DISCIPLING MIDDLE EASTERN BELIEVERS

DISCIPLING MIDDLE EASTERN BELIEVERS

Copyright © 2009 by Ray G. Register, Jr.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009931518

Register, Ray G., Jr. 1935--

Discipling Middle Eastern Believers

ISBN 978-1-935434-36-8

ISBN 978-1-950839-17-9 (e book)

Subject Codes and Description: 1: REL03700:

Religion: Islam – General; 2: REL037030: Religion:

Islam – Rituals & Practice; 3: SOC048000: Social Science: Islamic Studies.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or any part thereof in any form, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without the written permission of the author and GlobalEdAdvance Press.

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design by Barton Green

Published by

GlobalEdAdvancePress

37321-7635 USA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND

Chapter 2

HOW DO THEY COME TO THE LORD?

Chapter 3

ATTITUDES NEEDED BY COUNSELORS AND MENTORS

Chapter 4

METHODS OF DISCIPLING

Chapter 5

CONTENT OF DISCIPLESHIP

Chapter 6

FORMING AFFINITY GROUPS

Chapter 7

CHANGES THAT RESULT

Chapter 8

ROLE OF THE EXPATRIATE MENTOR

Chapter 9

PREPARING FOR PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM

Chapter 10

CARRYING THE GREAT COMMISSION TO OTHERS

CONCLUSIONS

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appendix 1

Seven Muslim-Christian Principles

Appendix 2

Beginnings of CPM among the IAMs

Appendix 3

Sensitivities in Discipleship of Middle Easterners

Appendix 4

Meeting the needs of Mbbs in North America

Appendix 5

The C1 to C6 Spectrum

Appendix 6

The Jericho House Group Lessons

Appendix 7

Servants in the Crucible

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

When I first started relating to Muslims and studying Islam, the major question among Evangelical Christians with a heart for the Islamic world was, Can Muslims really come to the Lord? We were taught by great scholars and Islamicists like Dr. Kenneth Cragg to exercise patience in our interfaith witness with Muslims. Today, after almost 40 years, the relevant question is, How does a Muslim background believer grow in Christ? A resurgence of fanatical Islam has brought about catastrophic world events. At the same time, a growing number of Muslims are becoming believers in Jesus in every Islamic country. The sowing of the good news of salvation in Jesus is reaping a harvest in the midst of persecution and turmoil. This book is a sequel to my first on Dialogue and Interfaith Witness with Muslims.¹ It addresses the observation of the late Dr. Elmer Douglas, my professor of Islamic Studies at Hartford Seminary Foundation, that, The question is not whether Muslims can come to Christ, but what do we do with them after they become believers in Him? He, as many others working in Muslim countries, had faced the difficulties of the Muslim believer in Jesus in dealing with the hostility of his own Muslim culture, and the lack of welcome into the existing Christian community.

I therefore share the following observations and experiences in trying to disciple Muslim background believers in Jesus with the hope and prayer that they may be helpful to all who work in and pray for the Muslim world. Our goal and expectation is that you may see the living Christ shape your Muslims friends into his image. I must admit my own limitations in that the majority of my experience has been with Sunni Muslims of Palestinian origin who live in or once lived in the Holy Land. Many are men who, though oral communicators, can read and write. An excellent resource for working with Muslim women who are oral communicators and often involved in occult practices is "Ministry to Muslim Women, Longing to Call Them Sisters" which is a compendium of over 40 women who worked among Muslim women worldwide.² The most candid and sympathetic description of these Muslims is by Professor Bill Baker in his recent book, Arabs, Islam and the Middle East.³ A Muslim from Jordan shares his personal testimony of faith in The Man from Gadara. The Camel Training Manual provides a practical approach to discipling Muslims. Caring for converts from Islam is emphasized in Welcome Home. The groundbreaking work in Servants in the Crucible, provides invaluable insights from 450 interviews with Muslim background believers and others. Roy Aksnevad has written an insightful paper on Leadership Development Within the Mbb Community based on a survey of North American believers.⁴

I have had some limited experience with Muslims from other areas of the Middle East and around the world. I apologize to you and to my Muslim friends for what may appear to be stereotypes. Muslim background believers in Jesus are from every nation of the world and represent a wide variety of economic, education and social groups. Each has his or her individual personal experience with the Lord. It would be naïve to think that one approach fits every Muslim. On the other hand, all Muslims are part of a family, tribe, sub-culture and the Nation of Islam. Therefore, some of what I share about discipling, mentoring and counseling Muslim background believers will have application to all Muslims. I must make clear the use of terminology. I call a Muslim who has trusted Jesus Christ as personal savior from his sins, a Muslim background believer or Mbb. They would be considered in the C4-C5 Spectrum with a few in C6 as described in Appendix 5. He or she is still a Muslim by culture. They are not Christians in the cultural sense any more than a Jewish Messianic believer in Jesus is a Christian. Many Jewish Messianic friends protest vehemently if we call them Christians. Even though they have found the fulfillment of the Scriptures in Jesus their Messiah, they have not entered the Gentile world of Christians emotionally or culturally. Many still observe the Jewish Sabbath, attend Messianic synagogues, and observe the Jewish feasts. Most Muslim background believers, especially the first generation whom we are dealing with, still live in Muslim families and Muslim cultures. They will observe the Muslim holidays, express themselves in Muslim terminology and act like Muslims. Do not expect to see crosses in their homes any more than you would expect to see one in a Jewish Messianic home. We have to correct our thinking and expectation that a Muslim background believer automatically becomes a cultural Christian when he or she receives Jesus as personal savior from their sins. This certainly will not happen in the Middle East where a vast majority of the people are Muslims and have as much as 1400 years of tradition as Muslims. Jesus is entering the Muslim world from within and beginning to transform Muslims individually, as groups and hopefully as nations as the Holy Spirit enlightens their hearts through the reading and hearing of the Word of God in the Bible and through the testimony of other Muslim background believers and Christian friends. If you expect a Muslim background believer to automatically become a Christian you will be disappointed in this book. But if you are willing to let God work from within the Muslim community as he did in the Jewish and Gentile community in the first century and is still working today, then you may benefit, and your Muslims friends in turn.

