Rewriting

Paul admonished Timothy to faithfully study and preach the Word of God; in 2nd Timothy 2, he wrote:
24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

We should always be diligent to base our decisions on the Scripture, and allow the teachings of the Lord to inform how we view life itself.  It is dangerous to develop our own opinions and then try to justify our words and actions using Scripture taken out of context. We can strive to be knowledgeable about God's Word and go to the Word first. If we place our own ideas first, then we run the risk of not conforming to the teachings of Scripture.

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Paul, sensing that his earthly ministry could be coming to an end, made a bold proclamation in Acts chapter 20, saying:
26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.
27 For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Now that the programming fare on NBC is back to sitcoms and crime dramas after two weeks of the Winter Olympics from China, it's certainly important to continue to view what is going on inside the mammoth country.  By the way, was anybody watching?  The Hollywood Reporter said that:

The topline figure is that the Olympics averaged 11.4 million viewers across all of NBCU’s platforms in primetime. That’s down 42 percent from the 19.8 million average for the 2018 winter games in Pyeongchang, South Korea — in keeping with the trend both from the first few days of the games (and, in fact, closing the gap with four years ago a little bit) and the general decline of broadcast network ratings in the past four years.

The article reported a 26 percent drop from last year's Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Yes, there were bright spots regarding streaming and cable, but the total package was down - significantly.  

Voice of the Martyrs, whose radio program is heard Saturday mornings at 11:30 on Faith Radio, had encouraged people to consider praying for Chinese Christians leading up to and during the Winter Olympics. Some news services used the phrase, "prayer boycott." In a press release, Todd Nettleton, the radio host, stated:

"The Olympics are always filled with wonderful pageantry and inspiring athletic accomplishments. But let's not forget what the host government doesn't want us to see: imprisoned pastors, destroyed church buildings and a complete lack of religious freedom. I hope every Christian will use each event and every Olympic update as a reminder to pray for our persecuted family members in China."

And, as VOM points out, China is continuing to, well, rewrite the Bible to conform to the ideals of the Chinese Communist Party.  It's a ten-year project, and a Faithwire story states that:

VOM recently shared a reimagined version of the Bible’s revered story centered on Jesus’ love and corrective compassion for a woman caught in adultery.

“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced plans to update the Bible to ‘keep pace with the times.’ The revisions will include adding ‘core socialist values’ and removing passages that do not reflect communist beliefs,” a VOM Facebook post read. “In a textbook for high school students released in September 2020, the authors included a passage from John 8, as revised in their new version.”

The new CCP version states, “When everyone went out, Jesus stoned the woman himself, and said, ‘I am also a sinner.'”

Nettleton explains the motivation behind revisions of Scripture: “The issue for the Chinese Communist Party is control. It is always about control,” he said. “And they see the … Christian message as something that would take control away from the communist party.”  The article continues:

Rather than citizens waking up and pledging allegiance to a loving God and pondering ways to serve Jesus, Nettleton said the government’s goal is for Chinese nationals to wake up every day and say, “How can I serve the party today? How can I be a good communist today?”

The article notes that Nettleton "...said images of Jesus have been taken down inside churches and have, in some cases, been replaced with pictures of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Christian hymns, too, have been replaced with communist party anthems."

We can certainly be alarmed at the audacity of the Chinese government to revise Scripture for its own purposes.  But, the CCP doesn't really have the corner of the market on that.  We have to be careful that we, as professing believers in Christ, don't try to use Scripture to justify our sinful or worldly ideas.  

The correct approach to Scripture is that we study God's Word, we seek out the "whole counsel of God," and apply it to our lives.  However, you find those who espouse an idea and then try to twist the Scripture to meet their own ends.  We see Scripture used to justify abortion, gay marriage, and homosexual behavior.  At one point, the Bible was used to fuel support for slavery.  

We should always possess a high view of Scripture and make sure that we are applying a Biblical perspective to the issues of the day.  One thing that we can know is that the Bible is clear about prayer and intercession.  We can apply that to Chinese Christians and other persecuted Christians around the world.