Christian Inroad into Muslim Nations
Middle East & Southern Asia
Dr. John Hoole - June 28 – July 5, 2015
Links to additional videos and testimonies of Muslim turning to Christ
Truth, Love and Newness of Life
Despite overwhelming press coverage of Afghanistan, ISIS, Iran, and the Middle East since September 11, 2001, one big story is generally not being told by the mainstream media. Hundreds of thousands – even millions – of Muslims are converting to evangelical Christianity, even amidst widespread persecution and the very real threat of death. The God of the Bible is moving powerfully in the Middle East to draw men, women and children to His heart and adopt them into His family in record numbers. More Muslims have come to faith in Jesus Christ over the last 25 years, especially the last 7 to 10 years, than at any other time in human history.
For nearly 1,400 years, Muslims have strongly resisted the Gospel of Christ. Many Christians tried, but with little success. But, according to many reports out of the Middle East and around the world, that is changing.
Iraq
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.
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 other countries, there are many reports of God visiting Muslims with dreams and visions. He is coming to them and speaking to them, and they are repenting and giving their lives to him. I'm talking about Shiite and Sunni Muslims seeing visions of Jesus and becoming his followers.
Muslims are learning that Christianity is a spiritually and personally liberating force, the most powerful liberating force in human history. They have witnessed and believe that a personal relationship with Christ changes hearts so that the violent become men and women of peace and reconciliation. And, often the starting point of their journey to converting to Christianity begins with a dream or vision of Jesus. They readily identify with the apostle Paul, who described his own conversion in Galatians.
Galatians 1:12 NKJV
12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
These former Muslims are stunned by the way God has changed their lives. Like the apostle Paul, they were once zealous to eradicate Christianity and hold to their traditions.
Galatians 1:13-14 NKJV
13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.
14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
These new followers of Christ were once religious extremists who hated Jesus and all His followers.
One influential Christian leader in Iraq tells this story. Shortly after going into full-time ministry, his village was attacked by radical Islamic terrorists. One of them ran into this Christian leader’s house, leveled an AK-47 at his head 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.
Let me tell you a true story, probably not well-known. Iraqi General Georges Sada was a former air force fighter pilot. He also once served as the senior military advisor for Saddam Hussein. General Sada is only one of many thousands of Iraqis who have become followers of Jesus Christ. In the Gulf War, General Sada was ordered by Qusay Hussein (Saddam’s son) to execute all the British and American prisoners of war. This he refused to do, which led to his dismissal, but by God’s grace not to his execution. This former general knows of at least 5,000 Iraqis who have openly confessed Jesus Christ as Lord
Syria
In early 1967, there were no known born-again followers of Jesus Christ in Syria who had converted 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 MB [Muslim Background] believers in Syria. Today, there are multiple thousands of believers in the country. Here is a report from "Breaking Christian News." I get reports from them every day on Christian happening around the globe. This report says the Christian Church is "living in its golden age."
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.
In November 2012, a Christian relief team heard about a needy Syrian widow living outside a Lebanese Muslim village near the Syrian/Lebanese border. The woman, along with her three children had sought shelter in Lebanon, like other Syrians who had been displaced by the Syrian Civil War. Her husband had died, and she received nothing from the local Islamic aid society. She was observing a traditional 40-day period of solitude for her husband’s death. So they took her some food. Apparently, Jesus had been there first.
When the Christians knocked at her door, the widow appeared fully covered in black, including an opaque veil over her face. She explained her period of self-isolation. They offered to leave the food outside, but she unexpectedly invited them in. They sat with her and her children on the floor of the temporary dwelling.
“Who are you?” she asked anxiously. “You don’t know us, but we have great love in our hearts toward you,” said the team leader. He explained their reason for helping Syrian refugees. He added that their love for the lady comes from God, who had worked in their lives.
