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From Terror to Love

Rev. Doug Pratt — March 14, 2010
 

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Lives Transformed by Christ

The theme for today is about how one’s life can be transformed by Christ. We have seen that in the story of a young man named Tony Morales who, as a child growing up in the Dominican Republic, received financial support through Compassion International child sponsorship. The education and Christian guidance he received as a Compassion child opened doors for him that would have been otherwise unimaginable in his small village.

In this message I want to tell you the story of another young man whose life has been dramatically changed by Jesus Christ. His story is exploding onto the consciousness of the world right now—and it also reflects another time, some twenty centuries ago, when a similar transformation happened. We think of human history as being a one-way march, but there are actually times when, for those who have discerning eyes, history takes on the appearance of a network “re-run” in the summertime—and we find ourselves thinking, I’ve seen this before. Because human nature and the human drama haven’t changed (in spite of all our technological and political revolutions), we should not be surprised to discover that the eternal God is working the same way inside people as He has for thousands of years.

A new book was published just 12 days ago entitled Son of Hamas. It’s the autobiographical, controversial and thrilling account of a young man named Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the top leaders of the Hamas terrorist group among the Palestinians. The book has received rapt reviews by some media outlets. Others have tried to ignore it, because it contradicts and refutes their own political and ideological bias. I bought a copy four days after its publication and could not put it down. It’s a story that has all the elements of the most gripping spy drama from the cold war, every bit the action and intrigue of a Joel Rosenberg or Tom Clancy novel—and yet its underlying message is one of incredible and unexpected spiritual transformation.

I’m going to describe his story, then connect it to a well-known story in the Bible and, finally, draw some applications for our own times.

The Story of Mosab/Moses

Mosab’s name is an Arabic version of “Moses.” I do not know if this “Moses” will lead his own people to spiritual liberation as the original Moses did; but if his people will listen to his message, that message can liberate them like nothing else can. Mosab, or Moses, is the son of one of the founders of Hamas. He grew up learning the terrorism “business” at the feet of his father.

And a nasty business it was: organizing premeditated protests and violence in the so-called “Intifada” or “uprising,” recruiting and sending out naive suicide bombers to their deaths, smuggling bombs and weapons, and inflicting pain and tragedy on innocent Israelis and Palestinians alike. Any illusions about Yasser Arafat and the PLO being anything other than terrorist thugs interested only in their own profit and power are forever dismissed. Young Moses was rapidly rising towards the upper ranks of Hamas.

And then, during an imprisonment for weapon-smuggling in an Israeli jail, his eyes began to open. As rough as his captors were, the internal violence by Hamas agents within the prison towards their fellow Palestinians was far more brutal. On his release, Moses was in Jerusalem on his father’s business when a cab driver he met gave him an Arabic New Testament and invited him to attend a secret Bible study session. As Moses began to read, and to listen to the experiences of others, he found himself “really drawn to the grace, love and humanity that Jesus talked about.” He was also secretly approached by the Israeli intelligence agency, who asked him to serve them as an informant in order to limit the violence. Within a short period of time in his early 20’s Moses (or Mosab) made two fateful decisions. First, he decided that he would function as a secret agent, helping the Israelis to cut off the weapons and the bloodshed. And second, he decided to be a secret follower of Jesus Christ and keep learning His ways.

In the book Moses gives hints (though he is reluctant to reveal too many specifics for fear of endangering others) that he was critical to the Israeli police foiling bomb plots and assassination attempts. He also persuaded his father to offer a truce to Israel, and to restrain the most radical elements of the jihadists. When the Israelis arrested his father, Moses successfully appealed for him to be imprisoned rather than executed. Though he acknowledges that he will be viewed by some of his people as a traitor, he believes that he was not only acting consistently with the teachings of Jesus, but was also acting for the ultimate good of the Palestinians by collaborating with the Israelis.

I had seen enough killing. I was a witness to lots of death. Saving a human life was something really, really beautiful, no matter who they are. Many Israeli people owe me their lives, though they don’t know it, and also many terrorists and many Palestinian leaders owe me their lives … actually it’s not to me they owe gratitude, but to the Lord who has preserved them.

This young man, now 32, moved to California a few years ago, where he lives under cover, is involved with a Christian church, and began to work on his book. He’s not likely to travel a lot, because many radical Islamists want to kill him. But his story is one that the Middle East—in fact the entire Muslim world—needs to hear. It’s really not a story about religious conversion. Rather, it’s a story of a man who has awakened to the truth about the greatest Man who ever lived. This is how Moses explains his change within:

I was convinced by Jesus Christ, as a character, as a personality. I loved Him: His wisdom, His love—such an unconditional love. I didn’t leave the Islamic religion to put myself in another box of religion. Instead, I have invited Jesus Christ into my life.

