Orthodoxy

The Holy Fire They Cannot Extinguish: China and Iran's Underground Churches Explode in Growth Despite Brutal Persecution

Michael Ringer

02 Nov 2025 — 6 min read

Chinese authorities arrested nearly 30 pastors, preachers, and church members of the unofficial Zion Protestant Church on October 10-11, 2025, in seven cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. Among those arrested was Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, 56, the church's founder, who was detained in Beihai city, Guangxi province.

Jin's daughter, Grace Jin Drexel, confirmed to NPR that her father was arrested Friday while at his home in Beihai. "It's been extremely shocking and very scary for our family," Jin Drexel said. "But we also have faith in the Lord and we know that he is doing God's work."

Jin was arrested for "illegal use of information networks," a crime under China's criminal law which carries up to three years in prison. The latest crackdown came after authorities issued an Online Code of Conduct for Religious Professionals in September 2025, banning the circulation of unauthorized religious content online.

Zion Church, founded in 2007 in Beijing by Pastor Jin Mingri, has grown to over 40 cities across China with an estimated membership of around 10,000. In 2018, the Chinese government officially banned the church and confiscated all its property after Zion leadership refused to install CCTV cameras in the building.

Zion Church representatives say it has grown rapidly in recent years, with services reaching around 5,000 to 10,000 people each week.

An Open Doors local partner stated: "Zion Church stands as a powerful symbol of spiritual resilience in China, boldly challenging the government's push for the 'Sinicization of Christianity.' Through its rapid expansion establishing over 100 congregational sites in just six to seven years, it has built a vibrant, interconnected faith network."

According to some estimates, there are as many as 115 million Protestants in China, making it one of the fastest growing demographics in the country. One analyst predicts that by 2030, China will have more than 247 million Christians, including Catholics, making it the world's largest congregation.

Scholars like Stark and Wang predict a 7% annual growth rate, potentially leading to 580 million Chinese Christians by 2040. Similarly, researcher Fenggang Yang forecasts that Protestant Christians might comprise a majority by 2050.

The overwhelming majority of this booming cohort of Chinese Christians are meeting in underground churches. According to Yang Fenggang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University, of China's estimated 93 to 115 million Christians, less than 30 million attend official churches.

After attending several underground church meetings in 2024, one observer noted that "the church is growing both in size and in its defiance to government regulations. Many have started to break the self-imposed rules on attendance restrictions."

IRAN - Iran now has one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world. Most Christian churches are outlawed, forcing believers to practice their faith in secret through underground house churches. It's ordinary Iranians including students, workers, and even former mullahs who have turned to Christianity after seeing the darkness of the Islamic Republic.

Hormoz Shariat, founder of Iran Alive Ministries, estimates at least 2 million Christian converts from Islam in Iran, more than twice as many estimated by others tracking such data. Today, more than 3,300 students are enrolled in Iran Alive's online training school. The ministry has distributed more than 100,000 Bibles since 2001 and has documented 115,000 decisions for Christ.

Amir, an underground church leader in Iran, was stopped at a police checkpoint with dozens of Bibles, a crime punishable by imprisonment and death. Police confiscated the Bibles but let Amir go free. When he arrived the next evening at the house church that expected the Bibles, the books were already there, delivered by the police official who had confiscated them. The police official revealed that he is a Christian and said

"Look at the table. The books I got from you yesterday are on the table and they are being handed to the house church members."

The estimated 350,000 to 500,000 Iranian Christians living within its borders largely operate underground. Most of these believers do not have access to basic resources like Bibles or church buildings, relying instead on clandestine networks and digital resources, including digital Bibles, online sermons, and encrypted communication channels.

Many have turned to Christianity after having visions and dreams of Christ. It happens so often that the regime has publicly warned against it, spooked by a phenomenon it cannot fully control.

Transform Iran's CEO-USA Lana Silk stated: "There's no lukewarm Christianity in Iran. Even at the point of seeking, people know it's going to cost them." The ministry's digital church connects up to 25,000 Iranians each month through online services, prayer rooms, and Bible studies.

Researchers have credited the underground church in Iran as the fastest-growing Christian church in the world. According to the documentary "Sheep Among Wolves," the Iranian awakening is "a rapidly reproducing discipleship movement that owns no property or buildings, has no central leadership, and is predominantly led by women." About 55% of the disciple makers are women.

Shariat stated: "One sentence I make, it's kind of outrageous but it's truth, that Iran is no longer an Islamic nation and it will never be. Islam is gone in Iran. It will never come back."

THE CRUSADER'S OPINION

The gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church. Not in China. Not in Iran. Not anywhere. The Communist Party can arrest every pastor, install cameras in every building, ban every website, and it won't matter. The Ayatollahs can execute converts, imprison believers, torture house church leaders until their dying breath, and still the Church grows. Why? Because you cannot kill what God has made alive.

China thought it could control Christianity by forcing it underground in 1949. Seventy-six years later, they're staring down the barrel of 580 million Christians by 2040. Iran believed Islam's iron fist would crush the Gospel after 1979. Forty-six years later, former mullahs are preaching Christ and police officers are secretly delivering confiscated Bibles to house churches. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a sword.

Here's what the tyrants never understand: persecution doesn't destroy the Church. It purifies it. It separates the disciples from the converts. It burns away the lukewarm, the comfortable, the cultural Christians who wouldn't last five minutes under real pressure. What's left? Fire. Pure, unquenchable, Holy Ghost fire that spreads faster than any government can contain it.

Meanwhile, the Western church sits fat and lazy with our coffee bars and light shows, declining in numbers while our brothers and sisters who face death for owning a Bible are leading the greatest revival in human history. They meet in secret. We can't fill the pews. They risk everything. We complain about parking. They disciple new believers knowing any one of them could be a government spy. We argue about worship styles.

The lesson is crystal clear: comfort kills the Church. Persecution refines it. The cross always comes before the crown. And the same Jesus who said "I will build my church" is proving it true in the most unlikely, most hostile, most "impossible" places on earth. The darkness thought it could win. It was wrong.