To their amazement, she responded by removing her veil – unheard of in her conservative Muslim culture. Then she told them, exhibiting some emotion, “Something happened to me yesterday. As I was sleeping during the night, someone knocked on my door. I was so scared, but I opened the window to see who it was. No one was there. After a while, I heard the same knocking. My heart was beating so fast, so I went and sat beside the door and I fell asleep there.”
She went on to describe that while she was sleeping, someone put their hand on her shoulder. He said “You don’t know Me. You have passed through a great pain. I experienced a great pain, also. But I will not leave you alone. Tomorrow I will send you someone who will tell you about Me. Listen to him.”
As she came to the end of her story, she began to weep. She turned to the team leader and wanted him to tell her about this person she saw in her dream. Through his own tears, the leader told her about Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who is a friend of widows, orphans and outcasts. He then said, “I am going to give you a Book that will explain to you about God’s love, He gave her the Bible with some additional aids to help her and her children to survive. The woman later returned to Syria. No one knows for sure what has become of her – but God knows. God has visited this lady and her family, and, as I said last week, “God does not make random visits
Let me relate one more story from Syria. Adel Haddad is a Christian who converted from Islam. He was conducting a small church service in his home. He had been sharing with them the Lord’s Supper and was praying just before they partook.
In the middle of the prayer came an abrupt and loud pounding on the apartment door. Adel set down the loaf of bread he had in his hands, raised his head and smiled saying to those present, “I am their best customer.” This was the fifteenth day in a row he had been summoned and invited to visit the town’s security officials.
He kissed his wife and prayed a quick blessing over the two-month-old church. Adel’s apartment was in the center of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. This time the officials took Adel to a lone building miles beyond the city limits.
The interrogator asked, “Adel, is it true that you have Muslims in your churches? As Adel was thinking about how to answer, Jabir, the interrogator, continued. “Let me put it to you this way, are you baptizing Muslims?” Adel looks directly into Jabir’s eyes and said, “Am I baptizing Muslims?” “Yes, that is the question.” “I assure you, Jabir, we baptize only Christians!” Adel did not look away from the eyes of Jabir. The interrogator stared at his captive, missing the subtle evasion of Adel’s answer.
Adel’s path to becoming a leading client of the secret police began five years earlier. When Adel was a young adult, he had an obsessive drive to discover truth about God. The beginning of the end of his search occurred the first night he met Jesus in a dream. The morning after, he had tried to convince himself is was “only” a dream. But a desire erupting from somewhere in his subconscious kept him from dismissing it. And the morning after his second dream of Jesus made it almost impossible to dismiss.
28 additional nights in a row of seeing Jesus left Adel helpless before the gracious God he had encountered. Within a week after the last dream, he found a Christian believer who could explain what he should do, and Adel accepted Jesus Christ into his life.
After his first interrogation, which lasted more than four hours, they released him. After that encounter, Adel had secret police in grey suits following him wherever he went. His next encounter with the secret police did not end as pleasantly. It ended in Bab Touma prison, on the outskirts of Damascus. It is the destination for Syria’s political prisoners. It is also known as a torture chamber.
After a week, Adel thought his life was over and he focused on becoming a faithful witness to the end. At times he felt the “cloud of witnesses” cheering him on in the spirit. He resigned himself this might be the end of his life, and this freed him to share his faith openly with fellow prisoners, and by default also with the guards. Sometimes, when there was no one around, he would recite the Psalm aloud. During these time, he would now and then see one or more of the guards standing nearby. On his fortieth day at Bab Touma, Adel was set free. He never knew exactly why.
Now, nearly five years later, he is again taken for a visit to the secret police interrogator. By now, Adel had a deep compassion for the secret police, and knew many of them by name. Being in the secret police means the government owns them. But it was a job and they were paid decently.
Most of them now openly apologized to Adel for the ridiculous questions they have to ask over and over again, but they are just doing their job. Adel’s favorite story, though, is about Mohammad, one secret policeman. What an amazing work of God he represents.
