Christian Inroads into Moslem Nations
Part 2
John Hoole - September 13, 2009
Click on photos, charts and maps for larger versions
Last week, we looked at the inroads being made by Christianity in Moslem countries. With the fact that I didn’t get through all of my material, I thought I would continue for one more week on this topic. Our primary focus last week was the nation of Iran. Today, I will expand it to include what God is doing in other Muslim countries.
God is establishing His throne in a radical Islamic nation. God is pouring out His Spirit in Iran. What is happening is a phenomenal miracle, and I believe we will see literally millions of Muslims come to Christ. God is working one of the most awesome moves that has ever taken place. God is raising up a standard against the spirit of Islam.
MBBs & NCBBs
Let me now mention some information which I skipped last week. When you read books and articles that speak of converts to Christianity in Muslim countries, two different acronyms are used. There are the MBBs and the NCBBs, and there are good reasons for making the distinction. Converts known as MBBs are Moslem Background Believers. NCBB stands for Nominal Christian Background Believers. MBBs are true, born-again, fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, who had been born into Muslim families and were raised as Muslims. At some point in their lives, they converted to Christianity and away from Islam.
NCBBs are also true, born-again, fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Their distinction is that they were born into families that identified themselves culturally as Christian. But before, they did not have an actual active, life-changing relationship with Christ.
The reason this distinction is necessary, is because in Iran, and a few other countries, it is against the law to convert from Islam to something else. That is considered apostasy, and punishable by death. And the person who converts a Moslem to Christianity is also guilty of the death penalty.
Islamic Cleric reaction
Let me review just a couple of thoughts from our last lesson. While we may not hear much in our new services about conversion of Moslems to Christianity, it has not gone unnoticed by Islamic officials. And their concerns are being made in public.
Saudi sheikh, Salman Al-Odeh preached a sermon entitled “Christian Missionaries Sweeping the Islamic World.” Sheikh Ahmad Al Qataani, another significant Saudi cleric, appeared in a live interview on al Jazeera satellite television. He called it “a tragedy” that so many thousands of Moslems are converting to Christianity.
In April 2004, an Iranian Shiite cleric by the name of Hasan Mohammadi delivered a stunning speech at the high school in Tehran. He urged the students to “safeguard your beloved Shi’ite faith” against the influence of the evangelicals and other so-called apostate religions. He went on to warn: “Unfortunately, on average every day, fifty Iranian girls and boy convert secretly to Christian denominations in our country.”
3 Methods of Evangelism
There are three methods of evangelism taking place in Moslem countries.
• Radio and Satellite TV (Air War)
Right now, there are more satellite broadcasting penetrating Iran than any other country in the world. One Iranian Christian who was a convert from Islam – Reza Safa, has an Oklahoma City based organization that ministers to Iran. They piggy-back on the PTL network, broadcasting into Iran in the Farsi language. They also have volunteers to handle phone calls from Iran.
Safa says, “We’ve had hundreds of callers from Iran desperate to know more about Jesus who saves, heals and delivers.” He says most callers use phone cards to avoid surveillance, and may stay on the phone for 45 minutes. Safa recounts the many testimonies of conversions and miraculous healings.
• Personal Witnessing on the Ground (Ground War)
While satellite TV may be the most efficient manner to evangelize the greatest number, any air war always needs to have boots on the ground. We cannot underestimate the importance of personal evangelism.
• Dreams and Visions (Spirit War)
One of the ways that God had chosen to communicate the message of the gospel to the Iranians and other Moslems is through dreams and visions.
International Antioch Ministries, out of San Jose, California, which reports 50,000 Iranian Muslim conversions through its satellite TV ministry begun in 2002, report: “Almost 50% of those who call the office have had a dream about Jesus.” It seems that right now is a very special season of God’s grace among the Iranian people around the world.
I believe this could be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s declaration in Isaiah 52:15.
“So shall He sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
For what had not been told them they shall see,
And what they had not heard they shall consider.”
Message Bible (Latter half of the verse)
For what was unheard of they'll see with their own eyes, what was unthinkable they'll have right before them.
The book of Job has a wonderful passage of explanation about the way God uses visions and dreams.
Job 33:14-18 NKJV
14 For God may speak in one way, or in another, Yet man does not perceive it.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, When deep sleep falls upon men, While slumbering on their beds,
16 Then He opens the ears of men, And seals their instruction.
17 In order to turn man from his deed, And conceal pride from man,
18 He keeps back his soul from the Pit, And his life from perishing by the sword.
The Islamic faith is so engraved in the hearts and souls of the Muslim people that it often takes a supernatural manifestation of God to convince them about Christ.
