Egypt’s Identity Impasse

Christianity Today: Egypt's Identity Impasse

Former Muslims seek to change their government-issued cards as outreach gains ground….

…Surveying the big picture, this pastor believes a religious earthquake is shaking the Middle East, leading to many new conversions from Islam. "For years, there were only hundreds converting from Islam to Christianity. Very confidential, very low key," he said. "Now [converts] are writing their stories. They are in chatrooms. The voice of converts for the first time is being heard. The numbers are beyond estimation. It's an iceberg. If you hear a thousand, then there are 100,000 beneath the surface."

The pastor traces the roots of this evangelistic surge to a church-based awakening in the 1970s. A Presbyterian pastor (then leader at the downtown church) and a Coptic Orthodox priest were among the few Christian leaders willing to baptize new believers with a Muslim background. Coptic Orthodoxy represents up to 6 million people in Egypt, while Protestants number fewer than 250,000….

…At a recent Sunday evening service, the senior pastor shared with the congregation the counsel he gives to "our friends who are not Christians" when they inquire. "I tell them: Say to God, 'Show me the truth.' We've never met any who did this and didn't come to know Christ." This kind of outreach is still out of the comfort zone of many Egyptian evangelicals. "They're advising me not to do so, all of the time," he said.

He reports that many inquiring Muslims say they've been visited by Jesus. "The most effective thing happening to convert Muslims to Christianity is visions and dreams," he said. "It's the work of the Holy Spirit. It's not the work of a man, a church, or an organization."

This approach also provides pastors their first line of defense against accusations of proselytism. Once, Egyptian authorities questioned a pastor about baptizing a woman who came to him after seeing a vision of Jesus coming through her door and window in Kuwait. "It's the problem of the police there," he replied to them. "They didn't guard the door or the window."

The senior pastor also identifies exorcisms, particularly by Coptic Orthodox priests, as a significant opening for outreach. "Muslims know if you want to get rid of a demon, go to church. Many of them, after being delivered, get baptized." …

I have friends who live in the Middle East that are telling me similar stories, especially the part about the dreams and visions.