A California pastor has finally been reunited with his family and other loved ones after spending almost two decades in a Chinese prison, which brings to a closes a controversial case that led to massive international outcry from both U.S. officials and advocates for free speech who believe that the man, David Lin, was wrongfully imprisoned. Praise God for working a miracle and allowing this servant of Christ to come home.
“We welcome David Lin’s release from prison in the People’s Republic of China,” the State Department went on to say, according to Politico who reported that the 68-year-old pastor “now gets to see his family for the first time in nearly 20 years.” While there has been significant time away and many milestones missed, the fact that Lin has been faithful to Jesus Christ this whole time, despite the wrong done to him, is a testament to the power of God and how union with Him fundamentally transforms a person’s nature, truly regenerating and making them alive again.
“Lin’s daughter, Alice Lin, told the outlet that the State Department notified her on Saturday that Chinese authorities had released her father from prison and that he would arrive in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday,” The Christian Post reported. “Lin, a U.S. citizen, was working to establish a Christian training center in Beijing in 2006 when he was first questioned by Chinese authorities and barred from leaving the country. He was later detained and charged with fraud under unclear circumstances. In December 2009, Lin was sentenced to life imprisonment. He has denied all charges. After several sentence reductions, he was set to be released in 2029.”
“No words can express the joy we have — we have a lot of time to make up for,” Alice said.
Lin was active in China’s underground house church movement, which involves discreet religious gatherings often held in private homes and not connected to state-sponsored religious organizations. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has noted that this movement “has long faced hostility from Chinese authorities” and participants often face “intimidation, harassment, arrest, and harsh sentences.”
Although Lin has staunchly maintained his innocence, he did not raise the attention of his case because he felt as though his imprisonment was a God-ordained mission field, his daughter said in a 2019 interview on the Washington Watch radio program. She added that her father told the family that officials forged documents and even tried to get him to sign a confession — something he would not do because he “didn’t do anything wrong.”
“What we do know is that he was in China because he had this huge burden for the unchurched in China. He had the vision to build a church and a Christian training center,” she went on to explain, stating that he was put in jail because of his faith. “His last message to us as a free man … he told us, ‘Don’t worry, God knows what He is doing. It is God’s wish that I am here. There are many people inside that need to hear God’s Word. Please don’t worry, but only pray for me. I will be back in the U.S. soon.’ That was 10 years ago.”
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There were several politicians in the U.S. who advocated for Lin’s release from the Chinese prison, including Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas who said, “I am extremely glad to hear David Lin was freed. His capture, like so many others, marks a rising trend of hostage diplomacy by authoritarians around the world.”
The Dui Hua Foundation, a California-based nonprofit advocating for detainees in China, welcomed Lin’s release but said there are more than 200 Americans “under coercive measures” in China, including 30 who are barred from leaving the country. China ranks as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA’s World Watch List. China’s crackdown on nongovernment-sanctioned house churches over the last several years has led to the arrest of countless worshipersand the destruction of churches, along with stringent regulations and enhanced digital surveillance specifically targeting house churches.
Bob Fu, the president of ChinaAid, had an interview with The Christian Post, stating that “the top leadership is increasingly worried about the rapid growth of the Christian faith and their public presence, and their social influence. It is a political fear for the Communist Party, as the number of Christians in the country far outnumber the members of the party.”
He went on to explain that China’s government is trying to “Sinicize” religious belief, which means it is interested in promoting and guiding religion that is Chinese in its orientation.
Back in March of this year, China freed another pastor, John Cao, who was handed a sentence of seven years in prison for “organizing an illegal border crossing.” Chinese law enforcement took Cao into custody, along with a colleague, Jing Ruxia, in March 2017. Before he crossed the border, Cao, who hails from North Carolina, managed to build a total of 16 schools, that all together serve a whopping 2,000 impoverished children located in Myanmar’s northern Wa state.
The report concluded by noting, “In August, a court in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province in China, sentenced Elder Zhang Chunlei of a house church to five years in prison for “subversion of state power” and ‘fraud.’ The sentencing reportedly occurred in a closely regulated proceeding that limited public attendance.”
Pray for Lin and his family as they celebrate this wonderful new beginning.