Chinese Pastor Released From Prison

After nine months in a Chinese prison, house church pastor Ezra Jin spent the Fourth of July with his wife, daughter, and two sons in Los Angeles, Calif., after Chinese authorities unexpectedly released him from jail and sent him to the United States.

Officials arrested Jin, 57, last October as part of a crackdown on leaders and members of the Zion Church network in China. Jin is the network’s founder and lead pastor. His immediate family left China in 2018, after increasing persecution against Chinese Christians by government authorities. 

Jin’s reunion with his family in July was the first time he’d seen them in eight years.

His release came after months of prayer by the global church, and after diplomatic pressure from the U.S. government on China’s leadership. After Chinese authorities released Jin, they informed him that he would be boarding a plane to the U.S. 

Jin, his family, and religious freedom advocates rejoiced over the pastor’s release, while also noting that conditions remain difficult for Chinese believers, including the eight pastors and members of Zion Church still in prison. Authorities originally arrested 28 people from the church.

The crackdown on Zion Church was part of a broader, ongoing campaign of harassment against Christians in China. In recent years, many missionaries have been expelled, pastors have been arrested, and churches have been raided.

Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church has served over seven years of a nine-year sentence after authorities arrested him in 2018. Officials charged the pastor with subversion of the state for his leadership of an unregistered church. 

Wang is part of a significant number of Chinese pastors and church leaders who have refused to officially register their churches with China’s Communist government. He has maintained that his goal is not to defy the government, but he also insists Christ alone is the head of the church, and that government interference is wrong. 

Pastor Jin said something similar in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, a few days after his July release: 

“As I wrote from prison, ‘We do not oppose dialogue with the government, nor do we confront it, but rather emphasize obedience to those in authority.’ At the same time we hold fast to our beliefs, recognizing Jesus Christ as the sole head of our church.”

Jin thanked all who prayed for him and worked for his release, but also lamented the many Chinese Christians still in detention, including those from his own congregation.

“These men and women, some of the most caring people I have met, are confined in cramped cells and sleep on floor mats in blistering heat,” Jin wrote. “Many leave behind young families. I won’t rest until they see freedom.”

Jin asked believers around the world to pray for Chinese Christians, and called on Chinese authorities to free Christians still in jail, and allow freedom for Chinese house churches across the country.

“Such a future might seem impossibly remote, but so did my release,” he wrote. “I couldn’t be more thankful, and pray that others still imprisoned will experience this same freedom soon. Mine is a God of miracles, and he constantly surprises me.”