"and you will be hated by all for my name's sake."

What is being called the "first mega-church in China" was attacked by 400 police and hired thugs in China on a rainy Sunday in mid-September of this year. Here are a couple of excerpts from the Associated Press article:

LINFEN, China — Towering eight stories over wheat fields, the Golden Lamp Church was built to serve nearly 50,000 worshippers in the gritty heart of China's coal country.

But that was before hundreds of police and hired thugs descended on the mega-church, smashing doors and windows, seizing Bibles and sending dozens of worshippers to hospitals with serious injuries, members and activists say

Today, the church's co-pastors are in jail. The gates to the church complex in the northern province of Shanxi are locked and a police armored personnel vehicle sits outside.

The closure of what may be China's first mega-church is the most visible sign that the communist government is determined to rein in the rapid spread of Christianity, with a crackdown in recent months that church leaders call the harshest in years.

Courts, police and government officials in Linfen refused to comment on the claims of violence and persecution. A local Communist Party spokesman said only that the case centered on the mega-church's lack of planning approval.

"We have always supported and allowed everybody to believe in religion. But the church itself is an illegally constructed building," said the spokesman, who would give only his surname, Wang.

A lawyer for Wang and Yang, Li Fangping, said the church had applied for permits to build the church from the local religious affairs bureau and the land use authority, but received no reply.

Almost three months after the crackdown, people in and around Linfen refuse to discuss the church, and police vehicles remain parked on virtually every corner of the neighborhood where the Golden Lamp is located.

This church is part of the ever growing "house-church" movement in China. In another part of the article it claims that there are 60,000,000 Christians worshiping in "illegal" churches. There are approximately 20,000,000 worshiping in the state controlled churches. (For the rest of the article click here.)

When Jesus sent out the twelve apostles he told them that they will be hated for his name's sake. We see that this hatred and persecution was not only shared by the apostles but by the early church as well. This hatred and persecution continues on today in many parts of the world.

Have you suffered? Have you been hated because of Jesus' name? What forms do hatred and persecution take? Do you think a lack of proclamation equals a lack of persecution?