My brother Chet and sister-in-law Allison (IBEX Fall 99!) gave me a book for my birthday that I thought was worth sharing about here. The Costly Call, by Emir Caner and H. Edward Pruitt is subtitled, “Modern-Day Stories of Muslims Who Found Jesus.” This 150-page book gives the accounts of twenty men and women from all over the Muslim world. It is interesting, inspiring, and recommended. What struck me as I read it were the common themes that were to be found in many of the stories and I thought it would be profitable to share them here in case you don’t have time to read the book.

The first and most obvious theme, given the title of the book, is the extreme persecution that many of these believers faced when they came to Christ. Physical assaults, arrest and imprisonment, and rejection by family were common. It strikes me that herein we see a distinction between the natures of Christianity and Islam. When someone leaves the faith in Christianity, he is not beaten or arrested (and in times past when such happened, e.g., the Inquisition, it was clearly not biblical Christianity). But the nature of Islam is violent and ugly. This reflects the spiritual origin of the religion.

A second reality I observed was that in almost all cases the convert had contact with a Westerner. Because Muslim countries tend to be all-Muslim, there are not usually opportunities to hear the faith from your neighbor. Consequently, I got to anticipate the arrival of the Westerner in each story – someone from whom they could hear the gospel.

The methods of how the Westerner shared his/her faith differed. Sometimes the Westerner was more forward; sometimes the Muslim inquirer had to ask many questions in pursuit of the truth. But common to a number of the stories was the observation by the Muslim of the integrity of the Westerner. Often it was this honesty that started the Muslim questioning. In more cases than not, the Westerner was a businessman and not a missionary, but his practices set him apart.

A third observation was a little more disturbing to me personally. The authors seemed to go to some lengths to include the role of visions in the conversions. I am certainly not going to deny that the Lord may work this way today, but I am troubled by the apparent significance that the vision played in some of the accounts. If it is the vision that was the cause of faith, there are some problems:

1. All would recognize that not all “visions” are valid. Some may be the result of illness, drugs, or non-divine spiritual activity. If the convert has a vision next week of Muhammad, would that change his faith again?
2. The Bible indicates that the world has sufficient witness to the Lord and His Son through the creation and Scripture. But if it takes a vision to bring a Muslim to Christ, does that leave an excuse for those who do not have visions?
3. It would seem to undermine the purpose of this book (which is revealed at the end and I’m not going to give away), if visions are the normative method for bringing about conversion.

It is true that in each account Scripture also plays a role (sometimes more or less in relation to the vision), and the authors never suggest that a conversion occurred completely absent the Bible.

A final observation is the resultant life of the convert. They were not the half-hearted, slow-to-grow “believers” that are too often seen in America. If they came to faith, it was genuine and there was significant and immediate fruit. Sometimes that meant not renouncing Christ when being beaten nearly to death. Oftentimes that meant sharing the faith with family and leading many to Christ.

This book is fast and easy to read. It is especially recommended for those 1) thinking about going to the Muslim world for business or missions; 2) who want to pray better for the Muslim world; 3) who don’t give a rip about praying for the salvation of Muslims.