Pastor Bob Vacendak and I were talking on the phone the other day. The subject of Muslims reportedly seeing Jesus in dreams and visions came up. We had a nice discussion. The next day Bob sent me an article by Sam Martyn (a pseudonym) entitled, “The Role of Pre-Conversion Dreams and Visions in Islamic Contexts: An Examination of the Evidence.” You can view the article here.
The article was basically saying what Bob and I had said the previous night.
The thesis of the article is that the evidence is strong that God uses dreams and visions of Muslims to make them open to coming to faith in Christ. Martyn says that the evidence is weak that any Muslims come to faith purely from a dream or vision. He said that these experiences do not lay out the gospel and the promise of everlasting life. Instead, they picture a transfigured Jesus. Martyn indicates that “dreams are considered authoritative in Islamic contexts” (p. 64).
He said almost always these reported sightings of Jesus typically occur around the time a Muslim is being evangelized. The dream or vision is used by God to validate the truth of what the Christian witness is saying.
Martyn discusses Paul’s Damascus road encounter with Jesus in Acts 9 and the angelic visitation of Cornelius in Acts 10 as examples of visions in the Bible. He says, “Presumably, the angel could have proclaimed the gospel to Cornelius directly but chose instead to work through a human mediator, Peter” (p. 66).
As an aside, there is a nice footnote in which Martyn comments on Acts 11:14 saying, “As John Piper points out, sōthēsē (you will be saved) is future. This means Cornelius was not saved prior to the encounter with Peter, contra some inclusivists’ claims about him” (p. 70, note 54).
I especially liked the close of this article. Martyn writes, “Many Christians have prayed for and have called others to pray for Muslims to have dreams and visions to lead them to faith. Perhaps a better prayer would be to ask God to send laborers to the harvest (Matt 9:38). Regardless, even if Christians ‘pray that the Lord would send dreams and visions…to arouse curiosity in Christ…only the poorest and laziest of mission strategies would end there’” (p. 73, with the quote at the end from a 2010 book by Todd Miles).
Before closing, I should mention that I am a cessationist. That is, I do not believe that the sign gifts have been operating since the Apostles left the scene. (I do think they will be operating in the Tribulation, but the evidence is that they are not functioning now.) However, I do believe that the sort of experience that Paul had on the Damascus road or Cornelius had in his home could well have occurred many times in the last two millennia, continuing to this day. Jesus appearing to people in dreams and visions does not rely upon the use of sign gifts.
I am skeptical that all these reports are legitimate. Many of the reports I’ve read are tied to a Lordship Salvation or works salvation testimony. That makes me doubt the report.
However, I have heard of some who report believing the faith-alone message after having had a dream or vision of Jesus. And I find such reports credible.
As Martyn says in his article, the large number of reports of Muslims seeing Jesus in dreams and visions makes it extremely likely that Jesus is indeed sometimes appearing to Muslims, though God leaves the proclamation of the evangelistic message up to Christians.
Carl
A former Muslim, now a believer in Jesus, told me dreams are a major part of Muslim culture and that they place high value on them and their revelatory possibilities. For this reason, It then makes sense that God will use dreams as an initial way to get a Muslim’s attention, and as you point out motivating them to seek out a believer to teach about Jesus to them.
KEN TAMASHIRO
Hi Pastor Bob,
My Aunt told me a similar story about my Japanese Grand Mother and that she had a dream also and she was talking to Jesus jn her dreams. My Aunt did not go into details about the story but Grand Ma did say that Jesus was a very nice person to talk to and enjoyed the conversation they had together.
Grace and Peace to you,
Ken Tamashiro
Rick
I wish God had sent me a dream or vision, might have saved me a lot of heartache.
