…from The Voice of the Martyrs President
Oppressive governments would do well to tolerate the Bible in their lands, because we — the church, the members of the global body of Christ — will pay any price necessary to distribute them. In love and humility, but also in the full authority Of our Lord (Matthew 28:18-20), we make these promises to the persecutors: The more you seek to restrict access to Bibles, the more we will send: for every Bible you destroy, five will take its place; and we will joyfully spend our efforts and resources, suffering if necessary, to bring a Bible to every Christian you oppress and to everyone who seeks knowledge of God’s truth.
We are blessing the Bible’s opponents by warning them that since they fight against God (see Acts 5:39), their efforts will result in their failure and humiliation. The harder they try to stomp out the fires of the gospel’s power and message, the more
the embers will spread. God’s response to those who set themselves against Him is powerfully communicated in Psalm 2:1-4, culminating in this vivid image in verse 4:
“He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.”
No one can stop Him.
The need remains great, as there are still more than 20 nations in the world where significant numbers of Christians do not have a Bible because of persecution. However, no government or group is succeeding in defeating our Bible-smuggling
operations. As I write this, I am traveling inside one of the world’s most restricted nations for God’s Word — a place where Indigenous believers have lost their lives for owning and sharing only a few verses of Scripture. I am blessed to report that even in this context, mature believers are risking imprisonment to deliver Bibles to new converts, and those who have come to Christ risk death to receive them.
Because God said so in His Word, we can promise the persecutors that God’s Word is, and will always be, unbound despite the enemy’s designs to destroy or restrict it. Recent years have brought several instances of mass attacks in which thousands of Bibles were confiscated and burned. In every case, we have responded by distributing far more Bibles than were destroyed, The very idea of ‘restriction’ loses power as technology makes access to digital audio, e-book Bibles, and even Bible-based films much easier.
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” –Habakkuk 2:14
