This video looks at Christianity in China, and the status of the availability of Bibles there.
On the surface it may sound like Christianity is alive and well in China. It's reported that there are in excess of 100 million Christians in China. Others claim there are no more than 30 to 40 million Christians. With confusing information like that, it's easy to understand how Christians around the world could be perplexed about China. If the higher number of Christians is correct, China would become the world's third largest Christian nation by the year 2030.
Roughly half of China's protestants go to illegal "house churches" that meet privately. The other half attend official registered "Three-Self Patriotic Churches" that operate under an arrangement with China authorities to still be good citizens and patriotic to the party. The party has let the official churches worship freely until now.
But as Christianity grows dramatically, officials fear that both the unregistered and official churches could undermine their authority. Authorities have attacked and even destroyed both unofficial and official protestant churches recently. It's felt by many evangelicals that they are witnessing a new invisible battle over faith in the world's most populous nation. Indeed, Chinese Christians are more and more facing a campaign by the party-state to delegitimize them.
So what exactly is the state of Christianity in China? While many claim there is in general "freedom to worship" there, others say there is widespread religious persecution. Some mission groups believe that China is such a huge place that whatever you hear may be true in one place but not another.
A Bible Outreach Ministry based in Indianapolis, Indiana(who asked not to be identified), takes a yearly pilgrimage to China in order to try to smuggle in Bibles to the underground church. One of their missionaries recently talked to me about the state of Christianity in China.
He said that "there is a real hunger in China for the good news of the gospel. And, more and more converts are happening regularly." He also said that "this period may turn-out to be a short-time window to get churches started and to get more Bibles in."
It seems confusing again, but some Christians claim Bibles are now freely available and no new ones are needed in China. Others say there are marked shortages of Bibles and millions of believers are still without them. Many official churches in China have said in the past, that there are plenty of Bibles there, and that they don't need to receive any new ones. However, many experts believe that there are still huge shortages in China......especially in remote cities and areas.
So how do the Chinese people get their Bibles? There are actually approved printers that are allowed to print Bibles inside China. There also are some religious agencies that "smuggle them in" and distribute Bibles to the unregistered churches. These agencies believe there are drastic shortages of Bibles for under-ground churches, and that often they have to distribute individual pages of Bibles as they can find them. Don't forget too that there are claims that officially approved churches have "edited" Bibles that modify some scriptures and their meaning.
The Bible smuggling mission agency in Indiana we mentioned earlier says "there are still not enough Bibles being distributed to the unapproved churches and to many remote areas." It's their goal to "get as many unedited Bibles in as possible."
The approved Bible printers in China are usually restricted to only allowing orders of 200 Bibles at a time for unapproved House churches This often leaves many new converts unable to have their own Bible copies.
One final note. In March, 2018 the state in China began restricting "online" ordering of Bibles into China. This was seen as an effort to control the country's growing religious scene. Internet searches are now coming up empty for online retailers such as
JD.com and Amazon. Christianity in China is the only religion whose major text cannot be sold through regular commercial channels. The Bibles printed in China are legally available only at approved church bookstores.
Bible shortages in China
