[Shamelessly hoping our local Middle Eastern expert, Weekend Fisher, will weigh in on this one.]
We had some missionaries from the West Bank at our church this evening. Ellen said something fascinating. (Paraphrased, condensed, and hacked, but she agreed after the talk that I had heard her right.)
The number of West Bank Muslim converts to Christianity went from approximately none to enough to start a church overnight. She asked the people who were visiting their homes, and giving them the gospel, what is different? They said the people were telling them, "The leaders of the Islamic nations are being killed, so now we wonder, where is Allah?" We tell them about Jesus.
As I understand it, Islam is a highly political religion. They measure the blessing of Allah by the blessings that are upon their government. Hence, if you shame an Islamic government, you have done much worse than that. You have either shamed Allah, or shamed the nation and its leaders for having done something to lose his blessing.
As they watched Israel successfully assasinating their leaders, it proved to them that the promises of the Imams were empty, and they began looking for truth. (The reader must remember that I consider Israel to be another secular democracy, and not the nation of God on earth. In saying these things, I am not saying that the Lord's people are assasinating these leaders, but that one political entity is making war on another. No "divine right" is implied.)
I don't know what to make of this assessment, but it seems to jive with everything I've read over the years.
Barring a great discussion starting, I will put this one in the mental crockpot, and see what stews.
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I would have loved to hear that discussion.
I recently attended the Zoe Conference in Nashville and one of the one of the speakers was/is a missionary in Africa. He spoke of the massive numbers of Muslims around the world converting to Christianity and their hunger for truth. He said the move is so great that when viewed historically, it will be considered a new Movement with it's own name in the books.
It gave me the first real glimmer of hope in this war on terror. I wish I could share the CD with you all.
Hey how bout a new verse and saying?
Here's a saying for ya.
Cows don't burp very often, but if they do, what can you say about it.
mm .. much food for thought (I mean the Muslims, not the burping cows!)
Thank you, Andreia,
I am scared what the Lord is going to allow to happen, but none of it matters if He is plundering the Islamic camp, and redeeming His precious treasures from under the enemy's nose.
(I will think about a new verse for the new year. Thanks for the poke.... codepoke-poke?)
Milly,
Thank you for your always thoughtful submission to the discussion. I will get back with you on that. :-P
Thanks for dropping by my blog the other day, I really like yours, lots of interesting things to read here. I am looking forward to reading more.
"The leaders of the Islamic nations are being killed, so now we wonder, where is Allah?"
But how many Christians lose their faith in God because of things like that, though? I don't know enough about Islam to know its answer to "the problem of pain", but the Christian answer is something along the lines of: it's because of our fallen nature. God doesn't kill babies, some babies just die. Instead of asking "where is God" in those times, you should seek God in those times.
But again, that's not to say that the most devout and humble Christian is going to be protected from all sadness on earth, just that he will know to continue clinging to the Lord at those times.
Thank you Milly for that nugget of wisdom. Wish you could have been here while I stood aimlessly looking at power tools a few days ago. YUCK.
I hear you, Japhy, but if I understand correctly, Islam is very different from Christianity.
Christians lose faith when their beliefs are shattered, because ours is confessional religion. Muslims lose faith when their government is shattered, because theirs is a largely political religion. They expect Allah to show his blessings by blessing the nation. There is a word for that that eludes me right now, but when the whole Muslim flock is cared for, Allah is pleased. When the flock is in need, Allah is raining down judgement.
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