“For the Word of God is living and
active. Sharper than any edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and
spirit”
-Hebrews 4:12
Crucial debate in the Russian
parliament came to a halt as legislators, policemen, cooks, secretaries, and bureaucrats
rushed into the main hall. Had a fire alarm sounded? Was another coup in
progress? No, the Moscow Bible Society was giving away Bibles, New Testaments
and a special edition of a Children’s Bible – an unprecedented event in the
70-year communist government. Some 6,000 volumes were given away, and as the
supply dwindlend, “clamor gave way to near chaos,” an official reported.
In the same month that Bibles were
being distributed in Russia, individuals inside China were being arrested for
receiving them. Chinese officials learned of a pipeline of Bibles being carried
from HongKong to individuals inside China. Local authorities informed believers
that Bibles were being brought in, and asked them to meet a certain train.
Local believers came but they were met by the arresting officers.
A very limited numbers of Bibles are
available for purchase in China today through government-approved sources.
These demand to know details about the buyer, information which many people are
reluctant to disclose, with the arrests and imprisonment of the Cultural
Revolution still fresh in their minds.
The Bible continues to be the world’s
best-loved and most widely distributed book. Books of the Bible have been
printed in 1,646 languages and dialects, according to the United Bible Society.
Complete Bibles have been published in 318 languages as of the end of 1990.
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