On December 30, Li Wenliang, a 34-year-old opthalmologist, posted on Weibo that he had noticed seven cases of a virus that looked like SARS – the virus that led to a global epidemic in 2003, a story told by the BBC and many other media outlets. The cases were all linked to the seafood market in the city of Wuhan.

In early January, “Dr Li was treating a woman with glaucoma. He didn’t know that she had been infected with the new coronavirus.

“In his Weibo post he describes how on 10 January he started coughing, the next day he had a fever and two days later he was in hospital. His parents also fell ill and were taken to hospital.

“It was 10 days later – on 20 January – that China declared the outbreak an emergency.

“Dr Li says he was tested several times for coronavirus, all of them came back negative.

“On 30 January he posted again: “Today nucleic acid testing came back with a positive result, the dust has settled, finally diagnosed.

“He punctuated the short post with an emoji of a dog with its eyes rolled back, tongue hanging out.”

On February 7, the People’s Daily reported he had died at 02:58 that day.

The news/rumour  at least in English, that Li Wenliang was a Christian can be traced back to Feb 9 – and this widely shared post by Filipino man Dencio Acop.

He is the source for this God TV story. They feature a moving poem claimed to be by Dr Li.

“There is a light in the sky!
At the end of that light is the heaven that people often talk about.
But I’d rather not go there.
I’d rather go back to my hometown in Wuhan.
I have my new house there,
For which I still have to pay off the loan every month.
How can I give up?
How can I give up?
For my parents without their son,
How sad must it be?
For my sweetheart without her husband,
How can she face the vicissitudes in her future?

I am already gone.
I see them taking my body,
Putting it into a bag,
With which lie many compatriots
Gone like me,
Being pushed into the fire in the hearth
At dawn.

Goodbye, my dear ones.
Farewell, Wuhan, my hometown.
Hopefully, after the disaster,
You’ll remember someone once
Tried to let you know the truth as soon as possible.
Hopefully, after the disaster,
You’ll learn what it means to be righteous.
No more good people
Should suffer from endless fear,
And helpless sadness.

‘I have fought the good fight.
And I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith.
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness.’
2 Timothy 4:7, Holy Bible.”

A different view is carried in a China Christian Daily (CCD) report “Reflection on Different Reactions to Death of Dr. Li Wenliang – Was He A ‘Christian?'”

“Many Christians on the Internet go about telling each other, acting very exuberantly, as if this is not the time to express grief but to sing Hallelujah to praise the Lord’s great moment!” the CCD says. “Many brothers exclaimed how so many Christians were saying that Dr Li Wenliang was a Christian in their WeChat moments.”

CCD points out that Dr Li’s social media shows no Christian messages. And although the material that’s been circulating claims to come from Wuhan, no church in that city has claimed him. “On the Internet, some brothers also pointed out that if Dr Li was really a Christian, in a critical condition, then his church should have released a message of prayer on his behalf; but the network is devoid of any specific prayer message/request for Dr Li, despite several of such on behalf of other brothers and sisters.”

CCD adds “Interestingly, the original Christian platform that announced that Dr Li was a Christian soon issued a message in a bid to ‘prevent the rumor’ by changing the ‘Christian’ Dr Li Wenliang into an ‘interested individual’ (a faith seeker to Christianity). As a result, its tweet title was changed to: ‘Remembrance of Brother Li’s (a faith seeker) Glorious Return to His Heavenly Home.'”

Inquiries in China, relayed to Eternity, have thrown up no leads. We can’t establish that Dr Li was a Christian. We wish we could. Please help us if you can.