Soviets Accept Offer of Scriptures From 2 ‘Bible-Smuggling’ Groups

Dramatically demonstrating its new openness toward religion, the Soviet Union has accepted offers of 2 million New Testaments from two Western ministries whose reputations were built on illegal “Bible smuggling” into Communist countries.

The first 100,000 of 1 million gift editions from one of the clandestine groups, the Netherlands-based Open Doors, reportedly arrived in Moscow this week.

The second ministry, the Seattle-based Door of Hope, recently announced that it also has a request for 1 million Russian-language New Testaments. Its present supplies depleted, Door of Hope faces a two-year deadline for raising money, printing and shipping the literature.

Only one of the ministries is dropping its clandestine work in the Soviet Union.

Door of Hope President Paul Popov said in a telephone interview that to continue the smuggling “would just jeopardize our work.”

Scarcity of Scriptures

Robert K. Hawley of Santa Ana, U.S. director of Open Doors, said, however, that his ministry will continue to take biblical literature and Bibles into the Soviet Union through what he called “unofficial” means because of the great scarcity of Scriptures there.

The shortage is widely recognized, yet 1988 has been an unprecedented year for officially welcomed imports of Bibles into the Soviet Union.

Before the pre-Christmas delivery of 100,000 Scriptures, Christian agencies in Europe donated and sent nearly 400,000 Bibles, New Testaments and study Bibles this year. By contrast, the Soviet Union officially permitted only 20,000 Bibles into the country from 1985 through 1987.

“It is a truly magnificent opportunity,” said John D. Erickson of New York, an American Bible Society general secretary and chairman of the international United Bible Societies executive committee.

“We take this amazing development . . . with a sense of real joy and gratitude to God,” Erickson said. He said a verse from the Gospel of John (1:5)--”The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”--had added meaning when he heard it during a pre-Christmas service this week at the American Bible Society headquarters.

The challenge, Erickson said, is for Christians who have longed for changes in Soviet policies to back their prayers with donations. “We’ve probably raised only $300,000 in pledges toward more than $1 million in estimated costs to provide these Bibles,” he said.

Liberalized Policy

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signaled a liberalized policy toward churches last April 29 when he publicly met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and announced that his government is drawing up a new law on freedom of conscience.

Gorbachev’s gesture preceded the June climax to celebrations by the 60-million-member Russian Orthodox Church of 1,000 years of Christianity.

Although some major church-state problems remain, the glasnost and perestroika policies pursued by Gorbachev are widely viewed as leading to various concessions contributing to more opportunities for church activity. A drop in known religious prisoners also has been reported during 1988.

In addition, the Orthodox Church was given permission this year to print at least 100,000 Bibles--or, more exactly, paper was allocated by the government to print that many, Erickson said.

“That is a significant number,” he said. “Permission for the church to print Bibles is usually in the 25,000 or 50,000 range at sporadic intervals.”

Imports during 1988 included biblical materials in Ukrainian and German as well as in Russian; Bibles or parts of Bibles in the Latvian, Estonian and Georgian languages were being prepared. The Baptist World Alliance earlier provided 100,000 Russian-language Bibles to the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists through the auspices of the United Bible Societies.

‘A Regular Supply’

Erickson said that despite the umbrella nature of the United Bible Societies, it is difficult to keep track of the Bible importation agreements. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Pope John Paul II met Dec. 1 in Rome with Archbishop Pitirim of the Russian Orthodox Church and that arrangements were made for “a regular supply” of Bibles from the Vatican and for assistance in helping the Russian church to reorganize its seminaries.

The gift of 150,000 three-volume “Lopukhin” Bible commentaries from a Nordic group was officially accepted Nov. 2 by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church. Erickson said that 55,000 sets have arrived in Moscow and that 20,000 more were expected this month.

The United Bible Societies’ World Report for December said that in the November meeting with the Nordic delegation, Konstantin Karchev, minister of the Soviet Union’s Council for Religious Affairs, said there is still a great need for Bibles. “If you can provide us with another million Bibles, please come with them,” Karchev was quoted as saying.

The offer of 1 million New Testaments from the clandestine Open Doors ministry arose almost as informally last January.

At an international human rights conference in the Netherlands, Metropolitan Juvenali said the Russian Orthodox Church could receive large gifts of Bibles. Brother Andrew, the Dutch-born founder of Open Doors and author of “God’s Smuggler,” offered 1 million New Testaments (with the Book of Psalms printed in back) in a speech to delegates on behalf of several Western Christian agencies.

$2.5-Million Estimate

The offer was accepted in July. Open Doors officials, who hope to deliver another 500,000 editions by Easter and complete the shipments by the end of 1989, have estimated the total cost of the project at about $2.5 million.

The delivery schedule of another 1 million New Testaments by the Door of Hope ministry, also known as Evangelism to Communist Lands, is uncertain, according to Popov. “The printing in Sweden is going to start next year when we have raised enough money,” he said.

The $1.2-million-a-year ministry, which is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, was founded by Popov’s father, Bulgarian-born Haralan Popov, who died last month in Glendale.

Joseph Ostby, at Door of Hope’s Swedish office, negotiated the agreement with the Rev. Alexei Bichkov and Alexei Stoyan, general secretary and international chairman, respectively, of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists.

The agreement concluded in the fall called for distribution of the Bible portions not only to the Russian Orthodox Church and the government-registered evangelical churches but also to members of unregistered churches.

In contrast to the Brother Andrew agreement to supply Bible portions to registered churches only, Popov said, “Our mission will be allowed to determine which believers and congregations should receive them.”