Islam is not a defeat for God's purposes but a means God uses for carrying out his overall good purposes for the church. We are already, at least in theory, committed to the doctrine of Christ's sovereign rule and control over all things. What does that mean in relation to missions, and in relation to missions to Islam in particular?

The twelfth chapter of Revelation speaks to us of the two signs seen in heaven. The one sign is of the suffering woman, crowned with twelve stars, clothed by the sun and standing on the moon. She was to deliver a child. The other sign seen in heaven is that of the seven-headed and ten-horned red dragon. He manages to sway one third of the heavenly stars to join him in seeking to devour the powerful child-king. The child was not only safely delivered to the world but also ended up enthroned in heaven. The woman enjoys the keeping and provision of God in her wilderness refuge.

The scene of battle then shifts to heaven, where Michael and his angelic host roundly defeat the dragon and his fallen angels. Heaven celebrates the dawn of salvation and the rule of the enthroned king who returned from earth. At the same time the dragon, the deceiver and accuser of the saints, and his host are forever cast down from heaven. The defeated dragon's bitter anger turns now on the woman. Yet, the woman is protected and delivered again and again. Those who hold to the commandments of God and the testimony of Christ (the entire Word of God, Old and New Testament) prevail and overcome by that sword of the Spirit.

The main thrust of the Book of Revelation is the fact that Christ's victory has been accomplished and that the victory of his church is guaranteed. His­tory is but the sphere in which God carries out his plan for a new humanity which ends up by being wedded as a bride to the triumphant God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we believe the Scriptures and take to heart the message of Revelation 12, we must believe that Christ has already won the battle and that the gather­ing of the church from all nations is certain. All the sufferings of the church (past, present and future) fall within the plan of God in human history. The mid-point of history is Christ's coming to our present world and his trium­phant enthronement over our world. The church is placed in history. She is not only meant to be gathered, but also tested, purified and sanctified by the power of God's Word and Spirit. All events, the happy and the sad, the sweet and the bitter, the great and the small are designed to fit together in service to the ultimate good of the church. The church's welfare and warfare are connected with her obedience to the commandments of God and faithful­ness to the testimony of Jesus Christ. She cannot do that alone. She is given the unfailing strength and comfort of Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Since childhood, I have had to struggle with questions relating to the impact of Islam on the people and the society around me. I am saddened by the prevalent evangelical pessimistic outlook on missions to Islam. There is an obvious alarmist paranoia in evangelical circles which has failed to comprehend the spiritual nature of the rise and spread of Islam and its role in gospel service which continues to unfold in the Muslim world in our day. This has naturally given rise to two wrong missionary outlooks. There is, on the one hand, the alarmist activism which wants to put an end to what is wrongly viewed as an advancing Muslim domination of the world. This stands behind much of the predominant evangelical political bias against the Arab position in the Middle East struggle. In the West today, and especially among the evangelicals, it seems that the prevalent view is that the Arabs can do nothing right while the Jews can do nothing wrong. This attitude, coupled with dispensationalism has created formidable walls which deprive evangelicals of a truly credible and caring zeal for the salvation of Muslims (not to mention a romanticism sometimes met with in endeavours to evangelise the Jews).

There is, on the other hand, the popular 'quick-fix' missiology which has concluded that the ways of the Lord have failed to bear fruit among Muslims. 'God could not do it his way! We can do it our way!' So, we have quick-fix formulas which are supposed to bring the desired results in the evangelisation of Muslims. 'The American Four Spiritual Laws' now have a parallel for Muslim evangelism in the Seven Christian Muslim Principles, which are distortions of both faiths. These have come out of the different mission theories and experiments of the contextualisation craze which thrived after Khomeini's revolution in Iran. Some have even advocated 'modalism' as a substitute for the offence of the doctrine of the Trinity. Others have argued for doing away with the offence of baptism and the Lord's supper. Even the word 'Cross' would be removed altogether by some from the gospel vocabulary. That 'Jesus died on the tree', we are told, is a less offensive term to the Muslim mind. There is a 'Muslims for Jesus' parallel to the 'Jews for Jesus' movement, together with all the parallel trimmings of Friday mosque-style worship, facing Mecca at the time of the call to prayer, Hallal (kosher) food and fasting in the month of Ramadan. Such things are being seriously suggested today.