The Story of Saul/Paul

Now let’s step into our imaginary time machine and travel back nearly 2000 years. We find another ambitious and talented Middle Eastern young man bent on a course of violence and terror. He, too, has the name of a great leader of the past: Saul. And he, too, is making a name for himself by brutalizing innocent people. Here’s the account, from the Book of Acts in the New Testament:

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria [the area known today as Israel and the West Bank or Palestine]. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
Acts 8:1-3 (NIV)

Meanwhile Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.” Acts 9:1-5 (NIV)

This young terrorist Saul underwent a dramatic change. He even changed his name, to Paul. God used him to help turn many of his own people (the Jews) and many people of other nations (known as the Gentiles), to a personal relationship with the same Jesus whom he met quite dramatically on the Damascus Turnpike. Only time will tell if the young Moses (or Mosab) of our own time will have a similar impact.

But the similarities in their stories are quite remarkable. This is how Paul summed up the change that took place in him, in his letter to the Philippians:

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him … I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him…
Philippians 3:8-10

In case you missed it, let me spell it out plainly. Saul became Paul and turned his life 180 degrees not because he was converting from one religion to another. Rather, he was transformed by a relationship with one Man, the greatest Man who ever lived, the One who taught a message the world had never heard, and then sacrificed Himself on the cross and rose from the dead to offer a newness that nothing else could ever bring.

Conclusions

Because our time is short, I want to move directly to three simple lessons that I believe we can learn from these two stories of “terror to love,” the story of a Persecutor of the Church and the story of a Palestinian Radical who both found new lives. Two of these conclusions will have a reference to our broader world, and the final is a message for each of us personally.

1. The Reality of Today’s Middle East

My first conclusion relates to the reality of today’s Middle East and, specifically, the nature of the contemporary state of Israel and the Palestinian leadership.

Young Moses/Mosab discovered how bright and aggressive and competent the Israeli military and security services are. There is no question that the Israelis have done some unjust things, and innocent Palestinians have suffered “collateral damage” from the ongoing violence. The political left wing in the U.S. and Europe has, for strange reasons, chosen to demonize Israel and romanticize the Palestinians. That is both naive and inaccurate. Both sides need to apply the lessons of Christ—forgiveness and mutual forbearance and respect to one another—if there is going to be a permanent peace. The Israelis are guilty, but the deepest bloodstains are on the hands of Arafat and Hamas.

Israel is a formidable foe to the radical Islamists bent on destroying it—including the lunatics and power mongers who have seized control of Iran. Not only are those thugs inflicting a brutal dictatorship on their own people, they are also as blinded by a warped ideology and lust for world domination as Adolf Hitler was 70 years ago. Although our own nation has been curiously timid and fearful—almost “Neville Chamberlain-esque”—in dealing with the terrorists running Iran, Israel will not be so timid. They are formidable.

2. The Delusion at the Core of Islam

My second conclusion: those who are practicing an Islam-based terror campaign worldwide are ultimately, at the core, being deluded by a false and dangerous misconception of God. Mosab Youssef, from his life within Islam, says this:

My father has been trying to do the will of a fanatic, terrorist god. I know this is harsh to say, and most governments avoid this subject. They don’t want to admit that this is an ideological war. But the problem is not with individual Muslims as people. The problem is with their god. They need to be liberated from that god. He is their biggest enemy. For 1400 years they have been lied to. They need to see who the true God is, in the face of Jesus.

Those are powerful words from a man who knows. The answer is not tolerance or appeasement or acquiescence to the Muslim distortion. The answer is found in Christ’s message, and in surrender to Him, the God of love—not the brutal “Allah.”

3. A Pastor’s Appeal

My final conclusion is a personal one, for each of us. My appeal to you is this: Please do not try to become more religious. That may be a surprising thing to hear a pastor say, but I mean it. Religion is a human effort to try to please or gain approval from a god. Religion has been practiced for all of recorded time, and it has produced as many vices and distortions as it has virtues.

Don’t become more religious. Instead, follow the path of Mosab and Paul: get to know Jesus Christ. Form a relationship with Him, enjoy that relationship in intimate daily fellowship, and grow to know Him better. Let Him lead you within. If, out of love for Him, you end up doing things that others might consider to be “religious,” so be it. But you will be acting for entirely different reasons. The customs and rituals of churches are man-made, because churches themselves are human organizations. But what really matters, for all time and eternity, is simply this: Do you know Jesus Christ?