Almost four hours covering 50 years of Christianity in China, this four part documentary called “The Cross” brings history to life. Interviews with those who have been through the persecution and decades later are still loyal to the Lord Jesus. If you have read anything about the the history of Christianity in China then this documentary will help bring color to those black letters of the page.
With the documentary being four hours long, it does get repetitive in style. For the student of missions, you could watch the first part, but for those really interested in learning about missions in China, I would recommend watching all four parts.
I watched part of this before reading the book, Jesus in Beijing, but watch the majority of it after I finished reading that book. The two work and re-enforce each other.
Here is part of the editorial review:
This documentary, The Cross: Jesus in China, portrays the little known history of a remarkable people; it is the turbulent 50 year history of Chinese Christians on screen! For the first time, the history of Christianity in China, especially within the House-Church movement, is given in an honest and comprehensive account. The film answers the question raised by many people outside China: how did the number of Chinese Christians increase from 700,000 in 1949 to approximately 70 million today despite communist control? Using live footage and interviews, the film captures the true stories of many people and seeks to answer the most common questions: how does the Chinese government deal with Chinese Christians and vice-versa? How have Chinese Christians developed, survived and grown? What kind of people are they and what influence have they had and will they have on Chinese society? The documentary film consists of three episodes and one short subject. It lasts about four hours. The episodes are: Seeds of Blood, The Bitter Cup, The Spring of Life, and The Canaan Hymns.
I thought this documentary was encouraging, helpful, insightful and taught me many things as well.
Note: There are two parts of the documentary that seem unnecessary but for some reason were included in the documentary therefore some viewer discretion is advised.
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