One believer who had never met a Christian and had never known of the Bible, but he heard a "voice without a body" calling him to "find Jesus, find the gospel." The man was further led to a specific city where he was to ask for a man by name. The Holy Spirit led him to the door of one of the few believers among the millions.
A young girl by the name of Leila, from a religious family in the city of Shiraz, accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She began witnessing to her family immediately after her conversion. Her sister, who lived in Tehran resisted her strongly. So also did her father.
Her mother watched Nejat-TV (See picture at right), which is broadcast in Oklahoma, and accepted Jesus. Leila called the TV station from Iran asking them to pray for her father and sister. A few weeks later, her sister, Nasrin, saw the Nejat TV broadcast in Tehran. God touched her during the program, and she wept for almost a half hour. Before her own conversion, she couldn’t stand to have her sister talk about Jesus. But that day she became on fire for Jesus. Now she couldn’t stop talking about Jesus. As the two sisters witnessed to their family, many more became Christians. That is, all except their dad.
One night, as they all watched the Roz-e-Nejat (Day of Salvation) program, their father challenged the speakers offer at the end of the program. The speaker asked listeners to touch their TV as a point of contact to receive healing as the speaker prayed. The father had been ill, and stood and touched the TV, and began to mock the speakers words – “See, nothing is happening to me. This man is a charlatan…” That night Leila’s father had a dream. In the dream, Jesus appeared to him and began speaking with him. But the father couldn’t understand a word of what Jesus was saying. Then in the dream, he saw his daughter Leila stand beside Jesus, and interpreted what Jesus said into the Farsi language.
He woke up from the dream very afraid. He went back to sleep and had the exact dream repeated three times. After the third time, he woke up, got down on his knees and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Their was great joy in the family.
A lone trucker drove his vehicle into a remote forest near the Turkmenistan border in northern Iran. He wasn’t making a delivery or stopping to take a nap. He was planning to commit suicide. By accident he knocked a dashboard switch and the truck’s radio crackled to life. A Christian broadcaster was talking about the gospel in the Farsi language. Tears began to flow down his cheeks, and this driver surrendered to Christ.
Here is another story of the work of God. More than 100 people were taking part in a chat room on the internet. One person asked, “Is anyone interested to know why Jesus is God? The comment was met with some derision, until someone asked why the question had been posted. “Because Jesus has changed my life,” came the answer.
The two web surfers kept in touch. Two weeks later they met at a park in Tehran. The inquirer turned out to be an Islamic scholar, seeking to know Christ.
You can take all sorts of people from all walks of life – from prostitute to truck driver to university lecturers, and you find that God is touching them.
Last week, I talked about Hovsepian Mehr, the pastor of the main Assembly of God church in Tehran, and how he was assassinated in 1994 by Islamic extremists. Before his death, he is quoted as saying: “Our churches are open to all who want to come. If we die or go to jail for our faith, we want the whole world to know. I am ready for anything.”
Other pastors and Christian leaders have also given their lives for the Kingdom of God. They, and those still preaching the gospel are prepared, if necessary, to follow in the footsteps of Stephen, who was martyred. They take to heart the rallying cry of Tertullian, one of the earth church Fathers, who wrote: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
In spite of intense religious persecution – indeed, at times because of it - Iranians are coming to the Lord in droves. God is touching the people of Iran, and they are being won to God through the simple sharing of friendship, as well as through miraculous dreams and visions, and because of satellite TV.
With what is happening in Iran, many missions strategists believe the church in Iran could hold the key to gospel breakthroughs in neighboring Muslim nations, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Turkey. What God is doing could make Iran a pivotal role in the establishment of God’s kingdom in the Middle East.
Many church leaders in Iran say they are looking toward the new era described in Jeremiah 49:39, which says, “Yet I will restore the fortunes of Elam (Iran) in days to come,” declares the Lord.
What God is doing in Iran is extraordinary. But I believe this is only the beginning. As you hear reports coming from throughout the Islamic world, you hear of miracles happening everywhere and accelerating as never before.
Beyond Iran – What God is Doing in Other Moslem Countries
What God is doing in Iran is extraordinary. But I believe it is just the beginning. As one looks at the rest of the Islamic world, you will find miracles happening everywhere and accelerating as never before.
