If you consider persecution to be a distant, personally irrelevant phenomenon, pick up "The Calling" or "God's Call." Written by Open Doors International founder Brother Andrew, with Verne Becker, the books recount Andrew's dramatic meetings with world leaders and clandestine encounters with persecuted Christians in China, Africa and even in repressive Muslim nations. The Calling also contains sidebar testimonies from Christians who are passionately living their lives for Christ in spite of intense persecution.
Brother Andrew and publisher Baker Book House will release "God's Call" and its youth-oriented version, "The Calling," Oct. 1.
In God's Call and The Calling, Brother Andrew reveals why it is necessary to share Christianity with the world. Even before last year's terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, Andrew's words, written six years prior, warned of the urgency of reaching out to Muslim and Arab groups.
"We've seen that they are still reachable, because anyone who is reachable is winnable," writes Andrew. "We've seen that there is a startling openness to the gospel among some of these people. But unless we go to them now in love and influence them in a Christian direction, the ongoing cycle of violence and revenge will force them to take hard-line, extremist positions."
In a recent interview conducted by Open Doors USA president Terry Madison, Andrew talks about how the world changed after Sept. 11, 2001, saying, "During the 'good old days' of communism, everybody knew who the 'enemy' was. It's no longer so.
Open Doors: How have things changed for Christians living in the Muslim world?
Andrew: Christians are paying the price for how Muslim fundamentalists perceive the "Christian West." They already had a persecution complex and see us as perpetrators. They can't get at us easily. They can, however, get at the local and national Christians.
Open Doors: And there's no political solution?
Andrew: The so-called worldwide coalition that's been put together to fight terrorism includes a lot of countries where there's a lot of persecution. It limits what we can do politically to fight persecution. Temporarily, I hope. I saw the same pattern under communism. The moment you sting communism, then the communists in power put the pressure back on the church because globally the church is still identified with Western missionaries in most of these countries. In the Middle East it's even more risky because they factor in Israel and they know that many churches, though not all, back Israel. Therefore the church becomes the enemy of Islam.
Open Doors: What countries have degenerated the most for Christians because of the Sept. 11 events?
Andrew: In some ways it's general. But Pakistan, Indonesia and Nigeria have all had confirmed reports of attacks directly related to Sept. 11 and the U.S. response.
Open Doors: What can we do?
Andrew: One, we must step up our efforts to evangelize the Muslims. There is a general decrease in missions giving toward the Muslim World, which is very much self-defeating. Second, we must reach out to the Christians in these places, just as we've always done, to "strengthen what remains" (Rev. 3:2) -- even in a place like Bethlehem. Christians are leaving because there is no future in the West Bank. But there is still something that remains; now we must go in and strengthen it. How else will either Jew or Arab or Muslim know who Jesus is? Open Doors is a mission, and proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom of God is the only solution -- not politics, not military power, not revolution.
Open Doors: Are you seeing this strengthening and proclamation take place?
Andrew: Not in the Muslim world at the moment because the trend is still the other way. But we have seen it in the past in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. One of the reasons for the downfall of communism was the strength of the church in which we, and many others, had a part. The opportunity is there in the Muslim World, but it's not happening yet.
