Several months back I found myself researching handwritten Bibles. There were a number of things that brought me to the point of looking deeper into handwritten Bibles, or at least trying to look deeper into them, there really isn’t all that much information to be found on the subject. Odd, considering there was a time when all Bibles had to be handwritten and there are still people in some places where Bibles are illegal, not to mention the fact that in our modern world just about everything has been turned into a hobby...why not handwriting the Bible?
Somewhere in all that research, research that was more for my own curiosity than anything, I came across a small story. I’m not even certain it was a story so much as a small section of a story. I don’t remember where I saw it, who wrote it, or anything else about it, but I do remember well this small part of it. A man was in a country where Bibles were, if i remember correctly, illegal. This man was staying with a family there and came home one night to find visitors in the house. The visitors, along with the family he was staying with, were sitting around the room, all writing carefully. It turned out they were all writing out the Scriptures. I believe they were doing this because Bibles could not be attained. Whatever their reason, it was the next part of that story that has stuck so vividly in my mind and heart. One of the men in the house pulled out a book and showed it to the man that had just arrived, the man that, if I remember correctly, was telling this story. The book, it turned out, was a handwritten copy of the Bible. It was written over many, many years...twenty?...a lifetime?...by one of the men’s grandmother. The man telling the story listened as the other man told of how his grandmother had carefully written every word and how it was after her death, I think, that people that knew her had the individual papers that she had so carefully copied the Scriptures onto preserved into a bound book.
The man telling the story looked through this handwritten Bible and noticed many smudged spots and I presume water damaged pages. He commented to the other man that the Bible must have been in the rain. The grandson told him that it wasn’t the rain that damaged the pages but his grandmother’s tears. She had cried as she wrote the precious Scriptures.
That story has stayed with me for months, making me think of what that woman put into that copy of the Scriptures and making me think of how she most likely risked her life by writing or owning them. And yet she did it anyway.
Quite some time ago I got a book about women that have been persecuted for their faith. I got it because it sounded good and yet I knew, even as I got it, that there was a very good chance I would never read that book. I do that more and more. There was a time that if I got, or was given, a book, more often than not I would read that book. But there seems to be a direct relation between my faith and my ability to read books. Anymore I can’t seem to read a book at all. Even books that are written by reformed preachers….are there any reformed authors out there that aren’t preachers?...don’t seem to hold my attention long enough for me to make it through more than a few pages. And so it was with the knowledge that no matter how good this book sounded it was unlikely that I would get very far into it that I picked this book up this week. I had decided that it was either time to read it or get rid of it. There was no point in it sitting on my bookshelf any longer.
So I picked up this book and began to read the introductions. I will admit that I wasn’t the least bit intrigued by the introductions. Not only that but I very nearly got rid of the book when I read something that spoke of the women holding to different religions. I was under the impression that the women in the book were Christians. And I knew from past experience that the organization behind the book considers anyone with any loose connection to Christianity to be ‘Christian’. But...the book still intrigued me and I thought it might be interesting.
I skipped ahead, past the introductions, to the first story. And was sucked into it almost instantly. What that poor woman experienced and was put through is enough to make anyone think of their own faith and how good they have it. From there I continued to read the book. I’m now more than halfway through it and can say that each of the stories I’ve read have been nothing short of amazing and horrible at the same time. Some of them have been better than others, or worse, depending on how one determines good and bad in a story about persecution. Some of them have left me wondering what made them put that story in there when there are people with experiences so much more of an example of persecution. I’ve even found myself wondering it a book with a publication date of 2003 couldn’t find a woman that was persecuted for her faith more recently than the 1940’s, although that is the oldest story in the book not the newest. But...there, within the pages of that book, are stories of women that have undergone true persecution to one extent or another. And their stories are enough to make anyone think, really think, of what their faith means to them.
One woman was told she would be killed if she didn’t give up Christianity. Another, just a girl, had her own family determine that she must be put to death because she had become a Christian.
And as I’ve read these stories, as I’ve read such a small portion of these women’s lives, I’ve found myself time and again wondering how many professing ‘Christians’ in America would stick to their faith if put through even a small amount of what these women were.
I’ve also found myself wondering if some of these women have gone through all that they have for nothing. I know the organization behind the book considers anyone with any kind of ‘Christian’ label to be a ‘Christian’. They back anyone that can, in any way, by the world’s standard, be considered ‘Christian’. But that doesn’t come through in these women’s stories. In each story you only hear that the women are Christians and quite honestly that’s enough for me. The very nature of these stories are such that you truly don’t wonder what brand of ‘Christianity’ these women hold to.
And still...I find myself wondering just how they believe. There are some forms of ‘Christianity’ that are about as far from Scripture as they can get and yet those that believe that way would consider themselves ‘Christian’ and would say they will spend eternity in heaven. Some of the women, if not the ones in these stories than others like them, are risking everything for their faith and their faith may be nothing more than an illusion of what will save them.
