The largest church in Europe today is pastored by a young Nigerian–a man of faith who won’t let racism or harassment stop him from changing a nation.
It is early on a Sunday afternoon in winter, and almost 100 people are packed into a windowless basement room at a church in Kiev, Ukraine. After an hour, the low-ceiling room smells heavily of stale cigarette smoke and body odor. These first-time visitors have been listening to what they can expect as new members of the Embassy of God church.

At the end of the session, each newcomer is paired up with a mentor–a specially trained church member who guides the new believer through four consecutive days of lectures, prayers and church services. About 25 percent of the newcomers will come back, the pastor in charge of the program says.

“We don’t get people who are just curious,” pastor Armen Movsisyan says, after making sure all the newcomers are paired with mentors. “Everybody who comes here has a problem. Everybody is in crisis.”

Tatyana Pavlenko, 28, came to “learn how to live God’s law” so that she could turn her husband from his “devilish life” of drinking and “acting like a hooligan.” Proskoviya Kireyeva, 72, has a more specific request of God.

“I need one more thousand, that’s all. There’s a one-room apartment in the city for $17,000. I just need $1,000. I came to pray for that. That’s the only reason I came,” she says.

First-time visitors like Pavlenko and Kireyeva come by the hundreds every month to the Embassy of God. Most of them are unchurched and desperate. They’re searching for a way to cope with alcohol, drugs, a lack of money or spouses who stray.

These are people who could have chosen a fortune-teller or exorcist from local newspaper classifieds. Or they could do what Pavlenko and Kireyeva’s ancestors did: light a candle in front of an icon in a Russian Orthodox Church.

Instead, most of them choose to come here because they have heard about the healing and preaching abilities of one man–pastor Sunday Adelaja, a 35-year-old Nigerian.

“Pastor Sunday”–as he is known to church members, skeptics and enemies alike–has created in nine years what may be the largest church in Europe. That, in itself, is striking.

Even more remarkable is the fact that he has done it in the capital of Ukraine, a country of 49 million between Russia and Poland, where fewer than 2,000 black residents live–all of them subject to frequent racial harassment and sometimes violence.

“Some people ask, ‘Why do we need this black-skinned man to tell us what to do?’ Unbelievers ask this question,” says Adelaja while preaching on a Sunday afternoon to a sea of 7,000 upturned faces. “But you–you have opened your eyes. You can see the divine within me, not just the black skin. You–you can get beyond the broken Russian I speak.”

That evening in an empty, expensive Kiev restaurant, Adelaja recalls in a voice hoarse from preaching two services how he was skeptical of a divine vision that sent him to all-white Ukraine.

“I said, ‘God, I want to know that You really want me to go to Kiev,” he told Charisma. “It is just not so easy to do this as a black man.'”

After leaving Belarus, where he had studied for six years, Adelaja started his ministry in February 1994 with seven people who met together in a rented apartment in Kiev, a city of 1 million on the banks of the Dnieper River.

Today, acting out a plan he says God unveiled to him in a series of visions, Adelaja sits at the head of the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations, a mini-Protestant empire in an overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian nation.

Adelaja–a fit man with a ready, confident smile–is the host of a weekly Christian TV show, founder of a feeding and health center for the homeless, and author of religious books. He has also helped plant 200 “daughter” churches in 15 countries including two recently in the United States.

“My American friends will be flabbergasted when they find out that we are planting churches there. We hope to have six by the end of the year,” he says, adding that congregations are already in Sacramento, California, and Sarasota, Florida. “The Americans are usually sending money to this part of the world.”

The core of his Kiev ministry is preaching, healing and providing desperately needed services in a society that is, at best, inept at coping with rampant alcoholism, widespread poverty and severe strains on families. Adelaja’s management style, his use of television and the content of worship services are firmly within the mainstream of Spirit-filled congregations in the United States–perhaps even on the conservative side.

But in Ukraine, this is all new. In Soviet times and before the 1917 Russian Revolution that brought Communists to power, Ukraine had a small Protestant minority that knew its place and never took on the dominant Russian Orthodox Church. With his ambitious church-planting campaign and growing Kiev megachurch, Adelaja most definitely does not know his place. Consequently, his enemies are not hard to find.

They view him as a foreign-financed charlatan who brainwashes and hypnotizes congregants into parting with their money. Speaking in tongues and falling under the power of the Holy Spirit are just more proof of the cultlike nature of the Embassy of God church, according to critics who nearly succeeded in getting him kicked out of Ukraine in 1998.

To this day, Adelaja says, Orthodox Christian leaders are preventing him from getting city permission to build a proper church. Instead, he must rent an indoor sports facility that can hold only one-third of his congregation at once.

Adelaja’s steadfast and most powerful foes are not shy about their desire to have the Nigerian shut down. On Kiev’s Right Bank, not far from the monastery that is one of Orthodox Slavs’ most holiest sites, are the offices of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods.

Led by Valentin Lukiyanik, the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods represents 36 lay organizations in Ukraine that are loyal to the 80 million-member Russian Orthodox Church. Sitting under a portrait of Patriarch Alexy II, the Moscow-based head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Lukiyanik explains why Adelaja is so “dangerous.”

“Sunday is not a classical Protestant. He is a neo-Protestant, not like a Baptist,
Adventist or even Pentecostal. He is something new. What he has is a totalitarian, destructive cult,” says Lukiyanik, who is not so keen on Roman Catholics either, having organized street demonstrations against Pope John Paul II’s 2001 visit to Ukraine.

Lukiyanik, a broad-faced affable man who works in an emergency room in a Kiev hospital, concedes that Adelaja has a vibrant, growing church but predicts it will begin to evaporate as Ukraine’s economic situation improves.

“Yes, they’ve got influence. But it is an aberration,” he says. “I’d say it is some kind of psychosis. We consider it to be some kind of psycho-cult that is well-financed.”

That financing, says Orthodox spokesman Father Georgy Kovalenko, comes from Adelaja’s laundering of money for Nigerian drug barons. The accusation–unsubstantiated and denied with a laugh by Adelaja–has wide currency in Ukraine’s yellow press in part because Nigerians do play a role in the country’s heroin trade.

Though Adelaja has enemies in high places, he also has well-placed friends, including three members of the congregation who sit in Ukraine’s lower house of parliament. One such church member proved to be an important ally when Orthodox church leaders launched a campaign in 1998 to slow the spread of charismatic churches by revoking Adelaja’s Ukrainian visa.

At one point, Adelaja had two weeks to leave the country. He refused and Vladimir Shushkevich, a church member and then-parliamentarian, gathered 60 signatures in parliament and thwarted the campaign, allowing Adelaja to stay.

Adelaja’s Nigerian citizenship is his Achilles’ heel. As recently as February, the Russian Orthodox Church in Kiev reported that Adelaja was under investigation by the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office and that his
permission to live in Ukraine with his wife and three children was in jeopardy. The Orthodox report was picked up by Ukrainian mass media, prompting a robust denial on the Embassy of God Web site ().

The provocations, innuendo and public tussles are likely to continue as long as Adelaja is Ukraine’s most visible charismatic leader. Another African, pastor Henry Madava of Zimbabwe, leads an 8,000-member charismatic church in Kiev. His profile, however, is nothing like that of Adelaja, who is becoming an international figure with worldwide church plants and the occasional political pronouncement.

In January, he and pastors from 30 other countries attended a three-day conference in Washington, D.C., of Generals of Intercession, led by international prayer leader Cindy Jacobs. Afterward, Jacobs released a statement summing up the religious leaders’ consensus on the probable war in Iraq.

“Each of us felt in our hearts that God wants to humble the spirit of Islam and its god, Allah, and that God is leading President Bush,” she said. “We felt that the true God would prevail and the region would open for the gospel.”

When Adelaja got back to Kiev, he played a tape–in English–of Jacobs’ prophecy about the Embassy of God. When an assistant translated it into Russian for the congregation of 7,000, people rose to their feet, clapping enthusiastically. One middle-aged woman collapsed and twitched on the floor.

Jacobs proclaimed in a high-pitched shout: “Sunday, the Lord says: ‘You are to prepare that army. I put a sickle in your hand. Be ready for the harvest. This is why I brought you from Nigeria. This is why I brought you to Ukraine.'”

Later in the service, Adelaja preached about the importance of supporting U.S. foreign policy, saying: “George Bush is our brother. He is a believer.” That evening, over dinner, Adelaja said he was ready to send missionaries to Iraq “as soon as it opens up.”

These kinds of ventures into world politics by the head of Ukraine’s largest church drive Orthodox Christian leaders to distraction. They lead to accusations that Adelaja is a national-security danger and should be kicked out of the country.

Such threats aren’t empty. The pastor’s friend Alexei Ledyayev, head of the charismatic New Generation movement in nearby Latvia, was stripped of his Russian visa last year by authorities who apparently were worried about his preaching on political themes.

Ultimately, Adelaja plans to leave Kiev. One reason is, he received a divine vision to bring the gospel to Arabs, to enlighten them just as he has Russians. Another is that Kiev is not a hospitable place for a black family of five to live. This situation is unlikely to improve anytime soon, according to a local human-rights activist who monitors racially motivated attacks in Ukraine.

Most of the recent beatings of African and Indian students have occurred in southern Ukraine, but Kiev too is a dangerous place for a dark-skinned person to walk about, particularly at night, says Maxim Baryshnikov, an activist who teaches law at Kiev’s International Solomon University. There is no single reason for the attacks, but Baryshnikov says that generally the dark-skinned immigrants’ “lifestyle and values are not understood by the local people.”

“From ignorance and misunderstanding it is only a small step to violence,” Baryshnikov says.

Adelaja is driven back and forth between the Embassy of God offices and his home on the edge of Kiev. His three children are not yet school age. Thus, he avoids having to ride Kiev’s subway or buses, the places where racial attacks most frequently occur.

Two years ago, he started to travel abroad more frequently, planting churches in Western Europe, former Soviet republics, as well as in the United Arab Emirates and, secretly, in Afghanistan. Eventually, the pastor says quietly during an interview, he will leave Ukraine for western Europe, where he will plant churches and devote more energies to winning Muslim converts in the Middle East.

“I would really like the Arabs to enjoy what the Russians have come to have. … I’m only 35. Our church is only eight years old. But I am very ambitious. I want to touch half a billion people before I die,” he says, adding that his work here still has a long way to go. “I have a target of bringing 5 million people to Jesus in Ukraine. That is the minimum before leaving.”

Sipping a tall glass of fresh-squeezed carrot juice after a long Sunday packed with a pair of three-hour services and numerous meetings and private prayer requests, an exhausted Adelaja outlines how he expects his life as a religious leader to unfold.

“I think it will take until I am 40 years old to reach my goal in Ukraine. After that, from when I am 40 to 50 years old, I will work on transforming Europe. From the age of 50, I’d like to touch another two continents, even if only slightly.

“And, I want to work on pastors,” he adds, while noting that he is a slightly better preacher in English than Russian. “I want to raise up 50,000 pastors all over the world. Between the ages of 60 and 70, I will work on deepening the work that I’ve already started.”

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In a nation devastated by Soviet atheism, Ukrainians are still uneasy about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

One thousand years of Orthodox Christianity and 70 years of state-sponsored religious repression have taken a heavy toll on Ukraine.

Orthodoxy’s emphasis on participation in long liturgies rather than studying the Bible means that some nominal Christians in Ukraine aren’t quite sure who Jesus is. The Soviets’ severe crackdown on religion means that Ukrainians older than 30 grew up in a country where religious expression was discouraged, if not punished.

In this environment, pastor Sunday Adelaja must constantly stress, especially to newcomers to his Embassy of God church, that his gift of healing comes from God, not from his own power as a miracleworker.

Adelaja was raised as a Presbyterian in a village of 100 people in Nigeria’s Ogun State. In 1986, at the age of 19, he was saved while watching pastor William Kumuyi of Nigeria on television. Six months later he was in the Soviet Union studying journalism in Minsk and praying secretly with other foreign Christian students.

It was during this time he began the intensive praying and fasting that eventually led him to understand that God wanted him to found a megachurch in Kiev. It was also when he began to hear the Holy Spirit.

“Because of my life, I have a kind of authority, a credibility with God. People can have access through me. But if He doesn’t show up, nothing happens,” Adelaja says, adding that this has never happened but admitting that he is “afraid” it could.

To stay plugged in and able to mediate, pastor Adelaja makes a point of devoting one week of every month for prayer and meditation. Otherwise, the demands of his 21,000 congregants can be overwhelming, he says.

