Bibles Unbound Under Criticism?

Every once in awhile the ministry of The Voice of the Martyrs comes under criticism by people who hear about the ministry.  Recently we came across a blogger that criticized Bibles Unbound for sending only New Testaments, and not whole Bibles. VOM’s Todd Nettleton posted a response to this blogger, who wrote that she wouldn’t support a program “that divides the Scriptures in half.” I thought that his response was worth re-posting here.

THANK YOU for praying for persecuted Christians. Our brothers and sisters in restricted nations want our prayers more than anything else, and I appreciate your commitment to lift them up before the Throne!

I would like to answer a couple of misconceptions that I think you have about Bibles Unbound (www.BiblesUnbound.com) based on the criticism of the program that you’ve posted here.

The biggest reason to send a New Testament instead of a whole Bible is SIZE. Remember, these are being mailed by Bibles Unbound participants into RESTRICTED nations…places where the mail gets searched, confiscated or simply stolen on a regular basis. Our goal is to send an envelope rather than a package, to make it as innocuous looking as possible in order for it to run right through the mail sorting machine while drawing as little attention as possible. A Bible would require a larger envelope or even a package, which would draw far more attention from authorities that do NOT want the Word of God to come into their country. We believe that by mailing New Testaments the way we have chosen we have a far higher success rate of them actually being delivered into the restricted nation. I can’t go into a lot of detail, but Bibles Unbound was developed in close consultation with Christians inside each of these nations, and we tested different options before deciding that a New Testament in an envelope was the most effective way.