Mohammad had been assigned to follow Adel and he did a better than average job of it. After keeping a discreet distance for several days, Mohammad stopped Adel on the street. He asked Adel a question no interrogator had ever thrown at him. “Adel, why do you think I keep having dreams about Jesus?” At first, Adel didn’t know if it was a sincere question or if he was trying to trap him.
But Adel could tell Mohammad was shaken by these dreams. Mohammad said that in most of his encounters, Jesus asked him a question. The question from Jesus that haunted him the most was “Mohammad, why are you persecuting Me?” When he got to that part of his story, he looked Adel in the eye and claimed, “Adel, I am not persecuting Jesus! I am just doing my job.” He was really troubled by what Jesus had said.
Adel asked, “Mohammad, where were you when you had this dream” “It was in my hotel room in Damascus.” Adel told him that he knew of someone else who had the same dream, and he was on his way to Damascus. That man’s meeting with Jesus happened in the middle of the day. Mohammad wanted to know if it happened recently. Adel couldn’t help but smile when he told Mohammad it happened about 2,000 years ago.
Mohammad wanted to know more. So Adel met with Mohammad one-on-one for the next few months. A wonderful thing happened too: his dreams continued. He became a great student and studied the Bible with a passion Adel has seen only a few times. Mohammad is still in the secret police, but is a secret follower of Christ. He is now a part of the small church Adel pastors. Part of what had drawn Mohammad was when he listened to Adel when he was in Bab Touma prison quoting the Psalms aloud. Mohammad had listened to him as was drawn toward God.
As a part of the secret police, he follows orders to bring Adel in for interrogation. One time was a day following an evening service in which Mohammad had attended in Adel’s home. At the interrogation, Mohammad said, “OK, Adel, let’s take it from the top.” “Where were you last night.” “I was with a few of my friends.” “I bet you were,” Mohammad said with a wink, as he continued the questions.
Israel
This story comes from Doug Clark, the former director of Assemblies of God missions effort Middle East / Northern Africa. At the time, there were 32 family and 6 single AoG missionary units in this region of the world. Clark tells the story of a Messianic Jewish believer from the United States who came to work for the Lord in Israel He felt the Holy Spirit leading him to share his faith with Arabs in Israel. Soon he led an Arab teenager to the Lord.
The young Arab’s father was the sheik in the Palestinian town where they lived. When he learned of his son’s new faith, he was furious. He demanded a meeting with the man who had shamed them. When the Messianic Jewish believer arrived at the home of the sheik, he expected a rough reception.
The sheik told him, “I called you here to kill you for what you did to our family name. But last night Jesus Christ walked into my bedroom through two locked steel doors and sat beside my bed. I was terrified, but He reached out and stroked my head and told me, ‘Don’t be afraid; I love you.’ I felt such peace come over me. Now I want you to tell me everything you know about Him” Our God is an amazing God, and doesn’t want anyone to go to hell.
Here is another story that takes place in Israel. Christine Darg is an author of “Miracles among Muslims.” She is also co-host of the Jerusalem Channel televisions program “Exploits Ministry.”
Recently, she was taking a small tour group through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. And their guide had made arrangements for them to meet a Muslim cleric. Knowing that the cleric was an expert on a mystical form of Islam, called Sufism, Darg asked the cleric if he had heard of some of his co-religionist who had experienced a dream about Jesus. Suddenly, the man began to break down in tears. He said, “I will tell you a secret. I myself have seen Jesus.” He went on to relate the most beautiful encounter he had with the risen Lord Jesus.
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 several groups of Radical Muslims, God is moving powerfully, and there are now an estimated 2.5 to 3 million born-again evangelical 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.
Saudi Arabia
In 1967, there were only a handful of Muslim Background Believer in the entire country. By 2005, there were over 100,000 Muslim converts 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, named Marzuqah [which means blessed by God] 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 only physically but spiritually. You must take Him too.”