Egypt
Senior pastors and ministry leaders in Egypt now estimate there are more than 2.5 million followers of Jesus Christ in their country. A growing number of these are MBBs, Muslim converts, and there is also an enormous revival going on among nominal Christians inside the historic Coptic church, whose members number about 10 million.
Let me take you to a church known as the “garbage church.” The information I have on this church is recorded in Joel Rosenberg’s book, “Inside the Revolution.” The photos I have of the church I found on the internet.
To get to the “garbage church,” you must first drive through a “city” of badly built brick and cement apartment buildings teeming with an estimated fifteen to thirty thousand “garbage people.” No one knows for sure how many, the numbers are always changing. They live amid literally thousands of tons of trash. Everywhere you look, as you drive through, you will see people picking through it, sorting it, re-bagging it, looking for objects of some value. Rosenberg has been there and says the stench is unbelievable.
But then you come through it to the other side, to a paved parking lot in the shadow of a huge cliff. Carved into the cliffs are the most amazing scenes of Jesus walking on water, Jesus on the cross, Jesus ascending to heaven, and so forth, each with a Bible verse inscribed below it in Arabic and English, all done by a Polish artist. Inside the six caves are six chapels, the largest of which holds 20,000 people.
The church was planted in 1978 by a Coptic pastor with a burden for reaching people many consider the dregs of all things. His simple message was that each person could be adopted by the King of kings. So many became Christians in the years that followed that in 1992 they had to convert the largest cave into a worship amphitheater. Services are held on Thursday nights (the most popular service), Friday morning, and Sunday evenings.
In May of 2005, more than 20,000 Arab believers gathered for a day of prayer for their unsaved Muslim friends to become followers of Jesus Christ. The event was broadcast throughout the Middle East on a Christian satellite TV network, allowing for millions more to see God powerfully at work.
As I was researching for these lessons, a new conversion hit the Islamic news. The story was told on August 3, 2009, about a prominent Egyptian lawyer, and a woman’s rights advocate, Nagla Al Imam, who announced her conversion to Christianity in Cairo, Egypt.
The announcement brought shockwaves throughout the Islamic countries, primarily because this woman was an expert in Sharia Law. And now she was challenging Islamic apostasy laws from within the Muslim world. A Fatwa (death) was called by some clerics for the death of this 36-year-old graduate of Al Azhar Islamic University. She says she is not afraid and will stand up for the human rights of apostates, and she refused to leave her homeland, Egypt. The world is watching.
While God has used dreams and visions to speak to Muslims, God has also used other supernatural encounters to draw them to Jesus. One Egyptian Muslim was reading the Injul (the Gospels). He was reading Luke 3, where the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and the Father saying “this is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” As he read those words a stormy wind broke into his room. A voice spoke to him, saying, “I am Jesus Christ, whom you hate. I am the Lord whom you are looking for.” He broke down and wept, and accepted Christ into his life.
Algeria
In Algeria, the birthplace of Augustine, one of the early Church fathers, which, for many centuries was almost devoid of a Christian presence, we now find more than 80,000 former Muslims who have become followers of Christ. The vast majority of these are young people under the age of thirty.
The surge of Christianity in Algeria has alarmed officials, and they have passed a law banning Muslims from becoming Christians, or even learning about Christianity. Christians trying to share their faith with Muslims face 2 to 5 years in jail and fines of 5,000 – 10,000 Euros. The law also forbids Christians from meeting together in any building without a license from the government. We need to pray for our brothers and sisters in these countries.
Let me tell you of an interesting twist on God’s use of dreams and visions. One Algerian woman was awakened by her grandmother talking in her sleep. She heard her Muslim grandmother say, “Jesus is not dead. I want to tell you He is here.”
Morocco
Officials in Morocco are up in arms about the “phenomenon of Moroccans converting to Christianity.” Their own officials estimate that between 25,000 and 40,000 Moslems have converted in just the last few years. The Morocco Times ran an article on January 24, 2006, entitled, “Why are Moroccans Converting to Christianity.”
Local pastors and ministry leaders readily acknowledge that God is on the move in their country. The interesting thing is that many of these Christian leaders were actually “hajjis” before they became Christians. That means they were once such devout Muslims that they made the pilgrimage to Mecca, known as HAJ to worship Allah before turning to Christ. Now they are evangelists, disciple makers, and church planters who are overflowing with exciting stories of how Moroccans are coming to Christ.
