"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land-- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. —Amos 8:11
The verse above well describes the present condition in China. There, untold millions are without access to God’s Word. Many Christians there do not have one copy of the Bible; they are literally starving for the words of the Lord.
Recently an interview was conducted with Paul Hattaway on this problem and what can be done to fix it. Below is a slightly condensed version. Because of its length, we will post it in several parts in the upcoming weeks.
Question: Let’s get straight to the main topic of this interview. Are Bibles still needed in China?
Answer: Yes! Not only are Bibles still greatly needed, many Chinese church leaders are telling us the need is greater now than any time since the 1980s. There is a growing emergency in China because of the lack of God’s Word among the rural house churches. If this need is not rebalanced soon, I fear it will have dire consequences for the revival that has been burning so brightly in China for the last 30 years.
Q: If there is such an urgent need for Bibles in China now, why is it so few Christians around the world are aware of it?
A: There are several main reasons for this. The first is that providing Bibles for China (and many other countries) seems ‘out of fashion’ in many churches today. Someone recently told a friend that helping get Bibles to China’s Christians is ‘so 1990s!’ It seems to no longer be the ‘in thing.’ If providing God’s Word to hungry believers who can’t access it is no longer a priority, may the Lord have mercy on us!
Another misconception is that many people believe China is now a rich country, so they no longer need our help. One American Christian recently told us, ‘We owe China billions of dollars, so they can take care of themselves.’
The first thing to say to this statement is that the Chinese government owning American debt does not mean the average person benefits in any way! About 90% of China’s house church Christians live in rural areas of the country, often thousands of miles from the glistening skyscrapers of modern cites like Beijing and Shanghai. The revival in China at the moment is burning brightest in remote provinces like Inner Mongolia and Qinghai. Thousands of people in these regions are coming to Christ daily, and they are among the poorest of the poor in China.
Q: Most Christians have heard that Bibles are now legally printed inside China, so hasn’t that taken care of the need?
A: You have raised the main reason why people are confused about the current need for Bibles in China. For years there has been a concerted attempt by the government-approved church to convince the world that Bibles are now freely available in China. They have successfully launched a global offensive via Christian radio, television and magazines to announce the ‘good news’ that China no longer needs Bibles.
The propaganda campaign has been so successful that we regularly receive letters and email from around the world, informing us that we are so out of touch we haven’t realized that China is now ‘awash with Bibles.’
It is true that for many years the government has allowed the printing of a limited number of Bibles in China. I am thankful for every one of them!
These official Bibles are printed primarily for members of the state-sanctioned churches in China. It is usually not difficult for Christians living in most major urban centers to buy a Bible at one of these churches. However, if you want to buy more than five or ten Bibles you will probably find it difficult, and questions may be asked about who they are for.
For the last 23 years we have been serving the unregistered house churches in China, who number more than 50 million believers. I can tell you that it simply isn’t true that the official Bibles are freely available inside China for all Christians.
Each of the house church networks we serve have verified needs of hundreds of thousands of Bibles just to provide God’s Word to their new converts!
God has given us the incredible opportunity to help our brothers and sisters in China by providing them with their first copy of His Word. Prayerfully consider helping to provide Bibles to these house church Christians at only $1.80. Click on the ‘About Us’ page to see how you can be a part of this. –Reagan Schrock, GOA blog manager.
Interview except taken from Asia Harvest newsletter #109, May 2011, pages 3-5. Used with permission from Paul Hattaway.
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