On a Sunday afternoon, after leading one long service and getting ready for another, Adelaja was deluged in his office with private prayer requests.

A woman in her late 50s walked into his office carrying a package of cotton bandages. Her granddaughter had been severely burned the previous night when a pot of boiling water turned over. Could Adelaja pray over the bandages that would be used in the hospital?

The pastor closed his eyes, scrunched up his face and held the bandages tightly for about 15 seconds.

A few minutes later, a mother and her sunken-eyed daughter were ushered into his office. They wanted advice on whether the girl should go ahead with an expensive liver operation or keep praying for a miracle. Clasping hands with the girl and her mother, Adelaja prayed that God would smooth the way for an operation if that was His will.

Adelaja says that his gifts of healing are mostly spiritual but that occasionally in a large crowd he can pick out a person, “sense and hear” what ails them, and heal the disease.

“Sometimes, I can feel the Holy Spirit behind me, talking,” he says.

Most recently, the Adelajas’ daughter, Perlina, was diagnosed with a brain tumor while still in her mother’s womb.

The tumor, American doctors said, would prevent the child from developing normally but an operation on the newborn’s brain would be risky.

With an electric guitarist’s soft, soulful melody in the background, Adelaja related the story to his rapt congregation during a February service.

On January 13, minutes after Perlina was born in the United States in a Sarasota, Florida, hospital, Adelaja took the child and “prayed and prayed and did my thing,” he says.

The next day, an X-ray of the newborn showed the tumor had disappeared, he testified.

The pastor says his power to diagnose an illness and heal it comes from his “intensive search” for the Lord.

“I asked to see and for the ability to hear in the Spirit,” he says. “Before, I was spiritually deaf.”

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Frank Brown is a correspondent for Charisma based in Moscow. He traveled to Kiev to interview Sunday Adelaja.

Evolutionists despise him, and some Christians don’t agree with his views on Earth’s beginnings. But Hugh Ross–like no other man of faith–is taking the gospel to the scientific community.
When Hugh Ross looks for an opportunity to share his faith on an airplane, he tells the person in the next seat that he is an astronomer. When he wants to be left alone, he introduces himself as an evangelist.

“Chances are they will get up and find somewhere else to sit,” he observes of the usual reaction to his preacher profile. “It’s a sad commentary, but it works.”

His scientific side, on the other hand, invariably leads to discussions about the universe and the meaning of life. “When they find out I’m an astronomer they start asking questions–it’s such an easy avenue for witnessing,” he says.

“An astronomer is asking the same fundamental questions that the theologians ask: What is out there? Why is it there? What is our purpose here?”

Mild mannered, with a boffin’s shiny dome and slightly bookish air, Ross is spanning the chasm between science and faith. He effectively rests his telescope on a Bible tripod.

He believes the record of creation is like the 67th book of the Bible. A former researcher at the California Institute of Technology, Ross, 57, uses science to reach a segment of society that has dismissed the notion of God. Though secular scientists have largely rejected Christians, they give Ross a measure of respect for his efforts to marry the laboratory and the seminary.

He is “the only Christian being listened to” by many scientists on mainstream university campuses, says Guillermo Gonzalez, assistant professor of astrophysics at Iowa State University. “Those who take time to find out about him are impressed by him very much,” Gonzalez adds.

At the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California, which supports evolution, director Eugenie Scott concedes that Ross “does reflect a lot of mainstream science in his views.” Although some think “some of his science is pretty zany … others feel he is making a contribution in helping conservative Christians embrace more science,” she says.

In addition, his supporters say, Ross inspires and equips many believers who have felt intimidated by the scientific community’s rejection of the Bible.

Mixing Science and Faith

“Most Christians don’t know how to deal with the atheist because they don’t know enough about science to have an honest answer to deal with it,” said computer programmer Ken Bell after hearing Ross speak at Ward Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Northville, Michigan, in January. “People like Hugh Ross fill that gap.”

Some 800 people braced subzero weather on a Wednesday night to hear Ross lecture for an hour and then spend two more hours answering questions from the floor on everything from the big-bang theory to the Flood, quoting both the Bible and some of the latest brainiac discoveries.

Ross is not afraid to offer a blended Bible-and-science opinion on just about anything, from how Adam and Eve’s descendants managed to populate the Earth so quickly to why the story of the Flood can be considered true.

Ross’ effort to integrate science and faith “allows people to come to church and not feel they have to check their brains at the door,” says retired surgeon Stan Lennard of Seattle, who helped found a local chapter of Ross’ ministry, Reasons to Believe.

At their ministry headquarters in Glendora, California, near Los Angeles, Ross and his staff spend hours each week poring over the latest scientific papers across the spectrum, from astronomy to zoology, looking for evidence they say points to God and the reliability of the Bible. They also talk with non-Christian researchers to find out more about their latest work.

“Science is something that people who have had no Christian background can respond to,” Ross says. “You can’t point them to believers because they don’t know any, or those they do know they don’t respect their views [on science].”

He has taken his message to more than 200 campuses across the United States and overseas, and sold more than a quarter of a million books. Rattling off quotes, theorems, facts and statistics like a one-man encyclopedia, Ross uses numbers with lots of zeroes after them to illustrate the huge improbability that the universe evolved by chance.

Through his speaking, radio and TV broadcasts, writings and his Reasons to Believe Web site, Ross piles up the facts to underscore that life as we know it could not exist without the incredible “fine-tuning” of the universe, the characteristics of deep space and the hidden intricacies of the human body.

Having shown that the likelihood of our being here by accident is infinitesimally small, he goes on to observe that “the Creator cares for the human species to such a high degree that He did not consider it too expensive to create 100 billion trillion stars so we could have a nice place to live.”

Then he adds: “If He did all that for me, He must care for me a great deal.”

Ross helps his nonscientist audiences absorb information by leavening it with a little oh-my-gosh astonishment. He notes, for example, that one teaspoon of a certain binary neutron star is so dense it weighs 5 billion tons. He also points out that because of the expanding nature of the universe, your waistline is growing at the rate of about a trillionth of an inch each year.

He also uses dry humor to make his point. Once a staff member dressed up as an alien to promote Ross’ book, Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men, which addresses UFOs and the possibility of life on other planets. (Ross says evidence doesn’t point to life elsewhere.)

For the most part, even when vigorously challenged, Ross speaks with the matter-of-fact manner of someone relying on the data, not the delivery, to win the day.

Bob Smithson, a former research scientist and Silicon Valley entrepreneur who invited Ross to speak at a forum at his church with an ardent six-day creationist and avowed evolutionist, observed that the two other speakers had larger followings in the audience, but Ross “changed more minds … He had something new that they had to think about.”

“I’m so impressed with his ability to blend science and Scripture,” says Mike Gatliff, a pastor who organized Ross’ recent visit to Michigan, “and how he can explain it to someone like me who is not a scientist, but a Christian who needs to be able to give answers to seekers.”

Challenging Scientific Pride

It’s clear to Ross that mankind did not appear on this planet by accident. Interestingly, many in the scientific community who don’t believe in God are asking hard questions about creation. An increasing number of non-Christian scientists, in fact, embrace the concept of “intelligent design”–the idea that there is some unexplained reason behind human life.

At the same time, some of these academicians are turning to the theory of panspermia–that life on Earth came from a faraway galaxy. Ross sees such exotic theories as symptoms of one of the hidden battles he faces in engaging the secular science world–its personal pride, which “puts an enormous barrier in their coming to Christ.”

He recalls seeing Caltech colleagues’ marriages breaking up. “How do you explain these people who are incredibly brilliant, and yet are so irrational when it comes to their life decisions? Why would people who are so well-educated make such terrible decisions? I think it’s pride,” he says.

When Ross was growing up, reading textbooks was his idea of fun. He fell in love with the stars at age 7. When a teenager, he came to realize that he did not have the ultimate answers to life.

His studies convinced him that there must be a creator. He examined and investigated most of the other major religious writings, dismissing them, before turning his attention to the Bible. After studying the Scriptures daily for almost two years, looking for the inconsistencies he expected to find, he was persuaded that here was the ultimate truth.

But it was more than an intellectual assent. Although he had “high moral standards,” he realized that he was not able to live up to the measure set by the Bible–that despite his sharp thinking, he was still a sinner in need of the Savior.

His evangelistic zeal emerged when he left his native Canada for Caltech.
At Sierra Madre Congregational Church–which he describes as charismatic–he began equipping others to share their faith, and became evangelism pastor.

Reasons to Believe was born in 1986. The ministry’s home is an 11,000-square-foot former strip mall where 30 staff members research, write, record broadcasts and mail out materials.

There are several local chapters (Seattle’s boasts about 350 members) that arrange events in their area as well as four overseas branches. The ministry also has a roster of volunteers–from NASA scientists to homemakers who have completed Reasons’ apologetics training course–who staff a hotline every day for two hours.

Callers include students working on projects, pastors preparing sermons, people wanting a Christian perspective on the latest science news and atheists who like to argue. More than one unbeliever has been led to Christ after being offered a Bible-centered answer to their questions.

Such encounters are “the heart and soul of our organization,” Ross says. “Our primary goal is evangelism.”

Not only is Reasons’ scientific approach effective, it connects with a segment of society often missed by other evangelistic efforts, Ross asserts. “So many church leaders have this perception that the way you do evangelism is wait until somebody gets into moral difficulties, then approach them with the gospel,” he says. “Wouldn’t it be better to get to those people before they have a divorce or their kids get on drugs?”

Ross maintains this is pragmatism, not elitism, citing the software industry as his most fruitful mission field in the country.

“You have these young men and women working 70, 80 hours a week; they don’t have the time to be drinking and getting into trouble with the opposite sex. They can come to the Christian faith without a lot of the baggage other people might have, not because they are any more moral but simply because they haven’t had the time or the opportunities,” he says.

Although Ross contends for the faith in a dimension that can typically be measured or seen with a telescope or microscope, he is aware that he is engaged in an invisible struggle, too.

“This is spiritual warfare,” he says. “Ever since we birthed the ministry we have set up quarterly days of prayer and fasting, and we feel that this is largely the measure of the success we have had. We do it in recognition that our ministry is an offense to the evil one and therefore we can expect some spiritual attack.”

At the same time, he fears that some Christians are too quick to blame things on the devil or his demons. “He’s not omnipresent. … He can’t create. We need to be careful not to blame Satan for things that are simply the result of our own failure and our own sin. … If things are not making rational sense, then I will look for the demonic.”

One time Ross was praying before speaking at an atheists’ meeting at which he suspected someone would try to “ambush” him during the question time. He felt God leading him to a recent research paper, and he prepared some visuals of the information that he was subsequently able to use to rebut someone who tried to use the same document to stump Ross.

The challenger, a university professor, then asked which church Ross attended because, he said, he’d like to go there.

Although the scientific community is widely held to be hostile to religion, Ross says that in actuality a surprising number of those in the labs are not that different from the average person on the street when it comes to beliefs about God.

“There are a lot of Christians out there in the scientific community. They are typically introverted and are not too willing to make public their faith,” Ross says. “Anti-Christians on the campus tend to be very aggressive. The extroverts tend to be the unbelievers, so the public gets an unbalanced perception of what really goes on on the campus.”

The Genesis Debate

Ross certainly has his critics in the mainstream scientific community. But surprisingly, some of the harshest evaluations of him come from within the church.

Creationists who believe God formed the world in six 24-hour days fume at Ross’ idea that each day mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis was a longer period of time. This “day-age theory,” his critics argue, is either evolution in disguise or a dangerous effort to make modern-day science acceptable at the expense of truth.

One critic describes Ross as “heretical at best and neo-orthodox at worst,” while another refers to NavPress, which publishes Ross’ books, as “once-biblical” for giving him a platform. A third has accused Ross of being a cult leader.

The idea that the planet is only 6,000 or 12,000 years old, a view held by many evangelical Christians, is “the No. 1 barrier … in coming to faith,” for many intellectuals, Ross contends. “They say, ‘If this is what Christians believe, then there is no way that I can give my life to Christ.'”

He believes many Christians who hold to this “young earth” view do so because it’s the only one they have been offered to counter evolution, and they breathe a sigh of relief when presented with an alternative. “They are zealous for their faith,” Ross says. “We have no problem motivating them to do so. Give them the right tools, and they get even more excited.”