I’ve heard my husband say often that he can’t understand why people in false ‘Christian’ belief systems don’t just give up the beliefs they hold and simply live out their lives on earth being happy and enjoying the life they have here. His point is that they jump through whatever hoops their denomination requires for their ‘salvation’ and yet they have no salvation. They will not get to heaven by doing whatever it is that they are doing. But they spend their lives trying to live out a system that supposedly will ensure their eternity when the reality is all it is doing is reserving their eternity in hell.
I’m not saying that is the fate of the women in the stories I’m reading. I’m simply wondering if the women that are putting their lives on the line for their faith are holding to the right faith. In America we have building after building led by preacher after preacher and every last one of them will tell you that you will gain eternity in heaven if you do...this. But if you go to the building across the street, another building that claims to be a church just the same as the one you’re standing in, and if you ask them about your salvation they will tell you you’ll gain eternity in heaven if you do...that. And both ‘churches’ claim to follow the Bible. How can they both be right? How can you be ‘saved’ by doing this in this ‘church’ and be ‘saved’ by doing that in that ‘church’?
You can’t.
You’re saved when you repent and believe as the Scriptures say but I honestly have never heard any preacher in a ‘church’ that I’ve been to ever say that repent and believe is the ONLY way to heaven. And because I’ve seen this strange phenomenon of ‘Christians’ claiming that salvation comes through man made ideas, I must wonder if people in persecuted countries are led astray, led into putting their lives on the line, for a religion that is no more real than the one they came out of.
I do believe, though, that in a persecuted country there are no surface level believers. Whatever a person believes they must believe wholeheartedly in it to hold to that belief when they will be imprisoned or killed for that belief.
I recently read a very small section of something written by a puritan writer. What I read asked simply...what can separate us from Christ? The answer to that is nothing and...everything. For a true Christian the answer is that nothing will ever separate us from Christ. There is nothing that can ever separate us from Christ. But for those that are not the elect...everything will separate them from Christ.
My husband and I recently discussed how people today become experts on everything. They are so fascinated with every little thing that interests them that they must learn all that they can on that topic. They research it online, they have books on it, they take classes on it, they go to meetings about it, they meet with others that love it as much as they do. Sometime back I came across an online forum for ink pens. Really? My mind could not comprehend why anyone would need an entire forum for ink pens. But then...there are forums for cloth diapers. Women that use cloth diapers, as a whole, love to discuss their diapers. There’s even a name for their children’s mobile toilets, they call them their ‘fluff’ and refer to their collection of diapers as a stash. There are forums for flashlights, cars, and I’m sure just about everything else. There are even competitions for who can stuff a better dead animal. It’s all out there, anything your heart wants to turn to, you can find an online, and probably in person, group to enjoy it with you.
Even modern American television programming is waiting to feed the obsessed person’s mind with just about any kind of show to support their interest. Generally I try hard to avoid the television. I avoid programming for the television even more so. But...one can’t miss the list of channels if you have any contact with a TV that has any kind of programming on it. There are entire channels devoted to the idolatry of animals, the idolatry of cooking, the idolatry of sports in general or a specific sport. There are even channels devoted to houses. And that’s not to mention channels for movies, cartoons, news, the weather… you name it America seems to have a channel for it.
Well...maybe not. I’ve never heard of an ink pen channel. At least not yet.
But the point is that for someone that doesn’t belong to Christ, everything can separate them from Him. It can be the smallest thing or it can be the biggest thing but whatever it is, it will separate the non-elect from Christ because they do not belong to Him.
Not all that long ago my husband was in the midst of men that had him telling me that he couldn’t understand something. Whatever was going on with these men had my husband taking note of the fact that they seemed able to hang onto their faith only so long as whatever their crutch was was in place, remove the crutch and they lost their faith, or at least they lost the depth of their faith. We have discussed how some people are able to cling to their faith in Christ only so long as their preacher, or their husband/wife, or their friend, or their...whatever...is there, but take that crutch away and there goes that person’s depth of faith.
I wonder if that is a symptom only of modern American ‘Christians’ or if it is a symptom of all ‘Christians’. Do we all hold onto our faith only so long as we have the comforts that we are accustomed to? I share my faith with my husband. Our faith is so much at the base of who we are as a married couple that our daughter asked me if I married my husband only for his beliefs. When I told her yes she thought that was awful, she asked why I didn’t marry him for who he is instead of what he believed. I then had to explain to her that what he believes is who he is. I’t s very simple. Every last person is what they believe. In the case of a Christian their beliefs are who they are.
But what happens when someone’s ‘Christianity’ hinges on another person? We all have the ability to have our faith shaken, even the elect. Let life, through the Lord, throw more at you than you feel able to handle and see how long it takes to have your faith shaken. But there’s a difference in having your faith shaken and having no faith without the crutch that sustains your faith.
