Good News That's a Sign of the Times!
by Heidi Swander
Several years ago an Iranian pastor whom Joel Rosenberg knows personally met a Shia woman who came to know Jesus Christ after seeing a vision of Him. She just showed up in his church one day, hungry to read and learn the Word of God. Today this woman leads an average of fifteen people to Christ every day! She told Joel's pastor friend that Iranian Muslims are so desperate to hear the gospel that it typically takes about 5 minutes to share the story of her conversion and how God has changed her life before the listener is ready to also receive Christ. "Difficult" conversations, she says, which may include several questions or concerns, take 15 to 20 minutes! This woman's prayer is to lead 7,000 Iranian Muslims to Christ over the next 5 years!
The prophet Joel said, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. . . and it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Joel 2:28-32). In Middle Eastern countries today there is a revival of first century, New Testament, biblical Christianity taking place. Two means God is employing to accomplish this -- according to myriad personal reports -- include dreams and visions; and personal, one-on-one witness -- and the salvation of souls is reportedly happening with astounding momentum!
(Special note: Olive Tree Ministries acknowledges that we live in a day in which many in the church emphasize experience over truth, and that we ourselves have characterized this vein of Christianity as unstable and unsound. However, we also confirm that our Almighty God may at any time choose to use what we may consider to be unorthodox means to reach some people for eternity who are the most resistant to the gospel. Muslims absolutely fall into this category and especially Muslims in a region that promulgates a satanically-generated religion while muzzling the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"The big, untold story in the Middle East right now is the dramatic and widespread conversions of Muslims to Christianity," Joel Rosenberg says in his new DVD, Inside the Revolution. "It's one of the most spectacular developments in the Middle East in recent decades and yet it's seldom reported in the Western media, even among evangelical Christians."
God is also using radio and television broadcasting to bring thousands of Muslims to a saving faith in His Son. With state-of-the art satellite technology to bypass the efforts of Islamic governments to keep the gospel out of their countries, Father Zakaria Botros, an Egyptian Coptic priest, regularly challenges the claims of Muhammad to be a prophet and deconstructs the Koran, verse by verse. He also boldly proclaims that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life.
Hormoz Shariat, a man Joel considers to be the Billy Graham of Iran, also ministers to Muslims throughout the region by satellite television. It is illegal to own a satellite dish in his country. "But what God has started, they cannot stop," he says. Hormoz reports that when he began broadcasting by satellite television, the number of call-ins to his televised gospel presentation requesting salvation tripled.
"Very few people realize just how many millions of Muslims -- both Sunnis and Shias -- are becoming followers of Jesus Christ," Joel says.
According to best recent estimates by Christian pastors inside these countries, Saudia Arabia presently has more than 100,000 followers of Jesus Christ; Pakistan and Egypt each have over 2 ½ million Christians to date; and the Sudan presently has an estimate of more than 5 million followers of Christ. The enormity of the numbers is confirmed by panicked proclamations of Muslim leaders in each country.
There are also Muslims living in the West who are turning to Christ in record numbers. Rifqa Bary who, in one Web version of her testimony, claims that she is the first Christian in her family in 150 generations, is just one example.
All of these people, whether living in the Middle East or the West, make the decision to follow Jesus Christ at peril of their lives, a fact most of us find difficult to truly comprehend. These decisions are not made lightly and the fact that Muslims are deciding to follow Christ in numbers this great strongly suggests that this is a movement by the hand of God.
In the middle of so much bad news that is escalating in our world, I wanted to take a few moments to share with you some very good news that is as much a sign of the times we are living in as any we bring to you on a weekly basis.
I tell our Father daily that I'm ready for Him to send Jesus to come and take us Home. You, too? But remember, every day we remain means hundreds more have entered the kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ and will live with us for eternity!
