The tragic events unfolding in the Middle East have caused irreparable damage to the presence of Christianity in its ancient heartlands.
The massacre of Christians across Iraq has reminded us that Christianity is not a Western religion but has deep roots in this region.
I have just returned from a student tour across Israel. With the closing stages of the conflict in Gaza and ISIS capturing the border crossing between Syria and Israel there was an added sense of anxiety for many students travelling to the Middle East for the first time. As it turned out we could not have wished for a more peaceful tour of the land, but that is generally the experience of tourists. The people of the land can have a quite different perspective, even when the region is not making international news.
At the heart of the tensions lie the problems of two peoples living side by side with suspicion and mistrust. Arabs and Jews can have very different perspectives on the land where they live. What many Jews would call the State of Israel, many Arabs identify as ‘Israeli-occupied Palestine.’ Christians will have different perspectives on this tension, often guided by their reading of the Bible. Is the modern state of Israel the fulfillment of OT prophecy? Do the Jews continue to be recipients of God’s blessing to Abraham? (Romans 9-11). Most Christians, regardless of their views on prophecy, have a special place for the existence of Israel in their thought.
Christian Arabs
However, in the midst of this web of ethnic division and religious hostility, we should not forget the role of the significant Christian minority. Among the Jews of Israel there are ever-growing Messianic congregations (Jews who have come to believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah). It is also often forgotten that a large percentage of Arabs are Christians. This includes Muslim converts, but also represents large numbers of ancient Arab Christian churches. As our hearts are broken by the unfolding disaster in Iraq we should be reminded that churches from the earliest period of Christian history are found across the Arab world.
Justin Martyr
One of the first great apologists for the Christian faith was from Nablus, in modern day Palestinian territory. Justin Martyr (100-165AD) was born in what was then the Roman province of Judea. He was a pagan, of Roman ancestry, who was converted through the witness of a Christian from Syria. He travelled to Rome where he debated with the pagans, brought many to faith and wrote a number of important defences of the faith. His apologetic works, from a generation after the writing of the NT, remain worthwhile reading to this day. You can download them freely on the internet as the copyright holder has long since departed this world.
Among the works of Justin Martyr are a defence of the resurrection and a dialogue with a Jewish opponent. On the Resurrection remains interesting to us because Justin is absolutely clear on the importance of a physical, bodily resurrection. There is no dabbling in a metaphorical or spiritual resurrection experience in order to make his case. The body came back to life, the body is missing, the tomb is empty. Writing within a century of the events, Justin is crystal clear that the debate is over a physical resurrection of Christ. Dialogue with Trypho the Jew is fascinating reading. The account demonstrates Justin’s passionate desire to win Trypho to faith but also his respect for a Jewish friend. This is not an anti-semitic rant but a thoughtful, and cordial, explanation of Christ as the fulfillment of Jewish longings. Behind all this it is good to observe that the homeland of apologetics was not a Western seminary but the Arab world.
Beheaded
Justin earned his nickname ‘Martyr’ through paying the ultimate price. He was beheaded for refusing to worship the Roman gods in 165AD. We have much to learn from our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters. Many have continued to proclaim their faith and pay that price. May we in the West continue to learn from the example of believers in the Arab world and remember that the defence of the faith is not a Western preoccupation.