Another more recent development is inspired by the popularity of the charismatic movement, especially in Europe and North America. This movement now claims that the theology of signs and wonders is the way to go for success in outreach among Muslims. Some who have lost the field of covert missions to the once closed Communist countries are now finding an alternative field for covert activities in the Muslim world.

One could go on and on in analysing all of these, and other recent missiological approaches. Yet, the most important question remains before us: Where does Islam lie in the overall plan of human history for the gather­ing of his people by the preaching of the gospel? The issue is whether or not we believe history to be designed and controlled by God for the ultimate good of his people.

In Old Testament days God raised up ungodly nations to chastise his people when they departed from his Word. But at the captivity the Lord raised up reformers to restore his people to the truth. God's people were driven to the Scriptures and were delivered by faith in the God who was yet to fulfil his promise to send the Messiah. But only a few remained faithful. They had their trust in the incarnate Son of God who was to come.

The early church experienced revival and growth, together with persecutions and immense sufferings. But the medieval church drifted into apostasy. Islam must be viewed as God's means of checking the apostasy of the church. The Lord again raised up reformers to restore the church to true faith. Islam played a major role in exhausting the Roman church prior to the Reformation. The dawn of the Reformation altered the role of Islam in God's plan for gathering his church. Through a rapid collapse of its internal unity, the challenge of the sciences and the arts and many other internal factors, Islam retreated as the Reformation of the church advanced.

As time went on the Western colonial powers took over the entire Muslim world from Morocco to Indonesia. Despite all their injustices, ungodliness and exploitation, the colonialists provided freedom for the Reformed church to bring the gospel of Christ back to Muslim lands. Islam was checked only for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel and gathering the Lord's people from among the nations. It will remain in service for the completion of God's purposes for the church, during the course allowed to it in human history. Islam's role is obviously far greater and more lasting than that of Communism.

Is Islam succeeding today? On the surface, yes. In actual fact, it is losing much ground and has already lost all its momentum.

The Muslim Diaspora has given the church remarkable opportunities to reach Muslims in the UK and in many other places of the so-called free world. There is freedom to reach them and they have much more freedom to respond without the fear they experience in their Islamic homelands. How do we react though? Do we feel paranoia, alarm and fear every time a new mosque is built? Or do we see an opportunity from the Lord for the church to preach the gospel to them and to make disciples for Christ from amongst them? However, establishing specialised evangelistic centres in their neighbourhoods gives offensive social and political impressions which puts them on the defensive; thus, they begin to build protective walls around themselves and seek to establish their own Islamic counter-evangelistic centres. When evangelism is attempted by the local church quietly and sen­sitively the reaction is different.

The following comments may help us to see the present state of Islam in the West.

Oil wealth has not served the interests of Islam. On the contrary, it has brought about much corruption, resentment, disunity and materialism. The spread of education has alerted many Muslims not only to alternative beliefs and ideologies but also to the need for freedom of thought and conscience. Democratisation and individual freedom has become a con­tagious aspiration for many Muslims throughout the world. The internal class struggles and distrust of religious and political leaders has driven many Muslims over the past forty years to favour Communism. Today it is estimated that around 8% of Muslims are shocked by the collapse of their Communist dream. Many of them are driven to consider the gospel as an alternative. These have included several Yemeni, Palestinian, Algerian, Syrian, Iranian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Iraqi, Sudanese, Afghani and Turkish converts.

