Inside the Revolution

by Joel C. Rosenberg

  Two Different Kinds

  Just as not all Revivalist strategies are identical, it should also be noted that not all Revivalists themselves are alike.

  I have had the wonderful privilege of meeting with and befriending Revivalists all over the world during the past two decades. In the course of researching and writing this book over the past several years, I have spoken with and interviewed at length more than 150 Christian leaders operating in and ministering to the Muslim world. Whether they were ethnically Arab, Iranian, Turkish, Kurdish, Afghan, Berber, or from some other background, I found their stories absolutely amazing and profoundly inspiring, in part because they are leading a spiritual Revolution as significant and consequential as those led by the Radicals and the Reformers. I would even say more so.

  In the next chapter, I will share with you the trend lines indicating how rapidly Christianity is growing in the Muslim world. But first, let me briefly define two different kinds of Revivalists so you will better understand who they are and where they are coming from.

  Some Revivalists are known as “MBBs,” which stands for Muslim Background Believers. These are true, born-again, fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, commonly known in the West simply as “Christians.” Their distinction is that they were born into Muslim families and were raised as Muslims. But at some point in their lives, they converted to Christianity and away from Islam. Because of that decision, MBBs face persecution, torture, and death from their families, their neighbors, and sometimes their governments for leaving Islam in general and for becoming Christ-followers in particular. MBBs face tremendous social and legal pressure to keep quiet about their faith and not seek out fellowship with other believers and certainly not try to share their faith with other Muslims. They need a tremendous amount of prayer, therefore, for wisdom and courage and for Christian friends who can help them grow and mature in their faith and know how best to handle themselves in a godly way. This is true wherever an MBB lives, but it is particularly true for MBBs who still live in a Muslim country.

  The other kind of Revivalist is someone known as an “NCBB,” which stands for Nominal Christian Background Believer. These, too, are true, born-again, fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Their distinction is that while they are true believers today, they were born into families with parents who called themselves Christians but did not actually have real, active, life-changing, personal relationships with Jesus Christ. Their families may have identified themselves culturally or religiously as Christians as opposed to Muslims or Jews or Hindus or atheists. Perhaps they went to church often. Perhaps they went rarely, only on Christmas and Easter, for example. But the key is that while a nominal Christian may describe himself as a Christian by name, he has not actually been transformed—born again—on the inside.

  Once they make a decision to follow Christ and become NCBBs, such believers face the threat of persecution, torture, and death from neighbors and sometimes their governments if they want to share their faith with Muslims and become engaged in ministries to help MBBs grow in their faith. They also face ostracism from family members and friends who remain nominal Christians and don’t understand the life change they are undergoing. Sadly, many NCBBs face persecution even from the churches they grew up in because their passion for Jesus and for fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 now threatens their childhood pastors or priests who oppose rocking the boat in any way, shape, or form in a Muslim community. Therefore, like MBBs, these believers need a tremendous amount of prayer for wisdom and courage and fellow Christ-following friends who can help them grow and mature in their faith and know how best to handle themselves in a godly way wherever they live, but particularly if they still live in a Muslim country.

  The very notion of an NCBB can be confusing for many people, particularly Muslims, to whom a person is a Muslim simply if he is born to Muslim parents, not just if he converts to Islam. But the Bible teaches that just being physically born into a so-called Christian family does not bring about salvation. Indeed, even if a person’s parents or siblings really are true followers of Jesus, being born into such a family still does not save that person. The only way a person can be forgiven of his sins and saved from eternal damnation, according to the Bible, is to personally repent and receive Jesus Christ as Savior by faith and in the process be spiritually reborn.

  In John 3:3, Jesus told a religious leader from Jerusalem, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” One’s physical birth into a religious family, Jesus was saying, is not enough. Nor is being a very “religious” person. Or even a religious leader. Something else has to happen on the inside. Thus, as you read the New Testament, it becomes clear that the term “born again” is a biblical term referring to a person who (1) is fully convinced that faith in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection from the dead is the only way to be forgiven of his sins and adopted into God’s family; and (2) has consciously, willfully, and purposefully asked God through prayer to wash his sins away and save him through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

  John 1:12 tells us that “as many as received Him [Jesus Christ], to them He gave the right to become children of God.”

  Jesus said in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

  In Romans 10:9-10, the apostle Paul explains how to be born again: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

  Then in 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, Paul tells us the result of being born again: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

  My own family’s spiritual journey has helped me understand how this process works. Though my mother is not from the Middle East, she is actually an NCBB. She was born into a Protestant family. She attended church when she was growing up in Rome, New York. As such, she thought she was a Christian. But the truth is she was a nominal Christian. Her heart had not been transformed, for until 1973, no one had ever explained to her that going to church was not enough. She did not know she needed to individually receive Jesus Christ to be her Savior and Lord. All she knew was that despite calling herself a Christian, she was filled with enormous loneliness and anxiety, and she had no idea how to change or how to find relief and hope for her life.

