When Saul of Tarsus became a follower of Jesus, history changed forever. When Martin Luther had his “tower experience” conversion, the Protestant Reformation resulted. When C. S. Lewis left atheism for Christianity, our faith gained its most popular advocate of the 20th century. Whose conversion would change history today? This week I’d like to suggest five candidates and ask you to join me in praying every day for them to come to faith in Christ as their Lord.
We begin with Mohamed Morsi, the newly-elected President of Egypt. His story is both remarkable and frightening. He grew up in Egypt, where he received a two degrees in engineering. He then earned his PhD in engineering from the University of Southern California and taught at California State University. Two of his five children were born in California and are U.S. citizens by birth. In 1985, Morsi returned to Egypt to teach at a university there.
Last year he became president of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party. When their announced candidate for president of Egypt was disqualified, he became a late substitute. On June 24, he was announced as the winner of the Egyptian presidential election with 51.73% of the vote. Almost immediately, he resigned as president of the Brotherhood.
On the positive side, Morsi has announced that he would appoint a Christian and a female as his vice-presidents. In his victory speech he stated that he would honor all of Egypt’s international treaties, presumably including those with Israel. He vows to stand for democracy and women’s rights.
On the negative side, he stated shortly after his election that he would work to free Omar Abdel-Rahman, the man convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, an act of terrorism that killed six people and injured more than a thousand. He has called Israeli leaders “vampires” and “killers,” and told a journalist that he would “achieve the Islamic conquest of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya” (the financial tribute required of non-Muslims).
Just as Saul of Tarsus met the risen Christ on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:1-6), so Muslims around the world are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus today. More Muslims have become Christians in the last 15 years than in the previous 15 centuries. What would happen if Jesus were to appear to Egypt’s new president?
John Wesley believed that God does nothing except in answer to prayer. If that’s true, it is urgent that Christians begin praying every day for Mohamed Morsi to meet Christ personally. Would you join me in interceding every day this week for his salvation?
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