Calls for a change in leadership have swelled into demonstrations and violent clashes in Egypt, two weeks after Tunisia’s government toppled amid revolution.
Christians in Egypt are waiting prayerfully to see what implications these events will have on the spread of the gospel in the region.
Egypt is the Arab world’s most populous nation, with nearly 80 million people. The Arab Republic of Egypt is transcontinental, with a land bridge between Africa and Asia.
Egypt long has been a pivotal place. It was from Egypt that God delivered the Israelites out of exodus and on Egypt’s Mount Sinai that He gave the Ten Commandments to Moses.
The history of Christianity in Egypt has been one of both tribulation and blessing. Since its beginning, Christianity in Egypt has been influential in shaping doctrine and the way believers follow Christ.
But in the wake of political unrest throughout the Middle East in countries like Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia and Yemen, Christians there are questioning what Christianity will look like for them in the future.
“There’s serious urgency here,” said Nik Ripken, who has served 25 years with the International Mission Board and is an expert on the persecuted church in Muslim contexts.
In Egypt and the rest of northern Africa and the Middle East, governments may fall. They may not fall. They may fall into these hands, or those, Ripken said. “Are we prepared to face even greater persecution for the sake of the gospel? Or what if greater freedom does come? What if there is access to the gospel unprecedented in this part of the world?”
However the storm plays out, it’s imperative that believers be standing at the ready in practical ways, Ripken said. Things could be about to get interesting, and it might not be in the form of a white knight riding in with a wagonload of New Testaments.
“There is an extremely naïve thing folks are thinking, that if the governments fall, everything will automatically go our way and be wide open,” said Greg Turner, a Christian leader in the region. “But that’s highly unlikely.” In Egypt for example, some Baptist churches have been closed since Jan. 25 because there is no longer any protection from the government, the Baptist World Alliance reported.
Turner, who did a lot of work in former Soviet countries after the fall of the Iron Curtain, said he doubts the current unrest will follow that same trail to religious freedom.
“We are talking about radically different cultural backgrounds — radically, radically different,” he said. “In the former Soviet Union, for most of the Iron Curtain countries, their background was some form of historic Christianity. Plus what had happened there was complete suppression of religion.”
But in the Middle East, the deep-rooted historical context is Islam, a religion most already claim, he said.
Ripken agrees the two aren’t parallel.
“The USSR did have a head, ‘a’ head, while Islam is a Medusa with multiple heads,” he said.
“I want us to think about what is out there to replace these governments, and there are not a lot of options.”
It’s true, Turner said. People in the region don’t have a heritage of or cultural mind-set for civil rights or democracy, so that’s not a natural assumption or desire for them. Instead, the unrest could mean military coups or elections that result in takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the world’s oldest and largest Islamist political groups. What then?
The message of a more Islamic government could be that the population has strayed from true Islam, and here is what that is supposed to look like, Ripken said.
“We can prepare for harder physical persecution of [new] believers and more discrimination for historical Christians and expulsion of western workers,” he said. “There will be martyrs. Satan will try to scare us.”
But a tighter government can also foster a greater openness in the hearts of the people at times, Turner said. In Iran, for instance, the government was overthrown but the nation ended up with even greater restrictions. “The result has been disillusionment on the part of people with their own heritage, and that has resulted in significant (Christian) growth,” he said.
With that in mind, Christians have to plan immediately for the long term, Ripken said — learn the language and culture intensively and train believers. And as we are doing it, we need to work deeply among the dispersed members of that people group in other countries, as well as using the Internet to share on a broad scale.
“We need to be always looking toward the day when the doors will begin to open, with us ready for open doors,” he said. “And when they open, we need to sow deeply.”
But what if those doors were to go ahead and open wide as a result of the current unrest? What then?
“If — pray that it happens — God opens the doors so that we can send hundreds to the Islamic world rather than single digits, will we step up and sell all that we have for the sake of the kingdom of God?” Ripken asked.
Already Christians in Tunisia have seen a change since its former president fled Jan. 14 after monthlong protests.
According to a believer in Tunisia, whereas a month ago Christians were watched and followed by government police, leaving them afraid to meet together in groups, now they are broadcasting the gospel on television and attempting to officially register their churches as recognized religious entities.
“The new sense of freedom from oppression has encouraged believers to share boldy, even standing on a speaker’s box in a public park preaching the Word openly to all those who will listen,” the believer said.
But just because doors have opened for believers in Tunisia does not guarantee the same will happen in other places.
Christians would need to work as if the doors will close in three years or less, Ripken said, and should “ring the bell loud in our churches for this period of unprecedented opportunity and call for hundreds to go and millions to be spent on their support.”
“Be urgent in the task,” he said. “From day one get the gospel into local hands. Meet the felt needs of these people for the basics of life — education, food, clean water. Share the gospel and all that Jesus did and does to show them we love them as He loves them.”
But beware the danger of drive-by ministry, he said. Avoid short-term work and trips that “seemingly make these places and people trophies” or boast about their country’s fall or misfortune.
But, no matter what happens, do sow broadly — and with love.
“This is not about democracy or totalitarianism. It is not about religion. It is about how God wants His children to live in a right relationship with Him and how that affects … how we treat our neighbors,” Ripken said.
Christians should simply “look for ways to pour out our love in ways that Jesus would do Himself if He lived bodily today,” he said.
“We always need in these places a sense of urgency to get the Word there and deeply. But ultimately God will have His way. May it be in our lifetime.”
At press time, Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak had not subcummed to the mass number of protester’s call to resign. At least 11 people had been killed during the wave of protests, including an Egyptian journalist as protesters turned their target to journalists. President Barack Obama upped its urging that Egypt make ‘an orderly transition,’ stopping short of urging President Mubarak to step down.
In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he would not run for re-election when his term ends in 2013 in light of the recent and peaceful protests.
There are increasing fears that Yemen, which is the poorest country in the Arab world and a haven for Islamic jihadists, could become Al Qaeda’s next operational and training hub.
In Lebanon, Najib Mikati was named the new prime minister Jan. 25. Backed by Hezbollah, a Shi’a Muslim militant group, there are rising concerns about Mikati despite his pledge that “his hand is extended to all Lebanese, Muslim and Christian.”
In Tunisia, the government is still in transition. (Compiled from wire services)
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