Ministry Leader Urges Christians to Pray for Islamic Terrorists
by Allie Martin
August 28, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Virginia-based ministry is trying to encourage Christians to pray for the salvation of Muslim terrorists. Truth for Muslims is an evangelical Christian group that has recently published a prayer guide to that effect.The publication is called Islamic Terrorism and Muslim Terrorists: a Prayer Guide for Christians. The guide is written by John Marion, project director of Truth for Muslims, who says the recent arrest of Muslim terrorists in connection with a plot to blow up passenger airplanes over the Atlantic ocean has refocused the world's attention on terrorism.
Christians must combat terror with prayer and with boldness, Marion urges. "The Islamic terrorists want to throw Western society -- and, in our case, particularly, American society -- into fear and confusion," he says, "and it is in that context that they can move their agenda forward."
But that very context, the ministry leader contends, offers Christians a chance to demonstrate their faith to others, including the terrorists. "So as they try to instill fear and confusion," he says, "we as followers of Christ have an opportunity to just go before the Lord and ask that he would give us peace and wisdom."
Meanwhile, Marion notes, this situation also offers Christians a chance to demonstrate the love of Christ for all people. This is an opportunity, he says, even to "impact the lives of terrorists" by praying for their salvation, always remembering that, although the followers of radical Islam may seem faceless and far away, nevertheless, "they are real people."
Marion and his wife have lived in Afghanistan and have worked among Muslims in the United States since the early 1980s. He urges Christians to realize that their prayers can have an effect even on the hearts of terrorists halfway around the world.
"We can be here in America and pray for these people," the Truth for Muslims spokesman asserts. "We don't know many of them; some of them are hidden," he says, "and that's one of the concerns that we have as Americans -- who are the terrorists among us and what are their plans? Who are they, and how do we know them? But God knows them, and we can pray for them and impact their lives through a ministry of prayer."
Christians should not hesitate to pray for those behind terror plots targeting the United States and other nations in the free world, Marion says. After all, he points out, the Apostle Paul was an anti-Christian "terrorist" of sorts before his life was radically altered through a relationship with Christ.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