Here is a story about a young man born in Pakistan, but raised in Saudi Arabia. When he was young, even though he was taught much in the Quran, he says he had many questions: Why am I here?, Where did I come from? Etc.. He also wondered if there really was a God and if so where is He? Why doesn’t He talk?
To increase his knowledge of Islam, he started ready other Islamic books like the Life of Prophet Mohammad, Hadith, etc. He was a Wahhabi Muslim, as is the royal family in Saudi Arabia. Osama Bin Laden was also one of them. He said Wahhabism is very extreme, and he was also. I had been taught this was the only possible way to heaven.
But this young Muslim wanted to explore further in his religion. He reasoned, “If this is the right way, then there is no risk in digging further. He had look at all the past personalities of Islam except Isa (Jesus),
As he searched, he found out Christians believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He wondered why they believed that. He started to search more and more about Jesus. He had a Christian friend who used to study with him. He asked his friend one day if he could have his Bible. The Christian said, “On no! You will get in much trouble.” The Muslim said, “It will remain just between you and me.” But my father came to know that I read the Bible and that it was in their home. He was very angry, and he knew I had only one Christian friend, so he took the boy with his uncle to this friend’s home and warned him. He said, “If you do this again and try to preach Christianity to a Muslim child, you will have to suffer a lot.” The father told his son he must attend the mosque at all prayer calls – 5 times a day.
One day the young Muslim was all by himself bowing in the mosque, but thinking of Jesus, and he cried out asking God to show him who He was. In the mosque on later visit, he saw an image in the floor as he bowed. He had never seen such a thing before, but he immediately knew it was Jesus. And now his hunger for Jesus grew more and more.
He did not have a Bible, but one day, while walking through some markets, he saw an internet shop. He went to a computer and put in the query, “Who is Jesus?” He received many web sites, and he would return over and over to this shop. One day he said the prayer shown on one of the web sites. For a while he continue to receive dreams of Jesus.
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 nearly five 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 Muslim converts. The precise numbers are probably not as important as the trend.
The country of Jordan is rich in biblical and spiritual history. Here are just a few of places mentioned in the Bible that are in modern-day Jordan.
• Mount Nebo – where Moses died.
• Mount Seir – where Aaron died
• Ammon
• Moab
• Edom
• Petra – mentioned in the Bible as Sela or Bozrah
• Job, from the land of Uz (Job 1:1)
• 2½ tribes located east of Jordan R.
• Where John the Baptist baptized people (John 1:28)
• Tishbe, the hometown of Elijah (1 Kings 17:1)
• Amman – the place where Uriah the Hittite, husband of Bathsheba, was killed
Another place mentions several times in the New Testament was Decapolis. Actually that is not just one place, but the word “Decapolis” is a reference to 10 cities. All but one of these ten places were in modern-day Jordan.
Matthew 4:25 NKJV
25 Great multitudes followed Him — from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
Amman, the capital of Jordan today, was one of those ten cities. Another biblical place that was included in the Decapolis was Gerasa. Today, its name has been changed slightly – Jerash. Jerash lies about 20 miles north of Amman.
I have only been to Jerash one time, but was fascinated by the ruins that have been uncovered. The ruins are among the largest ever unearthed in the region. One other city of the Decapolis, the only one located west of the Jordan River, is Beth Shean, which is another large set of ruins that have been uncovered. And like many of the large cities that existed in the first century, its territory had a Christian Quarter. That is true of Jerusalem and Damascus today to this day. It is also true today of Jerash. Let me tell you about a lady, Jamilla, that takes place in Jerash.
Christian Medical Clinic
Jamilla lived on Hejaz street in Jerash, and was a Muslim. She was aware of the struggle placed on the Christians today by the Muslim clergy. The Imam at her mosque had been known to send announcements booming from the loudspeaker on the minaret specifically to drown out preachers at Christian gatherings. Those living in her section of Jerash were proud of having a 100% Muslim pedigree
But there was a poster hanging inside her mosque. Why would a poster about a medical clinic that was located in the Christian quarter. The Christians, she thought, certainly were not there to serve Muslims. But she had some very sick children – so she thought, “I must try.”
