Chinese Believers Update with Paul Hsieh
This week (January 6) on Shabbat Night Live, Paul Hsieh brings an exciting report of how YeHoVaH is empowering saints across Asia with the truth of his Word — and it’s spreading like wildfire!
It’s a bright light of hope in a part of the world that is being oppressed like none other… hope that that is raising up an end-time army of righteousness!
Watch the episode — included on this blog post.
While you watch, consider the questions below. The timeline for each discussion topic in the video is noted on each question. Post your answers in the comments section, and let’s get some discussion going!
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 16:00) What is the likelihood of a Torah-based evangelization as a source of diplomacy or improved international relations for a powerful, secular state-capitalist nation like China? How might the orientation toward Jerusalem as a center of belief and practice provoke the imaginations and spiritual yearnings of a populace more successfully than conventional political ambassadorships and negotiations?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 20:00) Similarly, how can the pandemic, with its attendant lockdowns and limited human interactions, be viewed as a providential example of the end-times reflex for the people of China and Taiwan? How does the prospect of a state-mandated confinement ironically serve to inspire an introspection and spiritual growth that can surpass any man-made limitation of human potential for the seeking of transcendent truth?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 24:00) How does the possible interpretation of “the land of Sinim” in Isaiah 49:12, as a reference to the Far East, serve to remind the Western faithful of the comprehensive nature of Yeshua’s command to evangelize all nations? Despite its indeterminate meaning, how does it further suggest the presence of ancient trade routes, like the Roman roads of a later epoch, as conduits for spreading the truth of YeHoVaH by his faithful followers?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 28:00) How might the controversial and vulnerable identity of Taiwan in its engagement with China also be viewed as providential for international believers in light of its fortuitous relations with Western nations? How could this small but resilient Indo-Pacific country become an effectual liaison between the first-world faithful and a hostile global superpower – a future contest of wills between human spirituality and atheistic materialism?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 32:00) How does this view of Taiwan as an apostolate nation gain strength and definition from the passion of the spiritual awakening among a younger generation who have applied their intellectual ethos to the study of scripture? How might the near future of those Taiwanese who will lead their country’s institutions come to resemble the examples of the heroes and heroines of Tiananmen Square during the collapse of Communism at the dawn of the 1990s?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 40:00) Similarly, how might Taiwan’s distinction as a territory without religious persecution serve to enlighten its potential believers about the dynamic between the provincial followers of Yeshua in the first century and the punitive power of the Roman Empire? How might this perspective help to encourage the belief in the power of prayer to undermine the “paganism” of atheistic materialism, however monolithic its influence?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 44:00) Despite official censorship, many sources of “subversive” information continue to be circulated in samizdat form by courageous individuals in autocratic nations. How might the various publications of Michael Rood ultimately take their place alongside accounts by political dissidents and other “enemies of the state” as sources of inspiration and examples of divinely-given free will?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 48:00) As Hsieh emphasizes, The Book of Acts continues to resonate as a historical and doctrinal guide to evangelization. What new insights about this crucial text might be contributed to believers in Western nations thanks to the interpretations of Chinese speakers in their frequently dangerous negotiations with political authority? As their faith communities take form, who might come to represent a vulnerable figurehead like Paul?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 52:00) Similarly, how does the growth of these communities in remote villages demonstrate the inherent difficulty of a repressive government – controlling thought and belief via traditional methods of censorship and surveillance? However, gradually, how does the utilization of hard copy text and word-of-mouth communication tend to erode the strictures of autocracy, whether in first-century Palestine or present-day China?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 54:00) Aside from evangelization among the Chinese, how does a grass-roots effort like Kingdom for Jesus face an arguably new dimension of difficulty that is present for virtually every faith community within today’s major geopolitical environments? What sort of dilemmas must be faced as religious freedom deteriorates under the increasing influence of what has recently been called the rise of the New Caesars – a disturbing throwback to the same arbitrary political personality cults that brought down past empires?
