Theodore R. Whistlemeyer here with a tale of Woe! Of Danger! I am verily a voice crying out in the wilderness, a watchman on the wall!
Do you realize the mess we’re in here folks? Syria is disgorging its disgruntled masses, “refugees” from their own socialistic mismanagement, all set to flood all of Christendom in the name of political asylum. Kosovo is purging its streets! Albanian beggars and Iranian goatherds have abandoned their hovels in exchange for greener European and American pastures! Nigerians and Iraqis and Pakistanis, oh my!
Let us call this what it is, my friends: war.
This is nothing less than an invasion by Kurds, Turks, Yazidis, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Iranians, Nigerians, Kosovars, Eritreans, Syrians. And let us be blunt, my friends: a Muslim by any other name still smells….well, smells.
Our great and glorious leader, Imam-in-chief Barack Obama has announced his own plan to invite 10,000 of these advance troops to cross the River in order to spy out the land! If nothing else strikes terror into your hearts, consider this, my fellow Southern Baptist Conventioners: there’s 10,000 of them and 15,500,000 of us. They got us trapped between Ellis Island and Pearl Harbor.
You been warned! Now…
Please turn in your hymnals to number 430, “Just As I Am.” We’ll follow with just the chorus from “There’s Room at the Cross.”
Unprecedented.
The refugee crisis on the other side of the world is a mass migration that approaches historical proportions. Roughly 14 million Indians moved in 1947 during the partitioning of India and Pakistan. About 12 million Africans moved to the New World during the slave trade. Eastern Europe saw 20 million people relocated following World War II. Coming in at nearly 7 million, the current multi-national migration has its birth in a perfect storm of economic woes, political turmoil, war, famine, and oppression. The continuation of trouble in various hotspots only serves to enlarge the numbers on the move.
But that’s not what is so stunning.
“Unprecedented” refers to the blindness of the Theodore T. Whistlemeyers of the world. Examine the following map. Study it well because we’ll be reviewing it.
There’s a civil war in Syria, which is spilling into Turkey. ISIS controls increasing portions of Iran, Iraq, and Syria, with an eye on expansion. Lebanon, sandwiched between war on the east and the sea on the west, serves as a highway for refugess and others who join the mass movement along the way. Taliban pressures in Afghanistan and Pakistan chase villagers towards the northwest; of course, an earthquake just shook the region so add that in as well.
Palestinians are tired of dying. There’s more war in Libya. Egypt erupts frequently, starting with Arab Spring. Oppression and poverty in Eritrea drives thousands towards the sea as well. Chad, as always, seems to stagger along. Their citizens join with neighboring human streams flowing northward.
Once they cross, they encounter economic shambles in Greece. To the north, Albania’s unemployment levels reach 60% for some groups. Macedonia isn’t much better, especially for the Roma.
Syria, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chad, Palestine, Libya, Egypt, and Eritrea share a certain set of characteristics. They either decline entry to Americans and missionaries, or they adhere to forms of Islam that resist evangelization.
This massive migration breaks hearts, but let’s put this in perspective for Teddy and his ilk.
Roughly 7 million migrants are departing their predominantly Muslim countries – places we cannot enter. They are fleeing their cloistered cultures and are heading directly towards places where Christ’s name has been known for centuries. They are away from laws that forbid their knowing the truth of Christ. They have few mosques in which to hide from the light of the world. They depend on the kindness of strangers; of course, Christians are exactly the kind of strangers who are driven to be kind, and gentle, and patient, and loving.
Christians and their churches have an opportunity like never before, and instead of taking advantage of it they’re hiding behind the curtains hoping the knocking at the door will cease.
What, exactly, are we afraid of?
“They’ll bring their religion!”
Does this threaten you? Oh…I guess your YHWH’s arm is too short. If only you possessed some form of truth that is stronger than their incorrect view of the universe.
“They want to impose Muslim laws!”
They probably wouldn’t if they knew about Christ.
“They hate us!”
Not yet, they don’t. We’ve not rejected them just yet. Give them time, though, and our refusal to love them will indeed earn their hatred. Or – just thinking out loud here – maybe we could love them right off the boat.
I have friends in some of those closed countries we listed. They work hard and obey the law, but always seek ways to share their faith with those who seek the truth. They risk angry families and intolerant officials. They live in the shadow of the Taliban and under the far-off threat of ISIS. Governments are learning how to keep us out, and the day may come when my friends have no choice but to return to the US. How can we tell these people of Jesus, who loves them?
How? Got any ideas, Mr. Whistlemeyer?
Ethan, you are hitting on something terribly important here, and it has Gospel strategy written all over it.
First, what we can’t be too specific about is what God is actually doing in the Middle East. The reason we can’t be too specific is because of the workers that are on the ground in the middle of it. I’ll venture one somewhat specific item. There are so many Muslims coming to Christ right now in Syria that there aren’t enough Christians to disciple them. There are even members of ISIS who have come to Christ. Typically they are killed immediately. For every Christian that is martyred by ISIS, someone, and often many, come to faith as a result. How I know this, I can’t tell you.