Leo Z
At the risk of being burned at the stake I would like to share my thoughts on this post. Dreams and Visions (DVs) were used by God in the OT/NT economies as a means of disclosure/revelation. As DVs being signs and gifts, I am a cessasionist like you, because of the complete cannon of Scripture being in place. However, I do not preclude God’s prerogative to use DVs today. DVs are very much a fabric of Muslim spiritual life as other cultures have their own unique customs. I see nothing wrong with embracing people’s customs into one’s evangelistic method. The apostle Paul did it (1 Cor 9:19-23). However, one has to approach DVs with care and sober mindedness, lest we lose sight of Scripture’s call and compromise the saving message. It is clear, that the unsave, has to hear the saving message in order to believe, to hear, one has to be sent to bring/preach it (Rom 10: 14-15). Jesus also called for laborers needed for the harvest (Luke 10:1-2). DVs of Jesus are to be viewed in the light of biblical truth as brought by evangels of truth.
Can anyone argue the salvation of any person facilitated a by pre-conversion DV experience? Salvation is by faith alone, in Christ alone, but the pathway experience to that end is different for each person. Why not DVs? Dogmatism tend to view DVs as suspect because of its mystical and ethereal nature. Are all DVs legit and beneficial? No!. Can it be? I say, Yes! Continually praying for you, Sharon and the GES.
jon tretsven
The paragraph about the future “salvation” of Cornelius does not preclude the possibility that Cornelius was saved in an OT sense before being evangelized by Peter. We faith alone people are careful about how the term salvation is used in the New Testament; we should be equally careful here.
Again, the example of John’s disciples in Acts 19 is a parallel. Certainly they were “saved” in this same sense when they heard and believed and received the Holy Spirit.
I don’t know the meaning of the term “inclusivist” as used in this article. Please enlighten me.
Thanks!
JJ
Dreams and visions are, by definition, not sign gifts. Dreams and visions are personal encounters and therefore can never be sign gifts. This is much the same as most cessationists view healing gifts: cessationists believe the gift given to a person to heal (or speak in tongues or other sign gifts) have ceased, but the believe God still heals individuals. Same thing applies here…unless the dream or vision was in mass (or imposed on one person from another person) then the dream or vision is not a sign…just a personal encounter. And then the only question is whether that dream or vision that was experienced was actually from God.
Larry
God still uses signs and visions where He feels it is necessary. I think that the cessationist position attempts to speak with omniscient authority where they only have their own personal position. If God wants to speak to you, you will know!
Leo Z
I agree, that dreams and visions are not categorically listed as spiritual gifts in the likeness of speaking in tongues, healing and prophesying. However, there are those today that would classify DVs as sign gifts and use Acts 2:17, Peter’s quotation of Joel 2 end times prophecy and Paul’s vision in Acts 16:9-10 as their proof text for the assertion. I too consider DVs as revelatory encounters in nature.
Having said that, I would add that I consider the existing debate and contention about some spiritual gifts being normative today or not, some gifts being foundational to the church age or not, as a secondary, non-essential issue and not a cause for division within the body of Christ. It only becomes a primary and problematic issue, when it touches on the essential and fundamental doctrines of the faith (i.e. speaking in tongues as a definitive evidence of one’s salvation).
Timothy Grady
Yes and amen Leo .
The center of the Dartboard only has room for soteriology.
Bill Giovannetti
Thank you for your balanced approach to this topic. Of course we all rejoice when anybody finds life in Christ, especially friends in such spiritually dark cultures. As I read Scripture and study history, I am almost always skeptical of dreams, visions, signs, and wonders except in two situations: 1) frontier missions where the gospel has never taken hold, and 2) times of genuine revival in which something happens similar to Acts 2, when 3,000 people were saved in a one day, or in America’s first two Great Awakenings. So I am more inclined to believe, and rejoice in, these reports. Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones talk about these things. I love the dictum of Lloyd-Jones: “The church has her ordinary days and her extraordinary days. Most of them are ordinary. When the extraordinary becomes ordinary, it ceases being extraordinary.” Thank you for this and many other excellent articles.
Timothy Grady
Love that quote Bill .
We do rejoice in His love for all and the means employed .