Posted: 12/15/2015 at 5:58pm
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He and his team have led 18,000 imams, mullahs and emirs to Christ in West Africa
December 8, 2015 Godreports
By Mark Ellis
Islamic scholar
At 19, a leper first introduced him to Christ and a blind man led him to salvation.
“His reading braille captivated me,” says Brother Thomas*. “I asked
him where I will go when I die.” In response to the young man’s request,
the blind man quoted Scripture from the Book of John.
The power of God’s Word left a lasting imprint on his heart and
propelled his future ministry. “I didn’t understand the cross or what my
decision meant, but I went ahead and received Jesus as my personal Lord
and Savior.”
Raised in a Muslim home and community in West Africa, he experienced
hostility, but took it in stride. “Every true believer should experience
opposition,” he maintains. “The important thing is the discovery of the
life-given Spirit in Christ. I found a new life.”
Two years after his life-changing conversion, he felt an overwhelming
desire to share the Good News. “I saw my people were living in
darkness,” he says.
Muslim scholar West Africa
Although he had little training, he began to travel from village to
village for several weeks at a time. “Nobody told me to go. I didn’t
know many of the Scriptures,” he admits, “but I wanted to tell people
that Jesus can give you eternal life.”
Through eventual contact with SIM, he received further training. In
1990, he went on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ and served with
them for a decade, utilizing the impactful JESUS Film.
In 2000, he started his own organization, which targets Muslim
leaders throughout West Africa. “They (the leaders) are sincerely
deluded,” he observes. “Satan has blinded their eyes. They cannot see
the light of the gospel.”
“They were born into it,” he continues. “Nobody told them anything
different. Most people in West Africa are not Muslim by choice. They are
born into a community that believes in Islam.”
Brother Thomas decided he and his team would have to approach the
“custodians” of the community of Islam, something very few are willing
to do. “Christians never take the initiative to go to them,” he
observes. “The Bible never tells us to wait for them to come to us. The
Bible says to go. The lack of going to the Muslims is disobedience.”
Brother Thomas and his team develop relational connections with
Muslim scholars slowly and privately. It may take weeks or months of
meetings before an Islamic scholar will discover the Truth.
“We met with a Shia leader in one country for a year,” he notes.
After Islamic services on Friday, this Muslim leader would drive several
hours to spend a weekend with Brother Thomas.
“I went through the Word teaching him. The turning point was when he realized that Jesus is God.”
Remarkably, this imam actually stayed in the mosque, but his message
changed dramatically as a follower of Jesus. The man’s changed
perspective did not go unnoticed. “They took him to a psychiatric
hospital and took his wives away. They said he was mad,” Brother Thomas
says.
After his release from the psychiatric facility, Brother Thomas urged
the man to escape. “We don’t know where he is today. Quite a few of
these leaders who converted have died.”
Another Muslim leader who met with Brother Thomas made regular
appearances on national TV during Ramadan. “He came to Christ because we
proved to him the Quran is not the inspired word of God and is not in
the program of God for salvation,” he recounts.
One Friday evening a mob of other scholars came to kill the recent
convert, but were unsuccessful. “He was fearless,” Brother Thomas says.
“They gave his wife to his best friend and took his daughter away
because he rejected Islam. This year he was poisoned and died.”
Brother Thomas believes that in the top ranks of Islamic scholars,
many are atheists, because they no longer believe in the inspiration of
the Quran.
In the last 15 years Brother Thomas and his team have led 18,000
imams, mullahs, and emirs to Christ in West Africa. “We have led several
Al Qaeda commanders to Christ, including some who penetrated our center
as spies.”
His team of 300 people has dwindled to 65, due to the intensity of
the fight. “Some have died, some left us, and some became afraid,” he
says.
He has developed a training program, “Engaging the world of Islam,” that is bearing fruit in many countries where
Church in West Africa
it has been employed.
Brother Thomas believes the church has been ineffective reaching
Muslims because they have concentrated on methods and strategies,
including an over-emphasis on relief and compassion. “Christians want to
bribe the Muslims to become Christians, but those methods do not save.
If you give relief to him it will not save him. Even dreams and visions
will not save.”
For salvation, he believes that Muslims must discover the deity of
Christ – demonstrated by the efficacy of God’s Word. “Salvation is God
in Christ reconciling humanity back to Himself.”
*name changed for security Source: Godreports
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