  Then she visited a different church in Rochester, New York, where several couples simply and patiently answered her questions. They read to her the key verses in the Bible that explain how to know God in a real and personal way, and once they had, she knew immediately that what they were saying was true. She knew that was what she wanted. That very Sunday morning, she chose to follow Jesus and prayed a prayer very similar to the one Tass Saada prayed.

  In that moment, she was born again. Her troubles didn’t all immediately melt away. But from that day forward, she began seeing God change her life as He gave her peace and joy and a sense of calm that she had never had before.

  My father, on the other hand, is not an MBB, but you might say that he is a “JBB”—a Jewish Background Believer. With a name like Rosenberg, you can guess that he was not raised in a Christian home. Rather, he was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, though he would have described himself more as an agnostic during his twenties. In 1973, about six months after my mother became a follower of Jesus Christ, my father prayed to receive Jesus as the Messiah, and he too was born again. His troubles did not disappear either. Some of them increased, even. But over the next few years, though I was young, I could see my father changing in very positive ways. He was no longer the bitter man with a quick temper that I had feared. He was becoming gentle and
kind, a man who loved to study the Bible and to teach it—especially to kids.

  My point is simply this: in my own home, I have personally witnessed—and been blessed by—God’s love for Jews and Gentiles, and I am grateful that He does not show favoritism and restrict His loving-kindness to one group or another.

  Likewise, in my travels through the epicenter I have personally witnessed—and been blessed by—God’s love for Muslims and for nominal Christians. He is reviving them both. He is awaking Muslims to the truth of the Scriptures, and He is breathing new spiritual life into people who were raised in churches but were long unaware of the life-changing power of Jesus Christ.

  And He is doing so in numbers few could ever have imagined.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The Big, Untold Story—Part One

  The greatest spiritual awakening in the history of the Middle East is under way.

  You rarely hear about it on the news.

  You rarely even hear about it in churches in the West, in the East, or even in the Middle East. But the big, untold story is that more Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ today than at any other time in history.

  For many Muslims, despair and despondency at what they see as the utter failure of Islamic governments and societies to improve their lives and give them peace, security, and a sense of purpose and meaning in life are causing them to leave Islam in search of truth. Some have lost their way entirely and become agnostics and atheists. Others, as we have seen, have sadly turned to alcohol and drug abuse. But millions are finding that only Jesus Christ heals the ache in their hearts and the deep wounds in their souls.

  For other Muslims, it is not depression but rage that is driving them away from the Qur’an and the mosque. They are seeing far too many Muslim leaders and governments and preachers both advocating and acting out cruelty toward women and children and violence even against fellow Muslims. Not all of these find Jesus in their journey away from Islam, but millions do, especially since the 9/11 attacks against the United States. In fact, while this backlash against the theology and practice of Radicalism has been building since 1979, I first began to detect it during my travels in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East soon after 9/11. Again and again, I would meet people who had long been devout and traditional Muslims who told me that they had watched with horror as Arabic television networks constantly replayed the images of commercial airliners hijacked by radical Islamic jihadists flying into the World Trade Center.

  First they found themselves weeping. But then they saw other Muslims cheering, and their sadness turned to anger as they asked themselves, “Is this who we really are? Is this what it really means to be a Muslim? To fly planes into buildings and kill thousands of innocent civilians? Because if it is, then count me out. How could I possibly be part of a religion or a political movement that glorifies and celebrates death?”

  Many of these former Muslims hear the message of the Reformers but believe that it is actually the Radicals who are reading the Qur’an correctly. They say that if a person truly studies the Qur’an carefully, he will become a Radical and will engage in violent jihad, because that is what the preponderance of verses tell Muslims to do. They say that the verses that speak about Muslims being peaceful to the “People of the Book” were written mostly when Muhammad was trying to win Jews and Christians to his side but that once Muhammad realized he could not convert these “infidels,” he turned against them and wrote verses that the Radicals now embrace in pursuit of jihad.

  Whether such claims are correct theologically or historically is, of course, a matter of debate. The point, however, is not whether these people are accurate in their interpretation of the Qur’an. The point is that they have had enough. They are furious about the atrocities being done in the name of Islam. And their outrage has only intensified as month after month, year after year, they have watched the Radicals blow up mosques, blow up women, blow up children, blow up the disabled and the mentally handicapped, and in the process, blow up their dreams.