A young Muslim woman from Morocco was working for a while in Europe. While there, she saw the JESUS film and became a follower of Jesus Christ. After two years of being disciples in the faith by an older believer, she went home on vacation to visit her family in Morocco.
For five days she prayed about how to tell her family that she had become a Christian. But she was too scared – her father was a devout Muslim. On the sixth day, her sister also returned home from Europe. “Hey, look what I got free!” the sister said to her family, showing them a copy of the Injil (New Testament) and the JESUS film. She said a Christian gave it to her as a gift on the ferry ride across the Mediterranean.
The Father looked the film and said, “Hey, look, the film is about Isa! Let’s watch it.” ISA is Jesus in Arabic. The first sister was in shock.
The family sat down together in front of the television. About half-way through the film, the whole family was asking one question after another, trying to understand who Jesus was, why He taught the way He did, and how He could do miracles and show such love and compassion to his enemies.
The first sister saw her opening. She started answering their questions. But now it was her family who were in shock. “Why do you know all these things?” asked her father. “Because I saw this movie two years ago and I became a Christian. But I have been afraid to tell you.” A cloud covered her father’s face. He looked angry. But when he spoke, he did not yell at his daughter. Instead, he said, “What! You made us wait five days to hear about Jesus?”
Sudan
In Sudan, one of the biggest stories in modern Christendom is unfolding. A spiritual awakening of almost unimaginable proportions amid civil war, radical Islam and persecution. Some 300,000 Sudanese have been killed in recent years in Darfur alone. More than 2.5 million Sudanese have been displaced by all the fighting. Yet the God of the Bible is moving powerfully there to draw these dear people into His family.
Over 1½ million Sudanese have turned to Christ just since the year 2000. One Sudanese Christian leader said, “People are seeing what radical Islam is like, and they want Jesus instead.” It is now estimated that there are 5.5 million believers in Sudan. The cry now is for more trained pastors.
Iraq
Last fall (2008), 640 Iraqi pastors, worship leaders, Bible study leaders and young people held a conference of prayer, worship and Bible teaching. The was the fourth such annual conference, and this one was by far the largest gathering of Iraqi believers in the modern history of Iraq. Pastors came from every province in the country. Joel Rosenberg was in attendance, and I relay what he reported.
They literally sang songs of praise and adoration to their Lord Jesus Christ for 2 – and sometimes 3 – hours at a time before settling down for a pastor to teach. After each session, they would huddle together to compare notes about what God was doing in their cities, towns, and villages. They would tell stories of miracles they were seeing happen in their midst. They would pray with and for each other. They would exchange e-mail addresses and promise to stay in touch with each other.
Without a doubt, the hunger for Christ inside Iraq is at an all-time high, so say numerous Iraqi pastors and ministry leaders. Several million Arabic New Testaments and Christian books have been shipped into Iraq. Millions more are being printed right now inside the country, and pastors say they cannot keep up with the demand.
What’s more, Iraqis today are turning to Christ in numbers unimaginable at any point during the reign of Saddam Hussein. There are nearly 100,000 evangelical believers in Iraq, with about 10,000 actually worshiping above ground – in the open.
Muslims are converting to Christianity in large numbers. But there is also a significant spiritual awakening under way inside the traditional Iraqi church. Catholics and Orthodox priests are seeing their faith in Christ revitalized. One of them said they “want to see their churches restored to 1st century kind of activity: Evangelism, discipleship and miracles.”
When the Iraqi non-believers see followers of Jesus enjoying internal peace during a time of such violence and fear, they want Jesus too. Like in Iran, there are many reports of God visiting Muslims with dreams and visions.
One influential Christian leader in Iraq tells this story. Shortly after going into full-time ministry, his village was attached by radical Islamic terrorists. One of them ran into this Christian leader’s house, leveled an AK-47 at and pulled the trigger. It did not fire. The terrorist pulled the trigger again – same result. He pointed the gun in the air and pulled the trigger to test the gun. This time it did fire. The terrorist once again pointed the gun at the man’s head. He pulled the trigger, but again it did not fire. The terrorist ran off, and the Christian knew that God had miraculously spared his life.
Syria
In 1967, there were no known born-again followers of Jesus Christ in Syria from a Muslim background. But after the loss to the Israelis in the 6-day War, spiritual interest in the gospel began to grow. By 1997, there were about 1,000 known believers in Syria. Today, there are between 4,000 and 5,000 believers in the country, both MBBs and NCBBs combines.