On the morning the clinic opened, this young Muslim mother walked into foreign territory with three of her eleven children. Jamilla cracked open the front door and peeked inside. There were a large number of people already there. Then someone in kind words said, “Do you need help?” She walked to the woman, “I didn’t know if I should be here…..if Muslims are allowed.” “Of course you are welcome.”
Jen, the lady taking the information, brought her three children some crayons on coloring books. Jamilla had her children find an empty place on the floor to color pictures in a coloring book about the story of Jesus in Arabic. As Jamilla eyed the rest of the people in the waiting room, she noted that most of the were Muslim. In about half an hour, Jen introduced Jamilla to a female doctor from Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Lynn answered many questions from Jamilla. Her children were struggling with asthma and allergies and each was given an inhaler. As she was leaving the clinic, she asked Jen, “The Jesus in those coloring books healed people, didn’t he?” Yes he did, Jamilla.
A short time later, Jamilla was confronted in her dream with a Man who hugged her. He said, “They love you because I love you.” A cough by her husband brought her out of her dream.
She replayed the encounter in her mind. It was the third time since her day at the clinic that Jesus had visited her. In her mind, there was no doubt that the person who talked with her in these dreams was Jesus.
When the doors of the clinic opened at 8 o’clock one day, Jamilla was first in line. She was there with five of her children. Suhad was the head nurse, and the only Jordanian among the medical staff. She had opened the door and Jen met Jamilla and her children. As they entered, Jamilla touched her arm and said, “I must talk with you.” Jen sensed the urgency, but saw excitement, not fear in Jamilla’s eyes. She tells Jen she has had three dreams in which Jesus appeared to her. Jen and Suhad ushered Jamilla into an examining room where she recounted her experiences with Jesus, with her children listening. I felt His love and I didn’t want Him to leave – and He mentioned you, the clinic. Suhad spent the rest of the morning answering questions Jamilla had. And before she left the clinic, she became a follower of Jesus. “She said to Suhad and Jen, “I may die for this, but I must follow Him. I must!” Today, Jamilla attends a secret underground church. Jamilla hopes Jesus will work on her husband.
Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, according to Joel Rosenberg, there were only three known evangelical Christians in 1989. Today there are more than 15,000 Kazakh MB Christians, and more than 100,000 Christians of all ethnicities.
One Muslim-background believer named Bek tells about his road to Christ. Even at an early age, living in a Muslim family, Bek wondered about God. He tried to find more about God by reading the Qur’an, but he didn’t understand Arabic. As he matured through high school and military service, Bek was known as a partier. But none of this really satisfied him. A local Christian, who previously had been a Muslim, befriended Bek. Bek could see something was different in this man. He seemed to have a quiet peace within him – and he often read from a book.
When Bek asked him what he was reading, he gave Bek a gospel tract in his own language. The title of the tract was, “Where Does Your Soul Go?” After reading it, he wanted to know more. His new friend invited him to a house meeting with several other young persons. There they sat on the floor, praising and thanking God. After a while, they asked Bek if he wanted to accept Jesus, and he did.
When Bek told his wife all that happened, she didn’t understand. He began to pray for her. Sometime later, his mother-in-law came down with thyroid cancer. She had great difficulty eating, and grew so thin, that her husband began preparing for her burial. Bek prayed for her in Jesus’ name, and she said, “I want to repent and accept Jesus.” We wept and prayed with her – then God healed her. Everyone was so surprised at such a great miracle.
Afghanistan
Before September 11, 2001, it is reported that there were fewer than 100 Muslim converts in all Afghanistan. By 2006, there were 10,000, 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 built 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 have begun to respond. 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.