Acts 4:1

Acts 4:1–31

6/28/2012

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

We Can't Help It
"So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened." -Acts 4:18-21

This passage is an interesting one. It brings up a lot of issues that we don't often think about, but that our brothers and sisters in persecuted countries ALWAYS think about. Today's post is a little more involved, but I'd love to know what you think.

First, read this article from Voice of the Martyrs called "What About Bible Smuggling?"

What About Bible Smuggling?
File Size:	48 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

What do you think? Are his points valid? Are his examples the same as what we see in Acts 4? What are the strengths of what he says? What are the weaknesses? Should we have any doubts about smuggling Bibles or not? Let me know ANYTHING you think in the comments.

Andrei

6/28/2012 05:21:47 pm

Wow... reflecting on the real life consequences of Christian living in various circumstances. Some scattered and unfocused thoughts I had:

I guess we always talk about being accountable to God over man. It's still confusing though. One situation some of us have is sharing Christ in the workplace. Some workplaces have strict rules on it. And I've heard things like: 'If I can't witness directly, I can witness through other ways, like through my actions.' Even with that though, if we know that someone doesn't have Christ, isn't it wrong for us not to witness to them in a way that makes it absolutely clear?

The guy in the article... his position basically seemed to be: 'throw man's laws out the window when it comes to sharing the Gospel. feel free to break any 'dumb' law because what excuse is there to hold back from evangelizing? Do you think his position is too extreme?

lol at the scenarios he describes in the beginning... like Moses being killed and the Jews remaining in slavery

Oh, another thought/question... if we compare our relatively comfortable, well-off lives to communities of persecuted Christians around the world... what kind of characteristics would both groups point out in each other that are good... and what problems would be identified in maybe the ways that both groups are going about their Christian living......?

What exactly does it mean to be accountable to God over man? Seems like there are some situations where it would be obvious, but can you think of any situations where it is hard to tell?

Andrew S

6/29/2012 01:40:33 am

Nice post and comments. To me, this guy sounds real radical and a glutton for punishment. Although I agree to a certain extent and understand his points, it seems a bit radical and off to me. If he's trying to spur up some action that's great because I think a lot of Christians face complacency and simply a lack of concern for what the bible calls us to do. However, as Andrei pointed out, he's telling people to just disregard human laws. Perhaps a more diplomatic approach could circumvent the smuggling?

It just doesn't seem justified. We always talk about the means and the end. It got me thinking of downloading music. It's a different level but still draws some parallels. Is it okay to illegally download christian music since the music itself is pleasing to God? Doubtful. Is it okay to spread the gospel at the expense of breaking the law? I wonder what type of testimony that gives to non believers. Would they say that this is a great act of faith or a trespass on law?

Greg

7/3/2012 05:59:23 am

I think these are separate issues. Providing Bibles to someone doesn't involve stealing them, then giving them to needy Christians. The issue with Christian music isn't whether it's good and positive or not, but that downloading it without paying for it when you can easily and readily buy it is stealing.

In the Bible issue, I would echo Kevin's statement that the Bible is clear that if we disobey the law, we need to be willing to accept the punishment for that, even if we are only doing it to be faithful to God's law. I would mostly agree with the guy here - I don't think he's being totally extreme - just unthinking. We should first seek to do things within the law. If we cannot obey God within the law, we should obey God first, but also be willing to accept the consequences for our actions. Obeying God doesn't always mean that we will be happy and free and delivered (in an earthly sense). The scores of martyrs throughout the centuries can testify to that.

Kevin Kuo

6/30/2012 11:31:58 am

If we wanted to have our cake and eat it too by Circumventing the law I guess we should be setting up organizations to smuggle the Christians out of these areas. Kind of like the underground railroad to smuggle slaves into the north. I would like to mention that we are taught to follow Jesus and be more like him. He healed on the sabbath he broke the law on several occasions. My view of it is this if you break the laws of man be prepared to face the consequences of such actions. The early Christians were breaking the laws because tie was illegal for Jews to proselytize and many of the early Christians were Jewish converts. I would say one of e problems in places in China is that it was not always an authoritative communist state the communists were the rebels or unlawful ones. While social mobility was not possible under the nationalist regime they never asked you to sacrifice your liberty for safety. The safety the communists offered was that the peasants would never be hungry but the costs was your soul. You had to buy into the ideology that the state was supreme. So much so that you had to hang the picture of Mao in your house otherwise be hauled into a labor or reeducation camp. Christians need to learn from the Bible and history to not be swayed by deceptive teachings and today the media is a fountain of deceptive ideologies.
I knew of a pastor smuggling Bibles and he prayed long and hard several months before for God to make a way for him so he didn't have to lie to the customs official when asked about the stuff he had with him. When the day came the customs official asked him how many Bibles are there. With great relief he replied only one as the customs official did not phrase his question how many Bibles do you have. If I were a Christian in these kinds of countries I would find my way into some government position in order to facilitate the work of my other brothers and sisters. Much like how a lot of Christians entered into roman military service and eventually there were so many Christians in the roman military that by persecuting all of them would have significantly reduced the military strength of the Roman army.

Comments are closed.

Acts 4:1–31

Archives