I own a book, a children’s book, that is the true story of a little girl that worked and saved money for years and years to be able to buy a Bible. When she finally had enough money she walked something like fifty miles barefoot to buy her precious treasure. And treasure it she did, for the rest of her life.
That little girl had faith when she had no crutch to keep her faith going, not even Scripture. In the book I’m reading a teenage girl became what she called a preacher, traveling from village to village, teaching of Christ. She owned no Bible and knew very little from the Bible. But she knew of Christ and Christ is what she taught.
The grandmother in the story about the Bible I wrote of earlier, a Bible that was so smeared with tears that someone thought it had been damaged by rain, worked for years to get a copy of the Scriptures. I know nothing of these women’s faith and beliefs beyond the very basics but I know that between the little girl that walked barefoot to buy a Bible she had worked and saved up for for years to the grandmother that handwrote a Bible, piece by piece, they had a faith that sustained them through good times and extremely trying times. When they had nothing else...they had Christ.
Again, I have no idea what their faith was, no idea what their theology was, if they even had one. I know only what I saw through stories that gave a very small window into their lives, but my husband was given a small window into the lives of some men and he was able to see that their faith was only as big as the crutch that held it up. I was told by someone once that they wanted to believe in what their grandparent did because of all that their grandparent did for them. I know of others that have adopted a certain set of beliefs because it’s what their preacher believes or it’s what their husband/wife believes. They have a faith that is held up by whatever it is that their faith hinges on.
For years I’ve said that it does no good for ‘Christian’ missionaries to go into third world countries and evangelize the people there. A parent will agree to anything when someone is offering food and medicine to their child that is sick and dying or starving to death. A husband will agree to go to ‘church’ if that ‘church’ is going to save his wife’s life. A wife will agree to ‘give her life to Christ’ if the person offering Christ is the one with the medicine needed to keep her husband alive. You cannot ‘save’ people by ‘bringing them to Christ’ through methods that put much needed food and medical care in front of dying people.
Faith cannot be handed out along with clean water, food, and medication. Nor can faith that is only sustained through a crutch be tested, tried, refined, and found to be genuine if it falls aways as soon as the crutch is removed. Now, maybe the person stumbles, maybe their faith is shaken for a time, but true, genuine faith will stand the test of having the crutch removed. It will come back without the crutch if it’s the real thing. Because nothing can separate a true Christian from Christ.
My husband has spoken of how if you put a person in a single situation and you see their faith only in that situation...how do you know what that faith truly is? People can often seem to be something when they are in a given situation, and if that situation is a trying one that becomes so much more the case...the mother watching her child starve to death will agree to anything to get her child fed...but what happens when you remove that person from that situation?
Will that starving mother still believe in Christ if you move her and her child from that third world country, give her a good job, a nice house, and a kitchen that never runs out of food? Will a prisoner that reaches for Christ in desperation still believe in Christ when he is set free? Will a heartbroken husband that cries out to the Lord as his wife lies on her deathbed still seek Christ once his grief is not so fresh?
In America a ‘Christians’ faith costs them nothing. Yes, they may be branded, they may be labeled, but for the most part the label of ‘Christian’ is more of a status symbol than anything. And it’s more often than not seen as a good thing. American ‘Christians’ don’t risk their lives to own a Bible, they don’t watch their husband/wife tortured because of their faith, they don’t listen to their children’s screams as they are killed for their parents faith.
In America ‘Christians’ lean on the crutch of their preacher, on the crutch of their ‘church’, on the crutch of their friends/family while they laugh and talk and live as the unregenerate do. In America ‘Christians’ go to ‘church’ on Sunday, to the theater to see the latest box office hit on Wednesday, to the bar on Friday and Saturday, and back to ‘church’ on Sunday.
In America...that is ‘Christianity’.
While in other countries people die for their faith. They are put in prison for owning a Bible. They are beat and tortured for saying the name Christ. Children lose their families if they are drawn to Christ. Women are beat and raped while their husband’s watch. Men are tortured and killed. Families are slaughtered.
I don’t need to know the details of what the persecuted women in the book I’m reading believe to know that their faith is not held up by the crutch of easy believism. There is nothing easy in their faith. The very fact that they have any faith in Christ is enough to make their lives extremely difficult at best.
In countries where Christianity is illegal or controlled, Christians must risk it all for their faith. Their faith, whatever it is, is not held up by a crutch, their faith is what holds them up.
In America, many ‘Christians’ ‘lose’ their faith if their crutch is taken away.
In countries where Christianity is illegal or controlled people painstakingly labor to write every word of the Scriptures.
In America where Bibles are legal and easily available, people stuff them in drawers, set them on shelves, and let the gather dust while Christians in other countries risk their lives to simply hold a Bible.
In other countries Christians cry enough tears over their Bibles for someone to think the Bible was damaged by rain.
In America...
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