Mark Clark, professor of political science at California State University in San Bernardino, says Ross’ ministry “saved my faith.” He had embraced young earth creationism because “it seemed to make sense.” But he found himself developing “Christian schizophrenia” because he could not bring his weekend and workday worlds, and their conflicting realities, together.

Clark took a Reasons’ study course intending to prove Ross wrong, “but by a week-and-a-half I realized what I thought I knew was not true. I saw that your faith and your life could be integrated; there was no reason to fear those two things.”

Ross has advocated a second Jerusalem Council on creation, following the model in The Acts of the Apostles, where the early Church leaders held a summit to hammer out an agreement on the contentious issue of whether or not Gentile converts should be required to follow Jewish custom and law. He believes the creation controversy is the biggest issue facing the church, more significant than the question of women’s roles, “because of the impact it is having on evangelism.”

He tries to avoid public debates with young earth creationists, preferring less confrontational forums where different views can be put forward. “I don’t like to fight. I find it counterproductive,” he says. “When you run into it you deal with it, but you don’t go looking for it. We have better things to do.”

Those things focus on leading people to the Creator through the wonders of creation. After all, this is a man who hosts “star parties” in his home, casual evangelistic gatherings where he introduces people to the wonders of the universe.

“Most secular humanists aren’t prepared to listen to the traditional, historical reasons for belief in God,” Ross says. Rather than argue about religion, he would rather tell people about what scientists discovered yesterday. Give him a telescope, or a scientific journal, and he will use it to lead you to Jesus.

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When it comes to how long it took God to create the world, Christians don’t agree.

Few issues divide evangelical Christians as fiercely as how they interpret the Bible’s account of creation.

While “old earth” creationists such as Hugh Ross argue for what is also called “progressive creation,” with each of the days of God’s work actually long periods of time, “young earth” believers insist the world was made in strictly 24-hour cycles.

Old-earthers don’t have a problem with science dating the universe to some 14 billion years, and the earth just shy of 5 billion, while plotting man’s arrival somewhere around 50,000 years ago. Young-earthers are adamant that the earth and man are just a few thousand years old.

“You don’t get millions of years from the Bible,” says an emphatic Ken Hamm of Answers in Genesis, the country’s largest creation science organization, which has plans for a $20 million Creation Museum near its headquarters in Florence, Kentucky.

But together with the likes of Kent Hovind, who through his Creation Science Evangelism ministry in Pensacola, Florida, offers a $250,000 reward to anyone offering scientific proof of evolution, Hamm says that young-old earth is really not the issue. “It is biblical authority,” he argues.

Objectors to the old earth viewpoint say that it throws up a significant theological issue beyond the matter of whether modern science is trustworthy or not. Extended periods of creation, instead of regular days, would require death of living creatures before the fall. So what happened to God’s perfect world, they ask?

“The problem is not so much their science as their theology,” Ross responds. He says young-earthers sentimentalize the deaths of nonsoulish animals because it makes them think of their pets.

He is also concerned by what he calls young-earthers’ “biblicism,” and warns that their views can encourage a form of Gnosticism “because only the Bible is trustworthy, not the physical realm.”

One of the only denominations to take an official position, the Assemblies of God (AG) in its paper on the issue says that though some people argue for “eons of time” in the creation days, it holds to the view that “the Genesis account should be taken literally.”

A licensed AG minister, Dennis Lindsay, president of Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, told Charisma that as someone who had held to an old earth view, he “laughed out loud” when he first read young earth literature.

But as he studied more he came to embrace the young earth position he now teaches at the Pentecostal training school. Not only did old earth thinking present a major issue concerning death and sin, but the scientific evidence for a young earth was “overwhelming,” he said.

They take a different view at Pat Robertson’s Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which last October invited Ross to take part in a Facts, Faith & Evolution conference. Vinson Synan, dean of Regent’s School of Divinity, said that since World War II, Pentecostal schools had been “more open to the idea of geological days rather than 24 hours.”

Senior Foursquare leader Jack Hayford, founder of The King’s Seminary in Van Nuys, California, who described Ross’ ministry as “one of the timeliest of the recent gifts God has given the church during this season,” told Charisma he was troubled that “so massive and mysterious an issue” as creation has provoked some Christians to attack others.

If an interpretation of creation acknowledges the inspiration and authority of God’s Word, that humankind is a special creation, that God is the author of all and Jesus is the one by whom and for whom all things were made, then, “I believe it is right that we provide latitude of thought, without leveling charges of heresy or mandating a literalism that the Scriptures themselves do not require of us,” Hayford says.

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It was science that led chemist Fazale Rana to faith in Jesus.

An analytical chemist who once did research for beauty-care products and underarm deodorants, Fazale Rana now directs his scientific mind to the question of inspiration, rather than perspiration.

“There’s tremendous beauty in the universe around us, in nature,” says the vice president for science apologetics at Reasons to Believe, the ministry of astronomer Hugh Ross. Rana believes understanding more about how the universe operates will drive scientists toward the God behind it all.

“God’s creation opens up a window into God’s glory. You can appreciate the sheer elegance of a sunset, but when you consider the physics of what is going on, there’s a whole new experience of God’s glory.”

He speaks from personal experience. While in graduate school, he began to question whether natural processes really could account for the intricate systems he was exploring in the cell, as he had been told so often. “I became convinced that there had to be a supernatural base for life.”

Reading the Bible, he later gave his life to Christ. But he compartmentalized his faith, finding Christian views incompatible with the reality of his daily work.

Then he came across Ross and Reasons to Believe. “I discovered I could make everything fit. I could fully integrate my faith into my life. … I knew I could offer a compelling defense for being a Christian,” he says.

The death of his father, a Muslim, spurred him further to want to share his faith with others, using science as a tool. He volunteered with Reasons, becoming a full-time staff member in 1999. He speaks, researches and writes.

“I’m discovering that there are a lot of scientists out there with similar convictions, but very few of them are willing to be outspoken,” Rana says. “If everybody could stand up at once we would actually have a significant percentage [of believers], at least in biology and chemistry, and the scientific community would realize this is not just a few iconoclasts questioning whether naturalism is the best way to explain things.”

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Christians who disagree with evolution are fighting important legal battles.

The evolution-creation debate remains a hot one in public schools, as Micah Spradling discovered at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Looking for a recommendation for his medical school application, the 22-year-old enrolled in Michael Dini’s biology class, only to find himself at the center of what could prove to be a significant test case.

Spradling, a Christian who believes in creation, discovered that his professor had a policy of not recommending students who rejected evolution.

“I could put up with listening to his point of view, but when he told me I had to believe a certain thing, I knew I had to draw the line,” Spradling told Charisma.

He switched to Lubbock Christian University for the required class, but word of his stand reached the Liberty Legal Institute, whose chief counsel, Kelly Shackelford, described Dini’s policy as “open religious bigotry.”

Shackelford complained to the U.S. Department of Justice, whose inquiry prompted a policy change: Dini no longer requires his students to believe in evolution; they simply must be able to explain the theory.

Although evolution is taught widely across the country, creationists have had reason to celebrate in Ohio and Georgia, where they have won some ground in the last year.

In Ohio, last December, the State Board of Education adopted a set of science standards that require students to be taught evidence for and against Darwin’s theory–though it said that the policy should not be seen as support for the idea of intelligent design.

In Georgia, a few months earlier, the Cobb County School Board had approved a policy that requires a “balanced education” regarding the origins of life. The board had previously decided that disclaimer stickers needed to be added to all science textbooks, defining evolution as “a theory, not a fact.”

Despite the controversy surrounding such decisions, Ross says the public education system is “wide open” for Christians to offer scientific evidence for faith, “if you go with a humble attitude … not attacking their science but letting them ask questions.”

To contact Hugh Ross’ ministry, Reasons to Believe, call (626) 335-5282 or visit their Web site at .

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Andy Butcher is Charisma’s senior writer and news director. He interviewed Hugh Ross in Michigan in January.

Santiago Álamo worked in a brothel and tried to find happiness as a woman. But he discovered the love of Jesus at Remar, one of Spain’s most dynamic outreach ministries.
Santiago Álamo offers a welcoming smile as he greets guests in front of what used to be a luxury brothel in the days of Francisco Franco, Spain’s civic leader from 1939-1975. The old building rests atop a green hill overlooking Madrid. A few guys hang out in the yard, busying themselves with nothing in particular. A couple of young women chat happily in a doorway.

All are part of the property’s present, not its past. The brothel is no more. It’s a friendly place now, ridded of its dehumanizing past, thoroughly redeemed.

Like Santiago.

In his former days he was a showgirl in the Spanish Canary Islands, living out his life as a transvestite. He was also a drug addict–and as a result, became a less appealing transvestite–run down, worn out, at the end of his road.

The young man smiling on the hilltop is neither a transvestite nor a drug addict. He is the Santiago of today–reborn and recreated by the power of Jesus Christ.

For 10 years he has been serving God with Remar, a ministry based in Spain that is as big as it is unknown to the church worldwide. Remar–short for “rehabilitating the marginalized” and the Spanish infinitive “to row”–runs rehab centers, offers humanitarian aid and does social work.

It also maintains a widespread international presence by planting churches–which now are in 47 cities in Spain and in hundreds of locations in 46 other countries,
including the United States, Russia, Germany and China. The ministry is spreading across Latin America, growing rapidly, and has been planted in many African countries. Plans are under way for new centers in Israel and Cuba.

Although other ministries serve drug addicts in Spain–notably Betel and Reto at the national level–Remar has outgrown them all and expanded beyond even its own expectations at the international level.

Santiago’s transformation by the power of Jesus Christ is in no way atypical of what Remar has seen accomplished in the lives of thousands of individuals. Though heartbreaking, his story is remarkable and faith-stretching.

“I grew up watching my mother suffer,” Santiago says. “Father had left. There were five children to feed and little money. I longed to help mother manage the house, but she declined, saying it was woman’s work. My response was to develop feminine emotions.”

At age 13 he became a homosexual, but he wanted to become “a real woman,” so he started taking hormones. By 14 his looks had turned feminine, and he found his way into the music-hall scene as a transvestite dancer. At 19 he started smoking heroin.

“They told me you don’t get addicted smoking, and I believed them,” he says. “After some time, when I realized I was [dependent], I was thrown into a depression. My body decayed fast, and I was dropped as a dancer.

“I started prostituting myself, and at first I earned more money than ever, and took more drugs. But the drugs ruined my body progressively, and then I got AIDS, and before long I could not make much on prostitution either.”

Things began to change soon after Santiago woke up in the hospital and learned he had been admitted while in a coma caused by an overdose. He decided to stop
taking drugs but soon went back to his old life. It was then that one of his brothers told him about Remar and God’s love for him.

“I almost beat him up!” Santiago exclaims. “God? Love me?” he says, but adds with a smile, “The seed grew within me.”

In 1990, at 27, Santiago left the Canary Islands. He was a wreck and was headed for Vitoria in northern Spain where Remar is headquartered. He knew the staff were Christians who offered to rehabilitate drug addicts, and even though religion meant nothing to him he believed he had nothing to lose.

“I joined their so-called first phase to get off the drugs. There were ups and downs. I ran away, got invited back again, changed locations–but those people did not let go. I could not figure them out. The whole thing was totally new to me.”

Santiago says he eventually made it through “cold turkey,” or withdrawals, but that he still was fundamentally the same. “They kept preaching to me about Jesus, and at a point I decided to give it a try. That is when the change started.”

Over a two- to three-month period he cut his hair, which he says cost him “many tears.” His conversion occurred during his work assignment in the Remar center’s rabbit stable. It was there that he prayed for forgiveness and was overcome by an “incredible peace.”

Later he worked in the center’s cattle stable, and while “sweating out the hard, physical work,” as he puts it, it occurred to him profoundly that God wanted him to be a man.

“I had cut my hair, but I still had breasts,” he explains.

His breasts were surgically removed, and in the process doctors determined that Santiago no longer had AIDS. He has had more than a dozen tests over a period of many years, and he remains HIV-negative.

Now 38, Santiago leads the Christian community that calls the former brothel home. He is also a Christian TV producer broadcasting the resurrection power of Jesus to the people of Spain.

Kicking the Habit

With very few exceptions, the staff of Remar are like Santiago–former “clients.” Currently some 15,000 staff members and clients live in Remar communities worldwide. Miguel Diez, founder and president, told Charisma that Remar has reached 80,000 of Spain’s 400,000 drug addicts since the ministry’s inception in 1982. He says 25,000 of them have been converted and that 3,000 “are still with us, as soldiers.” Many of these have been sent out to plant Remar ministries in other countries.

