Status
Available
Publication
Revell (2008), 268 pages
Description
What happens when a Muslim, born and brought up in a Muslim family in an Islamic country, converts to Christianity? In this unique book, Brother Andrew describes the personal, cultural, spiritual and life-threatening challenges that they face. Most of the book is written as a thrilling novel, tracing the intertwined lives of a small group of believers in an unnamed Islamic country. The story becomes all the more fascinating as we realise that the stories are all based on the actual experiences of real people Andrew meets on a regular basis. The Secret Believers is the most topical, eye-opening Christian book of 2007.
User reviews
LibraryThing member jonmodene
Great read. All names changed to protect the identities of the former Muslims who are now born again Christians. Eye opening and challenging.
LibraryThing member NemesisClaws
Excellent! Very moving, and smooth telling of the different characters' lives within a Muslim society. It talks about the struggles, the sacrifices, and how to be more Christ-like in our attitudes. Definitely was an enlightening read for me!
LibraryThing member cewilliams3674
This book should be read by every Christian. It shames our American Christian comfort and ambivalence. It calls for a complete change of mind that renews our faith and returns it to what Christ called us to be in the beginning.
LibraryThing member marianandhector
When I was introduced to Open Doors and Missionary Ventures, I was captivated with the work of Brother Andrew: A simple, regular man who risked his life to deliver the simple message of salvation and grace to forbidden territories and the willingness of strangers.
In his prior work "God Smuggler,"
Fast forward decades later and Brother Andrew, now an elderly gentleman, continues to spread hope to where it is most needed. He has no directed his attention to the middle east, and "Secret Believers" follows the compelling stories of several Christians in the Muslim world in existing Christian churches that are constantly struggling to survive, as well as several individuals who defied law to convert to Christianity. But the real story is not about Brother Andrew. It is difficult to hold the stories of modern martyrs struggling for the simple right to believe at arm's length.
The book doesn't really tell us anything that is completely unknown to a well-read Christian: Dry statistics coming from news sources sometimes imply the plight of non-Muslims in an Arabic world, complimented with the occasional scattershot of a personal story. However, no book I have read up until this one allows the reader to identify so strongly with individual stories and why, not just as Christians, but as human beings, both the freedom to believe and the freedom to gather are so critical a right. In America and parts of the Western World, we do not even begin to fathom our privilege, though freedom can slowly be chipped away from the passive over time.
The writing format takes a few pages to get used to, as the story jumps from one character to another until their lives intersect, but the stories themselves, written in unadorned prose transcend an awkward start out of the gate. This story, although non-fiction reads more similarly to a novel, recounts true stories, with only names changed to protect the identities of the players. In a few cases, characters are composited to obscure the locations and identifying characteristics of Arabic Christians alive at the time of publication.
If you are not careful, you will be changed after reading this whether you a Christian, a disbeliever or a Secret Believer.
In his prior work "God Smuggler,"
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the world was introduced to the Scandinavian man who customized his Volkswagen with secret panels, each holding countless Bibles. Brother Andrew drove over the border into post-WWII communist countries. He and his friends prayed at each checkpoint to make "Seeing Eyes Blind" to evade the border searches at a time when ownership at a Bible guaranteed jail or death. Thousands of Bibles were distributed to existing Christians who met secretly, but were forbidden to own a copy by their government. While a punishable offense, the requests grew in number.Fast forward decades later and Brother Andrew, now an elderly gentleman, continues to spread hope to where it is most needed. He has no directed his attention to the middle east, and "Secret Believers" follows the compelling stories of several Christians in the Muslim world in existing Christian churches that are constantly struggling to survive, as well as several individuals who defied law to convert to Christianity. But the real story is not about Brother Andrew. It is difficult to hold the stories of modern martyrs struggling for the simple right to believe at arm's length.
The book doesn't really tell us anything that is completely unknown to a well-read Christian: Dry statistics coming from news sources sometimes imply the plight of non-Muslims in an Arabic world, complimented with the occasional scattershot of a personal story. However, no book I have read up until this one allows the reader to identify so strongly with individual stories and why, not just as Christians, but as human beings, both the freedom to believe and the freedom to gather are so critical a right. In America and parts of the Western World, we do not even begin to fathom our privilege, though freedom can slowly be chipped away from the passive over time.
The writing format takes a few pages to get used to, as the story jumps from one character to another until their lives intersect, but the stories themselves, written in unadorned prose transcend an awkward start out of the gate. This story, although non-fiction reads more similarly to a novel, recounts true stories, with only names changed to protect the identities of the players. In a few cases, characters are composited to obscure the locations and identifying characteristics of Arabic Christians alive at the time of publication.
If you are not careful, you will be changed after reading this whether you a Christian, a disbeliever or a Secret Believer.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2007
Physical description
268 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
0800732642 / 9780800732646