Bibles before Bullets

For the Word of Lord is upright, all His work is done in faithfulness,(Psalm 33:4, nasb).

Just before Philippine People Power Revolution in 1985, after which President Marcos and wife were forced to leave the country, we received a call from General Fidel V. Ramos (who later became President of the Philippines) asking if our ministry could provide a New Testament for 75,000 soldiers and police!

This was a huge request as New Testaments cost at least $1 each to print. I said we would try. The Lord was gracious and two organizations, The Bible League and the International Bible Society, provide the funds to print 75,000 New Testaments in Tagalog (Filipino), English, and three other languages.

The New Testaments were delivered to General Ramos, and he had these systematically distributed to soldiers and police throughout the country.

One missionary friend, who worked with army officers at a very secure military base, said he normally had to go through three very strict checkpoints every time he conducted a Bible study with the officers. However, the day the New Testaments were delivered, he was simply waved through each security check point with the guards paying him little attention because they were busily reading their New Testaments!

When the peaceful People Power Revolution began a few days later, it was reported that the army was ordered by the President to shoot into the crowd, however the soldiers refused to shoot the innocent.

Was this a result of the military reading the Word of God? Who knows? But we do know that it was one of the first “peaceful” revolutions in history which resulted in the overthrow of an unjust regime.

We may be shy sharing the Gospel, but we can give people the Word of God and encourage them to read it.

The Word of God is “upright.” Who knows, another revolution may be just around the corner.