Prophetic ministers currently speak of Spain’s key missionary role to come in the years ahead, yet as a result of Remar, Spanish Christians already are evangelizing in many of the toughest places around the globe. It is an exceptional ministry in at least four ways.

Miracles. While visiting a number of Remar centers and the annual Remar conference in Madrid in late summer Charisma met with scores of people who had experienced life transformations similar to Santiago’s.

The receptionist of one Remar center took drugs for 20 years before coming to Christ. The leader of another center used heroin intravenously for six years before God set him free.

At the Remar conference, hundreds of ex-prostitutes, homosexuals and lesbians flocked the assembly hall. Most of Remar’s pastors are former drug addicts.

Finances. Ramón Ubillos, who directs nongovernmental operations for Remar, explained to Charisma that the ministry pays for itself with the various Remar businesses. Work is an essential part of the rehabilitation program, and Remar runs hundreds of second-hand shops, furniture outlets, garages, cleaning companies and more. All are managed by former clients and manned by current clients.

Remar tithes 10 percent of its income to developing nations. The rest covers most of the ministry needs, including expansion costs.

“We receive very few pecuniary donations,” Ubillos says, noting that there is a ministry policy against fund raising on TV and radio programs Remar operates. “But Remar teams regularly visit shops and companies to ask for gifts-in-kind,” he adds. “And we actually never pay for any of the food or clothes we need.”

Therapy. Remar applies the old monastic principles of ora et labora–prayer, work and discipline only. The rehabilitation program does not include any medication or medical help. From day one, when a drug addict moves into a “first-phase” center he or she (in strictly separated houses) is exposed to prayer and preaching of the gospel.

Clients must abide by strict rules. There is a ban on drugs of all descriptions and on nonapproved magazines and music. During the first phase of recovery, there can be no marital sexual relationships, and in all phases extramarital and nonmarital sexual relationships are forbidden.

Philosophy. Remeros, or “oarsmen” as they are called, live in mostly primitive communities. No one is allowed to have any private property.

Diez–with the focused intensity of a visionary and a style of communication betraying no trace of hesitancy–stated to Charisma during lunch in his community home in a Madrid nature reserve that unless a Christian gives up all of his or her possessions, then that person is “not a disciple–by Jesus’ own definition.”

The principle of God’s economy is “distributive justice,” he exclaims. “If you receive more than you need, and do not give it away, you are guilty of injustice,” he says.

With no more than the slightest touch of self-irony, Diez states: “Remar is the only nation on earth with no poor people. Everybody gets what he or she needs.”

While preaching at Remar’s annual conference, Diez scoffed at “big-time preachers” who require “hundreds or even thousands of dollars” to preach a single sermon. He said that God’s servants ought to study 1 Timothy 6 and learn to be content with “food and clothing.”

Because of this message, pastors around the world do not line up to invite Diez to preach in their churches. For years, churches in Spain did not recognize Remar. After it was registered as a church in the mid-1990s and became more of a “regular player,” at least formally, the situation improved.

Still, the many church leaders Charisma met with in Spain said very little about Remar–the biggest ministry in the country, a producer of amazing results in people’s lives and by far Spain’s biggest church export.

Rebuilding for Life

On a recent afternoon, Pedro Navarro, a retired businessman and one of the very few remeros who doesn’t have a “dropout” background, leads guests on a site visit to a Remar first-phase community outside Madrid.

The property was abandoned when purchased and will be renovated by the new residents themselves–the standard Remar procedure, as Navarro points out.

Entering the dorm requires climbing a mound of sand and circling a concrete mixer. The staircase is still without steps, but the rooms and utilities have been restored nicely. The house rules are taped onto every door. After sunset, everyone gathers in the yard for devotions, a form of evangelism.

At a first-phase center many of the clients are neither “clean” yet nor converted. One or two crouch on their chairs with glazed eyes, appearing unaware of the surroundings. The Gypsy pastor of the nearest Remar church, who is leading the gathering, and a Gypsy guitarist are the only ones singing aloud.

After worship Navarro preaches a spontaneous message. When two of the men stand up to receive Jesus, he is in bliss. He prays with them, embracing them for a long, long time.

“This is life to me,” he says later, heading home again through the Madrid night, “to see these boys open up to God, and maybe to meet them a few years later completely transformed and full of gratitude towards God, and even towards me, for helping out. Remar is a very tough place to be, but it is worth every minute of it.”

Javier Jiménez, Remar’s second-in-command, is Miguel Diez’s brother-in-law but a very different sort of person, reflective and soft-spoken. Twenty years ago, when the Diez and Jiménez families started caring for dropouts, he was 17 and the first to live under one roof with drug addicts.

“I lived for a year with three boys in a [trailer],” Jiménez recounts. “After a year they all left, just like that, and I thought it had been my own thing and not God’s, and I was ready to give it up. But on the next day a new boy came to move in with me, and from that point on the ministry started growing.”

Today, at 38, Jiménez has 11 children–seven of his own and four adopted ones. Two of the adopted children were born with AIDS, and another adopted child was born blind.

With his family he served for seven years as a Remar “pioneer missionary” to Guatemala, and he would gladly leave on a new pioneer mission again if he could be spared at the headquarters. He readily admits that his extreme lifestyle often has been hard and still is.

The first years were very difficult for him, he says. “I was taking care of drug addicts older than myself. I had much zeal but little maturity. Every time a boy left I thought it was my fault.”

Jiménez says that in recent years he has found it easy to minister. “But God’s dealing with me gets tougher and tougher,” he adds. “But as you see, I am still around.”

After witnessing 20 years of continuous expansion in Remar, Jiménez has concerns that the ministry might not be able to “preserve its soul.” Today there is less of an influx of clients into Remar centers in Spain than a few years ago because of new government programs.

“I believe God wants us to care for people with the same passion as in the beginning,” he explains. “I lived with the boys, ate with them, stayed up all night during their cold turkey, went out searching for the strays. With thousands coming, there is a risk that you start viewing people as a means to maintaining the structure.”

Jiménez says he foresees a “new phase for Remar” in which the staff starts “reaching out to normal people also.” But will the radical Remar message and lifestyle attract, for example, the prospering Spanish middle class?

“It is the Holy Spirit reaching people, not us,” Jiménez comments. “Still,” he adds in an afterthought, “my own burden is for social work.”

José Vicente Gilabert, 43, director of Remar in East Spain, who himself was hooked on heroin and ended up in a psychiatric hospital with suicidal depression, told Charisma that today’s clients come to Remar in worse physical condition than yesterday’s clients. One reason for this, he thinks, is that the “lesser cases” are now being cared for by the government.

“The drug scene has changed,” Gilabert says. “There is less heroin, maybe, and more cocaine and Ecstasy now. But our job has not changed. We care for the inner man.”

At its core, Remar’s mission is still the same: To reach people like Gilabert–and Santiago Álamo, who probably would be dead today if Remar had not helped him abandon his life as a showgirl and prostitute.

The 38-year-old former transvestite beamed when Charisma asked if he might marry a woman some day. Says Álamo: “Oh yes, I do wish to marry, and I believe I will.”

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Tomas Dixon is Charisma’s European correspondent. Based in Sweden, he traveled to Madrid, Spain, to file this report.

Two years ago we reported on a prominent pastor in California who successfully maintained his popularity even though he divorced his wife and married another woman within seven days. This man abandoned his family, left his denomination, moved his church to another location and continued smiling into the camera from his media platform. Not exactly the kind of behavior that qualifies a man for church leadership, but hey, the guy sure can preach!

When I mention this man’s sin today, people remind me that it’s now “all under the blood of Jesus.” That is a convenient Christian code phrase that should be translated, “It’s been two years, and his ratings are still good.” For too many of us, the easiest way to handle a gross moral failure is to pretend it didn’t happen. We don’t want to be confused by the facts.

A psychologist would say we are living in denial by ignoring this man’s actions. But many charismatic churches have made denial a doctrine. The message we send to leaders is: “If you mess up, hide it, and move on. Public confession will hurt the ministry.” The message communicated to our congregations is: “If you mess up, hide it, and God will still bless you just as He blessed your pastor.”

How is this any different from the game Catholic bishops played during the 1980s, when they moved pedophile priests from one parish to another to protect their image? Hiding that sin only hurt more children in the end. Jesus’ blood does not “cover” what we conceal.

Yes, Jesus forgives our sins when we confess them to Him. But this does not give any church leader permission to live immorally and then lie about it in order to save his reputation. My Bible says sin will spread and infect everybody if it is not dealt with properly.

A Christian leader who falls into serious sexual sin (or violates other character standards listed in 1 Timothy 3:1-7) should step away from the pulpit for a season. He must get his heart healed, mend his marriage and make restitution to the other victims of his behavior. (No threats or hush money allowed.)

After his soul is restored, the minister should by all means return to the pulpit. But not before. Meanwhile his church may suffer some financial
consequences, and he may have to sell a house or a car. But that’s a small price to pay for holiness in God’s house.

Restoration is a simple process, really. (See Mike Fehlauer’s excellent article on the subject, page 80.) So why is it that so few charismatic leaders don’t step down when they fall? Part of the reason may be that we rarely see healthy repentance and restoration modeled by leaders.

Back in the 1980s, evangelical pastor Gordon MacDonald stepped down from a top ministry post and admitted that he had fallen morally. He took a sabbatical to heal his marriage, then he stepped back into the ministry–and his failures became fertilizer for spiritual growth. His new book, Mid-Course Correction, is helping many people navigate their midlife struggles.

Our movement needs a midcourse correction, and it could start with some good, old-fashioned repentance and confession. Please: If you have something to hide, bring it out from under the rug and into His light. Let God heal you His way.

Reaching the unchurched … is the responsibility of every follower of Jesus Christ in this country. Period.

A hazard of being a traveling evangelist is coming home to the sight of a pile of unpaid bills. While I’m gone they stack up on my desk. If I were to let them go unpaid (which I don’t) the debt would just accumulate until, sooner or later, I would be forced to pay what I owe.

On an entirely different front, America is not meeting its obligations. It is drowning in an ocean of ignored, unpaid bills. Congress has no power to pay this debt; these bills are spiritual. Call it the American church’s “national debt”: the mushrooming unchurched U.S. population that the Spirit-filled church has mostly ignored.

Our church leaders have repeatedly made us aware that we have rapidly become a nation of unchurched people. Even in many Bible Belt communities the influence of Christianity is in marked decline. The “bills” are stacking up.

Sooner or later we must pay this growing debt. Why? Because reaching the unchurched and lost people in America is the responsibility of every single follower of Jesus Christ in this country. Period.

Before discussing how we can address this burgeoning spiritual debt-load, let’s look at two factors that are adding to it.

1. We have turned away from the harvest. People in our country have become devalued, not only by society but by the church as well. When we talk of receiving a harvest, our thoughts often race to material blessings (yes, hallelujah, God does bless us in this way). But Jesus also speaks of harvest in terms of people exiting darkness and entering the kingdom of God.

2. Our focus isn’t on the main thing. We often substitute prayer for action. Prayer is incredibly vital, but to pray only and not act is pure spiritual laziness (see Ex. 14:15; Matt. 9:38).

Ever heard of the church’s “MapQuest trap”? That’s what I call it when we must map out and identify spiritual strongholds as a prerequisite to evangelism. Try telling Philip that was necessary after his preaching experience in Samaria (see Acts 8:5-7).

What about our tendency to “tarry” until all the fivefold ministry gifts are lined up? While preachers try to figure who they are and what they are supposed to do, who is obeying the Great Commission? Are we supposed to procrastinate about that? Why is it that gatherings of apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers rarely include evangelists?

As believers, we Spirit-filled, charismatic or Pentecostal Christians are the most exuberant at expressing our faith. We are also the most easily distracted and gullible–how often we fall prey to subtle spins on genuine Christian practice!

When it comes to taking the gospel to the unsaved, we’re like people who run everywhere or vacation all the time–doing anything to avoid taking care of their obligations. We must understand that America’s unchurched are the unpaid spiritual bills we must pay.

Now let’s discuss a few ways to address this spiritual debt.

Take responsibility. Become accountable to the Great Commission. Have you ever been with a group of people at a restaurant when the check arrives at the table and everyone ignores it? Let’s you and I reach out and pick up the tab.

Cry out to God. Get down on your face and pray. Repent if you need to, but pray in faith. Believe that God wants you to pray this way and know He is listening. By faith, see both the action and the answer, but also be ready to be an answer to your own prayers to reach the unsaved. Jesus said: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24, NIV, emphasis added).

