Bibles for China: the issues of printing and distribution in China
China has been the largest mission field for Evangelical Christians during the past 200 years (the first missionary was Robert Morrison who went to China in 1807), and still has the largest numbers of unreached and unevangelized peoples. In any way you look at it, mission is just beginning in China. Many of the estimated 100 million Christians still don’t possess their own Bible, and few of the 1.2 billion non-Christians have any access to the Bible. The numbers that Amity (Bible Societies working with Three-Self Patriotic Church) prints is just a ‘drop in the bucket’ compared to the great need. We thank the Lord for what they are doing, and a lot of the information they sent to you is accurate (though the number of Bibles printed according to one of their spokesmen in Hong Kong a few years ago was only 30 million since they started in 1981, not 50 million).
I heard before in New Zealand about the head of the Amity (a non-profit organization) in that nation, a brother has been telling people that 10 million Bibles are printed yearly in China and there is an abundance of them everywhere. He even arranges tours of the printing press. I am not interested in that for everyone I talked to told me the workers are not Christian at all. All I want is to be able to get these Bibles. His information was totally contradictory to mine, and I have been working in Hong Kong and China for over 40 years. There are a lot of different views about the subject of Bibles for China, but I will share with you my view -
There is a tremendous lack of Bibles available from Amity or the Three-Self church. We want to purchase tens of thousands of Bibles, but all the Three-Self pastors tell us there are few on stock. All they have available in large quantities are the larger Bibles with centre references. Not only are they more expensive, but they are heavier and not convenient to carry. It is not convenient to give them to new believers in the rural area.
The Three-Self pastors tell us they are not allowed to give their Bibles to house church fellowships, and if they do so they will be in trouble with the Religious Affairs Department and police.
In recent years house church fellowship leaders have been arrested, sent to prison and had the Bibles they purchased confiscated. This was only when they tried to purchase large amounts (a few thousand) of Bibles from Amity. Thus some are terrified about approaching Amity or Three-Self for large amounts of Bibles.
They tell us Amity is only allowed to print 3 millions Bibles a year and a certain percentage (about 20% or more) are exported. This is also what the PSB (police) personally told me before.
It would seem to be the policy of the government to keep Bibles out of the hands of the general population. Thus the restriction on the amounts of Bibles printed and the prohibition of them being sold in bookstores, etc.
We are not sure of the reason, but the Chinese customs have recently been very strict during the past several months to the present day. This is mostly true of the local land borders from Hong Kong (for many do this work), but not true of flying into China. It is very difficult to deliver even a moderate amount of Bibles (a few dozen copies). They will sometimes take them away from the visitor if they find them in the luggage. It would seem to refute any claim that Bibles are being printed and sold in large numbers in China. Foreign Christians always say, “If this government is so evil it will take a few dozen of my Bibles from me, how would it ever allow millions to be printed inside?”
This fact (confiscating small amounts of Bibles at the border) is terrible publicity for the PRC, Amity and the Bible Societies. The latter are viewed as stooges of the communists. You can read this on all the Christian human rights web pages. The argument is “The Bible Societies and Amity are used as propaganda tools by the government. They allow a (relatively) very small amount of Bibles to be printed, that can only be distributed through their government controlled churches. They then claim Bibles are freely available for sale in China to discourage Bible couriers and related ministries. But the fact they confiscate Bibles shows they have no intention of allowing many Chinese to have this book.”
This is strongly strengthening the position of many ministries that print Bibles outside of China and deliver them to China. Some contacts say that what the brother and others working with Amity are doing is just to be a mouthpiece for a business (Amity and Bible Societies) that is in competition with these ministries who are simply obeying Christ’s command to take the Gospel to the whole world. It makes them very mad to be called ‘lawbreakers’ and ‘Bible smugglers’ when they do this out of a motivation of love for lost souls and in obedience to Christ. They see this as ‘spiritual warfare’ and the other side on the power of darkness.
A ministry we work with in Switzerland has printed millions of high quality Bibles that are being used by house churches all over China. They would rather give us the money to purchase huge amounts of Bibles inside China, but we have told them it is impossible. We checked with the official churches and were told this. Thus the only other choice is to take them over the border. This situation has not changed for 30 years, and it is unlikely to change now.
As long as it is believed no one can purchase large amounts of Bibles from Amity for distribution to the house church network, and Chinese customs continues to take Bibles away, there will be large support everywhere for such organizations (including Open Doors, Christian Aid Association, Martyrs for Christ, Missions without Borders and many others).
We really appreciate the volunteers to come as "Donkeys for Jesus", to help to deliver the Bibles. Even it takes time, costs money and a long jet trip, you will have a great experience, learn a lot and every Bible that is successfully taken in is guaranteed to be given to people who really need it and will use it properly. Nothing is wasted. Also you can get to know us more and understand the Chinese culture and the need for Bibles and missionaries. We hope you can then share this in your nation on a personal basis.
