Last year both CBN and Christianity Today wrote about such events. Recently Joel C. Rosenberg, a NY Times best-selling novelist, wrote about this at his blog and is planning to produce a new non-fiction book and documentary, titled, Inside the Revolution (Easter 2009).
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 throughout the Middle East and even in the United States are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus. They are coming into churches explaining that they have already converted and now need a Bible and guidance on how to follow Jesus.
In light of such ongoing reports, J.P. Moreland responds,
In well-documented, recent news reports, the movement of the Kingdom of God among Muslims, especially in the Mideast, is simply staggering. I can well remember the day when a missions agency would hope to lead three or four Muslims to Christ in a year. Now they lead thousands/year! And the reports from those agencies is that miracles, healings, prophetic visions and dreams are at the very heart of what is happening. As I pointed out in Kingdom Triangle, this outbreak has nothing to do essentially with spiritual gifts, and the evidence is bearing that out. Missions agencies that are non-Charismatic and Charismatic are reporting the same things regarding signs and wonders, according to Dallas Willard and others. This is a Kingdom and ministry-of-Jesus issue. The new converts need biblical training and spiritual formation teaching to guarantee they mature in Christ. But I am deeply encouraged that the motiffs I identify in Kingdom Triangle are, in fact, at the center of God's heart for the world. And that includes the church in America.
4 comments:
What kind of Muslims are leaving?
It's not a monolithic religion. It's almost as diverse as Protestantism actually.
So where are the converts coming from?
Other sources refer to the interview and mention that many Muslims leaving Islam are not becoming Christians in a Biblical sense, but rather simply ceasing to practice Islam in favour of a post-religious Western secularism.
And the countless thousands of converts to Christianity in the Middle East is unprecendented, but also mostly unsubstantiated. The number of reliable sources that have actually counted this phenomenon is between few to none. Let's see the proof before we go trumpeting it to the world, please.
I'm not doubting you, Jason, but I was just wondering if you'd be willing to share these sources you mentioned to support what you're saying.
Hi Jason, I have a Jesus Film Ministry newsletter from late 2006 in my hand, talking about an entire crowd of 5,000 people trusting in Christ after the film, including a number of healed backs, a deaf person gaining their hearing back and a child born from birth receiving sight. In the midst of the action, the leader of the local mosque actually steps in, speaks to the crowd over the microphone, and tells the crowd that the message the film crew is sharing with them (about Jesus) must be from God because no one could do what was happening there unless God were with them. I take such reports to be highly credible, wouldn't you?
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