A Chinese Christian explains why she felt morally and spiritually compelled to leave the government-controlled Protestant organization.
As an ordinary Christian, I once believed the Three-Self Church to be a sanctuary for believers in mainland China. There, I experienced baptism, partook of the Lord’s Supper, and felt a glimmer of sacred warmth during gatherings. Each time I entered the church, my heart was filled with peace and tranquillity, knocking upon the door of faith with reverence for the unknown world.
Yet, as I delved deeper into the Scriptures and observed reality with increasing clarity, I was compelled to make a painful yet necessary decision: to depart from this “Thyatira-like” church, distorted by secular authority. The Lord Jesus’s warning to the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2:18–29: “ You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” This now seems tailor-made for the Three-Self Church. It is no longer a sanctuary for worshipping God, but a tool bound to political campaigns, betraying the Lord’s will and distorting pure faith.
The Chinese Three-Self Church, formally known as the “Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee,” has since the 1950s been engineered as the Chinese authorities’ model for “managing” Christianity. The original intent of “Three-Self” was “self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation.” Yet under the atheist Chinese Communist regime, this serves merely as a façade. As staunch atheists, the CCP views religion as a potential threat and inevitably places it under the Party’s absolute leadership. While the Constitution proclaims “freedom of religious belief,” in practice, all activities of the Three-Self Church require government approval. Church construction, gathering sizes, and sermon topics must align with “patriotic education.”
Reports indicate approximately 23,000 Three-Self churches nationwide, yet these are not independent spiritual communities but branches of the “State Administration of Religious Affairs.” Clergy—pastors, elders—are no longer servants called by God but government-appointed, supervised, and evaluated personnel. They must attend “ideological and political study sessions” and demonstrate loyalty to Party policies, facing the risk of license revocation or imprisonment if they fail to comply. In 2023, a pastor in Henan who refused to preach “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” was detained for several months on charges of “disrupting religious order.” This is not an isolated incident but a common occurrence within the Three-Self system.
More distressing is the deep entanglement of the Three-Self Church with the “patriotic political campaign.” Within churches, the five-starred red flag often hangs beside the cross, and congregations are even required to hold flag-raising ceremonies and sing the national anthem. When compelled to sing the anthem, believers overlook its revolutionary connotations, which starkly contradict Christ’s path of peace. The Bible instructs us, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Yet within the Three-Self Church, God’s authority has been usurped by secular power. Pastors’ sermons must avoid sensitive topics such as Xinjiang’s re-education camps or Hong Kong’s democracy movement, lest they be branded as “infiltration by foreign forces.” Instead, the Bible is misinterpreted as a tool endorsing the “Chinese Dream.”
For instance, Romans 13:13—“submit yourselves to the governing authorities”—is torn from its context and forced to mean absolute obedience to the Chinese Communist Party, ignoring the Apostle Paul’s circumstances. He wrote these words under persecution by the Roman Empire, reminding believers to remain faithful to Christ even in submission. Such distortions not only contradict the Bible’s overarching teachings but also transform the church into a venue for propagating Party ideology. Christ is God, the King of kings (Revelation 19:16), and His church should be governed by the authority of the cross, not the banner of the red flag.
My departure was not accidental but the culmination of a journey from reverence to bewilderment and disillusionment with the Three-Self Church. In 2024, I had hoped to visit a local children’s welfare home in Shandong with fellow church members. The children there had all been abandoned for various reasons, and we intended to donate everyday necessities like clothing, toys, and bedding. Yet we were informed that donations and visits could only be made in the name of government institutions, and under no circumstances could they be conducted in the church’s name. The church, meant to be a sanctuary for all vulnerable souls, was restricted and suppressed by the government in what should have been the most ordinary act of kindness.
Later attempts to donate winter clothing and bedding for children affected by the Russia-Ukraine conflict were outright rejected, with explicit instructions that the church must not engage with any overseas organisations. This was not merely indifference, but a betrayal of the very purpose of the church. When did the church we worship—which loves the world—transform into something I cannot comprehend, something utterly unbelievable?
During a Sunday service in May 2025, the pastor proclaimed from the pulpit: “Without the Communist Party, there would be no New China, nor our freedom of faith.” The congregation fell silent, yet a chill crept over me. This is no worship—it is idolatry! Recalling Scripture, in the Old Testament, the Israelites repeatedly mingled God’s sanctuary with the altars of Baal, provoking divine wrath (2 Kings 16:10-18). In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for “teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Matthew 15:9).
The Three-Self Church is doing precisely that: substituting the Party’s “core values” for God’s law. The church at Thyatira tolerated the false prophetess Jezebel, who led believers into sexual immorality and the consumption of food sacrificed to idols. Today’s Three-Self Church tolerates atheistic ideology, inducing believers to pledge allegiance to a party that proclaims itself “great, glorious, and correct,” while neglecting Christ’s cross. Such a church has descended into a spiritual abyss; for believers to linger here is to stand against God.
After deciding to leave, my heart was torn apart. Since first entering the church, I have known many brothers and sisters here. Many remain sincere believers, yet they have been swept along by the system, unknowingly compromising their faith. But the Lord’s call is clear: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). This gospel is free and universal, not bound by national borders or party affiliations.
Leaving the Three-Self Church was not an act of evasion, but a quest for a genuine return to my inner self. Thanks to the Lord’s guidance, I now have the privilege of joining a true church, where I can freely share the Gospel, read Scripture, worship, fellowship, and pray alongside brothers and sisters in Christ.
Now, in China of 2025, religious persecution intensifies. Official data reveals over 4,000 Christians detained in 2024 for “illegal gatherings,” while countless places of worship outside the Three-Self Church system face demolition. I realise that sharing this testimony publicly may invite surveillance or more severe consequences. Yet as a disciple of Christ, I cannot remain silent. The Lord’s love is universal; He was crucified for all humanity, including those in power. Chinese believers must awaken: the true church is not subservient to any regime, but is “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).
I call upon all brothers and sisters still struggling within the Three-Self Church to reflect upon the Lord’s warning: “ So I will cast Jezebel on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.” (Revelation 2:22). Let us together escape the snare of Thyatira and hold fast to the crown of ultimate victory.
Source: Bitter Winter
