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
"His next novel, The Ezekiel Option, comes out in August 2005"!!!!
Yippeee!! Cannot wait to read it! Last Jihad was SOOOO good!
TRUE.
At some point, it does require that we give up our all to gain Christ's all, however. Great trade!
As Jim Elliott said:
HE IS NO FOOL WHO GIVES UP WHAT HE CANNOT KEEP TO GAIN WHAT HE CANNOT LOSE.
And, many Moslem and other Believers may well become martyrs in the months and years ahead. But an entirely different sort than the Jihadi's.
Quite so.
Kind of weeds out the 'Rice Christians' and those doing it for business reasons, don't you think?
Ping!
FRANKLIN GRAHAM'S SAMARITAN'S PURSE
Is where I'd start.
I'd also include Pat Robertson's CBN OPERATION BLESSING. Operqation blessings' overhead is covered by CBN. 100% OF DONATIONS TO OPERATION BLESSING go to the needy.
Both are solid, alert, savy, effective organizations led of God and devoted to community development work as well as crisis help.
I think Jim would approve but I'll refrain from posting links to those orgs. They are easy to track down.
"I think the conversion to Christianity is an easy decision to make. Christianity doesn't REQUIRE extremism as a form of devotion, it doesn't require hatred, and it doesn't REQUIRE murder and suicide"
I was glad to see you used the term require in your post. Being that in reality, historically MANY Christians have used extremism as a form of devotion, have had hatred and murdered by the masses
Historically Christians have tried, tortured, hung and burned alive vast numbers of people because they were suspected of heresy, Judaism, Witchcraft…; slashed off people’s heads on public streets for not confessing that Jesus Christ was God; and condemned the works of some of histories greatest scientists, theologians, philosophers and artists.
You are most welcome. I know that feeling. Struggling to get over a heavy bout of flu and have to teach today.
THX for saying so.
i honestly dont believe this at all. there is no way to prove it.
Right on. Thanks.
To all the Ann Coulter bashers: she was right! And look!, it's all happening without guns to their heads! Who knew?!... :o)
Your assessments, I have observed, on such matters
warrants little to no credibility.
I think you need to check your assessor in for a tune-up with special adjustment on the bias weighting getting extra attention. The logic circuits in those modules could stand some extra inspection as well as the sensors.
It may be that you have missing optical cells for some categories of viewed data.
"Historically"
Christianity has moved beyond the brutality of the far distant past. Islam isn't showing any signs of giving up violence as a means of proving devotion.
THANKS.
QUITE RIGHT. And plenty true in China, still.
It was pretty clear that one of the great, unstated, objectives of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan was to change the culture of terror, and while I don't think Bush had this specifically in mind, it was always obvious that the quickest way to do this was to change these populations from a death-based Islamic culture to a life based on Christ.
Well said.
We know where healing, wholeness, community development, hope etc. resides and originates from.
We have to know it in our bone marrow. And, to let HIM flow out sacrificially, servant-heartedly. That brings life and Eternal Life.
Guess I'll have to read his books!
Thanks.
And for your prayers.
Thanks for the ping!
I agree that Christianity has moved on from the BRUTALITY of the past. Perhaps one day Islam will do the same. My point is, the events taking place throughout the Middle East may do more than bring about democracy, it may change the way Muslims look at their religion. It worked for Christianity.
Thanks.
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