Posted on 03/28/2010 4:05:32 AM PDT by DannyTN
And idea came to me last night on how to spread Christ in the middle east, espeically to closed societies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Why not use the postal services to mail a one page Christian letter or tract to random addresses in the middle east?
The letter would have key scriptures, no doubt John 3:16 and the Roman road to salvation. It could start out with the verse from the Koran that says that muslims are to accept what was revealed through Moses and Jesus, and then go on to share some of those scriptures. 1 Or there is a new approach that I recently saw an article on that shares Jesus by starting out with Koranic verses about Jesus (ISA?).
These would be mailed randomly to addresses with Saudi Arabia. The tract would have a disclaimer at the bottom, stating that it was mailed randomly and not requested by anybody. That's to keep recipients from getting in trouble with the religious police.
Ideally it would be mailed from somewhere that would minimize the postal costs.
I initially thought of sending whole Bibles or just John and Romans, but thought Saudi Arabian customs might easily identify them and block them from being delivered. Plus it would be more expensive. That's harder to do with letters, they'd have to open and look at each one. It might be wise to use multiple return addresses, so customs can't zero in on anything from a particular address.
All you would need is arabic tracts, a database of Middle East addresses, and funds for mailing. You could do the same thing with email addresses, which might initially get the Gospel out to Arabs faster and cheaper, but I imagine there are a lot of closed communities with no internet access, but a database of physical addresses might exist.
what world are you living in????
I don't understand? Are you suggesting there aren't closed societies like Saudi Arabia are that this is already being done or what?
And the recipient would be immediately liable for punishment by their religious police.
That's why the disclaimer that it was mailed randomly and not requested by the recipient. Besides what's worse, that they are punished by police or that they die without knowledge of Christ? And what are they going to do punish thousands and hundreds of thousands of recipients?
save your energy for other causes.....you have no idea about the middle east or how islamascum operate.
Actually if what you say is true, it would not only be sharing Christ, but it would forment such anger towards the religious police due to people being punished unfairly, that it would forment rebellion against the religious police.
So are you saying that "islamascum" aren't worthy of receiving the gospel? You might read Jonah Chapter 4.
If you have specific practical objections that need to be overcome or thought through, I'd be interested in hearing them.
How well does this do in Iran?
A disclaimer that it was mailed randomly and not requested by the recipient? That would make no difference. They’d still be liable, just as you’d be liable if you received a randomly mailed letter containing illegal drugs.
Thousands of letters would overwork the religious police, it would also let them know it was an organized effort to subvert their culture. Anything mailed from here (or any other Christian country) would be scrutinized. It wouldn’t be long before a protest with our governments was lodged. I’m not sure, but I think it’s illegal to attempt to foment rebellion in another country.
On the practical side, do you really think there’re many people over there who haven’t heard of Christianity? Do you believe that if Muslims read a Biblical passage they’ll see the light and convert? It takes a lot more than that to make a person turn their back on their religion, the religion of their fathers and forefathers - and risk punishment for breaking the law.
But, if it makes you feel better about yourself have at it.
I don't know. I haven't tried it and don't have the funds to try it at present.
Verification will be an issue, since I don't know how to confirm if the letters even get through. But I'm guessing their customs are no better than ours. And that many would make it through. Espeically if there was nothing obvious like the word Christian in the return address.
My thought is that putting the Koranic verses at the top, might not only make the recipient more receptive to the message, but may also pass custom officials if all they do is give a cursory glance at it.
If I received a letter containing illegal drugs, the burden of proof would still be on the prosecution to prove I had requested the drugs.
Otherwise we could solve our rat problem by simply having a South American mail our rat congressmen illegal drugs.
Probably, but this isn't a direct attempt to foment rebellion. It's simply sharing Christ. And it wouldn't be viewed as such here in America where freedom of religious expression is understood by all but the most liberal.
that could get the person receiving it killed
Maybe, but again, if they are going to die without Christ anyway, what does it matter?
If I received a letter containing illegal drugs, the burden of proof would still be on the prosecution to prove I had requested the drugs.
Not much of a burden. It’s not unusual for people to be convicted of possession, even possession with intent when using the mail for receiving. Prosecutors don’t have to prove even intent, much less show a paper trail or tapped conversations.
LOL
Go for it. That most are opposed for those reasons is consistent with the Bible. People who handed out the Jesus film at some border crossings found good receptivity.
You are right that the Qur’an affirms the Bible, which attests to the theory that Muhammad was illiterate, and got his Bible stores from traders who got the stories and doctrines skewed (God, Jesus, Mary being the Trinity, etc.) and thus he thought appealing to the Bible would gain converts. And it also does depend upon the Bible, though it is far less interesting. But it greatly contradicts it, and thus Islam came up with the radical revision charge, which is simply untenable in the light of the mss evidence. See http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/JESUS.Vs.Muhammad.html
I just checked on postage rates, and the USPO says that items contradicting the Islamic faith are unmailable to Saudi Arabia and that anything unmailable domestically in a country is unmailable under international law. However US postmasters are forbidden from determining whether anything written is unmailable. So that raises the following questions:
I think it's funny that the Koran claims for itself not to have any contradictions, but then it both claims the prior scripture is good and contradicts it.
There are 24 million inhabitants of Saudi Arabia. Assuming the average household is at least 4. That's 6 million house holds. If you could mail to 60,000 households a year, in 10 years you'd have mailed the gospel to 10% of every household .
I don't think we can completely change the culture over there, since they figure prominently in the prophecies. But every little bit helps.
International mail for a first class letter is $0.98 to Saudi Arabia. So basically a $1 an item plus printing and envelope costs.
Yikes, the penalties for mailing unmailable items can be severe, $50,000 an item for mailings under 50,000 pieces, more per item for larger mailings. However that references some other legal codes and I’m not clear if that is specific types of unmailable times or all unmailable items including those deemed unmailable under international law.
This project would definitely need a lawyer with expertise on the postal system looking at it before it was implemented.
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