Author: Bruce

Results to Iraq’s Ethnic Christians

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What will happen to Iraq’s Christian ethnic minorities when the Americans leave?

Chaldeans and Assyrians once ruled great empires from Babylon and Nineveh respectively. Their Christian institutions are among the oldest in the world. Their language is the world’s closest to the Aramaic that Jesus spoke. Their Syriac New Testament is the oldest of all New Testament translation traditions.

Even after the 7th century Arab invasions, they maintained regional majorities and cultural dominance until the 13-14th century withdrawal of invading Mongols with whom they had sympathized against Arabs rulers.

In the ensuing backlash of persecution they became a minority. In the early 20th century, they allied with the colonizing British. Then, they were halved in size and influence again in persecutions that followed the British withdrawal.

All of this history jumps from the pages of Philip Jenkin’s new book, The Lost History of Christianity.

Less obvious may be how Iraq’s ethnic Christian minorities may also have only themselves to blame. After all, they’ve had over a thousand years of living among Arabs in which to convert them. Today that job is falling to others.

In the video clip (above) pay close attention to the final interview with one of Iraq’s ethnic minority Christian leaders. If he speaks for the consensus in the historic minority church that is in Iraq, then that might explain why they are being removed from the Middle Eastern scene.

Book Review: Lost History of Christianity

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Is Christianity in Asia a foundation or a carcass?

Once upon a time, non-European (and non-Roman Catholic) Christians outnumbered European ones by more than ten to one. What happened and why?

Is what is happening to Christianity in Europe today parallel to what happened to Christianity outside of Europe nearly one millennium ago?

In the Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How it Died, Philip Jenkins provides scholarly and riveting insight. No other history book on the shelves today is as important for understanding contemporary times.

Book Review: Three Revolutions in Islam

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With Inside the Revolution Joel Rosenberg brings the color and excitement of his best-selling novels to a scholarly analysis of the Global War on Terror (now called “overseas contingency operations”). He describes, from an Evangelical perspective, how the world is not so much consumed by a “Clash of Civilizations” as it is affected by clashing movements within the Muslim world. For Joel, Osama Bin Laden, Thomas Jefferson, and Jesus Christ are icons representing the three competing revolutionary ideologies. Joel’s work captures the situation’s complexity and gravity better than any other work in print today.

General Order #1 and Great Commission

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General Order #1 which prohibits deployed service personnel from “proselytizing” supports good theology. Christians never convert anybody anyway. It’s God that does the converting.

Jesus tells his disciples they will “be” witnesses to the ends of the earth, not that we will “do” witnessing (Acts 1:8). Paul says “some” are called to be evangelists, not everyone (Eph 4:11). The job of every Christian soldier in Afghanistan is to “be” a testimony, not to “do” evangelism. “Being a testimony” does not violate General Order #1.

In its original Greek language, Jesus’ Great Commission (Mat 28:19-20) literally says, “as you are going” (participle) “disciple” (main verb) “the ethno-linguistic groups” (direct object). The command is not to disciple individuals on a one-on-one basis like we individualistic Americans like to think about it. The command is to disciple whole ethno-linguistic groups. “Baptizing” and “teaching” (more modifying participles) are functions of the church not individuals.

The Great Commission is basically a command to transform whole communities at a time and is not restricted to one-on-one evangelism. Such a mission is a multi-disciplined or “combined arms” process requiring people with many different gifts and callings. The soldiers, with stability operations and a good testimony, are contributing to the combined effort of transforming whole communities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

General Order #1 prevents soldiers from distributing Bibles in local languages, but it does not prevent people who are not soldiers (i.e. returning Afghan refugees) from translating, distributing, and teaching God’s word in a newly stabilized environment.

So what can soldiers “do” under General Order #1 to faithfully “be” witnesses and contribute to community transformation? For more Dos and Don’ts see the Dos and Don’ts for Deployment page.

Witnessing Soldiers Provoke Outrage

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If you google the words, “Witness for Jesus in Afghanistan.” you will find an article and a video on Al-Jazeera’s English language web site about a “plot” by soldiers to distribute New Testaments in Afghan languages.

Here is the link to that Al-Jazeera article: LINK
Here is a link to YouTube video of the incident. LINK

In Muslim majority communities, even the appearance of soldiers trying to convert Muslims threatens security and risks lives. That’s one reason why this web site is important. It seeks to help service personnel to have a cross-cultural testimony without endangering lives and national security.

Prayer Letters from Tour in Iraq

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While on my last tour of duty I published a regular prayer letter for my friends and supporters. These prayer newsletters are intended to help mobilize spiritual resources for what is ultimately a spiritual struggle. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)