Posted on 03/29/2005 5:31:58 AM PST by Quix
More Hope in a dark time
Meri Burlingame Mar 29, 2005
More hope in the midst of the storm---------
Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Jihad (about the demise of Saddam Hussein) and The Last Days (about the demise of Yasser Arafat). His next novel, The Ezekiel Option, comes out in August 2005, from Tyndale. An evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background, his grandparents escaped from Russia. Joel has served as a senior advisor to Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky
The Big (Untold) Story in the Mideast
by Joel C. Rosenberg
posted 2/24/05
Despite unprecedented press coverage of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East since September 11, 2001, one big story is not being told by mainstream media. Scores of Muslims are converting to evangelical Christianity and will be celebrating their first Easter this year, even amidst widespread persecution and the very real threat of death.
Over the past few months I interviewed more than three dozen Arab and Iranian pastors and evangelical Christian missionary leaders in the U.S. and the Middle East. The picture they paint is one of Christianity being dramatically resurrected in the lands where the Bible was written.
One Arab Christian leader tells me that based on his research with churches and ministries throughout the Islamic world, he now believes more than 1.5 million Muslims worldwide have trusted Christ since 9/11. Such numbers are difficult to verify, but the trend is clear.
"More Muslims are becoming followers of Jesus Christ today than at any other time in history," a prominent Arab Christian leader told me recently, on the condition that I not mention his name or organization. "It's not something we talk much about openly, but it is very exciting and very important."
In Afghanistan, for example, there were only 17 known evangelical Christians in the country before al-Qaeda attacked the United States. Today, the number of Afghan Christians is in the thousands and growing quickly.
Church leaders say Afghan Muslims are open to hearing the gospel message like never before. Dozens of baptisms occur every week. People are snatching up Bibles and other Christian books as fast as they can be printed or brought into the country. The Jesus film, a two hour docudrama on the life of Christ based on the Gospel of Lukeâ€was even shown on television in one city before police shut down the entire TV station.
"God is moving so fast in Afghanistan, we're just trying to keep up," one Afghan Christian worker told me, requesting anonymity. "The greatest need now is leadership development. We need to train pastors to care for all these new believers."
In Iraq, mainstream media attention is focused almost exclusively on the violence of the insurgents. But despite numerous church bombings and attacks on Christian leaders, an evangelical revolution is underway in Iraq and interest in Christianity is at an all-time high, say Iraqi pastors and other evangelical leaders who have recently visited the war-torn country.
Over one million Arabic New Testaments, Christian books, and gospel publications for children have been distributed in Iraq by various ministries since the end of major war operations. Bibles are even being printed inside Iraq today. Even still, demand outpaces the supply.
Western Christian organizations are also trying to care for their persecuted brothers and sisters in Iraq, shipping in food, medicine, and other supplies to meet pressing needs. One such group, Samaritan's Purse run by Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham reports that they have "airlifted 16 tons of medical supplies and equipment into Baghdad to refurbish a teaching hospital completed construction of one clinic and supplied medicine for several others, and sponsor[ed] a church that provides food to poor families, Muslims and Christians alike."
As a result of such efforts and many others that for security sake must go unmentioned, thousands upon thousands of Iraqis have already made decisions to become followers of Christ, and many others are coming to Christ every week. What's more, some 162 new Iraqi believers recently began ministry training in an undisclosed section of the country to become pastors and lay leaders.
Similar stories are being reported in countries considered most "closed" to the gospel, from Central Asia to Sudan. In Kazakhstan, for example, there were only three known evangelical Christian believers before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today there are more than 15,000 Kazakh Christians, and more than 100,000 Christians of all ethnicities.
In Sudan despite a ferocious civil war, genocide and widespread religious persecution, particularly in the Darfur regionâ€â€literally tens of thousands of Muslims have made decisions to become followers of Jesus Christ just since 2001. A seminary to train new pastors is run in a mountain cave. Hundreds of churches have been planted, and thousands of small group Bible studies are being held in secret throughout the country, though two evangelical leaders asked me not to mention the specific numbers out of concern it could lead to still more persecution.
