Acts 2:17 “’In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
The Saudis execute "blasphemers". That is anyone who denies Mohammed.
When I was there they used to publish lists of people executed in the kingdom that week. Usually several, usually for drugs or murder, but always someone for blasphemy too.
My understanding was that anyone guilty of "blasphemy" could recant up to the moment the blade fell, and be saved from death. So it occurred to me, who from a muslim background would deny Mohammed all the way to the grave?
Thats when it occurred to me that, somehow, people are being saved inside of Saudi Arabia. If all you have to do to save your life is affirm that Mohammed is the prophet, who wouldn't? Except a Christian convert. I came to the conclusion that, somehow, saudis were being saved in a place where normal evangelism is impossible, and they are being martyred for it. Every week.
Praise God for this woman’s courage and for her Gospel testimony. I have sometime thought this latest push by the jihadis was in reality a nervous reaction to the remarkable advance of the Gospel happening in many Islamic countries. They are becoming desperate, but they don’t understand Who it is they oppose.
I am reminded of something I heard many years ago on the radio. There was a Baptist minister working in Mogadishu (back in the 90’s, I believe), trying to evangelize but having no success. He started a conversation with a local Shiite imam and curiously the imam agreed to let him give a talk at the mosque, because, as he said, “my people have many problems,” so what could it hurt to hear from a Christian.
Well, the group congregated and the pastor gave his little talk, and at the end of the meeting a man carrying a little girl came up to him and said, “Can Jesus heal my daughter?” Her legs were withered and she couldn’t walk. The preacher gave the usual Baptist response, “Yes, he can, but we don’t know whether he will.” The man thanked the pastor and began walking away, but the little girl looked steadfastly at the pastor, and she began asking her father to put her down. To everyone’s amazement, he put her down and she was able to walk. Now try to imagine a mosque full of Shiite Muslims all shouting the praises of Issa (the Arabic form of “Jesus”), because that is what happened.
After this event, needless to say, the conversation intensified. Eventually, the imam himself became willing to commit publically to being a follower of Issa. At one point he told the pastor his only regret was that he was not able to back to his family in Iran and share with them his newfound faith in Christ. Not long after, the imam went missing, and the pastor was approached by some men who proudly informed him they had removed the imam to a place where the Christian message could no longer influence him, for they had sent him back to Iran. God has such a sense of humor.
All this I heard on a Christian radio station one day, and it has never left my mind, as I consider all that has happened since then. I may have my timing off, but I think this all occurred before the dreadful events of “Blackhawk Down.” It all suggests to me that we know only a tiny fraction of what is really going on in the plan of God, who is relentlessly gathering a people to Himself, even in the most Gospel-hating places on earth, and no one can stay his hand, or challenge what He is doing. He is always to be praised, even when we cannot see all that he is doing, because he has already told us, all things are working together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. Amen.
Peace,
SR