Saada not only willingly and eagerly prayed that prayer, he become a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ from that moment forward.
A Minister of the Gospel
“I was a Palestinian sniper,” Saada would later tell me. “But then I fell in love with a Savior who loves Arabs as well as Jews.”
In his remarkable book, Once An Arafat Man, Saada explained his realization that the God of the Bible loves us all with an unfathomable, everlasting, unquenchable love. He explained that God’s love is so amazing, so divine, that He actually offers all of us—Jew and Gentile alike—the free gift of salvation through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. And he explained that God wants to adopt each one of us into His own family. He wants to bless us. He wants to take care of us. He wants to heal us and change us and make us more like Him. And He wants to empower us to be a blessing to others.
Given Saada’s upbringing and life experiences, it is remarkable that he said yes to that divine love. Indeed, it is miraculous, but that is exactly what happened, and in the process, Saada was changed forever. Before long, his whole immediate family had come to faith in Christ. Eventually, God called him to be a minister of the gospel and even gave him the opportunity to share the message of salvation with his old boss, Yasser Arafat, before the PLO chairman’s death in 2004.
Saada also humbly shared the message of Christ’s love and forgiveness with his parents and brothers, still living in the Gulf area, many of whom wanted to kill him for converting away from Islam. And eventually, he and his wife, Karen, began a ministry to reach out to the poor and needy in Gaza and the West Bank—especially children—with God’s love through the distribution of humanitarian relief supplies in the name of Jesus.
That is how Saada and I met.
It was a Saturday night in January 2008, and I had been invited to preach at a church in Jerusalem. My sermon title was “What God Is Doing among the Muslims.” This was not a typical message for an audience of Jewish and Gentile Christ-followers in Israel. But after much prayer, I felt the Lord wanted me to share with my Israeli friends what He had told me to share with my Jordanian friends when I preached in Amman several years earlier:
We need to get serious about obeying Jesus’ command to love our neighbors and our enemies. We can only do this when we have the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through our lives. But when we do—when we truly obey Jesus’ teachings and the model He set for us—heads will turn. People will be shocked when they see us love those who hate us. Then they will ask questions. Their hearts will be softened. They will be curious to know more about the God we serve. And then, hopefully, they will want to know this God personally for themselves.
I had told the Jordanian followers of Jesus that this meant it was time to start loving their Jewish neighbors and enemies. That night in Jerusalem, I told the Israeli believers that this meant loving their Muslim neighbors and enemies and believing that the God of the Bible truly loves all people everywhere, including those who hate Him and His children.
I explained that behind the headlines of all the Middle Eastern wars and rumors of wars and revolutions and acts of terror, God is actually moving in an incredibly powerful way. People in the epicenter are coming to Christ in record numbers. Millions in Iran. Millions in Sudan. Millions in Pakistan. Millions in Egypt. And many more throughout the rest of the region. It is truly stunning to behold. The question I posed for Israeli believers is the question I pose for all of us who claim to be followers of Jesus: what role does the Lord have for us in strengthening our brothers and sisters who come to Christ from a Muslim background, and how can we actively love our neighbors and our enemies when, humanly speaking, this is impossible?
That was the message I had come to Jerusalem to share, and who was the first couple I was introduced to that night as I came through the front door of the church? Tass and Karen Saada.
I had never met them before. When they told me their story, I was deeply moved. Here we were, a former aide to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and a former aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hugging each other—not trying to kill each other—in the heart of Jerusalem. All because of the work Jesus had done to give us hearts of love rather than hatred.
I had a sense that this was the beginning of a story, not the end. And sure enough, the very next day, the Saadas and my team and I decided to travel together with several Israeli colleagues to the Israeli city of Ashkelon. There we visited the Barzilai Medical Center, a hospital that treats Jews and Arabs wounded in the ongoing border skirmishes that have plagued that region for so long.
As we met with the hospital administrators, Tass and I both presented checks from our respective ministries to help finance the purchase of much-needed medical equipment. When the doctors and staff asked why we had come to bless them, we both told them our stories. Tass explained that he had been born just a few miles south of where we were gathered and had been raised with a desire to kill everyone in the room where we were sitting.
“You really worked for the PLO?” asked one doctor.
Tass nodded.
“Then what happened? What changed you?” another asked.
Tass gave all the credit to Jesus Christ. He briefly explained how God had changed his heart and given him a love for the Jewish people.
