Why does our ClashDaily Christian merch feature the lines ‘Stay Rowdy‘ or ‘Bold as Lions‘?
It’s because, despite what it might look like in the West at the moment, we are on the winning side.
When Jesus said ‘I will build My Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it’, the gates Jesus mentioned were describing a defensive fortification like a walled city.
He was telling his disciples that no wall would be big enough to keep that gospel out and His church from moving forward. Today, we are still seeing the truth of that statement.
Remember how Vietnam fell to the Communists? Vietnam is officially an atheistic state. As of 2019, the CIA pegged their demographics as, Catholic 6.1%, Buddhist 5.8%, Protestant 1%, other 0.8%, none 86.3%. That’s pretty close to near-total religious control of a society.
As with most other religions with total ideological control, they do not permit foreigners to hold public gatherings in which a rival belief is preached.
Specifically, they do not permit foreigners to preach the gospel to large gatherings beyond the possible exception of events in the context of special religious holidays.
That makes their decision to grant precisely such a permit to Franklin Graham a historic ‘first’.
Over 14,000 people in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, attended the Spring Love Festival hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association from March 4-5.
The event has made history as the first time the Communist Vietnamese government has given permission for an evangelistic outreach with a foreign speaker outside of a holiday.
Rev. Franklin Graham, who is the president and CEO of the association, shared with the crowd, “God makes and creates you and loves you and Vietnam. Jesus is in the city tonight.”
Over 900 pastors and church leaders from 60 denominations in Vietnam worked together to put on the historic event. Graham said that he was invited by local churches.
Before the event, Graham reportedly met with Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai and other officials to discuss religious freedom in the country. — Persecution
Why would a country like Vietnam allow Franklin Graham to address its citizens when they deny such an opportunity to so many others?
It could have something to do with them seeing how much he cares. Samaritan’s Purse is the ministry he built, and Vietnam is one of the countries benefiting from that work:
While the event itself is an encouraging sign, we remind our readers that believers in Vietnam still remain very much a persecuted group, where families are often pressured to excommunicate and isolate new converts to Christianity.
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