{"id":56897,"date":"2025-12-23T14:00:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T05:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=56897"},"modified":"2025-12-23T16:32:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T07:32:49","slug":"vomk-report-379","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2025\/12\/23\/vomk-report-379\/","title":{"rendered":"CHINA: PASTOR GRANTED \u201cUNPRECEDENTED\u201d PERMISSION TO HAVE BIBLE IN PRISON"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”56913″ img_size=”full” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Voice of the Martyrs Korea and its American partner China Aid are reporting that Ezra Jin, the pastor of embattled Zion Church, received permission on December 9 to have a Bible in his prison cell.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:1.2em|text_align:left|color:%23111111″ google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” css=”” el_class=”headline”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Voice of the Martyrs Representative Dr<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0Hyun Sook Foley says the decision by prison authorities came after several days of fasting by Pastor Jin, as well as legal challenges from his lawyer Kevin\u00a0<\/span>Kai Zhang. She says that Pastor Jin<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s family had made multiple unsuccessful attempts to mail him a Bible at his prison address since he, along with 29 other Zion Church leaders, was first detained by authorities in early October.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u201c<\/span>Christian prisoners have told us repeatedly that access to a Bible was more important to them than access to food,<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0says Representative Foley. She says that as far as Voice of the Martyrs Korea and China Aid are aware, this is the first time that a Christian prisoner\u00a0<\/span>in China\u00a0<\/span>has been granted access to a Bible\u00a0<\/span>while\u00a0<\/span>in prison.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s unprecedented,\u201d says Representative Foley, who believes authorities may have been forced to grant the permission due to the worldwide attention given to Pastor Jin\u2019s case by Christians around the world. \u201c<\/span>One Chinese Christian who was in prison for many years told us that his only access to the Bible came from the scriptures people would quote in the\u00a0<\/span>occasional\u00a0<\/span>letters he was\u00a0<\/span>permitted<\/span>\u00a0to receive in prison<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0He made his own \u2018mini-Bible\u2019 by putting together those scripture quotes.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]She says\u00a0<\/span>Christian scriptures are so rare in many prisons that even non-Christian prisoners become interested when they see\u00a0<\/span>them<\/span>. \u201cThe Russian deacon Vyacheslav\u00a0<\/span>Koldiaev<\/span>\u00a0who was in prison for his faith from 2021 to 2023 asked us to send him single scripture verses on postcards so he could share them with other inmates,\u201d Representative Foley says.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”56901″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Zion Church pastor Ezra Jin” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230a0101|line_height:1.45em” css=””][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]According to Representative Foley, the only scriptures Christian prisoners have access to are the ones they memorize before being sent to prison.\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>One North Korean Christian prisoner\u00a0<\/span>in the late 1990s\u00a0<\/span>had memorized 18 verses of scripture before being held for investigation,<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0says Representative Foley.\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>After\u00a0<\/span>secretly\u00a0<\/span>evangelizing a<\/span>\u00a0fellow\u00a0<\/span>prisoner, she used a pencil from the interrogation room and scraps of material used as toilet paper to write out an 18-verse\u00a0<\/span>\u2018<\/span>toilet paper Bible<\/span>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0which she left with her new Christian\u00a0<\/span>sister when she herself was released from prison.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Representative Foley says that the Chinese government<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s recent crackdown on Pastor Jin and Zion Church has caused many Chinese Christians to prepare for the possibility that they too may soon find themselves in prison.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u201cElder Li\u00a0<\/span>Yingqiang<\/span>\u00a0of Early Rain Covenant Church, another church whose pastor and leaders have been imprisoned, sent out a \u2018pastoral letter\u2019 to Chinese Christians in which he said, \u2018another large-scale operation against urban house churches may be imminent\u2019, and he urged them to prepare,\u201d says Representative Foley. \u201cIn his letter he said, \u2018Christians should root themselves deeply in Scripture, prayer, and hymn-singing\u2014spiritual disciplines that sustain them when Bibles or fellowship may be taken away.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Individuals interested in learning about or supporting Voice of the Martyrs Korea\u2019s work in partnership with persecuted Christians in China can visit\u00a0<\/span><\/span>www.vomkorea.com\/en\/china<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”56913″ img_size=”full” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Voice of the Martyrs Korea and its American partner China Aid are reporting that Ezra Jin, the pastor of embattled Zion Church, received permission on December …","protected":false},"author":659,"featured_media":56899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,869,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-column","category-china-special","category-vomk-report"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en","zh","ru"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"zh":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56897"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57160,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56897\/revisions\/57160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}