Other Arab Christian leaders tell me that the immense controversy last spring over The Passion had an intriguing if unintended and counterintuitive effect in the Middle East. Charges by American Jewish groups that the film was anti-Semitic caused enormous interest among Muslims to see the film for themselves. Soon The Passion was being shown in theaters throughout the region, and popping up on tens of thousands of bootlegged DVDs, including in Saudi Arabia and Iran where it is typically illegal to buy or sell Christian materials. While it is difficult to accurately assess the impact of the film, I can report that in Lebanon, some 310 people are known to have made decisions to become followers of Christ after just one showing of The Passion.
A wonderfully inspiring book published last fall by Brother Andrew (of God's Smuggler fame) and Al Janssen of Open Doors International takes those interested in what God is doing to reach Muslims on a powerful and unforgettable journey that reads like the 29th chapter of the Book of Acts. Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East Crossfire (Revell) is chock full of amazing anecdotes you will never read in the New York Times or the Washington Post.
My wife and I had the privilege of having lunch with the authors in Southern California where we peppered them for more details. What struck us most was Brother Andrew's boldness and incurable confidence in a God who can open doors to reach the most unreachable. Over salads and iced tea, Andrew humbly shared story after story of how he personally shared the gospel with Yasser Arafat, with Islamic Ayatollahs, and with Palestinian terrorists exiled to Lebanon. He also told us his unforgettable experience of preaching the gospel to 400 Hamas leaders in Gaza City, which he relates on pages 182-190 of his book.
"I can't change the situation you face here in Gaza," Andrew told the Hamas leaders. "I can't solve the problems you have with your enemies. But I can offer you the One who is called the Prince of Peace. You cannot have real peace without Jesus. And you cannot experience Him without forgiveness. He offers to forgive us of all our sins. But we cannot receive that forgiveness if we don't ask for it. The Bible calls this repentance and confession of sin. If you want it, then Jesus forgives. He forgave me and made me a new person. Now I'm not afraid to die because my sins are forgiven and I have everlasting life."
Hearing the story, I had to confess to Brother Andrew that it had never dawned on me to pray for much less preach the gospel to Hamas leaders. But isn't that what Jesus tells us to do, to love our enemies? What made the story all the more remarkable was that rather than lynching Andrew for trying to convert them to Christ, the Hamas leaders invited him to speak to other Muslims.
"Andrew, I believe you know that I teach at the Islamic University," said one. "To my knowledge, we have never had any lectures about Christianity. While you were talking, I was thinking that it would be helpful for our students to know about real Christianity. Would you consider coming to the university and giving a lecture about the differences between Christianity and Islam?"
Even the Palestinian Christian leaders who accompanied Brother Andrew to the event were taken aback. "I think my God is too small," said the head of the Palestinian Bible Society. "I never thought that a Christian could speak to radical, fanatical fundamentalists. But even if someone did have a chance, it never occurred to me that they would actually want to sit and listen to the gospel. Today God showed me how big He is."
Such are not stories being told by the mainstream media, but they are important stories nonetheless the good news of a great God. He is risen! He is risen indeed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meri Burlingame
PO Box 63
Onalaska, WA 98570
renewedhope@tds.net
MSM bias bump.
".Which is what THE GOSPEL is about. Christ died to prove He won over the monster of sin pollution within each individual since Adam. Apart from Christ's Blood and forgiveness from accepting The Blood's application/covering; and Holy Spirit's helping us become more like Christ and leave sin's deadliness increasingly behind ..."
Thanks, you've hit the nail squarely on the head.
Things will be coming to a head personally about this but are terribly complicated by the fact my little church does not agree with these policies.
Leftists have taken over most of them for Power and they have no regard about the Word of the Lord.
ABSOLUTELY.
It's somewhat akin to
THE RULE OF LAW.
Chinese leaders were eager to query and ask me to speak to groups about the rule of law.
I noted that the rule of law was a great improvment over the rule of the fist, gun, corruption etc.
But, I said that it can too often be only slightly better. It can also be incredibly ruthless and deadly.
Christ noted that the law is death but The Spirit brings life.
Only hooked up to THE TRUE VINE can the branches have life and grapes for fruit.
