by Rev. William E. Currie
October 1996
In this issue:
The Evangelical Arab Church in the Middle East
Editor's Note: In the wake of the most recent tragic violence between Israelis and Palestinians, it may seem contradictory to publish an issue of Heartbeat that focuses on the Arab church in the Middle East, particularly in its relationship to Jewish believers within Israel. But the God of both these Arab and Jewish believers is the One who creates wholeness out of such seeming contradictions. In spite of the centuries old story of hatred and violence between the sons of Isaac and Ishmael, a common faith in the Messiah of both peoples is the one true bridge to lasting peace and harmony. This is a portion of how that story is being told in the lives of real believers in Israel and the Middle East today.
Alive and growing!
The progress of the Messianic movement in Israel has been well documented. For instance, an evangelical church leader living in Jerusalem says there are at least 12 evangelical Israeli churches ministering in Jerusalem alone. And across Israel, in Holon, in Beersheva, in Karmiel, Eilat, and elsewhere, people are being reached for the Messiah and discipled to witness to their neighbors and friends.
But what of the evangelical Arab church in Israel and the Middle East? Does it exist? If so, is there vitality and outreach within its ranks?
My travels in Israel and conversations with church leaders have convinced me that the Arab Church is alive and growing! But firm statistics on the state of the church are hard to obtain. Evangelical leaders know they need to define the number of Arab evangelical churches in Jerusalem and the territories. However, they are hesitant to publish any statistics because of the dangers of persecution from Muslim extremists.
Though exact numbers are not available, it's safe to say that in Israel there are approximately the same number of believers in Arab congregations as in Israeli Messianic churches - between three and five thousand. If nominal Arab Christians are included, the size of the Arab Christian community is larger than the believing Jewish community.
Numbers aside, the real measure of the vitality of the Arab church is found in meeting individual believers. Near the end of September I preached at a Shabbat service to a congregation in Karmiel, an Israeli town in the Lower Galilee. As the service progressed, it become evident that the woman translating from Russian to Hebrew was unable to fully translate some of the biblical content of my message.
An Arab believer in the predominantly Jewish congregation moved to the woman's side and began to explain to her and the other Russians what I was saying in clear, simple Russian.
Following the service, I learned he had spent years in school in Russia and knew the language intimately. How interesting the Lord should provide for a Jewish congregation on the Jewish Shabbat an Arab believer who could so beautifully translate Hebrew into Russian. The body of Christ knows no ethnic boundaries.
The danger from Islam
The most obvious danger to the Arab church is Islamization. Islamization is the process of forcing Arab Christians to leave an area where they have lived from ancient days so as to make that area totally Muslim. Bethlehem is a prime example of this process at work.
The goal of extremist Palestinian Muslim leaders is a totally Muslim population arrayed against Israel. In their minds, Israel is a Muslim country since it was conquered by Muslim forces in past centuries. The desire of the extremist Muslim community is for a homeland that is Muslim to the core. Arab Christianity is impediment to that aim.
The Jewish leadership is indifferent to the ongoing Islamization of the territories. As a result many Arab believers have emigrated to western countries where they may worship the Lord without fear for their lives and enjoy more fully the fruits of their labor.
I have found most Arabs reluctant to admit to outsiders that Islamization goes on, perhaps due to pride in their heritage and political kinship with other Palestinians. However, Arab believers who are my close friends confess this is a real reason for the dwindling Christian population in the territories and the cause of many Arabs departing the Middle East. Thankfully, most evangelical Arabs are staying; their conviction of the need to be counted for the Savior has kept many of them in the Land.
Three Arab viewpoints of Jewish believers
The reactions of the Arab Christian community toward Jewish believers varies widely throughout this small land. Many nominal Arab Christians seem openly and aggressively Palestinian in their outlook, though they are not necessarily supporters of Yasser Arafat. The pastor of an Arab Church in Jerusalem told me plainly that the God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New Testament, but an Israeli tribal god who no longer exists. This same pastor is said to have torn the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) from the Bible while lecturing, saying it was not fit to be a part of the Bible. Yet God's promise that the Jewish people who have turned to Messiah will, at His second advent, possess the city is found not only in the Old Testament but also in the New.