And then he stunned us all. He asked the hospital staff to forgive him for what he and the Palestinian people had done over the years to harm them. It was a powerful moment. Everyone was in tears. These Israelis had never seen anything like it. Honestly, few people have.
The Rise of the Revivalists
Tass Saada is no longer a Radical—he is a Revivalist.
He no longer believes that Islam is the answer. He no longer believes jihad is the way. He believes that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one—Jew or Gentile, Radical or Reformer—can have a personal relationship with God without accepting that Jesus is the Messiah, just as the Bible teaches in John 14:6.
Though Saada would certainly prefer to see Reformers in power in the Middle East rather than Radicals, I have not found him to be a particularly political person by nature. He believes he is part of a much greater and more important revolution—a spiritual revolution to save souls and change lives. He believes passionately that the only way for the people of the Middle East to move forward and make real and lasting social, economic, and spiritual progress is to make a choice to skip back in their history and revive what once was so prevalent in the region before Islam—first-century, New Testament, biblical Christianity.
Saada has completely dedicated his life to making sure that all the people in the Middle East—especially all Muslims—have the opportunity before they die to hear and understand the claims of Jesus Christ in their own language and make their own decision to follow Him or reject Him.
Revivalists like Saada argue with great conviction that biblical Christianity is not a Western, colonialist, or imperialist religion. Nor is it some foreign ideology imposed on the Muslim world to enslave or hinder it. Rather, Revivalists assert that biblical Christianity is a movement that was born in the Middle East, one that spread rapidly to all corners of the Middle East, one that then spread all over the globe, and one that is destined by biblical prophecy to be dramatically revived in the Middle East just before Jesus Christ returns to set up His Kingdom on earth, based in the Holy City of Jerusalem.
They believe that Christianity is a spiritually and personally liberating force, the most powerful liberating force in human history. They believe that a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ changes hearts so that the violent become men and women of peace and reconciliation. And they believe this not because someone told them about it but because they have experienced it for themselves.
As you will see in this final section—as you will hear in their own words—the Revivalists know firsthand that the gospel changes the hearts of the fearful into hearts filled with courage and hope, that it changes those who were wracked wi
th sin and guilt into those who experience the joy of forgiveness and a new life. And again, they know it because they have experienced it themselves.
If you travel through the Middle East, you will meet many ex-Muslims who will tell you, as they have told me, that they have seen dreams and visions of Jesus, who personally told them to follow Him. They readily identify with the apostle Paul, who described his own conversion in his letter to the Galatians saying, “I neither received [the gospel] from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12). These former Muslims are stunned by the way God has changed their lives, especially given the fact that many of them, like Paul, used to “persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.” Like Paul, they were “extremely zealous” for their “ancestral traditions” (Galatians 1:13-14). Like Paul—the greatest apostle in the history of Christendom, a man who wrote much of the New Testament—they, too, were once religious extremists who hated Jesus and all of His followers.
Yet they also personally and deeply identify with Paul’s words in Galatians 1:15-24: “But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem . . . but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus. . . . Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia [Turkey and Armenia] . . . [and the people] kept hearing, ‘He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.’ And they were glorifying God because of me.”
The Revivalists say that what happened in the early Church two thousand years ago is happening again today.
What Revivalists Want
When asked what they want, Revivalists like Saada and others point to Matthew 28:18-20, where Jesus told His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
They say that because Jesus is God, He has all power. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Thus, when He gives His disciples an order, it must be followed. And that order, they note, is to preach the gospel to the whole world and make disciples—not just “Christians” but truly dedicated and devoted Christ-followers—of “all the nations.”
Not just the safe nations.
Not just the democratic nations.
Not just the free market nations.
Jesus told His disciples to go make more disciples in all the nations.
Even the difficult nations.
Even the dangerous nations.
Even the Radical nations.
Indeed, the Revivalists say the Bible provides a specific geographic game plan. In Acts 1:8, Jesus told His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
The directive is clear, the Revivalists say. Jesus told them to start the Church in the epicenter, in Jerusalem, where He died and rose again. Then He commanded His disciples to take the gospel to the West Bank and Gaza and beyond in a series of concentric circles radiating out from Jerusalem and extending even to the remotest and most desolate parts of the world. By definition, this includes the entire Islamic world.
Reaching the entire world—and particularly the world of Islam—with the gospel is an enormously challenging mission. Many Revivalists readily concede that humanly speaking they feel overwhelmed by the task. Often they feel physically weak, or emotionally frail, or intimidated by the Radicals, or not nearly educated enough to make the most intellectual case for why a Muslim should become a follower of Christ.