Man perversely wants to be IN CONTROL. If we can call ourselves Christian and pretend that we have our ETERNAL LIFE E TICKET TO RIDE--while still running our own show and rowing our own boat our own directions, we tend to delude ourselves that that's wonderful.
Right off the falls to the eternal rocks below.
A number of visitors returning from Heaven or visions of Heaven have remarked at how many prostitutes there are who've made it to have routine access to the ALMIGHTY'S THRONE ROOM
. . . and how few RELIGIOUS LEADERS.
Those forgiven most, love most.
But we have to confess, repent and RECEIVE the forgivness first.
Thanks. Quite so.
And something the puppet masters are loathe to be known or believed.
Pray, send, and go. It is the Great Commission for all believers.
You're humbling me warmly to tears.
Thanks much.
You might appreciate the research I touched on just above.
Committees of turf building, insecure, arrogant, flawed, flesh-focused humans
do not lead anything well
and religious groups least well.
imho
I think when Christ starts cleaning up THE CHURCH more comprehensively and intensely--it won't be just the money changers tables that are overturned--the whole outfit will be overturned and turned inside out as well as upside down.
ALL THAT CAN BE SHAKEN, WILL BE SHAKEN.
ONLY THAT BUILT ON HIM--THE ONLY SOLID ROCK, WILL STAND.
The chaff will be burned and blown away.
Absolutely correct.
That's a big reason why
IN CHINA
[and reportedly in
HOMELAND SECURITY they are registered as part of groups to be watched extra closely]
THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN THE 2ND COMING OF JESUS--particularly as in our era
such persons are at least suspect if not proscribed, and at least scheduled to be sentenced, abused, executed.
Satan will insist that he is god and demand worship accordingly. The puppet masters are busy moving in that direction with the MSM; universities--long time since Harvard was a solid Christ-centered Bible College; movies; political stands; etc.
GOD ALONE IS OUR HIGH TOWER. The new Christians in China and Moslem cultures know immediately what the stakes are--LIFE AND DEATH; ETERNAL LIFE AND ETERNAL DEATH. They are much more realistic about such things than we are.
They know what hopelessness is. They are much quicker to seize TRUE HOPE for everything that HE IS.
They were one of the first to set up aid for the tsunami. They set up hospitals and feed thousands.
They were one of the first to land in Afghanistan after the shooting eased. They had thousands of shoeboxes of Christmas gifts to give to children.
The Shoebox mission reaches children all across the globe. You pack a shoe box for a boy or girl within 3 age ranges. Our family has send boxes for 3 years now. What a fun family mission! I think of my little girl every time I use my umbrella that matches the one I sent her this year. I just pray that one day I will see her and her family in heaven.
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
Please pray, that God will continue to affirm that I can return to my univ in Taipei and teach there by fall classes. And that He will take my Alzheimer's mother home to be with Him ASAP.
Love your umbrella story. Great prayer reminder.
Hugs all around.
You and your mother are in my prayers. Just don't forget the good work you do here online. You are salt and light!
Thanks much for your kind words.
God has been trying to get that through my head, it seems.
But it's such a drop in the bucket, to me.
And I just love loving Chinese folks, especially students, into His Kingdom.
HIS BEST to you and yours in your lives and ministries, too.
Thanks enormously.
One third of the Kazakh population is Orthodox Christian and about 15% are Lutherns. Do they not count?
The fact that Islam is the fastest growing faith today is based upon the extraordinary birth rates imposed on its women. Christianity is the fastest growing faith based upon personal choice.
THANKS!
YEA GOD!
I believe that to be quite true--even in So America.
And, the new converts to an authentic RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS vs religionists
are eager for NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY including such as Acts 2. They are tired to death with
DEAD RELIGION.
They see enough evil up close--including demonized stuff galore. They want a God who can deal with the traumas of life including the demons--real and imagined.
Those in the most nitty gritty of life situations don't have much patience with philosophies from CEMETARIES (seminaries) and insist on a God with REAL POWER. Thankfully, Jesus does not disappoint.
"All who claim the Name of Christ, are not His followers"
"Secular historians would like you to believe that these things were done by true Christians, but they were not."
I agree with you. The same is true for Muslims.
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