Out of Balance

America is by far the most religiously blessed nation on the planet, offering the freedom of worship and assembly to all religious persons. Best known for its Christianity, no other country can say it has been more welcome to Christians as America has, both present day and throughout the past.

Perhaps the greatest part of this blessing is the allowance of the printing and distribution of the Bible. No other Book has ever been more attacked and yet loved, attempted to be destroyed and yet has survived. And this nation has helped and encouraged the spread of God’s Word in amazing ways, to the point where we have over one hundred English translations of the Bible, countless different editions, and dozens of study Bibles. The average household in America has numerous copies.

And this is why I have entitled this post ‘Out of Balance.’ While the Western church has at its fingertips all the Biblical knowledge it can possibly use, along with every conceivable form of the Bible, all across the global, billions are without access to the Bible. They don’t even have the chance of getting one, often because the Bible is illegal in their countries, or they are in such remote areas that no one has ever taken the Scriptures to them. Multitudes don’t even know the Bible exists in the first place.

Can you see how this is out of balance? We seem to keep all the Bibles for the ones already saved, and the ones who truly need it do without. Let me give you one example from Tom White, director of Voice of the Martyrs:

“The last time I saw Mozafar in Cairo, he explained to me how he had eaten the Bible. As a devout Muslim, Mozafar had been commanded by his mullah, or Islamic leader, to read the Bible so that he could write an argument to expose and defeat the Christians. The mullah had recognized Mozafar’s fierce loyalty to Islam; his zeal had led him to attack churches and to persecute and burn the property of Christians. He had even spent time in prison for his radical actions on behalf of Islam. But when he opened the pages of the Bible, he was stunned by the mercy and grace offered by Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. Mozafar was so drawn to the gospel that he rented a hotel room so he could read the Bible and other Christian books without interruption.

“Mozafar’s brothers, angered by the changes they saw in him, took him to a mental institution, where he was subjected to shock treatments to rid his brain of radical spiritual ideas like ‘love your enemies.’ But the greater shock in Mozafar’s life was God’s truth revealed through his Holy Spirit. Once he had been exposed to the gospel, he was desperate to learn more about Jesus. ‘I would go into the bathroom of our home and lock the door,’ Mozafar explained. ‘Then I would take the Scriptures, memorize them, and eat them so that my family could not find them.’”

The world doesn’t have to be like that. At Gospel Outreach for Asia, we believe every person should have access to God’s Word; help us make this a reality. The church of Christ must come together and put this back into balance.

-Reagan Schrock, GOA blog manager