The inter-Muslim conflicts which culminated in the Iraq-Iran war and the recent Gulf war have had a severe effect on the make-up and resources of the Muslim nations. These wars have completely exhausted their ability to spend huge sums of money to spread Muslim prestige and power in other parts of the world. The Iraq-Iran war lasted eight years. Over one million Muslims were killed and a further two million were injured. Several hundred thousands of these remain severely disabled. These events have shocked the Muslim masses. The despair of many is driving them to the gospel alter­native. The war in the Gulf against Iraq dealt a harsh blow to Islamic solidarity, resources and propaganda.

Then the conflict and suffering of the people in Afghanistan and Somalia have dented the credibility of the Islamic world-and-life-view. In central and southern Asia most people have seen the bankruptcy of Muslim claims. In east, west and central Africa, Islam no longer has the admiration of the black populations.

The Khomeini revolution and the other so-called Muslim Fundamental­ist experiments have brought about a great deal of fear and disenchantment. Many Muslim people's former faith in the Islamic solution to the problems of life has been shattered. Algerians are increasingly convinced that their hopes lie in other alternatives to Islam. Many, of course, are clamouring for a Western-style secularism.

How do we as Christians react to these developments? Do we gloat over the sufferings and calamities of the Arab and Muslim peoples? Or do we pray for them, love them and covet them for Christ? Do we eagerly work for their salvation, just as we do for the salvation of the Jews?

Three facts we must keep in mind. Firstly, the Lord has a purpose in the rise and advance of Islam. That purpose is the good of Christ's cause. This purpose ought to govern and direct our thought patterns, hopes, priorities and efforts. Our agenda ought to be the building of the Kingdom, the salvation of the lost and their in-gathering from all families of the earth. Our agenda ought not to be the advance of the political and economic power of the so-called 'Christian world'. Free market economy, human rights, west­ernisation, democratisation and the like are not to be confused with the building of Christ's kingdom.

Secondly, God does not need to bring a complete political end to Islam at this time or in the near future to gather his people from among the Muslims. The opposite may very possibly happen: prolonged periods of internal and external tension, conflicts and wars in the Middle East and other parts of central and southern Asia.

Thirdly, God uses the church to gather in those who belong to him from among the Muslims. The church is God's appointed agency for gospel proclamation. It is a very serious mistake to underestimate the importance and long-term impacts of the churches which already exist in the Muslim lands. Para-church missionary agencies cannot be a substitute for the task which belongs to the church. The underground churches in countries like Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iran are raised up by God there. It is wrong to insist on doing the work via expensive and ineffective foreign missionaries when God has raised up his own people in Muslim lands to do the work. They do not need to learn the languages, adjust to the cultures or seek resident- or work-permits. It is equally wrong to expect the church in the Muslim world to grow as in a free Western-style atmosphere. Rather, we should expect it to grow in fashion similar to that of the suffering early church.

We must, however, distinguish between our own earthly, political, ethnic and national hopes and aspirations, on the one hand, and the higher ways of God, which are meant for the gathering and calling of the church from among all families of the earth, as promised to Abraham. The sufferings of Christ are the church's lot on earth until the very end of history. She must partake of and share in his sufferings, if she is indeed to experience the benefits of his death and resurrection.

Will Islam crumble? When? How? It is not for us to know times or seasons. Yet it is our duty to bear witness to the gospel of Christ in Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, Iran and all the way across to Indonesia. This requires faithfulness and humility, watchfulness and diligence, vision and sacrificial giving, not only of our resources but also of our very lives.

Quick-fix formulas are not only wrong but have also proved to be bank­rupt and counter-productive in outreach work to Muslims. The era of overt or covert para-church foreign missions to the Muslim world has ended. It has actually left very little positive impact behind. The church is progressing through the faithful preaching of the gospel and discipling of believers. Quiet, prayerful one-to-one, family to family, work is the only way. It costs us time, commitment, resources, comfort. This is what is called for in Muslim evangelism at this hour.