The other night, as I was searching on YouTube, I found a documentary entitled, "Made in China: the Amazing Story of the Bible in China". As I watched, I was startled to hear the narrator state that China prints the majority of Bibles that are published in all countries, even North America! I found that hard to believe, but I discovered on the Nanjing Amity Printing Company website that it was established in 1988 and is "a major exporter of quality Bibles and presently exports to satisfied customers in over 158 countries and regions. … By the end of April 2024, more than 260 million Bibles have come off our production lines … in 229 different languages". Amity produces an average of 70 Bibles per minute and is by far the biggest printer on earth, secular or Christian.

I've always heard that in modern China, religion of any sort is suppressed, yet the Amity website claims they've distributed more than 200 million Bibles in China. This sounds encouraging, until I read:

Chinese Bibles printed by Amity Press … are ONLY available to registered Christians in Three-Self (government-approved) churches. The 60 million or more house church believers that we [Asia Harvest] serve are strictly forbidden from getting a single crumb of them. … The Communist party has now slashed the quota they allow Amity to print domestically to about 1/3 of what it was a few years ago, so even the registered churches are facing a huge shortage of God's Word. (asiaharvest.org)

I wondered if the Chinese could access the Bible online and found this:

After banning the online sale of Bibles and Christian materials, the Chinese government has … tightened the control of religious content online … meaning that sharing about faith on social media will be declared illegal while the creator or sharer of the post may face punishment. (opendoorsuk.org)

When King Henry VIII created the Church of England in 1534, he declared that Bibles could be printed in English. Then in 1604, King James I approved the development of the King James Version. Since then, many translations and paraphrases have been created and are readily available both in print and online. Many of us have several Bibles in our homes and one or more Bible-reading sites bookmarked on our computers or phones. And, unlike the people in China, we have unlimited access to those Bibles. But how often do we take advantage of that access? How often do we stop to think that, not only in China, but in other countries as well, there are many who could lose their lives if found with a Bible? Do we truly believe, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105 ESV) and that "Man shall … live … by every word that comes from the mouth of God"? (Matthew 4:4 ESV)

Remember the children's song? "The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E." Let's make that our pledge.

Prayer: Lord, help us to treasure and use Your Word, the Bible. Amen.