Pastor Jim's View of CHINA

Well, that was fun. Preaching on the End Times, exploring the possible "signs in the sky" and pondering how the end-time events might unfold. And really four sermons isn't enough to cover the subject entirely. Beth Moore's series on Daniel is excellent, and also the new book "101 Answers to Questions on the End Times" (Mark Hitchcock) is proving to be useful.

Someone asked me about the "Partial Rapture" theory, the one that suggests believers might be taken up in a "series of raptures over several years." Fascinating, but I didn't have time to cover it. That said, yesterday I found myself praying for a partial rapture... of all the politicians in Washington.

Back to business: what if Jesus tarries a bit longer? What will the world look like in the near future? People often tell me I'm good at making complex things understandable (an attribute I credit to my days of training fighter pilots -- they're a very simple breed, who like things to be black, white, and straightforward.) So, for part one of "The Big Picture of Global Change" let me tell you about the country that is becoming the 900-pound gorilla of Global Change: China.

"The Middle Kingdom" as they themselves call it, has been around a very long time. Most of the major dynasties in China lasted longer than the history of the USA from George W (Washington) to George W (Bush). And even the smallest province in China has more people than any nation in Western Europe. So when you think China, think "big."

Even with their policy of "one child" per family, the population still creeps upward, now reaching 1.3 Billion (roughly four times that of the USA; and a little more than India). Their economy grows at the blistering rate of 9% a year, so it doubles every eight years! In 1978 they produced a total of 200 air conditioners. Last year they exported 48 million air conditioners. Every single day, China exports more products in that one day, than they did in the entire YEAR of 1978 -- just thirty years ago.

And when products go out, money comes in. They've moved 400 million people from rural poverty to urban almost-middle-class. Take all of the construction projects in the USA and multiply them times Five -- that's what they are building in China. Make a list of the twenty fastest-growing cities in the world, and guess what? All twenty cities are in China. And these facts I've listed are from one book, "The Post American World" by Fareed Zakaria, a Newsweek editor.

China is also a new and massive market for US products. Proctor and Gamble sells $2.5 billion/year into China. Chinese drivers import new cars from Japan and from USA, at the rate of, are you ready, 20,000 cars a month!! Starbucks is expanding so fast that by 2010 there'll be more Starbucks in China than in the USA. (Imagine a billion Chinese, amp'ed up on Double Espressos...)

What's the point of all this? That China is going to play a large, large role in the future. It's a good thing that we are friends with them, and as their economy is dependent on us, as we are also dependent on them. (I've read also that 10% of all the Treasury notes out there, ie: our national debt, is held by Chinese people or businesses or government.)

In my opinion, the 2008 Olympics "re-shaped" the openness of the country, in a way that will not be reversed. They are learning English, they are going on-line, they are hearing the gospel of Christ in numbers that are unimaginable. They won't pass the USA as a military power (not for at least a century) and their economy will not be as large as ours, but where there were two major economies (USA and European Union) there will be soon be a third -" BRIC" is the acrostic for it -- Brazil, Russia, India, China -- and China is the big dog on that block. So get used to the idea of China, and pray for its people, its churches, its future.

stay tuned: next week: I will attempt to explain "Why Oil Costs So Much."