See the harvest. Wake up to the fact that the possibilities of reaching people abound even more during times of adversity. The time is not coming; it is here.

Just do it! Gird up your mind and get the information you need to become one who reaches the lost. Change whatever you have to so you can expedite paying the “bills”! God has provided every heavenly resource we need to pay these unpaid bills. Let’s go and do it!

Scott Hinkle is founder of Scott Hinkle Outreach Ministries in Phoenix. For more information, visit his website at .

Many Christians spend all their energy watching the clouds for Jesus’ return–
yet Jesus told us to keep our focus on the Great Commission
Let’s be clear about something from the get-go: I don’t know when the world is going to end, and neither do you. Your pastor doesn’t know, and your Bible-study leader doesn’t know, either. The pope has no idea, and not one radio talk-show host, televangelist or prophet I can think of has the inside scoop.

Not only are all of us in the dark, but so are those who have gone before us. To my knowledge, no one has yet found the ancient guru who can reveal this mystery from the grave.

Yet all my Christian life I’ve read books and heard sermons confidently proclaiming the significance of certain world events as end-time indicators, only to be disappointed with the passage of time when it becomes obvious that the mark was missed once again. What is the problem?

It seems that although the Bible clearly communicates the primary messages God wants us to understand, our generation has been inordinately fixated on finding some mysterious code embedded in Scripture that would make us the pinnacle of human history. But it’s time to accept the possibility that perhaps the most obvious and clearly articulated messages of Scripture are indeed of primary importance, and the secret formulas pointing to our being the “last generation” are hidden for a reason: They do not reveal the truth and are a distraction for many in the body of Christ.

We don’t know when the world is going to end because God does not want us to know. Jesus told His disciples this very clearly before He ascended to heaven to be with the Father.

When He was giving them final instructions after His resurrection, they asked Him, “‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'” (Acts 1:6, NKJV).

That was their version of the question, “Is the world about to end?” They believed that deliverance from Roman occupation meant the fulfillment of God’s promises of peace and security, which would make them the final generation. They were wrong, and we might be too.

Jesus responded, “‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority'” (Acts 1:7, NIV). Another time He said, “‘No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father'” (Matt. 24:36). It was not for the disciples to know, and it is not for us to know, either.

Discerning the Times

Despite Jesus’ remarks, we continue to be preoccupied with questions about the end of the world. Our interest is understandable: We love our Lord and Savior and can’t wait for Him to come back.

Besides, earth can be uncomfortable, and we all know heaven will be absolutely wonderful–everything will be just right. Big Macs won’t make us fat. No one will be poor. There will be no war.

Why wouldn’t we want to get there as soon as possible?

But too often our desire to see Jesus return culminates in false expectations and predictions. During the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, everyone was excited about The Late Great Planet Earth and its prediction of the imminent return of Jesus. There were also movies such as A Thief in the Night and songs such as “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” that made us believe, in the light of current events and Bible prophecy, that the second coming was imminent.

Jesus faced the same problem in His day. He told the people: “‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, “It’s going to rain,” and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, “It’s going to be hot,” and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?'” (Luke 12:54-56).

Obviously, many of our leaders are having a difficult time interpreting “this present time” for us. And oddly enough, even though they miss it year after year, we continue to call them experts in biblical prophecy, buying updated versions of their books and foolishly attending their seminars.

Regrettably, too many believers who should have been focused on strengthening local churches, praying for and financing the expansion of God’s kingdom, or attending school so they could become leaders in their field of interest made choices that altered the course of their lives based on a misunderstanding of where they are on the timeline of human history.

For example, some friends of mine married girls they otherwise wouldn’t have married just because they wanted wives for a while before Jesus returned. Others avoided college and career opportunities because they felt they had only a short time to devote themselves to winning the lost.

Many purchased obscure farms, ranches and retreat facilities rather than investing in their local churches, thinking that the economy would collapse and the Antichrist would be ruling the world within days. Now too many of these misled Christians are unemployable because they didn’t receive an education or build a business, and as a result their lives have minimum impact–all because they misunderstood the times.

Unfortunately, many of the people who placed their hopes in Jesus’ imminent return 30 years ago are discouraged now. Some of my old friends are no longer committed to God. They feel they were deceived by Christian leaders who used fear tactics to sell books and movies, or they are disillusioned after having tried to convince everyone around them to make quick decisions for Christ.

Most of the Christian leaders at that time were good men and women who wanted people to give their lives to the gospel. They didn’t encourage anyone to make rash decisions. They wanted people to be devoted to God and motivated to do His work until His return.

The same is true today. Even if your pastor speaks about the end times frequently, he is not suggesting that you sell your home and move to a cabin in the woods to wait for the rapture. If he is, you may need to find a new pastor.

When Jesus spoke about the end times, He made it clear that our focus should be not on when the end will come, but on what we need to do before it happens. When He talked about the signs that would indicate the end, He said, “‘And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come'” (Matt. 24:14, NKJV).

Jesus said that wars, famines and earthquakes would be the beginning of the birth pangs and that we would see false prophets and apostasy. He also strongly encouraged us to stand firm as we face the traumatic conditions He predicted. Why? Because the full fruit of the labor won’t come until everyone has had an opportunity to hear the gospel!

Developing a Right Focus

Could it be that with our fixation on Israel, we’ve neglected the Scriptures that indicate the Second Coming is predicated on our spreading the gospel throughout the world? The expansion of the kingdom of God might be our best predictor of when the end will come–and right now there are several billion people on the planet who still have not heard the gospel.

What this means is that supporting the planting and development of life-giving local churches might do more for the Second Coming than attending a prophecy seminar. Making long-term lifestyle choices that place strong believers in positions of influence might be more helpful than short-term fixes. Constant, steady integrity might be more important than stocking your basement with dried food and canned goods.

Don’t get me wrong: Israel is very important, and the return of the Jewish people to Palestine is a sign; but it’s not the only sign people are pointing at to support their end-times claims.

Some point to the United Nations and say it is proof that the end is near–because a one-world government is necessary for the work of the Antichrist. Certainly a one-world government could come about through the United Nations under certain circumstances, but we are nowhere near that state now.

The United Nations is impotent without the United States’ military and economic resources. And even if a one-world government is eventually established, there is no reason to believe that an evil ruler will immediately rise up to control the world.

Others have brought up the natural disasters that have occurred around the world. Aren’t those signs of the end? They are, but only as part of the early birth pangs.

What about the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem? We hear about it all the time, and people think it means the end has come. But there are no credible indicators that even a serious discussion about building a temple on the Mount in Jerusalem, let alone construction itself, is about to take place.

People have also vigorously proclaimed that they know Jesus is coming back after a “great falling away” has occurred. They point to the modern rise in cults and secularism and say this means Jesus’ return is just around the corner.

But it’s not true. We are, in fact, enjoying the growth of Bible-preaching churches and ministries throughout the world and the decline of liberal, non-believing churches. The body of Christ is growing more rapidly right now than at any other time in Christian history.

In fact, our best missiologists declare that we are enjoying the most rapid expansion of the gospel in the history of the world right now. We are not seeing a falling away; rather, we are witnessing explosive growth. The recent numbers compiled by the editors of the World Christian Encyclopedia (WCE) make it clear that we are in the midst of the opposite of a great falling away. We are living in the middle of a great ingathering.

According to the WCE, Christianity has fluctuated a great deal since the time of Jesus. For the first 19 centuries, it grew by leaps and bounds. By the year 500, 22 percent of the world’s population were believers.

But by 1500, Christian growth was not keeping up with global population growth, and the percentage shrank to 19. Then, by the beginning of the last century, one-third of the world was considered Christian, and at least half the world was aware of the gospel and had been influenced by it.

Great Christian evangelists of the late 19th century, such as D.L. Moody, did their work so well that they began to expect that the Great Commission might be completed during their lifetimes. Many of the leading missionaries at the time rallied together to try to spread the gospel to every person.

But the 20th century presented new challenges to the gospel. Communism and increased secularism dealt major blows to Christian ministry for decades, though powerful pockets of Christianity grew even within the darkest areas.

Then the last three decades saw rapid growth again, and today we continue to experience Christian expansion all over the world, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. The United States and Europe are lagging behind, but strong churches throughout the Western world are making major strides.

The world is not becoming more secular, as many feared. It is becoming more Christian.

The WCE says that every 24 hours, the following things occur:

69,000 people become Christians
122,000 new Christians are baptized
30,000 Christians become Pentecostal by baptism in the Holy Spirit
500 worship centers are planted
500 million hours are given to evangelism
206,000 people are evangelized
9,900 fewer people remain unevangelized
165,000 full-length Bibles–and more than 11 million selections of Scripture–are distributed
$740 million is given to Christian causes

The worldwide church’s income increases by $296 million.

So, where are we in the end times? We are in Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Right now, God is building the greatest churches in the history of the world.

Our churches aren’t falling away. They are becoming more glued to God’s principles, to the teaching of His Word and to the life of His Spirit. Churches worldwide are proclaiming the promise of God that people can be born again. They are conducting major strategic outreaches, ministering to the sick and needy and helping people to be delivered from their sins. Our churches are doing great work, and I am thrilled to be alive at this time to see it.

What We Can Do

I think the facts tell us that this is the generation of opportunity for the expansion of the gospel, not the generation of demise. We are expanding the kingdom of God as never before, and His gospel is spreading across the earth. But when we live entirely within Christian circles, it can feel as if Christianity is much more expansive than it actually is.

We have much to do. Christianity is the largest religion in the world by far, with 2 billion adherents, but there are still billions of people who need to hear about Jesus. Islam is actually growing in numbers, and the Mormons and other groups continue to successfully evangelize. New non-Christian cults form every day.

Each day, 340,500 people are born, and all of them need a chance to hear the gospel. God is in no hurry because He loves people so much and wants them to have a chance to know Him. “He is patient with you,” Peter wrote, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9, NIV).

If we want to be a part of fulfilling the Great Commission and helping people “come to repentance,” here’s what we need to do:

Live as if He were coming back today, but plan as if we were going to live a long, full life.

Participate in a healthy, life-giving local church. Everywhere in the world where the gospel has made a measurable impact on a culture, it has happened through church planting.

Finance global evangelization. Do all you can to ensure that your local church is heavily involved with missions and is preparing the young people of the church for positions of influence for their generation.

Our generation is called to make great leaps in the spread of the gospel. This is what the Lord is doing, and if we will use our resources and not become distracted with false hopes of a premature Second Coming, we will realize God’s calling for us. We will expand His kingdom so that when He does come, the celebration can be bigger and greater than we had ever dreamed.

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Ted Haggard is pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the newly appointed president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Adopting a healthful lifestyle will lower your risk of contracting SARS.
Question: I enjoy fairly good health but get colds a couple of times a year. How likely am I to contract SARS?
G.S., Cape Canaveral, Florida

Answer: There is really very little known about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) at this time. The preliminary information that has surfaced is theoretical, but research efforts are under way to determine cause and treatment.

One thing we do know: SARS is contagious; therefore, avoiding contact with it is fundamental to not contracting it. Currently it is believed that people are at risk only when they come in close contact with someone who has the virus. If you are living with or caring for someone with SARS, your probability of contracting
it is obviously much higher, especially if you come in contact with the person’s body fluids or respiratory secretions.

The primary symptoms for this virus include a high fever and dry cough or difficulty in breathing. Other symptoms such as body aches, loss of appetite, rash, headache and diarrhea also could indicate that the SARS virus is present in the body. Because the best form of treatment is still to be determined, prevention is the most important key to keeping yourself from contracting the virus.

To practice prevention, you should avoid direct contact with people who have the above-mentioned symptoms. You should practice good hygiene. You should maintain a healthy immune system. If you are not doing this already or don’t know how to, then I suggest you study the basic guidelines for living healthfully and try to practice them in your own life–they will be quite useful for keeping your natural defenses high.

I don’t want to minimize the negative impact that SARS may have on world health, but I do suggest that it is more of a media event than a high health risk at this time. I would also like to remind you that heart disease is still the No. 1 killer in the United States, followed by cancer.

Even though SARS is the new illness on the block and has everyone panicked, you should be more concerned about the health of your heart and whether you are at risk for other diseases. Adopting a healthful lifestyle will lower your risk of having cardiovascular illness, cancer and SARS.

You do not have to fall victim to illness. You can be proactive about preserving your own health, as well as your family’s. Study some of the many resources available by reading health books or by gathering information from the Internet. Then do what’s most important: Apply the knowledge to your daily living.