Also, we have teams that are expanding ministry to Muslims into the European mainland from where we have been working. This was set up by workers in the Middle East and they are saying that it has been far more effective than anything they have been able to do in the Middle East. But to see how God is working one Muslim at a time betrays the fact that it is happening on a far larger scale than we can know. One worker told me that the Islam that used to be a rope that bound Middle Eastern culture is now only a thread. When the veil of Islam is finally lifted, we will discover more brothers and sisters than we would imagine ever existed there.
We have every reason to hope in our Savior, not just for ourselves, but for the world in turmoil.
The terribly sad thing is that if we polled our SBC churches the majority would agree with the sarcastic beginning of the article and not the second half. I say this only through my interaction with vocal members of two SBC churches on opposite ends of the country.
I agree that it is a huge opportunity. I am thinking seriously of studying German in the near future in view of perhaps working there with a gospel focus.
I think all of Europe is a vast field ripe for the sowing of the gospel and then reaping the harvest of saved believers.
Though I differ with President Obama on many, if not most, issues I applauded his change in status towards Cuba. Most of my family and friends disagree but to me it is a gospel issue first. Any changes that allow an easier flow of Bibles, missionaries, workers and money is a good thing to me. We have been shown in both China and Cuba that closed countries can still spread the gospel.
Great article. The trouble is that too many Christians seem to be willing to take their worldview marching orders from the Hannitys and Coulters of the world.
My FB feed normally abounds with comments in line with Theodore’s sentiments. I was hoping to generate a little discussion, but the silence of those who disagree implies to me that they realize their positions are inconsistent with their faith.
Drats…thought I was signed in before I commented.
I for one choose to have hope.
I have seen close friends of mine that had some of the same (though clearly not as extreme) thought processes as Theodore get involved in a simple construction project for an Iraqi refugee family, then over the subsequent years fall so in love with refugees that they are moving into full time ministry with a Christian refugee ministry.
My friend just shakes his head when he thinks about what the 3 year ago version of himself would think about where they are now.
This story is repeating itself in many families in our church, so much so that our church now views this refugee ministry as a strategic partner. We have several “mission trips” a year to our refugees involving hundreds of “missionaries”. And all it takes is a 15 minute drive!
Yes, there are still naysayers, but part of the discomfort is normal ignorance. You don’t know what you don’t know. In the last year, we have had many Muslims (from this refugee ministry) attend events at our church. Now if we were an inner city church that could be expected, but we are a somewhat stereotypical mega church in the suburbs. What is not typical is that our pastor leads out in this ministry personally, and through this partnership. That has helped reset the entire culture in our church.
Is our church special? No, and that is what gives me hope. If God can move a bunch of comfortable suburbanites to reach out to Muslim refugees (and everyone else!), then He can do that anywhere!
I pray y’all are correct in your assessments of the islamic refugees. Unfortunately the reports out of France and the UK concerning assimilation and cultural adoption are not playing out that way.
But i will never doubt the ability of God to change hearts. God bless the missionaries serving in the middle east.
I recommend this blog from a Nazarene missionary. She’s on the ground in central Europe, engaging refugees every day, writing regularly.
http://centraleuropenaz.org/2015/10/23/border-crossings-so-many-tears/
I think France, the U.K., and Germany are completely different birds though. There are millions of believers in the U.S. Germany is less that 2% evangelical, and France is even less. Those countries (more France than Germany) are battling cultures wars and losing in many cases, but the gospel witness is almost completely absent. Interestingly, Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose father was a Lutheran pastor in the former East Germany, told those who were afraid of losing their “Christian heritage” to start “reading their Bibles” and “going to church.” Further, she instructed them to explain to Muslims what pentecost is (as it is a state recognised holiday in most German states). Even though I don’t know about her personal faith, I think she is right. If we believe the gospel is better than what they have and can give them light, let us not put our worries in how our culture might change. Our culture in America can’t get much worse. We are a secularist country at this point. Replacing it with Islam would be changing something not Christian out for something else not Christian. So, we really have a great opportunity to spread the gospel both ways: to our spiritually dead secularist nation and to those people of another dead faith. I am not speaking against you, I just want to add to the subject about whether or not we have something to worry about. I think we have more to worry about by being silent and closing our borders than we do about opening them a bit and bearing a gospel witness. 🙂
In regard specifically to Syria most of the 10+ million displaced are not in various European countries but still in Syria or Lebanon, Turkey, or Jordan where there is little reporting. The news is about the crowds who have left, a small proportion.
Southern baptists have people who are assisting, as well as channels for relief.
The IMB story below does a good job and has links for relief donations through Baptist Global Relief.