  And as their anger has risen, so too has their determination to disassociate themselves with Islam and find the truth someplace else.

  The Christian Surge

  That said, what intrigues me is not simply that the Revivalists say the greatest spiritual awakening in the history of the Middle East is under way. What intrigues me is that Islamic leaders are worrying in public that a Christian surge is taking place in the region.

  In 1993, a Saudi sheikh by the name of Salman Al-Odeh delivered a sermon entitled “Christian Missionaries Sweeping the Islamic World.” He argued that “in Spain [Christians] have the biggest center of missionaries to Africa. They are trained really well, and their efforts lead many Moroccans to convert.” He then cited the World Christian Encyclopedia—which he described as a “dangerous survey”—and warned his fellow Muslims that “the number of Christians in Africa was 9 million only in 1900 AD, or . . . 9 percent of the whole population. In the year 1980 they became 200 million! . . . They jumped from 9 to 200 million in 80 years [and the survey’s authors] expected them to reach 390 million in the year 2000, or 48 percent of the whole population of Africa.”562563

  Eight years later, in December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad Al Qataani, another significant Saudi cleric, appeared in 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 6 million converting from Islam to Christianity or converting from Islam and other religions?”

  Al Qataani repeated his assertion.

  “So 6 million Muslims a year convert?” said the interviewer.

  “Every year,” the cleric confirmed, adding, “a tragedy has happened.”564

  I cannot confirm these precise numbers. I can, however, confirm the trend lines. During the course of interviewing more than 150 Christian leaders in the epicenter over the past several years, I have been able to assemble enough data and anecdotal evidence to paint a picture—albeit an imperfect and incomplete one—that provides a sense of how powerfully the God of the Bible is moving to draw Muslims into His family. Given the threat of jail or death facing all believers in the region, it is simply not possible to take a complete Christian census or conduct accurate polling to know for certain how many Muslims and nominal Christians have come to faith in Jesus Christ in a given year or even over the last few decades. But again, there is now no question that so many people are becoming Christians in the region that Muslim leaders are becoming nervous and angry.

  Revival in Iran

  “It’s ironic that when the Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran with his style of Islamic Shiite extremism that the true face of Islam was finally exposed not just to the Christian populace, but to the Muslims themselves,” one of the region’s leading evangelists—a man named Taheer—once told me. “Before 1979, the demand for Bibles in Iran was never that great. Today, Iranians can’t get enough of the Bible or biblical teaching. It is counterintuitive, I know, but it’s as if God used that man, the Ayatollah . . . to expose Islam for what it is and for Muslims to say to themselves, ‘That’s not what we want; we want something else. We want something better.’”565

  One Iranian Muslim woman was barren for many years. Praying to Allah in the mosque was not working. Knowing several MBBs, she asked them to pray for her to be healed. They agreed and began reading her passages from the Bible. They specifically taught her James 5:14-16, which says, “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one anoth
er, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” Then the believers prayed for the Muslim woman and anointed her with oil. Soon she was pregnant, and she secretly prayed with her friends to become a follower of Christ. She had a baby boy and named him Shah—the Persian word for “king”—saying, “Jesus is the King. He healed me and gave me a son as a miracle!”

  “If you are working in Iran, you feel like you are working with God,” a top Iranian ministry leader told me. “He is with us in Iran. Jesus Christ is revealing Himself to people in Iran. A big revival is under way and more is coming. Friends keep telling me to leave the country for my own safety. ‘The government will arrest you,’ they say. ‘They will kill you.’ But if you leave, you are losing a big, historical chance. If you stay and serve, you will see a big revival and see prophecy fulfilled. You feel so small. But God is so big!”566

  “In Iran,” another Iranian Christian told me, “you don’t go after people with the gospel. They are coming to you to ask you about the Lord. Let me give you an example. I went to the doctor’s office because I was feeling very ill. I asked the receptionist if I could see the doctor right away, but she was a veiled woman and a fanatical Muslim. She had no intention of making life easier for an ‘infidel,’ and she told me I would have to wait for two hours. ‘You will regret that,’ I said with a smile, and then sat down in the crowded waiting room. A few moments later, the doctor walked by to pick up a file. ‘Hello, Reverend,’ he said to me. I greeted him back. Then everyone in the waiting room asked me, ‘Are you really a reverend?’ I said I was. ‘How can I know Jesus?’ they asked. I told them and five Muslims prayed with me in the waiting room to receive Christ as their Savior. ‘See how you will regret making me wait?’ I told the receptionist, again with a smile. She has never made me wait again.”567

  The Avalanche Is Still Coming