Winds in the House of Islam

BreakPoint, February 10, 2014

Terrorist attacks, the threat of nuclear weapons, persecution of Christians, the abuse of women—these are just some of the recurring themes whenever the American news media get around to covering the Muslim world—which isn’t often. It’s enough to tempt you to think that the House of Islam is beyond redemption or hope.

Well, I’m thrilled to tell you that God is doing miraculous things in the House of Islam. David Garrison, a missions expert with the Southern Baptists, has written an amazing new book called “A Wind in the House of Islam,” which describes an unprecedented movement of Muslims into the Christian faith over the last twenty years.

Upon hearing the increasing stories of conversions recently in the Islamic world, David went on a journey of 250,000 miles to speak with Muslims in West Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Persian world, South Asia, and the Indo-Malaysia archipelago, asking them the fundamental question, “What did God use to bring you to faith in Jesus Christ?”

His research uncovered that in the fourteen hundred years since Muhammad founded Islam, there have been eighty-two movements of Muslims turning to Christ. As a starting point, he defined “movement” as 1000 Muslims receiving Christian baptism, a public statement of their faith in Christ.

Now 82 movements in 1400 years doesn’t sound like a lot. But David Garrison points out an amazing fact—84 percent of those movements have started in just the last 20 years!

“We’re seeing a moment in salvation history,” Garrison claims, “that we’ve never seen before in the history of Christianity’s interaction with the House of Islam.”

In many cases, Garrison notes, the Lord is using dreams and visions of Jesus Christ to overcome old barriers and reach Muslim hearts. Those dreams are often followed up by a Christian who points the seeking to the gospel.

When I asked Garrison why God might be giving more dreams to Muslims today, his answer was sobering: “My fear,” he said, “is that they may have been having dreams and visions for fourteen centuries, but there was no one there to tell them who Jesus was, no one there to give them a New Testament in their own language to share with them the good news that God loves Muslims.”