A far more encouraging example of the relationship between Arab and Jewish believers is an annual mass meeting of Arab, Jewish, Russian, and Ethiopian believers. I attended the 12th annual such meeting this past August at the Golani Junction in the Galilee. It was thrilling to see the unity of the body of Christ as church leaders from each ethnic group intertwined arms and prayed before an audience of nearly 600. Each leader prayed for unity among the members of the body of Christ and that these likehearted believers would witness unabashed of their Savior to their friends and neighborhoods in all Israel. It was an Arab pastor who spoke with vigor about a strong witness to the whole community.
This groups also sponsors a prayer chain with members representing each segment of the body of Christ in the Galilee praying for the needs of one another. The leaders of these congregations also hold regular meetings to cement their unity in a workable coalition.
Another movement of reconciliation between Arab and Jewish believers is Musalaha, led by Salim Munayer, a teacher at the Bethlehem Bible College, an Arab evangelical Bible school.
Musalaha is an Arabic word meaning reconciliation. This ministry seeks to foster reconciliation between Jewish and Arab believers through tours, camping trips, and conferences with church leaders from both Arab and Jewish congregations. Musalaha spends more than $100,000 per year to reach its goal; it tries to raise most of its budget from foreign mission groups working in Israel.
Musalaha's focus is trust, fellowship, and mutual ministry among Jewish and Arab believers. Feelings of alienation between formerly hostile ethnic groups are not easily resolved, and pride in Palestinian and Israeli identities is not easily surrendered. But the desire to transcend political and ethnic origins and to encourage dialogue on the reality of Christian beliefs is a token of the vitality of the body of Christ among Arab and Israeli believers.
The Musalaha movement is in the center of Israel and does not have the same evangelistic fervor as was apparent in the mass meeting in the Galilee. As far as the Musalaha believers are concerned, dialogue and agreement must precede evangelistic outreach.
This difference in focus illustrates the division that still exists between Palestinian Arab believers of the territories and the Israeli Arabs of the north. Palestinian believers in the territories resist strongly the name 'Israeli'. This was apparent when the Palestinian believers of Jerusalem and the territories wanted to carry the Palestinian flag as symbolic of their separate identity at a 1995 meeting on world evangelism. Only the plea of leaders who underscored the disruption the flag would bring to the conference prevented the Palestinian believers from carrying out their desire.
The Arab church beyond Israel
What about the Church in the rest of the Middle East? Western believers are often surprised to learn that there are 17 growing evangelical Arab churches in Damascus, Syria, under just one denominational mission. They are forbidden to proselytize, but have a freedom of ministry among the rest of the population. The Syrian Church is on the move!
There is a growing Church in Jordan and a vital evangelical Church in Lebanon. There is opposition from fundamentalist Muslim movements as has been seen in Iran with the martyrdom of many church leaders. Persecution and even martyrdom are not unusual for evangelical believers who minister in the Middle East. Therefore, I deliberately leave out names of leaders in order not to jeopardize their ministry.
There is, however, significant growth by Middle Eastern standards in the number of Muslims coming to the Savior in some of these countries. To tell what evangelistic initiatives are being used would compromise sources that speak of this growth with joy. The Lord of Glory is building His Church, and the gates of hell will not prevent the growth of the remnant from the seed of Abraham through Isaac and Ishmael.
How God used a false report
An interesting insight on how the Church in Syria and Jordan got its momentum comes from friends in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. When Israel proclaimed itself a state in 1948, it was falsely rumored the Jews would massacre the Arabs. Fearing for their lives, Arabs from Israel fled to other lands in the Middle East. Some of those who had been meeting at a church in West Jerusalem went to Jordan, others to Syria, and so on. They proclaimed the Gospel in their new homes and have seen growth and blessing in the churches they established.
Children of those early Arab pioneers of the faith are still leading the churches in these lands. The desire of one leader in one of the predominant Arab lands of the Middle East is to someday come to Jerusalem and proclaim the Gospel of Messiah Jesus to Jewish people.
Apart from their dispersion from the church in West Jerusalem on the basis of a false report, the Church in these Arab lands would not have grown as it has. Today, God is still at work among both Jews and Arabs. They are not coming to Messiah en masse, but in the face of persecution they are coming in increasing numbers. The numbers are small compared to the reports of many evangelists in western countries, but true Christianity has always been a minority of the larger population. Both Arab and Jewish believers are rejoicing in their Savior who has no ethnic nor color barriers as He builds His Church.
Previous issues of Israel Heartbeat available on-line:
July 1996: The Israeli Elections
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