he has a theology of resistance.’

Whether or not we are Calvinists, we should remember to pray for the our brothers and sisters in China, who could have a bright future ahead but for the present are living under difficult political conditions.