I am grateful to my friends Hamdi, Barnabas, Fredrick Wedge, Ferruchi, Athanasios and many others who have taught me, increased my patience and led me to trust the Lord more in my life’s calling. I also owe my prayer life to a Muslim I only met once, Trusty Hajj who inspired me to practice daily prayer and Bible study through his prayer rug in the YMCA at the University of Virginia in 1953. Many expatriate friends whom I cannot number have inspired, informed and corrected me through the years as I have tried to assist Muslim friends in drawing closer to Jesus. My wife, who is a lovely Rose, has patiently and wisely shared her gift of discernment in encouraging me. To all and especially to the Lord, I am grateful, and dedicate the following

Endnotes: Introduction

¹ Ray G. Register, Jr., Dialogue and Interfaith Witness with Muslims, ISBN 978-0-9796019-3-4; GlobalEdAdvancePress, 2007 (IAM Partners, PO Box 463045, Escondido, CA 92046-3045)

² Fran Love & Jeleta Eckheart, Editors, Ministry to Muslim Women, Longing to Call Them Sisters, William Carey Library, 2000.

³ William Baker, Arabs, Islam, and the Middle East, 2003

⁴ Roy Oksnevad, Leadership Development Within the Muslim Background Believer Community, Unpublished paper for DME 914 Leadership Development and Culture, May 22-June 2, 2006.

CHAPTER 1

THEIR RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND

Muslims are unique people and distinct from cultural Christians in many ways. In order to help Muslim background believers grow in their knowledge of Christ we must recognize where they are different as well as how they are similar to Christians. Again, I am most acquainted with Palestinian Muslims from the Holy Land, but will try to share some ways that Muslims in general differ from the average Christian to enable you to adapt the Gospel to their unique ways of thought and life style.

The basic motive of the Muslim religion, from which Muslim background believers in Jesus come, is the fear of God (Arabic: takwah). God is feared, because according to the Quran, the Muslim’s Holy Book, God is a righteous judge who will bring every man to judgment on the Last Day.¹ The motive force of Islam is the fear of Hell fire. The mournful call to prayer from the Mosque five times a day strikes fear into the hearts of the followers of Muhammad. I once asked a Muslim background believer why the call to prayer from the Mosque sounded so awesome and he told me it was because Islam is a religion of force and fear. There is a spirit that permeates the reading of the Quran and the prayers of Muslims that captivates the hearts of Muslims. The shout, Allahu Akbar (Arabic: God is greater) is a battle cry used to send fear into the hearts of the enemies of Islam, and to give courage to Muslim fighters and suicide bombers. It is also the hinge of prayer which the Muslim chants every time they bow in daily prayers. When you disciple a Muslim background believer you need to recruit numerous prayer partners to pray for you and your Muslim friend for protection and freedom from the power of fear that once dominated the Muslim’s life. Fear not only dominates the religion of Islam, it acts as a deterrent for Muslims leaving Islam. An apostate, or murtad, who leaves Islam for Christianity, is under the threat of death.

The fear motive of Islam stands in stark contrast to the love motive of Christianity. As John Ashcroft is reputed to have said, Islam is a religion whose God demands you to give your son as a sacrifice for him. Christianity is a religion whose God gives his son as a sacrifice for you! The selfless agape love of the Christian Gospel is unknown in Islam. The God of Islam would never have a son, and if he did, he would certainly not give him as a sacrifice for man, who is regarded as a slave of God. We must be aware of the two major objections of the Muslim religion to the Gospel when discipling Muslim background believers. First, Islam rejects the Sonship and divinity of Jesus Christ, and secondly it rejects his sacrificial death on the cross. There are special ways that these two major doctrines can be explained to a Muslim background believer which we will clarify later. The claim that Islam is a religion of peace and love, is a recent innovation adapted for Western consumption by Sufi proponents. It has little truth in reality.

Along with the fear motive in Islam, the capriciousness of God in Islam also affects the Muslim background believer’s attitude toward the Gospel and toward truth in general. According to the Quran, God can change his mind. The Quran is a collection of piecemeal sayings that Muhammad claims to have received from God on various occasions during his prophetic lifetime. God would often give to Muhammad a better verse than he gave before which substitutes for the former verse as the situation demanded. An entire system of abrogation was created by Muslim scholars to determine which verse was revealed last and is therefore more authoritative. In the Christian-Muslim polemic the Muslim will often tell the Christian, Your Scripture has been changed, or, The Quran is the last Word from God. This is a carry over from the theory of abrogation in the Quran. It also affects the Muslim attitude toward history, and makes it very difficult for a Muslim to have a regard for any history prior to Muhammad who lived in the 7-8th Century AD. In his opinion, Islam was revealed last, and therefore supersedes both Judaism and Christianity. According to the Quran, the religion of God is Islam.²

The combination of the capriciousness of God