Muslim refugees fleeing the increasing violence in their home countries and cities are shedding their Islamic religion for Christianity.
As European countries accept the migrants, the migrants, in turn, accept Jesus. They’re the driving force behind a growing revival in long-struggling churches.
“European churches have struggled for decades to share the gospel with modern secular Europeans,” Matthew Kaemingk, a professor at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Seattle, told Fox News. “They have found Muslim immigrants to be much more open to the message of Christianity.”
As migrants leave behind everything they’ve ever known, the church becomes a beacon of hope.
“Their sense of homelessness is not only geographical, it is spiritual. Churches who offer these Muslims real and meaningful hospitality are seeing some surprising results,” Kaemingk said.
But some Pentecostal leaders question the authenticity of the salvations.
“I have people begging me to help them become Christian,” Pastor Said Deeb at the Church of God said. He said scores of refugees approach him each week. “They think it will help them claim asylum abroad. They say ‘just baptize me, I will believe in whoever just to leave here’.”
Deeb doesn’t mind telling them about Jesus, no matter their reason for seeking him out.
“But even if they come for the food and clothing, we see that God changes their hearts,” he said. “We never force anyone into the religion; it must be their choice, they must accept Jesus.”
Despite skepticism, dozens of testimonies have emerged of how Jesus radically transformed hearts and lives.
“About three months ago, I was given a vision of Jesus Christ,” one refugee told Open Doors.
“I was sleeping and all of a sudden I saw Jesus Christ in white. He said ‘I am Christ. You will have a beautiful daughter.’ I was eight months pregnant, and a month later we received our beautiful daughter.”
Her husband awoke with a similar dream: “I saw Jesus Christ. He was dressed in white. He said to me ‘I am your Savior. You will follow me.'”
Once refugees away from home, this couple has now returned to Syria, despite incredible persecution.
A pastor familiar with refugee conversions confirms that consequences for these new believers are enormous.
“They have to leave their context and their families. They know that whoever leaves Islam should be killed. These wonderful new believers will become preachers all over the Middle East. God is waking up a sleeping church; a new nation of new believers is being born, the pastor tells Open Doors. {eoa}
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