The Chinese Bible: How We Got It and How We Need It

Abstract

The topic of “the Bible and China” has been highly charged ever since China’s opening in the early 1980s.  Smuggling of Bibles and “cloak and dagger” approaches to getting the Word of God into the hands of Chinese people has received much attention in the West.  We currently get such mixed reporting on China, so that some people even imagine that you cannot buy Bibles in China, or that the Bible they have is in some way distorted. While the motives of most of the people engaged in these kinds of activities or reporting on them may have been respectable, it has contributed to misunderstandings and untold controversy regarding the issue of the Bible and the church in China.  In the midst of the controversial cacophony, we desperately need reliable and measured reporting on the issue of the Bible in China.