One Arab ministry leader said, “I am so excited because God is doing a miracle in Syria.” Women, he said, are particularly receptive to the gospel. About 250 women attended a conference that his wife organized, with 96 praying to receive Christ into their hearts.
Jordan
Arab Christian leaders in Jordan say that in 1967, there were fewer than 1,000 born-again believers in this biblically historic country, with only about 10 Muslim Background Believers. In the last four decades, God has been reviving the Church, and particularly in the last few years. The head of one major Jordanian ministry believes there may now be as many as 50,000 believers, with 35,000 being Moslem converts. The precise numbers are probably not as important as the trend.
Saudi Arabia
In 1967, there were only a handful of Muslim Background Believer in the entire country. By 2005, there were over 100,000 MBBs in the country. And they believe the number is much higher today. In addition, many thousands of Saudis have come to Christ in Europe, but also in many other countries around the world. Most of these are coming to Christ through visions and dreams, though they may have heard about Christ first via radio or satellite TV.
One Saudi woman secretly converted to Christianity. But she had a brother who was dying of a terrible disease, and she was deeply grieved. She wanted to spend eternity with her brother in heaven, so she prayed fervently for God to heal and to save him. One day, Jesus appeared to her in a dream. “Your prayers have been answered,” He told her. “Go tell you brother about Me.” She did.
To her astonishment, her brother prayed with her to receive Christ. Then his health improved. The family – seeing his physical improvement but not knowing about his conversion – asked, ”Why is this happening?” The brother said to his family, “It is because I accepted Jesus as my Savior. And He is my healer, not physically but spiritually. You must take Him too.”
A Sunni woman in Saudi Arabia had a figure appear to her in a dream. She realized this could only be Isa (Jesus). He told her to visit a Christian woman she knew, and that this woman would teach her.
Afghanistan
Before September 11, 2001, it is reported that there were fewer than 100 MBBs in all Afghanistan. By 2006, there were 10,000 MBBs, based on the reporting of several trusted sources. As in most Moslem countries, it is difficult to estimate the number of believers. This is because many of them worship in secret gatherings.
Some Afghan sources say there are between 20,000 and 30,000. But there is not a single Afghan MBB church that can operate safely above ground. Persecution of believers in this country are intense. Their greatest need is leadership development.
One illiterate Afghan Muslim man came to Christ a few years ago and began to be discipled by an older and wiser man in the faith. He then enrolled in a series of training classes for secret believers to grow in their faith. After graduating from the fifth level of Bible and ministry training, he shared the gospel with his town, and almost everyone prayed to receive Christ. Together, they build the first Afghan Christian church without any outside help.
The Jesus film is now being broadcast into Afghanistan in local languages and dialects. And Afghans began responding.
Abdul Rahman, a Muslim convert to Christianity facing execution by a court in Kabul for apostasy, became the talk of the nation in the spring of 2006 with coverage by Afghan TV, radio and newspaper. The event shone a huge spotlight on the fact that Afghans are turning to Christ and Islamic leaders are furious. By God’s grace and with pressure from American, Canadian, British, Italian, and other leaders, the case against Rahman was dropped. He was set free and left the country.
Pakistan
Joel Rosenberg, in Inside the Revolution, writes:
“Senior Pakistani Christian leaders whom I have great trust in tell me there is a ‘conversion explosion” going on in their country, comparable in many ways to what is going on in Iran, Sudan and Egypt.”
Despite the fact that Pakistan is a base camp for the Radical Muslims, God is moving powerfully, and there are now an estimated 2.5 to 3 million born-again believers worshiping Jesus Christ amongst the jihadists. Whole villages along the Afghan-Pakistani border are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus, and are converting to Christianity.
Today, with so many Christians in Pakistan, many are seeing the believers demonstrate Christ’s love in real and practical ways. When the massive earthquake struck several years ago, it was the Christians who responded with relief supplies, love, and compassion. One Muslim told Joel Rosenberg, “No one else but the Christians came to give us hope.”
Pakistanis are now able to see the difference between hard-core radical Islam and hard-core Christianity, and they are choosing Jesus.
I again repeat, these stories and hundreds more like them, corroborate the strategy of Jesus, that is, to “love your neighbors” and “love your enemies” is the key to winning Muslims. Actually that is the strategy for winning all peoples.