Question: The old childhood saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” had its place. Now, as an adult, I’m wondering, do prayer and faith have medicinal value?
A.C., Chicago, Illinois

Answer: From a biblical standpoint, prayer and faith are truly the way to experience God’s healing power. I will allow the theologians to debate whether or not prayer and faith have intrinsic healing power. What I will tell you is, people who incorporate religious practices into their lives do fare better when ill.

According to hundreds of clinical trials, prayer and faith indeed demonstrate healing effects. Whether this is the result of divine healing or a phenomenon is debated by many.

What is beyond controversy, however, is the fact that prayer is a wonderful relaxation technique. Relaxation relieves stress. When stress decreases, immune responses increase and healing begins.

For 40 years we have prayed with our patients at my hospital, Oasis of Hope. We see how important it is to help them overcome the fear of cancer. Prayer and faith help them release anxieties and are therefore a vital part of recovery.

In our desire to have a positive impact beyond our hospital, we initiated the Worldwide Cancer Prayer Day, being celebrated on June 5 (see related article on
page 17). We also take prayer requests from around the world at because we believe in the medicinal value of prayer.

I’ll conclude my answer with this–prayer is the only therapy that is free, nontoxic and effective at very great distances!

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Francisco Contreras, M.D., oversees Oasis of Hope Hospital (), a cancer-care facility in Mexico widely known for alternative-treatment methods. He is the author of several books on health, including his newest, The Coming Cancer Cure (SiloamPress, ).

Two years ago a tragic accident put entertainer Pat Boone’s grandson in a coma. Today Ryan says confidently that he will be entirely healed.
One day in the spring of 2000, Ryan Corbin telephoned his mother. “I don’t know what it is, but God is going to use me in a big way,” he said sheepishly, almost embarrassed.

Twelve months later–on June 19, 2001–Ryan and some friends headed up to the rooftop deck at his west Los Angeles apartment building. They wanted to catch some rays, but Ryan never made it.

He fell through a skylight, plunging 40 feet down, banging against two stair railings and crashing onto a cement floor. He fractured his skull, broke his jaw and mangled virtually every internal organ. His heart stopped beating, and he was not breathing.

Paramedics applied emergency aid and rushed the 24-year-old grandson of pop-music legend Pat Boone to the UCLA Medical Center. What followed was touch-and-go. Surgeons removed his spleen, placed him on a ventilator and pumped 36 pints of blood through his body just to keep him alive.

Ryan had not damaged his spine, but he had suffered serious head trauma and was comatose. Doctors told the family it was likely that he would never again be a contributing member of society. How God could use Ryan “in a big way” was suddenly far less clear.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Many people stumble over the question. If ever there was a good person who had something very bad happen to him, it was Ryan Corbin.

Friends and family members alike cast him as gentle-hearted and sensitive, a fighter for everything good–even a modern-day David. “My brother has a heart and a spirit that are so pure,” says Jessica Corbin, 24. “Don’t get me wrong. The guy has his faults, but from an early age he had a real beauty and serenity, a rest and a faith in God.”

Indeed, Ryan was just 4 when he invited Jesus into his life. Not only did he obtain salvation, but he also received a prayer language at that time. Later, as a student at Pepperdine University, he deepened his faith. “I know I am going to reach my generation for Christ,” he once told his grandfather. “I just do not know how.”

Ryan started with his family, encouraging his mother to grow in her faith, discussing spiritual matters with his then-unbelieving stepfather, Mike Michaelis (who has since become a believer), and challenging his younger sister. “We had heated arguments,” Jessica recounts. “Ryan was affected so much by prayer, but I was only affected by what I saw. In a way I was jealous.”

After graduating from Pepperdine, Ryan wrote a full-length screenplay on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus–set in contemporary times. “He does it in a way that the Dan Rathers and Peter Jenningses would have to deal with the reality of who Jesus is,” his grandfather describes.

Indeed, he aspired to influence his generation and beyond as a film or TV producer and director. In fact, he was already paying his dues. Before his accident he worked as a production assistant on the Will & Grace TV show.

Ryan never told his bosses that he was Pat Boone’s grandson. He did not want to use his lineage (he is also a descendant of pioneer Daniel Boone and his aunt is singer Debby Boone) as a door opener; rather, he sought to make his own way.

Though Ryan never saw a camera he did not like, he was even more enthralled with the deeper things of God, and was fully devoted to his family and friends. It was characteristic of him to discuss concerns with his pastors–such as the spiritual power behind Islam. And a girlfriend once almost left him because he was too spiritually minded.

But it was also typical of him to put together a video tribute on the occasion of his father’s 50th birthday or leave a gracious Father’s Day message on his stepfather’s voice mail. “That is just the kind of guy he was,” Jessica says. “He was always doing something for somebody.”

Such a nice guy–so why did this tragedy happen?

The Faith Team

After the accident, neurosurgeons offered grim news: They believed that Ryan would always need a ventilator and would most likely remain in a vegetative state. They further hinted that the family might want to consider how long they wanted to keep him alive.

Ryan’s father, Doug Corbin, would have none of that. Rather, he set the stage for the weeks, months and now years that would follow. “You have a great medical team, and you saved his life,” Doug told the UCLA staff, “but we are a great faith team. So let’s work together.” The doctors may not have realized that the faith team had already been activated.

Shirley Boone–Ryan’s grandmother and Pat’s wife–was the first to arrive at the UCLA Medical Center the day of the accident. When she pulled up, the paramedics were still there.

“Lady, don’t get your hopes up,” is all they said. “I did not have a second of fear,” Shirley told Charisma. “Nothing hit me but this Scripture: ‘I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord’ (Ps. 118:17, NKJV). I knew that I knew that I knew.”

Shirley never doubted, even when Ryan remained in a coma for the first six months and was largely unresponsive for the first year.

Pat was in his Hollywood office when Shirley called with news of the accident. He immediately dropped the business of the day–he had been putting together details of his new record company, The Gold Label–and rushed to UCLA.

“My heart was in my chest,” he recounts. “I was praying: ‘Lord, heal him. Lord, hold him in the hollow of Your hand. Let Your angels minister to him.'”

As a famous Christian, and a board member at The Church on the Way in local Van Nuys, Pat has prayed for many people. He even wrote a book–years before Ryan was born–titled A Miracle a Day Keeps the Devil Away.

Now he and his family needed a big one. It was as if God were saying: “OK, Pat Boone, everyone knows you are a Christian. Now it is time to see how your faith really works.”

When Pat prays for a sick person, he usually envisions Jesus coming into the room. “When Ryan was hurt I prayed like I never prayed before,” he says. “I said: ‘Lord, I am not asking You to reach down and heal Ryan–You have inhabited him since he was 4. I am asking You to rise up strong and bless him with Your Holy Spirit, repair him from within.'”

When Ryan fell, his mother (who is Pat and Shirley’s second of four daughters) was vacationing in Spain. “Time stands still when you hear something like this,” says Lindy Boone Michaelis. “But what the doctors said did not go along with how I felt. I was totally walking by faith, and I knew enough to pray.”

During the early days, the family mostly tried to hold it all together. But there were some small ironies. For one, the day before the accident, Pat had been at the UCLA Medical Center donating blood–along with Shirley Jones and Charlton Heston–to promote . Nurses later told him that some of the blood he had given most likely was tapped to save Ryan’s life.

For six weeks after Ryan’s fall, he was in the UCLA Medical Center Intensive Care Unit. During that entire stretch, at least one family member was camped out in the waiting room, praying and hoping. During this time Lindy felt that God was telling her that she was going to go to Bible school. “Not a literal school,” she says, “but through this God was going to start talking to me and teaching me.”

An early lesson came when Larry King invited the Boone clan onto his CNN TV show. King, an admitted agnostic, has often asked the why-do-bad-things-happen question. Perhaps this would be an opportunity for God to answer. Yet Lindy hesitated.

‘The Miracle Boy’

“I was in agony and felt like it would expose me in my pain to the world,” Lindy says of Larry King’s request. “This was a private matter. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought: Wait, if Ryan had the chance to go on Larry King Live and talk about his faith, he would not hesitate. I decided, I am going to step up for him.”

Ryan was still in a coma when in July 2001 Pat, Lindy and evangelist Kenneth Copeland appeared on Larry King Live and beckoned people around the world to join them in prayer (CNN broadcasts King’s show in 220 nations, reaching an estimated 50 million potential intercessors).

The reaction was immediate and overwhelming. People called the hospital, a hotline was established and King invited the Boones and Copeland back. In fact, King has now dedicated four hour-long telecasts to Ryan, tracking the answers to prayer as “the miracle boy” has defied doctors’ predictions and slowly progressed in his healing.

On the shows, King has interviewed Pat, Lindy and Jessica–getting from them mostly medical updates and personal insights. On the same shows, King has asked Copeland, Max Lucado, Robert Schuller, Jack Hayford, Rick Warren and Ryan’s pastor at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Malibu, Dave Owen, weighty theological questions.

“Each hour has been devoted to prayer, how God answers prayer and, Is there a God?” Pat says. “Larry keeps asking the question, ‘If God is love why does He let these things happen to good people?’ So, right there on CNN, to 50 million viewers, we are telling about the cross and the Resurrection!”

For the third show, King visited Ryan, who had been moved to a specialized care facility. By then Ryan had emerged from his coma, no longer needed a ventilator, had responded to Jessica feeding him pudding, could sing with his mother and was able to shake King’s hand. At the end of the segment, King said, “Next time we will do this in the studio.”

On Christmas Day 2002, the usual prayer warriors were assembled around King’s interview table–plus one. Joining Pat, Lindy, Jessica and Rick Warren was Ryan–in his wheelchair, but very much aware that he was seated across from the man in the suspenders.

Ryan, though unable to openly converse, recited the pledge of allegiance, sang with his grandfather and said, “Thank you,” to King.

There was not a dry eye in the studio or in millions of homes around the world. CNN replayed the show twice during the week and once as King’s weekend special.

“Larry is awed,” Pat Boone says. “He requires a sign, and he has selected Ryan as a sign that there is a God and that He does answer prayer.” Pat believes that when King sees a healed Ryan walk into the studio for his next interview King will re-examine his doubts and perhaps accept God.

“The power of prayer is not just what it does to the object of that prayer, but also what it does to the person praying,” Lindy says. “Ryan is an obvious miracle, but the miracle that has happened in me is part of the answer to prayer. The miracle that happened when Jessica accepted the Lord is part of the miracle. [See related article on this page.]

“Lives being touched all around us are as big an answer to prayer as Ryan being able to talk. Larry King’s response is an answer to prayer. The joy that I get is that Ryan had such a desire to make a difference, and he is.”

For the Glory of God

A gentle breeze saunters in from the west and the last hint of azure lingers in the Southern California sky on a Saturday night as pristine and full of hope as any in recent memory.

Lindy pulls her copper-colored van into a handicapped parking spot and walks to the passenger side of the vehicle. Just like she does every Saturday night nowadays, she helps Ryan disembark and steers his wheelchair toward the Saddleback Valley Community Church sanctuary in Lake Forest.

Ryan likes coming to church. Tonight, between sips of Minute Maid apple juice that keeps his energy level up, he nods to the beat of a worship song and sings along–if the musicians crank up a Steven Curtis Chapman tune he will get really excited. He then listens intently, not missing a word of Rick Warren’s lesson on the power of words.

This is a healing in progress.

Having improved enough to move from medical facilities to his mother and stepfather’s house, Ryan’s daily regimen typically includes physical, speech and occupational therapy. He also watches television, listens to music and eats on his own.

“He still does not initiate much,” Pat says, “but he almost always responds.”

Indeed, the words are coming. One day, out of nowhere he said, “Live”–as in “Live from New York.” More and more he will hold one tone–“ahhhhhhhhh”–as long as he can. “He is finding his voice,” Pat adds.

And he will answer questions. A therapist asked what the letter “L” stands for in the metric system. Ryan said, “Liter.”

This is Ryan the movie buff, the Lakers fan, the one with the quirky sense of humor–family members say they see signs he has lost none of this. Furthermore, they believe that Ryan’s faith not only is unshaken, but it also has actually strengthened.

“Why did God let this happen to Ryan?” Pat asks. “I think Lindy had insight. She wrote down that God saw in Ryan somebody who He could use in this way, somebody who He trusted, even to endure it once he realized
what had happened–which Ryan does now.”

