The Bible is banned in many countries. Are your teens aware of that long list? Do your youth group members realize it’s a privilege to freely own and carry a copy of God’s Word? And are they willing to help get Scripture into more people’s hands throughout the globe? Read on to learn more.
You may have heard the Bible is banned or illegal in 52 countries. That information gets printed on T-shirts and even stitched onto Bible covers. “Illegal” may not be strictly true, but it might as well be in most of these places.
Voice of the Martyrs publishes a world map of countries that ban the Bible. That organization works to get Scripture into these countries, and Love Packages is honored to work toward the same goal.
The Voice of the Martyrs map is available here. It categorizes countries where Bibles are:
- difficult/dangerous to obtain,
- illegal or highly restricted, or
- strictly illegal and available only through covert smuggling.
Please note: No one is claiming Christianity is illegal in the places on this list. And it’s not about which countries do or don’t have physical church buildings or the presence of Christian communities. Finally, in many larger countries especially, experiences vary based on specific location. Some states or regions may have more religious freedoms or looser enforcement of restrictions than others.
List of Countries Where the Bible Is Banned
Here’s a list of 52 countries where the Bible is banned, illegal, or severely restricted:
- Afghanistan
- Iran
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Maldives
- Mauritania
- North Korea
- Saudi Arabia
- Somalia
- Tajikistan
- Turkmenistan
- Uzbekistan
- Yemen
- Algeria
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- China
- Cuba
- Djibouti
- Eritrea
- Kuwait
- Laos
- Libya
- Malaysia
- Morocco
- Oman
- Sudan
- Tunisia
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Central African Republic
- Colombia
- Egypt
- Ethiopia
- India
- Iraq
- Jordan
- Kenya
- Lebanon
- Mali
- Myanmar (Burma)
- Nepal
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Philippines (Mindanao)
- Sri Lanka
- Syria
- Tanzania
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- Vietnam
Many ministries print, ship, smuggle, and carry God’s Word into these places. Almost as many strategies exist as there are ministries. And it’s breathtaking to consider how the Lord orchestrates his plans. One ministry prints, another uses cutting-edge digital technology, another collects and recycles discarded material.
And your youth group is invited to help! Pray for the work, learn how to collect material to ship, and/or donate toward shipping costs.
How to Get Bibles into 52 Restricted Countries
Pray about how God wants your kids to get involved. Move beyond just knowing that many nations ban the Bible.
Love Packages collects new and used Bibles and other Christian literature and ships it overseas. Because we ship to distributors in port cities, we pack materials into cargo containers and ship about 20 tons at a time.
