Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ

The theme of the book can probably be summed up with this quote:"Duty before self-preservation—that is a very important principle in Scripture. Do you remember when David confronted Goliath? He said that when a lion or bear attacked his father’s sheep, he went after it and killed it and rescued the sheep. Duty before self-preservation. Both father and son expected that David would do his duty to save the sheep. The heavenly Father had the same attitude toward Jesus."The story follows the lives of a few different converts from Islam into Christianity in a country where such a conversion equals death. Brother Andrew, the head of Voice of the Martyrs knows many such real life individuals, but to tell their stories is not safe for them or their ministries. So instead he has written a fictionalized story based off their real life experiences and dilemmas. In this, the story is excellent and should be read by all. From my own experiences and acquaintances, I was putting names of people I know too many of these characters because there are so many similarities. Brother Andrew clearly knows what he is talking about when he writes.What keeps this from being five stars, however, is that BA simply does not write fiction. I applaud the effort, but it is not his strength. In addition to that, those times where he inserts himself into the narrative seemed a wee bit self promoting at times. I don't think that was the intention at all, and I do not know him to be a proud man, but it did come across that way to me in the book.Both these flaws seem minor compared to the major truth of what is happening in many parts of our world held under the thumb of oppression called Islam. Even in so-called free democratic Muslim states (like my home, Turkiye), it is very often not free or safe to be a vocal Christian. How much more so is the situation in countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran? Through VotM and this book, BA is doing a very worthy job of keeping the situation of what is happening on our Western, free, radar. Another great tidbit from the end of his book we all need to remember..."How long will this conflict with Islam and terrorism last?” My usual reply is, “It will last until we Christians have found the answer to the question, 'Who is God?' and are able to verbalize it and prove by our actions that God is not the God of revenge but a God who forgives.”

Although I've known of Brother Andrew for years, I had never read anything he's written. Secret Believers popped up on my Amazon "recommended for you" list because I had ordered Joel Rosenburg's Epicenter and Journey into the Mind of an Islamic Terrorist by Mark Gabriel. Impulsively, I hit my Amazon Prime one click, and the book promptly arrived at my door.I was interested by the fact that the authors state upfront they've fictionalized the lives of many people in the Islamic world, weaving their stories and personalities together to create a true-to-life picture that shelters the real subjects from harm. Secret Believers starts slowly; it takes a while to explain all this and to establish characters. Nonetheless, I found myself unable to put it down and literally finished it the day it arrived.I had never thought much about the Christians who are born into Islamic societies. Additionally, it had not occurred to me that there would exist a major chasm between these Christians and Muslims who convert to Christianity--people whom the book terms "Muslim background believers." Because of Brother Andrew's reputation and because of stories I've heard coming from Islamic countries, I believe this book is based fully in truth, and I was deeply moved by the characters' struggles and triumphs.

My church magazine has articles on the state of ministry outreach, but to be honest it has been a while since I have read them. I do recall that when I have read about ministry in and to the Muslim world the results have been positive, which is very exciting. However there is (or was) very little mentioned about the challenges, and I always thought "The results are great, but getting them can't have been easy." I was glad to see that while this book showed that some Muslims are open to hearing about Jesus, it also showed the serious challenges that face those engaged in this work.As for the book itself: the writing was very interesting but the author switched back and forth between characters constantly; and while there were only a few characters I had a hard time keeping up with them and had to do a search for early instances of the names to remind myself who was who. Reading this on my Kindle, I was constantly wishing the x-ray feature was available for this book.

This book offers something different from many of the books written about the present state of Islam vs. the world. Brother Andrew, while advocating the spread of genuine Christian faith, ends up completely loving Muslims. This is not a hateful or disrespectful book.I particularly enjoyed seeing how ex-Muslim Christians can move around in a Muslim country, work, marry and have their lives. Islam does not seem to be as completely pervasive in the so-called "Islamic World" as I once thought. I was also interested to see that sometimes the most devout and loving Christians started out as hate filled members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Go figure.I don't want to overstate it either. Many of these former Muslims pay for their new faith with the ultimate price: a bloody and violent death. But as was once said about the early church "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith" so too do we find a deep vein of Muslims looking for a way out of the hatred.This book shows that everywhere there are opportunities for Christian belief. I was particularly impressed with the ex Muslim who instead of lamenting that his passport still described him as "Muslim" sees in it rather an opportunity to go to Mecca on the hajj so he can tell people about Jesus Christ!One gets the impression that much more of this kind of "underground" conversion is going on in the Islamic world than we were once led to believe.

This book helps us believers in the west, to understand what it is like for our brothers and sister’s in Christ when they become followers of Jesus. We should all be praying for them and giving to them so their needs are met.

enlightening, unusual, activating, dynamic

I really appreciate this book. It has great morals and values. I will be buying more of them to give away. Maybe even start a reading group using it. It’s a great read. I highly recommend it. I was on missions when it was recommended to me and I really like how it’s written. Very good!