Reaching Islam: Lessons from Samuel Zwemer
For centuries, Islam has presented an intimidating and formidable obstacle to the Church’s obedience to the Great Commission. War, persecution, and a reputation for resistance to conversion have long made Muslim lands difficult terrain for Christian missionary presence. Now, with the rise of the Islamic state of Iran and heightened political tensions between the West and Middle East, the Muslim world has never seemed more impenetrable to some.
This state of affairs may discourage many churches and missions organizations in their attempts to reach Muslims. Islam, at its very core, is a zealous and strong-willed religion, hardening Muslims against receiving the gospel message. At the best of times the prospect of the gospel penetrating Muslim lands, let alone individual hearts, appears to be a difficult one.
But nothing is hopeless in the cause of Christ. And, in the 19th and 20th centuries, we find a servant of that cause whose example can light the way. After centuries of Muslims being overlooked and even despised, Samuel Zwemer, American missionary to Arabia, changed the trajectory of missions to Muslims. Zwemer’s lifelong ministry among and for Muslims remains an encouragement to the Church to persevere in missions to Muslims.
Zwemer’s Ministry
“No one through all the centuries of Christian missions to Moslems has deserved better than Samuel Zwemer the designation of Apostle to Islam,” wrote Kenneth Scott Latourette. Indeed, Zwemer is perhaps the most prolific and influential missionary who has ever worked among Muslims. Spurred by an entrepreneurial spirit, holy zeal, and a seemingly endless supply of energy that would define the rest of his life and ministry, Zwemer helped form a new missions agency called the Arabian Mission shortly after graduating from seminary. He spent 15 years in Arabia evangelizing to Muslims and writing books to equip the Church for further work in the Muslim world.
Following his tenure in the Middle East, Zwemer returned to America to mobilize Christians and churches to go to the Muslim world. His knack for recruiting and raising funds paved the way for thousands of young people to go to Arabia for Muslim missions. Not to be pigeonholed into a single ministry, Zwemer also launched a quarterly publication, The Moslem World, which he edited for 37 consecutive years while continuing to write books on Muslim missions. With a tireless pace and what seemed to be a limitless capacity, he traveled the world speaking either about missions to Muslims, or to Muslims while on mission. His sharp academic mind opened the door for professorships at Presbyterian Seminary in Egypt and Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, where he provoked young men to consider giving their lives to Muslim missions.
Roger Greenway writes, “Samuel Zwemer’s knowledge of Islam had few equals. But above all, he loved the Muslim people and longed to see them gathered to Christ. Therein lay the passion of his life and writing—that God be glorified in the winning of the Muslim world to Christ.” And that is truly the most important aspect of his ministry.
Call to Perseverance
Despite the threat raised against the Church by the rapidly expanding Islamic tide, Zwemer encouraged the Church to persevere in Muslim missions with confidence in the covenant-keeping God. He did so by declaring that Muslims are spiritually starving for the love of God in Christ, that the problem of Islam presents unprecedented opportunities to the Church, and that God’s zeal for Christ’s glory will accomplish the evangelization of the Muslim world. An examination of Zwemer’s encouragements will motivate churches to overcome the discouragements common to Muslim missions and contribute to the evangelization of the Muslim world through praying, sending, and going.
God’s Way of Love
Zwemer spent countless days with Muslims, forming friendships with them and speaking to them about the Koran, the Bible, and the person of Jesus. His insights on their spiritual appetites are valuable. In this regard, Zwemer said, “After forty years’ experience, I am convinced that the nearest way to the Muslim heart is God’s way of love.”
Islam provides little room for a loving relationship between Allah and his worshipers but instead holds up a legalistic framework by which Muslims earn Allah’s favor. The Muslim worshiper experiences little in the way of spiritual assurance, acceptance, forgiveness, or intimacy. It is at this juncture that Zwemer sees the longing of the Muslim heart for the love of God as it is revealed in Christ through the gospel: “To the Moslem mind the unknown quantity is the exceeding greatness of the love of God in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Savior.”
The Church, as the beneficiary of God’s love, ought to find courage to persevere in Muslim missions from Zwemer’s insistence that the key to the Muslim heart is the love of God in Christ.
We Have Nothing to Fear
It is apparent that in Zwemer’s day, many saw the problem of Islam as a cause for discouragement, yet to him it presented unprecedented opportunities. He wrote one of his defining works, Islam: A Challenge to Faith, to rebut this growing sentiment in the Church, and to instill courage into her, that she might take up this challenge. Thus, he calls the Church to arms:
“Those who have tried to reach Mohammedans with the Gospel message and who are in the midst of the work, do not call for retreat, but for reinforcements and advance. They know that in this mighty conflict we have nothing to fear save our own sloth and inactivity. The battle is the Lord’s and the victory will be His also. The love of Jesus Christ, manifested in hospitals, in schools, in tactful preaching, and incarnated in the lives of devoted missionaries, will irresistibly win Moslems and disarm all their fanaticism. It has done so, is doing so, and will do so more and more when the church realizes and seizes her unprecedented opportunities in the Moslem world.”
The Church has every reason to pursue missions to Muslims with vigor, zeal, and optimism—Christ’s victory over the powers and principalities of the world is certain. It is His love for His elect that will accomplish their salvation, and ultimately His reign over all nations. We must thus take courage to send in reinforcements and claim what is already our Lord’s.
Zeal for Christ’s Glory
One of Zwemer’s most profound insights in his study of Islam is that Islam has overshadowed the glory of Christ with the glory of its prophet Mohammad. This is certainly why witnessing to Muslims is such a difficult task—Islam honors Jesus as a prophet and even Messiah but divests Him of His rightful glory as God. While Muslims avoid labeling Muhammad with a divine title, they confer onto him a deity-like status. However, the Lord will not long tolerate such blasphemy, for He will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8). According to Zwemer, God’s zeal for Christ’s glory among Muslims should stir the Church with a more vigorous and honorable motivation than that of the Crusades:
“Christ’s rightful glory has been given to Mohammed for many ages in these many lands and in millions of hearts. Surely our Savior Himself is waiting to see of the travail of His soul for the Moslem world. God wills it. That was the battle-cry of the old Crusaders. Yet there was a thousandfold more enthusiasm in the Dark Ages to wrest an empty sepulchre from the Saracens than there is in our day to bring them the knowledge of a living Savior. Shall we take up that cry in a nobler crusade with the sword of the Spirit?”
Zwemer calls us to take up arms to wage a holier war than that of the Crusaders, with greater enthusiasm than they, with a higher calling than they: the winning of souls, not lands. Let the bride of Christ say, “Indeed, we shall.”
Conclusion
Zwemer’s life and ministry influenced thousands of men and women to give their lives to global missionary service. It would be to the advantage of the Church, the joy of the elect in Muslim lands, and the glory of God if the same were to happen today. He shows us that there is hope for the Muslim world—our response must not be to tarry but to press forward, with confidence in our Savior.
Churches, pastors, officers, and congregants all take part in this task. First, we must make agonizing and fervent prayer for souls in Muslim lands. And second, we must send some of our churches’ best young men and women to the Muslim world to plant churches among Muslims and engage them with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
Because of the spiritual hunger in Muslims, unprecedented opportunities to Muslims, and God’s zeal for Christ’s glory among Muslims, we can be confident that our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).