As soon as Ryan was able to speak, Lindy asked him if he still loved Jesus.

“He said, ‘Yes,’ as most definite as he could,” Lindy recalls.

“Do you feel His presence?” she queried further.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Ryan, do you ever lay in bed and say this really sucks?” she probed.

“No,” he said, forming a gentle smile.

Mike Michaelis asks Ryan, now 26, “Are you going to get completely well?”

Ryan always answers, “Yes.”

Then Mike asks, “Why Ryan?”

“For the glory of God,” he replies.

Lindy finds a paradox in the fact that Ryan was attacked (the family considers it a spiritual attack although they do not blame Satan outright for pushing Ryan).

“Ryan, it will be so wonderful when you will be able to express the message God has given you,” Lindy tells her son.

Again, he nods resolutely in the affirmative. Does Ryan have a message?

“Yes, I do.”

He leaves no doubt.

“There is this mutual trust,” Lindy beams. “Ryan trusts the Lord so much, and the Lord trusts him to be somebody who can go through this and come out the other side.

“Ryan is expecting to be able to walk again. He is expecting to make a difference in this world.”

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Ryan Corbin’s accident in 2001 had an unexpected result: It brought his sister to faith in Christ.

For six months Jessica Corbin had been standing strong for her brother Ryan’s recovery. She had encouraged her mother, assured her half brother and held her grandmother tight. But she could last only so long.

The pressure came crashing in on the day after Christmas 2001. “I hit a wall,” she told Charisma. “I was still dealing with the reality that my brother was not all right. I desperately turned to God and said, ‘Help me.'”

God was not a stranger to Jessica. As Pat and Shirley Boone’s granddaughter, she is part of one of the most visible Christian families in America. As a child, she regularly attended church. But something was missing.

“People would tell me I was a Christian, but I never knew how I got to be one,” Jessica says. “Christianity as I understood it was a choice–but I never made a choice, I was just born that way.”

Jessica never doubted God’s existence, but the passion she saw in her brother and others never reached her heart. “It was like believing in Santa Claus,” she says.

In a way Jessica felt like the black sheep of her family. “There were times when I would say, ‘I am not a Boone, I am Jessi!'” she admits.

She never wandered that far astray, but she did insist upon coming to God on her own terms. As a result, she did not regularly attend church and studied various religions as an undergraduate at UCLA.

When Ryan had his accident, she was living in San Francisco and working as a reporter for TechTV. “I didn’t have a strong bond with Jesus,” she says. “So I just tried to quiet my angst and focus on Ryan. My faith did not really have a face. All I knew was that I believed in Ryan and his character.”

Jessica gave up everything to be by Ryan’s side–she quit her job, moved back to Southern California and was disconnected from her circle of friends. Then came the day after Christmas 2001.

“Reaching the end of myself forced me to take a step off the ledge and let God carry me,” Jessica says. “What is amazing is that you do not know what is there until you take that step, then it all makes sense.”

Jessica’s head knowledge about Jesus finally reached her heart. For that, she had Ryan–and in an undeniable way his fall and struggle for life–to thank.

She was not the only one moved toward God by this tragedy. When word went out for people to pray for Ryan, actor Danny Bonaduce (who played “Danny” on the 1970s TV show The Partridge Family) responded. Not particularly religious, Bonaduce nonetheless went home and told his wife they needed to pray for Ryan.

“I told Danny, ‘You do not know Ryan, but he would have gone through all of this just so you and your wife would pray together,'” Pat Boone says. “Ryan is that committed to being used by God.”

Would Ryan accept the fall, the coma and the slow struggle back to any kind of normalcy just to see his little sister grow closer to Jesus?

“In a heartbeat,” says Jessica, wiping away tears. “In a heartbeat.”

For updates on Ryan Corbin’s condition, and for information on the Ryan Corbin Foundation, started by Doug Corbin and Jessica Corbin to help people who suffer from serious injuries, visit .

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Steven Lawson is a veteran journalist who lives in Southern California.

Today, American children are exposed to distress at earlier ages than in the past.
When I was asked by a national radio show to talk about how to help children cope with war, I felt the interview would be simply an extended version of my everyday conversations. Living in a military town, we knew many people who had been deployed. This war was personal. Samantha’s dad, Jimmy’s brother, Karla’s uncle, Debra’s son and others known by name were in the fight.

Hopefully, I was able to offer the listeners of that show a number of helpful suggestions. But when the interview ended, I hung up the phone and began to think about all the topics I’d been asked to discuss on radio and television in the last five years–teen violence, bullies, eating disorders, AIDS, HIV, date rape, terrorism and now war, to name only a few. And I began to compare the stresses kids have today to those of my own youth. Yes, I had anxieties and even experienced the Vietnam War, but I never lived my days worried about my safety.

Today, American children are exposed to distress at much earlier ages. Because of technology and the media, visual images of disaster, war and criminal activity can be seen daily in households. Parents have to discuss what to do in case of a school shooting, how to handle a bully that may come after you with a weapon, and what to do if your friend becomes suicidal or is slowly killing herself with an eating disorder.

Children and teens are growing up in stressful times, and they worry. They may lose sleep, complain of headaches or stomachaches, become irritable, withdraw and want to stay home, have changes in appetite or even fear going to school. They need our help to deal with the stresses of our day.

The way you help depends on their developmental age. Preschoolers are typically unaware of the violence in the world. They should be sheltered from news reports that describe it because they can’t make sense of them.

Younger children need reassurance–not reassurance that everything will be fine, but reassurance that you, as a parent, are doing everything you can to protect them. Remember, younger kids often confuse reality with fantasy and may ask outlandish questions such as, “Is that plane going to bomb our house?”

Older children need a chance to share their feelings about world events. Allow them to talk about their views and insecurities, again providing reassurance. These are teachable moments in which you propose faith and values as responses to stress and anxiety. Talk about the bad actions of people versus bad people. Explain how our choices impact others.

Teens often will take a position on war and terrorism. Their position may not be the same as yours, but help them to think critically. Integrate biblical principles into the discussion.

For example, you could open up a discussion about President Bush’s decision to go after Saddam Hussein with the question: “If there were a bully in your school who pushed and shoved you on a regular basis, what would you do? Would you turn the other cheek as Jesus suggests in Matthew, or would you defend yourself and put a stop to the behavior as David did when he fought Goliath?”

Let your teen struggle with that question. Search the Scriptures for answers. Talk about the importance of seeking the mind of Christ and being led by His Spirit.

Carry on routines. Find time to play and relax together. Allow children to share their worries regularly. Come together as a family. Children feel secure when they are with people they love and trust.

For children of all ages, limit their exposure to violent images. We know from several studies that watching violence creates anxiety and aggression in children. It also creates fear.

And of course, the most important thing you can do is pray with and for your children. Memorize Scripture. This activity provides material for discussion at the same time that it places the Word of God in our hearts.

Also, encourage your children to pray for those who are defending our freedom and for innocent people who are victims. Remind them that God is always in control and that He will help us in times of trouble when we call upon Him (see Ps. 91:15).

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Linda S. Mintle, Ph.D., is a Virginia-based licensed clinical social worker and author of the new Breaking Free book series (Charisma House), available at . She invites your questions about the tough issues of life at .

When Marie Muhammad-Vaughn rejected Islam, her life took a turn for the worse. Yet today, the great-grandaughter of the founder of the Nation of Islam says she has no regrets.
Nine-year-old Marie and her sister Lulé were excited about their slumber party. The two were celebrating their birthdays together in 1981 at the home of the world-famous heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali.

For most kids, having a party at a celebrity athlete’s home would have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For Marie, Lulé and their siblings, it was no big deal. The children’s grandfather, Herbert Muhammad, was Ali’s personal manager, and he made certain the kids received special attention.

Marie’s family also had religious ties with Ali. Marie’s great-grandfather, the late Elijah Muhammad–who for almost 40 years was the architect and influential leader of the Nation of Islam–had bestowed the name “Muhammad Ali” upon the boxer as part of his rite of passage into the religious group. Born Cassius Clay Jr., Ali had joined the sect and become a Muslim in 1964.

But when Marie, Lulé and their siblings, Ruth and Herbert, refused to join the Nation of Islam, deciding at a young age not to become Muslims, the special parties and outings ceased–as did other privileges. They no longer were welcome to reap the benefits of being the great-grandchildren of the most revered member of the Nation of Islam.

Today, Marie Muhammad-Vaughn, 31, is a Spirit-filled believer in Jesus Christ. Choosing Christianity meant being estranged at times from her relatives, but she has no regrets for following Christ. She is convinced that God has a call on her life.

“Elijah Muhammad named me after his mother, who was Baptist, but she eventually followed her son and converted to Islam,” Muhammad-Vaughn says. “Where she laid down the baton, God wants me to pick it up because my roots are in Him.”

When Muhammad-Vaughn considers her lineage, she knows why she is a follower of Christ. It was the truth, she says, that set her free and sustained her during moments of depression as well as through challenges of being a single mother and difficulties she has faced because of her family heritage.

“Even though I didn’t grow up in a Christian home and we didn’t go to church, my mother constantly told us that Jesus Christ is Lord,” she recalls. Those words eventually led the Chicago native to ask Christ into her life at age 17.

Married now for 3-1/2 years, the mother of three knows there are millions of people, including her close relatives, who have chosen to follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. She talked with Charisma recently about how Christians can win them back.

A Nation Is Born

According to USA Today, approximately 7 million Muslims live in the United States. The American Jewish Committee however, reports drastically lower numbers–possibly as low as 1.5 million and no more than 3.4 million. An even lower figure, 527,000, was published in the 2000 Statistical Abstract of the United States, based on the 1993 National Survey of Religious Identification.

Discrepancies aside, there is no question that Muslims comprise a variety of nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, including Indonesian, Asian, Arab and African. African Americans account for 30 percent of all Muslims in the United States and include those who align themselves with the Nation of Islam, which is predominantly black.

This was not the case in 1930, when the first seeds of the Nation of Islam were being sown. Economically, the country was reeling from the stock market crash of 1929 and was entering the subsequent Great Depression. Socially, civil liberties in America were unrefined–certainly not what they are today–especially for the country’s black populace.

It had been only 47 years since 1883, when the United States Supreme Court had invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875, stripping blacks of their right to accommodations at inns, theaters and other public places. The high court’s decision had led to similar rulings that strengthened Jim Crow–a system of laws that made it legal to discriminate against blacks.

Legalized discrimination had given rise to tumultuous times. In 1913, Timothy Drew, also known as Noble Drew Ali, established the first African American Muslim sect, the Moorish Science Temple Divine and National Movement of North America. After Drew’s death in 1929, Wallace D. Fard declared himself to be a reincarnation of Drew and started the Temple of Islam, now commonly known as “the Nation.”

Based in Detroit, Fard started preaching a doctrine unheard of in most communities. His message of black solidarity and allegiance to Islam caught the attention of some of the city’s African American residents. Followers said his vision for change was birthed from the pain of 400 years of black slavery in America and couldn’t have come at a better time for a “displaced” race.

Ironically, Fard was not black.

“Fard was a white man born in Portland, Oregon, in 1891. His message was geared to African American people,” says Carl F. Ellis Jr., co-founder of Project Joseph, a Christian organization that ministers to Muslims, and co-author
of Emergence of Islam in the African-American Community.

From the onset, Fard–also known to his converts as Master Wallace Fard Muhammad, or simply, “the Master”–believed his mission was to “restore and resurrect his lost and found people,” according to the history of the Nation of Islam. Fard claimed that these people were the “original members of the tribe of Shabazz from the lost nation of Asia.”

He compelled blacks to practice what he called “the religion of their ancestors.” His influence quickly spread, drawing numerous followers.

One convert was a young man named Elijah Poole, the son of a Baptist preacher. Poole and Fard met in 1931, and Fard spent the next 3-1/2 years discipling Poole in the “profound secret wisdom of the reality of God.”

Poole eventually left Detroit and started Temple Number Two in Chicago. Fard’s indoctrination of him paid off when, in 1934, after Fard had mysteriously disappeared, Poole–who had renamed himself Elijah Muhammad–emerged as the voice and the driving force behind the fast-growing Nation of Islam.

Elijah continued in the steps of his tutor, promoting self-reliance and separation for the black race. Establishing himself as Allah’s prophet, Elijah stood at the head of the Nation of Islam while the movement exponentially gained momentum.

In March 1995, Louis Farrakhan, the current leader of the Nation of Islam, rallied almost 1 million men, most of them African Americans, to Washington, D.C., for the Million Man March. Still, membership in the Nation of Islam is considerably less today than it was some four decades ago during its peak.

