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The Christian Heritage of the Middle East and North Africa

The Middle East and North Africa are just about as Islamic as you can get. 

It was there that Islam was born, where its expansion began, and where its greatest strongholds remain.

Christian missionaries boldly venture out to these lands, hoping to bring the Gospel to the people there. But what many in the Church don’t realize is that this area is not only the birthplace of Islam but Christianity, too.

The Muslim World Before Islam

In Acts 2, the Church is born there in Jerusalem, and in attendance are people from all across the Middle East and North Africa. 

Just a few chapters later, in Acts 9, the Apostle Paul’s famous conversion occurs on his way to Damascus, the capital of modern-day Syria. And after converting, Paul eagerly brings the Gospel to the people there.

Furthermore, Acts 11:19-20 tells us of Libyan Christians (North Africans) taking the Gospel to Greeks (Europeans)!

Centuries before the Church flourished in Germany, Switzerland, or England, it was taking the Middle East and North Africa by storm.

Church history supports this.

The 4th-century Egyptian bishop Athanasius of Alexandria was vital in defending the Trinity when the heresy of Arianism was exploding in popularity. 

Palestine provided us with Eusebius of Caesarea, whose Ecclesiastical History is our primary source for Early Church history (beyond the New Testament that is).

And then there’s Augustine of Hippo, perhaps the most famous theologian in Western Christianity. His influence can be found from the high halls of Catholicism to the pulpits of humble Baptist chapels. And where did he come from?

Algeria, North Africa.

Christian Heritage

So what does this mean?

For starters, it is a bit tragic.

This region with strong Gospel roots has long since fallen from its prominent place in Church history.

But this doesn’t mean that, presently, the Church has no presence there whatsoever. 

Faithful, historic Christian communities persist all across the Middle East and North Africa. 

But they are being threatened.

Persecution, unrest, mass emigration, all these and more are causing churches here to shrink.

My encouragement for you today is to pray for our brothers and sisters in those places. Pray that their communities be strengthened and that they endure in preserving the rich Christian heritage of their countries.

And pray also for the men and women there who aren’t in the Church.

Pray that they be reconnected with the Savior of their ancestors and that, one day, those countries will see a return to the Gospel.

It might be buried under centuries of Islamic rule, but it’s still there. The Gospel endures, the Gospel survives.

So let’s pray that this historically Christian part of the world will again be the light it once was.

After all, the Spirit takes even the smallest shred of faith and grows it into something incredible.

Thanks for reading.

For now, be blessed.

Jon,

Theophilus Newsletter