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Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ

by Brother Andrew (Author), Al Janssen (Author)
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Revell (July 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-0800718749
• SRP: $ 19.99
Associated website: http://www.SecretBelievers.org

Secret Believers is an excellent introduction to the plight of the Body of Christ in the Islamic world. A quick and fascinating read, it is, if you will, a Christian “thriller” of sorts. It’s purpose is to help western Christians identify with their brethren who confess Christ in Muslim lands at the risk of their lives. The main body of the work is a fictional narrative of “composite characters” in an unnamed Arab country who against all human odds, come to Christ and grow as Christians. Some are martyred. Some must run for their lives. All pay a steep price. The balance of the book is a call to action for Christians in the West to pray, give, and - as God calls - go to aid the persecuted church. It is also a reminder of the vast spiritual hunger that underlies the surface of the Islamic world and which is satisfied only when people with Muslim backgrounds finally learn of Isa (Jesus).

Brilliantly incorporated throughout the book are snippets of useful information that equip ordinary Western Christians to begin discussing Christianity intelligently with their Muslim friends such as:

1. Muslims and many evangelical Christians share a disgust for the moral decadence of Western Culture…they differ in the definitions of modesty and the solution - jihad versus conversion and reformation.

2. 90% of the material in the Qu’ran is found in the Bible. But the New Testament - called the Injil - answers many questions about Jesus that the Qu’ran leaves unanswered.

3. Muslim difficulties and distortions in accepting the Christian Faith - and the answers Muslim Background Believers use to explain the Christian Faith.

4. The two most compelling arguments for the Christian Faith - Love and Forgiveness in the face of hate.

5. Why today’s brand of pop evangelicalism is sorely lacking in persuasiveness and why the ancient liturgical spirituality offers insight. Our evangelicalism offers the freedom from legalism to be sure, but lacks any passion for God expressed in godly discipline.

One twist most Western Christians will find odd is the unwillingness of the Christian communities in Islamic nations to accept Muslim converts. Receiving them provokes a backlash of persecution against the church. Sad experience has also taught them that too often “converts” were also either informers for the secret police or young men interested in marrying an attractive Christian girl. Too many Christian girls would wind up being forced to “convert” after their husband had shed the pretense of being a Christian. As a result, efforts to bolster the historic churches in Islamic lands are not enough. Efforts to help, train, and support “Muslim Background Believers” who form their own small underground congregations are desperately needed as well.

I was encouraged to see much overlap in this book with another useful book that will not reach the same audience. I refer to the chapters on evangelizing Muslims found in David Garrison’s book “Church Planting Movements”. I can honestly say his book prepared me to read Secret Believers with greater insight and appreciation.

The authors hope the stories of the suffering - like Layla the Christian girl who was kidnapped, forced to convert on threat of death to herself and her parents, and then raped nightly by her “husband” yet who escapes with her baby faith intact - will be so moving that readers connect with the associated website to learn more: SecretBelievers.org It worked for me! And perhaps it will do the same for you.

Brother Andrew and Al Janssen also demonstrate the profound naivete of Western foreign policy. Our fellow Christians in Afghanistan and Iraq simply wanted true freedom of religion in their nations… not new untested regimes which merely ape Western style “democracy”. After years of war and billions spent to create these “democracies” in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Christian communities there are worse off.

My only real criticism of the book is that it might be interpreted as a complete guide to dealing with the terrorist threat. I do not think it wise for any western nation to take this as a guide to the sum of their internal security policy. It is the right thing for individual Christians to forgive their wrongdoers. It’s another thing for a nation charged with protecting its citizenry to let down its guard and let criminal acts against its people go unpunished.

For fast, stimulating, and profitable Christian reading I strongly suggest this book. May God use it to help Christians in the West focus renewed prayer, energy and resources on this crucial mission.

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