Until All Have Heard
Until All Have Heard
What it Takes for a Muslim to Believe (Ep. 301)
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What does it take for a person raised in a Muslim community to become a Christian? It seems like an impossible task. In this episode Ed and Wayne talk about the way FEBC reaches out to Muslims around the globe with the message of Jesus as Messiah, the Son of God. At a recent conference for our broadcast team who reaches Muslim listeners, Jonathan Mortiz spoke with a Muslim background believer who tells his story of discovering Jesus. He’ll tell how his experience can be used to invite others to seek the truth about Jesus. It’s an important story to hear as we learn how to pray for the salvation of others who need to encounter Jesus and trust him for eternal life…Until All Have Heard
Welcome to Until All Have Heard from the Far East Broadcasting Company. I'm Wayne Shepherd with Ed Kennan, president of FEBC. Ed, one of your more recent trips included a conference. Will you tell me what it was about?
SPEAKER_02We called it the ESA Conference, ESA being the name of Christ in uh sort of a Middle Eastern dialect. And we had probably 50 FEBC broadcasters gathered together who are broadcasting in primarily Muslim environments, Muslim countries.
SPEAKER_03Trevor Burrus, So they're shared ideas with each other, that sort of thing?
SPEAKER_02Aaron Ross Powell Absolutely. What works, what doesn't work, how do you get the gospel in in such a way as to not offend local government authorities who might shut your radio broadcast down or see the Trevor Burrus, Jr. But yet still have enough impact in that gospel presentation to convince people that Christ is who he said he was. So it's challenging. And what motivates them? What are the techniques that uh inspire Muslim people to listen because we don't want them to hear the word Isa and shut the broadcast off because they think it's a Christian broadcaster. So being a Christian broadcaster to non-Christians is a challenge, especially those of the Islamic faith.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Ross Powell Right. Trevor Burrus A challenge that uh most of us don't have to face as we share Christ in our uh neighborhood and in our uh communities. So it's very interesting that uh they would get together and share these common ideas that can sharpen their focus. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02It's very intentional as part of our uh uh revised strategy as FEBC is migrating from uh shortwave radio, long-form teaching and preaching content on the radio to these shorter uh social media clips which uh change the way we broadcast. And especially to audiences like the Muslims who have a common belief set, uh background of understanding of the Quran and even the Bible. Um and and we're classified as people of the book. They often talk about people of the book, meaning Christians. Not bad. You're from the Bible. Yeah, we like that. So we like to capitalize on the fact that while Muslim people honor the Bible as a holy book, they don't understand it the way Christians do. So we use that opportunity to proclaim the truth of what the book says. And of course, pointing to the fact that the book says Jesus is the only way to God is a is a challenge when people don't want to believe it.
SPEAKER_03Okay, I'm talking too much. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Well, no, I I want to give our listeners a taste of what took place at the conference through a testimony of a young man, a young former Muslim, right? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
SPEAKER_02Yep, that's right. He's doing broadcasts for FEBC now, and uh he talks a little bit about his transformation to faith. And so I'll just let you listen.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Powell Jonathan Mortiz was there with a microphone to talk with him.
SPEAKER_01I know you have so much stories to share uh to us. How did you come to know uh the Lord Jesus Christ coming from a Muslim background?
SPEAKER_00No, my my story of uh coming to Christ uh is the the the the the usual or the what we we we can hear or uh see in in the Muslim world uh especially uh through visions and dreams. Yeah, uh when I was in high school, first year high school, I think uh 12 years old or 13 years old, uh I came to know Christ. I I I saw him in in the vision, and uh uh there's this one-time experience in my life. I I really felt peace that uh you know until up to today uh I can't uh uh see or feel anymore. But at that time I I I saw this man uh wearing white and uh just walking through towards me and uh touching me. Uh and uh he said with his uh this loud and simple uh soft voice uh he and he said, Whatever happens, you are mine. And that was when I was uh 13 years old. And uh after after uh uh seven years uh and uh uh I I I came across again and he met me again in in this one particular uh simple night. Um I was tired, I was uh you know at an early age, you know, teens, but you I I I want to give up with this hard hardships in life, and then I I I I uh sat down at this one uh uh building, uh unfinished building, and I I just uh uh say a prayer. I said if there is a God or uh if you are listening, uh please send rain. Yeah, and this is uh unfinished uh construction of the church. Actually, this is this was a church, yeah. So I was looking at the building, and then if you are a god of this uh people uh or this building, this uh this uh a certain church, so uh send rain. Uh and after an hour, then nothing happens, and I said to my uh uh I said to him and to to myself that there's no God and they are all the same, you know, and they're they're just all the same, just uh a particular name. Uh but but then after when uh the that uh I step at the last uh uh uh step at the uh at the stairs, yeah, rain uh poured and and then uh uh uh strong uh thunder, and that was the time I I I knew. And uh God really uh touched my heart touches my heart at that time, and uh I I became saved.
