China Bans Bibles from Online Sellers Like Amazon

China Bans Bibles from Online Sellers Like Amazon - Christianity Today

Last week, Chinese social media users began noticing that they couldn't find Bibles listed on some of their nation's most popular e-commerce platforms. Shoppers who searched the word Bible on retailers such as Taobao, Jingdong, Dang Dang, and Amazon.cn began receiving a "no results" response, reported the South China Morning Post.

Search analytics revealed a significant spike in the keyword Bible on March 30. But by April 1, analytics showed a zero, suggesting that the word may have been censored, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Two days before the Bibles were banned from online purchase, the Chinese government released a document outlining how it intends to promote "Chinese Christianity" over the next five years. According to the document, one of the government's key objectives is to reinterpret and retranslate the Bible in order to enhance "Chinese-style Christianity and theology."

Among China's main religions-which include Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, and folk beliefs, Christianity is unique for having its holy text banned from commercial brick-and-mortar bookstores.

- O righteous Father, we ask that You cause the Chinese who are guilty of taking the Bible out of circulation and thus withholding the truth from hungry souls that are searching for You to repent of this action.

We ask that Jesus will appear to the hungry souls in China and they will know in their hearts that He saves their souls. We pray in the Name above all Names, the Name of Jesus the Christ, that You will ultimately be glorified even by the defiance and rebellion of sinful man.

"For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)