Its influence, however, among young African Americans is considered strong, particularly among those immersed in the hip-hop culture. Observers say that because hip-hop prides itself in “keeping it real and truth-telling” and is often seen as anti-establishment, it tends to align itself with political or religious figures who speak the language of the culture.

Farrakhan’s position on racism, social change and economics has even prompted some black pastors to open their pulpits to the 70-year-old minister, but other Christian leaders caution churches not to allow a man who teaches false doctrine into their pulpits to preach.

However, the fascination with Farrakhan as a leader isn’t unique, according to observers of the Nation of Islam. The Nation has always been led by charismatic, visionary figures.

Possibly the most recognized of its leaders was Malcolm X, a young convert whose style, attitude and strong message of black identity garnered the attention of millions of Americans during the Black Power political movement of the 1960s. The Nation grew to10,000 members during its pinnacle in the 1960s and 1970s.

Malcolm would become one of the most influential Muslims of the 20th century. Born Malcolm Little, he became intrigued with Elijah Muhammad’s teachings after being introduced to the religion by his brother. A drug dealer and pimp at one time, Malcolm was drawn to the Nation of Islam while serving jail time in Boston in 1948.

Similarly, some of the Nation’s followers today convert to Islam while in prison. Even those who come from godly, Spirit-filled and evangelical homes buck Christianity for a religion they say offers African Americans, especially black men, respect, dignity and self-discipline.

The Nation’s historical precedent for this is Fard himself. He served jail time in Michigan and Illinois while establishing his religious work. Incarceration didn’t stop him from discipling the disenfranchised, nor did it hinder Malcolm.

One of the many seekers in the 1960s trying to find his black identity in a seemingly white economic and political world was Larry Spruill. It was during the civil rights era that Spruill became intrigued with the Black Power movement, an interest that eventually led him to convert to mainline Islam.

“Activism prompts you to look at both the political and the spiritual side of an issue,” he explains. African American baby boomers such as Spruill were captivated with the opportunity to raise the consciousness of black America.

“Seeing black men dressed in white robes and wearing dark suits with bow ties was exotic. It was exciting and dynamic,” says Spruill, who is the principal of the 3,000-student Mount Vernon High School in Mount Vernon, New York, and holds several academic degrees, including a Ph.D. in American history.

Learning to speak Arabic and studying the teachings of Islam’s founder, Muhammad, prompted him to convert. But it wasn’t long before Spruill, whose God-fearing mother prayed fervently that he would return to the Lord, realized Islam gave him a religious experience but left him wanting more. In search of something deeper, he did not join the Nation.

Reaching Islam

Many say the body of Christ must be prepared to minister to people who will look to someone for answers. The church must also ready itself for those who will leave the religion for many of the same reasons Spruill left, say ministry leaders such as Ellis.

But to be effective, Christians will have to leave the comforts of the church and take to the streets, prisons and other places if they want to compel sinners to come to Jesus. According to Marie Muhammad-Vaughn, Christians have something other religions don’t have. “People are in search of truth. There’s a lot of confusion out there, but we know what is right,” she told Charisma.

Wallace Fard, in fact, mixed verses from the Bible with teachings from the Quran, according to Emergence of Islam in the African-American Community. He taught his converts that “Christianity is a tool in the hands of the White slave masters to control the minds of Black people.”

Muhammad-Vaughn says that in the end Fard did nothing more than lead her great-grandfather and thousands like him away from what Christ was calling them to do, taking them instead into darkness.

“I believe Elijah had a mighty work to do for Jesus, but he allowed the enemy, through deception, to pervert his message,” she says.

Similarly, Elijah would target new Christians with his doctrine in an attempt to dismantle their faith. “Elijah would use the Quran to challenge newly saved believers who had not yet received the baptism in the Holy Ghost,” Muhammad-Vaughn explains. “These people were eventually led astray and converted to Islam.”

Today when she shares her testimony in churches and with people who are coming out of Islam, Muhammad-Vaughn stresses the need for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. She says that as a discerner the Holy Spirit divides truth from error.

“Without the truth, a person cannot grow in the knowledge and the revelation of the inspired Word of God,” she states.

Woodley Auguste, a 30-year-old corporate publicist in Lake Mary, Florida, knows the importance of the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in a believer’s life, as well as what the Nation teaches. Auguste spent seven years in the Five Percent Nation, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam. Auguste says he changed his name to Asaud and became radically committed to the Five Percenters.

“African Americans were feeling emasculated. Especially black men,” Auguste explained. “That is why many of them converted to Islam and still do today.”

But it wasn’t long before a Christian brother came along and established a rapport with Auguste, who lived in Brooklyn, New York.

“That brother’s prophetic gift attracted me to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it was the love of God apparent in his life that led me to a saving knowledge of the Lord,” he added. Auguste insists it will take that same love to win others to Him.

Like most religions that differ from the Christian faith, Muslims, whether members of the Nation of Islam or orthodox adherents, reject the deity of Jesus Christ. According to the Nation of Islam’s The Muslim Program, Allah is not the God of the Bible.

“We believe that Allah [God] appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July 1930; the long-awaited ‘Messiah’ of the Christians and the ‘Mahdi’ of the Muslims,” the literature states.

Those who are familiar with the Nation and its followers insist that it will take a move of the Holy Spirit to reach Muslims.

Ellis Jr. of Project Joseph says his own spiritual search almost prompted him to align himself with the mainline Muslim faith, though he never converted to Islam. He adds, however, that before he became a Christian he was “in search of something more than the church.”

Notes Spruill: “This is no intellectual war we’re in. This is a spiritual battle, one that will take prayer and divine love to overcome.” Spruill is hopeful that many Muslims will come to saving faith. As a basis for this hope he points out that “in Acts 2, the Ishmaelites were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.”

With the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, Muhammad-Vaughn sees strategic opportunities opening for sharing Christ, whether with traditional Islamic believers or those who follow the teachings of the late Elijah Muhammad.

Like many others, she believes God is tearing down the walls of separation and opening doors for Christians to evangelize unbelievers. Her only concern and prayer is that the body of Christ rise to the occasion to minister the love of God to Muslims.

“God used my lineage, the rejection I encountered as a child, and even used my family name to draw people for His glory,” she says. “Every challenge I’ve encountered will be worth it if I am able to tell just one person that Jesus is Lord.”

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Many American converts to Islam were raised in Christian churches. Here’s how you can reach them.
By Carl F. Ellis, Jr.

When sharing my faith with Muslims, I’ve found it helpful to evaluate why they are devoted to Islam. American converts to Islam are particularly interesting. Most of them are African American. Often, they were raised in the church and have devout Christian relatives who pray for them.

If we relate to them wisely, God’s Word will affect them in more ways than they are willing to admit. Three considerations are important when discerning why a person has converted to Islam.

1. He could be moved by the standards of Islam. By standards, I mean the doctrines or teachings. Most Christians assume that the standards alone are the reason a person embraces any belief system. In my experience, the next two considerations actually can have greater weight.

2. He could be devoted to Islam because of his situation. This could stem from alienation or a need for cultural identity. The Muslim community projects itself as a brotherhood with affirmation and solidarity.

3. He could practice Islam because of his own motivations and goals. A person often realizes that he has been alienated from God and consequently seeks to achieve God’s favor. Perhaps he wants to purge himself of false values such as materialism or self-centeredness. Therefore, he might see Islam as the means to satisfy his desire for righteousness.

Instead of simply confronting a Muslim, I seek to draw him out through conversation. I’ve met many Muslims whose personal goals and motivations were essentially biblical. In such cases, I’ve learned to be sympathetic and supportive.

As a result, I’ve seen barriers come down. Only after establishing camaraderie will a discussion with them about the way to achieve their goals become meaningful. This is when the gospel really becomes “good news.”

I have talked to dozens of Muslims who have, in the final analysis, admitted they can do nothing to earn God’s favor–that their only hope of salvation is in God alone. Is not this the basis of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?

God promises His Word will not return void (see Is. 55:11). A skillful application of God’s Word to a Muslim’s core issues will surely bear fruit. Here are some practical suggestions for how to do this:

Be yourself.

Try to understand Islamic doctrine from the perspective of Islam. Study the history of Islam’s development, especially in America.

Be a good listener. Don’t evaluate a Muslim only on the basis of his doctrine. Examine the other factors that fuel his devotion to Islam.

When his motivations and goals are biblical, affirm them. When they are not, lovingly challenge them. Try to use words according to his definitions, not yours.

When dealing with a Muslim’s doctrine, do not use the occasion to show how much you know about his faith. Instead, deal with him on the basis of what he expresses to you about his beliefs. You’ll find he is never totally consistent with the doctrine he holds.

It’s always important to draw him out by asking questions in the genuine spirit of wanting to be informed. Give him a chance to express himself, and make sure he knows you understand what he’s saying.

Do not be bowled over by his arguments. Stand firm, with poise and confidence. If you are familiar with his theology, you can tell when he begins to feel the pinch. Usually, he will begin to repeat himself or make up his theology on the spot.

Do not use a King James Bible. According to the teachings of some Muslim sects, King James himself translated this version and corrupted it. I recommend the New International Version.

Never use a Bible in which you have made any marks. To a Muslim, this indicates a disrespect for the Word of God.

Avoid all pictures of God, Jesus or any biblical characters. This looks like idolatry to a Muslim.

Never use the word Trinity. Because of the Muslim teaching, this word often connotes the worship of three gods and will bog you down with issues of polytheism. The term Godhead is a good alternative.

Don’t be offended by a Muslim’s use of the name Allah.

In other words, remove all offenses–except the cross. And never forget the power of love. For against love, there is no defense.

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Carl F. Ellis Jr. is president of Project Joseph and author of Free at Last? The Gospel in the African-American Experience (IVP) and co-author of The Changing Face of Islam in America (Christian Publications). To contact Project Joseph, write P.O. Box 16616, Chattanooga, TN 37416, or elliscarljr@.

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Disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, Timothy Jones found peace when he returned to his Christian roots.

While the rest of America was grieving the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, 16-year-old Timothy Jones was being sentenced to one year in juvenile detention for committing petty crimes. While incarcerated, Jones says he faced many negative influences, the presence of which prompted him to consider the teachings of the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad.

“Elijah Muhammad was a significant leader,” Jones says, “because he stood up to the Establishment”–the reproachful nickname used to include the “white power structure” and the political and economic systems in America at the time. But it wasn’t until the 18-year-old returned to prison for committing more serious crimes such as drug dealing and auto theft that he converted to Islam.

African American leaders say racism in America produced two types of leaders, Martin Luther King Jr., who embodied a nonviolent approach to equality, and Elijah Muhammad and his protégé, Malcolm X, who both embraced retaliation as a means to gain justice.

Known for his “by any means necessary” approach to righting the social wrongs of the time, Malcolm offered a political viewpoint that endeared him to literally millions of people. He was Elijah Muhammad’s hand-picked spokesperson, and his profound knowledge of Islam drew people by the scores into the Nation.

“There is an element of Elijah Muhammad’s teaching that was needed because black people were being treated brutally and even killed during that era,” said Jones, who earned a bachelor’s degree while serving time in jail. Having pledged his allegiance to the Nation, Jones even stood guard for “the Honorable” Elijah Muhammad, as he was known, at the Nation’s Savior’s Day observance in 1972. But when deadly conflict arose between the Nation of Islam and a splinter group of the Nation, Jones left the organization.

The dispute among the two groups wasn’t the first of its kind. It was Malcolm who severed ties with the Nation in 1964 after he learned Elijah Muhammad allegedly had fathered several children outside of marriage. It was the same year, according to , that Malcolm made a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and discovered fellow Muslims who were “blonde-haired, blue-eyed men.”

Upon his return to the United States, Malcolm renounced Elijah Muhammad. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm was gunned down by three members of the Nation of Islam–Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson.

Today Jones is a middle school counselor and resident of Orlando, Florida. He attends New Life Church of Orlando a Church of God in Christ. He told Charisma he wasn’t willing to stay in the Nation and die for the sake of an argument. Instead, he started to reconsider the roots of his faith.

“I came from a Christian background, as do many others who convert to the Nation, but I returned to what I truly believe,” Jones says. “I believe that Jesus Christ is the way.”

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Valerie G. Lowe is an associate editor with Charisma and Ministries Today magazines. She traveled to Chicago to interview Marie Muhammad-Vaughn.