SPEAKER_02You know, Wayne, um when I first came to FEBC, I was very skeptical of these kind of testimonies, uh visions of Christ and um dreams that they've had of Christ. Um but my skepticism has been dampened over the years because of the number of these testimonies I've heard.
SPEAKER_03I have the same experience. It seems like when there is an absence of the word of God, there is this other way that God reaches into the Muslim heart.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And and most particularly for me, it's not that I've just heard these testimonies of visions of Christ, of dreams, and these sort of miraculous things causing my transformation, but it's the depth of the faith that those people have who have shared those stories with me demonstrate. Um many of our broadcasters, Muslim background believers who are doing broadcasts for F E B C have told me these kinds of stories, and some really even more radical than this individual is talking about. Um and and people who have demonstrated my my commitment to demonstration is they're going on the radio in in areas where people know who they are. They recognize their voice, they don't cover up their name. My name is such and such. I've lived in this community my whole life. I used to be a Muslim, I worshipped in this mosque, and now I'm a Christian. And so their boldness, uh their fearless proclamation of the gospel in the face of people who are gonna really despise them because they've transitioned their faith, so then it gives more credibility to me to these testimonies uh of of dreams and visions.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Ross Powell Yeah. The way I've always thought about it, I'm I'm not ready to build a theological system on these stories, but I I can't refute them. They're too real. Yeah, that's exactly and they're from people whom I trust.
SPEAKER_02Trevor Burrus They're right. They're people who have demonstrated very committed. They're serious disciples, yes. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Christian faith. Yeah. And there's so many of them. There's so many of these stories. So we were surrounded at this at this conference, this Issa conference, by fifty people, almost all Muslim background believers who have committed now to be broadcasting. And they were learning from one another how to best do it. And interestingly, Wayne, the one thing that kind of s rises to the surface about being successful everywhere are these kind of testimonies of how the life of a person has changed now that they're following Christ as opposed to following their former religious beliefs.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Powell There's evidence everywhere. God is at work in this Muslim world that is so dominant in so many parts of the world. Yeah, yeah. Ed, can I read something from 2 Corinthians? Sure. This is uh chapter 4, and I'll read just a few verses therefore. Since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don't try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are on us know this. If the good news we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. Satan, who is the God of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the good news. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. You see, we don't go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, Let there be light in the darkness, has made this light shine in our hearts, so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's a pretty good description of what particularly our um broadcasters are doing in Muslim countries, because the darkness that's there has blinded their mind. But um we shine a light on it. It's difficult, but that's what our broadcasters do, and the evidence is the number of people who have reached out to us, in some cases not saying we're a believer, but they're interested. Um, who wanted to build a relationship with an imam. He asked the imam if he could be on his broadcast and he was violently rejected. No, never. And after he was violently rejected, the imam invited him to be on his broadcast. Oh, okay. Where he sort of interrogated him, trying to prove that, well, you're just a fake and this religion is is meaningless and we have the right way. But his answers were so convincing to the imam that the imam agreed to come onto his program.
SPEAKER_03I see.
SPEAKER_02So he's interviewing an imam on his program, not with the intention of converting the imam, but rather having a conversation between two human beings who agree to disagree but not to hate each other. And it was remarkable that transformation. And that's an open door, a way that we can get into the space of proclaiming Jesus Christ in a difficult environment. I could tell you hundreds of stories, Wayne, about these kinds of broadcast techniques that seem to be cracking the shell of not being able to reach out to the Muslims and they're bold moves, aren't they? Oh, yeah. And so many people that we know, these broadcasters who are so committed who go into these places and broadcast where people know who they are and they're fearless about the possible persecution that comes. Evidence of true faith, Wayne, evidence that we are letting the light shine in darkness so that our hearts can give the light of knowledge of the glory to God and the face of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03Well, what is our part in this? Our part is to pray for those encounters, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would love for you, listeners of this program, to become partners with FABC in our outreach to the Islamic communities where we're broadcasting. Pray for our broadcasters to have the right word. Pray for the fact that the persecution and the tension that exists will be used by God for his good so that people will come to know Jesus Christ as the true Messiah and the Son of God.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Ross Powell You know, we have a tool. It's called the Prayer Target, and I think it's the ideal way to keep us engaged in prayer for places in the world that uh, you know, we'll never visit, but there are those who need to know Christ. And the prayer target can guide your prayers for these uh countries, these uh nations, in some cases, these minority language groups, so that we can pray effectively. That's what we want to happen.
SPEAKER_02Amen.
SPEAKER_03The prayer target is available through our website. You can use it as an individual, you can use it in as a family, you can use it in a group study, a Bible study, maybe a Sunday school class, or even a whole church. So sign up for the prayer target from febc.org. It's available right there at the website, febc.org, and pray for the world out there that needs to know Christ. We're not uh we're not gonna give up. As Paul says in Corinthians, we never give up. So let's pray and let's uh support those who are in this work. And thank you. We'll talk to our listeners next time for another edition of Until All Have Heard, produced by the Far East Broadcasting Company and produced by Joe Carlson. Thank you for listening.