Yet they say their encouragement and strength come from biblical promises like Matthew 28 and Acts 1, in which Jesus promises to be with them always. He also promises to give them access to God’s supernatural power, the power of the Holy Spirit, as they obey Him in reaching the people of all nations—including Muslims—with the gospel. He promises to guide them. He promises to strengthen them. He promises to give them the right words to say and sufficient courage in the face of danger. And they say they have seen God keep His promises time and time again.
So these Christ-followers say they intend to fulfill the “Great Commission” that Jesus has given them, whatever may befall them, even persecution, torture, and death. They ask, “If Jesus loved us so much that He gave up His life for us at the hands of His enemies, shouldn’t we be willing to die in His service if that is necessary?”
Unlike the Radicals, the Revivalists are not seeking death or trying to become martyrs. They want to live as long as possible to reach as many Muslims with the gospel as possible. They point to Deuteronomy 30:19, where God instructs His followers to “choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.” They point to Romans 12:1, where the apostle Paul says, “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” They have no intention, therefore, of blowing themselves up as suicide bombers or doing other kinds of violence to kill “infidels.” They are commanded to be living sacrifices—people devoting their very lives to serve and to save the lives of others.
Nevertheless, they know full well that Jesus also taught His disciples there will be fierce opposition. They know they need to be ready to die at any moment. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me,” Jesus said in Luke 9:23-24. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.”
Two Different Approaches
It should be noted at the outset that not all Revivalists operate alike.
There are hundreds of different creative strategies being used to win Muslims to Christ and help them grow in their faith, but in terms of philosophy of ministry, there are two basic approaches, and they are distinctly different. This was a point driven home to me as I interviewed Salim, the director of one of the largest ministries in the Middle East, a man with several thousand Arab, Iranian, and other national believers working with him as paid staff and volunteers in every Islamic country in North Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia.
“Joel, I see two groups among the Revivalists,” Salim told me. “First, there are those who say, ‘Islam is wrong and is not the answer,’ and they are preaching that Jesus is the way. And there is a second group that says, ‘We’re preaching Jesus alone, not criticizing Islam.’ For example, our ministry preaches simply that Jesus is the Son of God and the only way of salvation. We explain His teachings. We explain His miracles. We explain His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. We teach His love for the poor and the needy and women and the outcasts. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:1-2, ‘When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.’ We never mention Islam. We never mention Muhammad. We just preach Christ. Period. There are other ministries that specifically teach that Muhammad is not a prophet and that Islam is wrong to say that Jesus is not the Son of God. And then they explain why Jesus really is the Son of God. . . . I wouldn’t say that one is more effective than the other, but we find there is a huge benefit to simply preaching Christ’s love as the positive, hopeful message it is to those Muslims who are hungering for truth and have become disillusioned and disenchanted with Islam.”561
Salim noted that the ministries that are confronting Islam directly are, for the most part, waging an “air war” through radio and satellite television (as well as the Internet) for Muslim hearts and minds that have typically been closed
to—and sometimes violently opposed to—the gospel message. For security reasons, the leaders of these ministries typically operate from outside the region or from its perimeters, so they are not in immediate danger of being killed by Muslims enraged by their criticisms of Muhammad and the Qur’an.
By contrast, those ministries that are preaching the gospel without ever mentioning Islam are typically waging a “ground war” inside hostile Muslim territory. Their leaders—and, more important, their disciples and volunteers—are talking to Muslims face-to-face, one-on-one and in small groups. They are distributing copies of the Injil (the Arabic word for New Testament). They are distributing gospel literature. They are distributing CDs and DVDs with the gospel message and information about how to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. They are holding Bible studies and house churches in the privacy of people’s homes. In short, they are operating inside the fire and focusing their efforts on Muslims who are already close to leaving Islam and open to hearing and receiving the gospel message.
I asked Salim if there was room for both approaches.
“Absolutely,” he said. “There is room for both. The benefit of those ministries that confront Islam directly is that they create controversy. They generate conversation among Muslims about what is wrong with Islam, the hypocrisy of its leaders, and the contradictions in its texts, as well as who Jesus is and what he taught. Jesus attacked the Pharisees, the religious leaders of His day. He didn’t attack the common Jews, but He faced the Jewish leaders directly with their hypocrisy. So those ministries that are confronting the Islamic leaders today have an important place. They are definitely rocking the boat. We are too. It just needs to be remembered that we are paying a price on the inside by the anger being generated from the outside.”
Inside the Revolution Page 41