Muslim-Background Believer: “I Had a Vision of Christ”

While traveling in France, I had the opportunity to interview ministry leader Yernathan about how he became a Christian believer from a Muslim background.

*His name has been changed here for security reasons. 

Hearing his faith journey, including a vision of Christ, was incredible and inspiring. You can support ministry leaders like him through ANM.

Rebecca: You’re originally from a predominantly Muslim part of North Africa. How did you hear the Gospel?

 

Yernathan: I heard the Gospel for the first time in the 1980s in Berlin, Germany. I ran across some street preachers. I didn’t know what they were doing; they were just worshipping in the street with a guitar. The thing that really attracted me was the lyrics and that they were talking about Jesus, about Jesus loving me.

When they stopped singing, they started talking to people and sharing the Gospel. A lady shared with me and she was on fire for her Jesus. I didn’t really get to ask questions because it was too complicated for me to understand. She said, “Jesus loves you,” and I didn’t understand.

How can Jesus still love someone today? He came 2,000 years ago, He died and He’s gone. How can He love me today? It didn’t make sense.

The conversation was too much for me to fathom, especially with all the Christian jargon, so I told the lady I was sorry, but not interested. When I tried to leave, she kept walking with me and talking, and I realized she was persistent. I didn’t like that she was following me, and I felt embarrassed, but she asked if I would come to church with her on Sunday.

I said no, but she kept insisting. I’d never seen such a persistent woman, especially as a Muslim man who didn’t accept female leadership. Muslims think women are second-class citizens. But the only way to get rid of this pushy lady was to agree.

I told her, if you want me to come to your church, here is my address, come pick me up. I thought I was being rude and she would hate me, but on Sunday she showed up.

I was sleeping and tried to apologize, lying about my alarm not going off, but she reminded me what I had promised. So I went to church for the first time.

I was trembling and shaking. I was a Muslim and it was my first time at church. I didn’t know what to do or what to expect and I was scared to death that someone I knew would see me and be upset. There was a war within me.

The church was packed with people from all over. They were smiling and looked so happy, I thought they looked like angels. At the end of the service, the lady brought me to see the pastor, even though I didn’t want to. She took me by the arm and led me to the pastor. 

He laid hands on me and prayed for me, saying that now Jesus would live in my heart. I looked around and thought, how can He be in my heart? It was something I wasn’t familiar with.

Three days later, I went back to my home country and I felt like there was a presence always with me. Somebody was watching and when I did something bad, I felt bad about it for the first time. I’d never had those feelings of guilt before.

I started questioning Islam and re-reading the Koran, noticing that something was wrong. There were mistakes. I’d read it before, but I was blind to those errors. I went to the imams and asked questions, but they told me not to ask questions. They said it was shirk, which means like accepting other divinities or gods along with Allah. When I questioned other imams, they would say that they didn’t know, they needed to ask another imam. I discovered that they didn’t even know the answers.

I started debating and talking with them and realized that I knew more than they did. They were just blind followers, not asking questions.

Then I started reading the Gospels from a Bible that a missionary had given me. I marveled at the person of Christ. I loved Jesus. There was nothing wrong with Him, nothing to make you hate Him or Christianity. Then I started reading the Psalms. I loved the Psalms too. They gave me peace that I couldn’t explain, even though asking all those questions and having a Bible and reading it was dangerous.

But I didn’t have the conviction to become a Christian and even if I had, I wouldn’t have known what to do. I was on my own. There was nobody to help me.

I started asking more existential questions and the Bible had answers, but I was getting frustrated. I knew there were 6 billion people on earth and I didn’t want to base my meaning of life on one person. So I told God that if He really exists, He needs to tell me. Whether it’s Allah from Islam or God from Christianity or whatever, I need to know.

I was provoking the Supreme Being, whoever He was. I was completely lost.

One day, I had a vision of Christ. I was 17 years old in my room at my parents’ house. The vision broke my entire worldview. I saw a real person in front of me with a crown of thrones and I could barely gaze at Him because He was like a blazing fire. I would look at Him then look away then look back.

He showed me the chronological progress of my life – everything I had done, especially the bad things, things I had done in secret that I hoped no one had seen. It was like a movie in front of me. I realized that whoever this was, He knew everything about my life. I couldn’t hide anything.

I tried to justify what I’d done, but I could see my heart. I couldn’t cover it up. There was no argument or anything I could do. His knowledge was overcoming my heart and mind. There was nothing I could do to resist His truthfulness.

And He was working in real time. We were getting closer to the present, chronologically, and I thought I would die. I tried to make the conversation lengthier and He was so kind and gentle, talking and showing me. The condemnation was my own nature. He was holy and pure, not accusing. He was shedding light and I realized that I was too far away from His presence.

I wept and asked Him for one more chance to live for Him, now that I knew the truth. Boom, He disappeared. Three hours had passed and I was still scared that I was going to die. I was exhausted and drained, but I was afraid to close my eyes and sleep. I didn’t know what to do, if I should find my parents or something, but finally I slept.

When I woke up, I looked around at the same room and touched things and heard things, so I knew I didn’t die. I smiled and was happy and heard a voice tell me, “From now on, you will live for Me.” I was never the same.

I ran out in the streets to tell my friends, but they didn’t believe me. They thought I had been doing drugs. Even now, when I tell this story in meetings, people wonder if I was on drugs or something. But it’s been 40 years and I’m still sharing the same story.

At the time I got saved, there were probably 50-100 known Christians in my whole country. I didn’t get to know them until later. I kept telling my friends and after two years, they started to know Jesus. I started a group, even though I didn’t know what I was doing. It was just out of joy.

Much, much later, I would start a ministry.

 

Rebecca: Thank you.

 

Stay tuned for more about Yernathan’s ministry in his second interview. Support ministries like his with a donation.