SPECIAL INTERVIEW

On Oct. 10, 2025, police stormed Pastor Ezra Jin's home in southern China. The founder of Beijing Zion Church spent the next 266 days in an overcrowded detention cell, praying silently because praying aloud was forbidden.

In May, President Donald Trump personally raised Jin's case with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Less than two months later, on July 3, guards loaded Jin into a van. He thought he was going to trial. Instead, he was put on a plane to Los Angeles, and he was reunited with his family on the eve of America's 250th Independence Day.

Weeks later, he sat down with The Christian Post at the Museum of the Bible to tell the full story.

Read the two-part series

With no Bible for his first two months, Jin relied on Scripture from memory. The first verse God gave him was Jonah's prayer from the belly of the fish. He explains what suffering for Christ taught him, and why he believes it purifies the Church.

Eight Zion Church leaders are still behind bars. Jin explains how persecution grew his church from one building to more than 100 congregations in over 40 cities, what American Christians can do, and why he believes he will live to see another great revival in China.

Stories like this cost something

Reporting like this takes time, travel and a newsroom willing to stay on a story when it isn't trending. Advertisers get nervous. Platforms bury what they don't like. We report it anyway.

That's why we're asking you to become a CP Insider. Your monthly membership comes with no strings attached. It keeps our reporters on stories like Pastor Jin's and keeps every editorial decision in the newsroom, where it belongs.

As our thank-you, Insiders get:


  • Ad-free reading across The Christian Post


  • The Insider newsletter, a members-only monthly letter from the newsroom

You choose the amount. Change it, pause it or cancel anytime.

Prefer to give once a year? Choose yearly.

P.S. Pastor Jin asked readers to pray for the eight Zion Church leaders still detained: Gao Yingjia, Wang Lin, Yin Huibin, Wang Zhong, Wang Cong, Liu Zhenbin, Lin Shucheng and Wu Qiuyu. Every Insider helps us keep their names in the news.