Muslims Turn to Christ
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (01/03/07)
"Millions of Muslim converts to Christianity celebrated Christmas throughout the world, according to the reports of the various missionary organizations and news media" per SVM News.
One evangelistic agency alone, Salem Voice Ministries, reports that Muslims in India and many other Muslim nations have surrendered their souls to Christ. “There are about 500 evangelists ministering among Muslims in different African, Middle East and Asian countries. A vast number of Muslims finding the truth and attaining salvation of Jesus Christ day by day.
“’More Muslims converted to faith in Jesus Christ over the past decade than at any other time in human history. A spiritual revolution is underway throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. As a result, a record number of ex-Muslims are celebrating Christmas this year, despite intense persecution, assassinations, and widespread church bombings,’ stated Joel C. Rosenberg, the author of the New York Times best selling political thriller.”
Secular media rarely reports such advances of Christianity, especially those thrusts into Islamic territories. However, there are evangelical efforts that know daily of such progress. Finally, God knows and that is ultimately what makes all the difference.
“Rosenberg said, he and his wife and kids were lived in the Mideast for three months. During that time, he had the privilege of interviewing more than three dozen Arab and Iranian pastors and evangelical leaders throughout the region. The picture they paint is one of Christianity being dramatically resurrected in the region of its birth.”
When an individual turns from Islam to Christianity, the Koran stipulates that he be murdered. Many extremist Muslims take this seriously, thus the persecution leveled against untold Christians throughout the Middle East in particular.
Iraq, for instance, is becoming depopulated of Christians due to Islamic slaughter schemes. From time to time secular news reports this carnage. Other media regard persecution against Christians as just “another Christian story.” Nevertheless, the slaying of believers is daily and widespread and therefore should be broadcast worldwide regularly.
Countless Muslims are leaving the Koran’s Allah for Christ as Redeemer-God. They have turned from the Koran to the Bible. They have turned from the mosque to Christian sanctuary. They have turned from murder and maim to sharing kindness and Christ’s compassion.
“More than 10,000 Muslims accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior throughout India during the last year. The Bible Society of India publishing thousands of New Testaments for the Muslims with their own terminology and vocabulary in different Indian languages and Tazi language.
“Pastor Paul Ciniraj Mohamed, the Director of the Salem Voice Ministries, is one of the key persons of the Bible translators of the Bible Society of India to reach the Gospel to the Muslims. He is in the midst of persecution. Recently also he was threatened by the extremists to count down his days along with the whole family.
“In Iraq, more than 5,000 Muslim converts to Christianity have been identified since the end of major combat operations, with 14 new churches opened in Baghdad, and dozens of new churches opened in Kurdistan, some of which have 500 to 800 members. Also, more than one million Bibles shipped into the country since 2003, and pastors report Iraqis are snatching them up so fast they constantly need more Bibles.”
No doubt much of the evangelism success with Muslims is due to intercessory prayer. Those believers in the free world have offered heaven their own petitions for divine truth to be revealed to Islamics. God has blessed those intercessions with practical, real-life conversions to Christ.
“Thousands of Muslims turned to Christ and worshipping Lord Jesus in Morocco, Somalia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Maldievs.
“Around a million believed in Jesus over the past decade in Egypt. The Egyptian Bible Society used to sell about 3,000 copies of the JESUS film a year in the early 1990s. But last year they sold 600,000 copies, plus 750,000 copies of the Bible on tape (in Arabic) and about a half million copies of the Arabic New Testament.
"’Egyptians are increasingly hungry for God's Word,’ an Egyptian Christian leader told. 'Last Christmas, I had the privilege of visiting the largest Christian congregation in the Middle East, which meets in an enormous cave on the outskirts of Cairo. Some 10,000 believers worship there every weekend. A prayer conference the church held in May 2005 drew some 20,000 believers', Rosenberg told.”
With Iraq’s war revealing the demonic side of extremist Islamic adherents, another story is being written. It is that of the Holy Spirit working up and down neighborhood alleys and boulevards in convicting mortals of sin and despair. In that divine missionary work there are souls turning to the Light, the number eventually known only in the eternities.
“’There were only 17 Christians from Islam in Afghanistan on 2001. But there are more than 10,000 believers at present. Every week dozens of baptisms being held there.
“’In 1990, there were only three known Christians in Kazakhstan and no Christians in Uzbekistan, but now more than 15,000 in Kazakhstan and 30, 000 in Uzbekistan. There were only 500 Christians in Iran on 1979, but more than one million Iranians believing Jesus Christ today, most of whom meet in underground house churches.
“’In Sudan, more than one million have converted since 2000, and some 5 million have become Christians since the early 1990s, despite a radical Islamic regime and an on-going genocide that has killed more than 200,000. Seminaries are being held in caves to train pastors to shepherd the huge numbers of people coming to Christ. Why such a dramatic spiritual awakening?
"'People have seen real Islam, and they want Jesus instead,’ one Sudanese evangelical leader said.”
These reports give increased courage to believers not to grow weary in well doing but to continue to intercede in prayer, live the holy life, and believe that the forever missionary, the Holy Spirit, is changing minds from darkness to light, from desperation to hope through Christ.
“In December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, a leading Saudi cleric, appeared on a live interview on Aljazeera satellite television to confirm that, sure enough, Muslims were turning to Jesus in alarming numbers. ‘In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity,’ Al Qataani warned. ‘Every day, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity.’
“Stunned, the interviewer interrupted the cleric. ‘Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have six million converting from Islam to Christianity?’ Al Qataani repeated his assertion. ‘Every year,’ the cleric confirmed, adding, ‘a tragedy has happened.’
“One of the most dramatic developments is that many Muslims -- including Shiites in Iran and Iraq -- are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus and thus coming into churches explaining that they have already converted and now need a Bible and guidance on how to follow Jesus. This is the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy of Joel that ‘in the last days, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days....And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.’ (Joel 2:28-32).”
Copyright © 2006 by J. Grant Swank, Jr.
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