The ins and outs of Christianity aren't easy in Asia
___Editor's note: For security, names throughout this story have been changed and the locations described are not named. The author visited Southeast Asia on a study tour.
___By Tony Cartledge
___N.C. Biblical Recorder
___In a bright corner room of a high-rise office building in a modern city of Southeast Asia, a slim, dark-skinned man speaks with urgency.
___His name is Jonathan. He is a Christian in a Muslim land, and he expresses a deep burden for his Islamic countrymen.
___The populations of the two countries where he works are about 60 percent Muslim. To be true to one's heritage is to be Muslim. Most of the other res
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THIS MAN, who lives in a village in Southeast Asia, told of being kidnapped and threatened if he did not recant his conversion to Christianity. He told them, "I know you can kill me, but I have the Lord Jesus, and you can't kill my soul."
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idents, and the vast majority of Christians, are descended from families who immigrated from China and India.
___In this part of the wor
ld--where there are more Muslims than in the Middle East--evangelizing Muslims is illegal, and it is likewise illegal for a Muslim to convert to Christianity. In some cases, those wishing to convert face a mandatory period of "rehabilitation" designed to coerce the new believer back into the Islamic fold. Reports suggest the experience is not pleasant.
___It is dangerous, then, for a Christian to proclaim the gospel to Muslims, and it is dangerous for a Muslim to believe.
___But Jonathan perseveres. He was shamed into it, he said, by an American missionary.
___"He had come to my country at great personal sacrifice to do what I should do," Jonathan explained. "As God sent out Gentile Christians to make the Jews jealous, he sent an American to make me jealous."
___Jonathan realized the people of his church mixed only with other Christians, most of them Chinese or Indian. He, like his fellow church members, had not included Muslims in his witnessing efforts.
___But God changed all that.
___Several years ago, Jonathan sensed God's call to organize a group of about 25 people who were interested in a ministry to the major ethnic group of the country.
___A larger network in several cities has grown from that initial meeting of people working in their own way to share Christ with their Muslim neighbors.
___In witnessing, Jonathan stresses the importance of learning the local language, of making friends, of entering the worldview of Muslims and learning to think as they think. He does not come "head on" with a Bible in hand, but uses texts from the Koran that speak of Nabi Isa (the prophet Jesus) to lead them to a fuller understanding of Jesus.
___People of this ethnic group who come to Christ often do so as the result of a miracle, a dream or a vision rather than from direct evangelistic efforts, he said.
___Jonathan's strategy encourages new Christ-followers to remain in the mosque, where they have many contacts, and work quietly to lead others to faith in Christ. The most effective witness is an insider, he said.
___Others think that strategy is heretical at worst or syncretistic at best. They encourage new believers to leave the mosque altogether and unite publicly with a Christian church.
___Imad is one who prefers the "coming out" strategy. He speaks to the same group of visitors in the same room.
___Imad left a successful professional career to focus on evangelism among the Muslim peoples in his country. Much of his current work is with international students in a large city; he recently baptized several people from the Middle East, he said. He knows most converts will remain "quiet believers," but he encourages them to participate in cell groups with other Christians and to use their personal influence to lead others to Christ.
___Some new believers find themselves in a quandary, he said. If they want to get married in a Christian ceremony or attend a Bible school, they need a baptismal certificate to prove they are Christians. Yet some churches won't baptize former Muslims for fear of reprisals. Sometimes, Imad baptizes new Christians in the sea.
___In a mountainous province of another country, local believers struggle with similar issues. Their country alone is home to more Muslims than in any other, more than all Middle Eastern countries combined.
___There is great resistance to Christian evangelism, especially among certain tribal groups that are particularly hostile to the gospel. Violence, murder and church burnings are not uncommon in some areas.
___In a modest hotel room on a hillside street of a bustling city, two nervous young men talk to a group of visitors about their faith. An arrow painted on the ceiling of the room points toward Mecca so guests who observe daily prayers of the Islamic faith can orient themselves correctly.
___Rahim and Khalid live within the Muslim community. Their national ID cards still indicate "Muslim" as their religious preference. Yet they are followers of Christ.
___They remain within their religious community and pray at the appointed times. They continue to recite some of the creeds, believing they point to Jesus.
___The Koran speaks of "Isa al Masih" (Jesus the Messiah) as a prophet who was born of a virgin and untouched by sin, Rahim said, explaining that such passages provide an opening for him to share additional truth about Jesus. Other texts say Jesus is the word of God and that he will show the true way.
___Both men have led many family members to faith in Christ, people they believe they could not have been reached if they had left the Muslim community. Miracles and answered prayer often are instrumental in leading Muslims to Christ, they reported.
___Khalid cites Paul's advice in 1 Corinthians 7:17-34 as a basis for his decision to remain within the Muslim faith community: "Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him." The text speaks of new believers who are circumcised or uncircumcised, slaves or free, married or unmarried, suggesting they remain as they are. Khalid believes the text can apply to those born in the Muslim community as well.
___Again, others see it differently.
___On the opposite side of the same city, five men and a woman stand before the same group of visitors, gathered inside a small church. The heat is stifling, but one of the men wears a heavy jacket, zipped to the throat. They sing hymns for the visitors in the national language and in their ethnic dialect.
___And then they speak, each in turn, as an American missionary translates. They have come from surrounding villages, led to Christ and/or recruited to leadership by Susi, an indefatigable woman whose husband is pastor of the church. They believe those who follow Christ should come out of the Muslim community and openly declare their faith.
___It isn't easy, for their people are proud of their Muslim heritage.
___When Susi introduces the woman, she tells of her personal devotion, how she rises at 3 a.m. every day to pray and read Scripture. She was shy at first, the woman said, but has grown strong in her faith and learned to be a leader. About 25 other villagers, many of them new believers, meet with her regularly.
___A man with upswept hair describes how he employs his people's deep love of music in his efforts to gain the trust of village leaders. He has helped them to understand that Christians and Muslims can co-exist, "so they no longer look at Christians as a cat pouncing on a mouse."
___Another man describes his conversion in 1982, after he was given a tract containing the third chapter of John's Gospel. Six of his family members now believe, he said. He reported happily that believers in his village have procured a building in which to worship. Someone tried to burn it, but the arson was unsuccessful. He praises God for protection.
___The man in the coat is only middle-aged, but his face is deeply lined, as with care or hard toil. He speaks of how his own son persuaded some "troublemakers" to attempt to strong-arm him into recanting his faith.
___"Last February, they pushed me into a truck," he said, "and took me to a remote place and began to threaten me."
___He pauses, remembering. "I said to them, 'I know you can kill me, but I have the Lord Jesus, and you can't kill my soul.'" The men returned him to his home, and his son recently asked for forgiveness, he said with a smile.
___Susi thanked the church and American missionaries for supporting her work in the villages.
___"Many believe we cannot evangelize Muslims because it is too hard," she said. "But I believe they can be reached if there are Christians who are committed and willing to give all of themselves for this work."
___Yet statistics show that less than 1 percent of all gifts to missions support the difficult and sometimes dangerous work among those who are most in need of the gospel--where local believers are responding to the challenge to "give all of themselves for this work."
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