Brother Bob said:
Iraq is not a place where Christian missionaries can openly evangelize on street corners, hold community prayer meetings or hand out stacks of Bibles. Many say they entered the country as businessmen or aid workers, roles that let them establish relationships with Iraqis about something other than religion.
Here is how they are being missionaries. I don't mean to be mean, but they are hiding their beliefs to hand out help or sell it. They cannot make it known they are missionaries, you know why? Fear of their lives and I do not blame them. God give us enough sense to not throw ourselves in front of a 18 wheeler. More power to them and may God Bless,
I don't mean to be mean; I mean I believe you are ignorant of missions in Islamic nations, and reading through other threads perhaps a bit racist as well. An unsaved Baptist (and there are many), is just as unsaved as an unsaved Muslim. There is no difference. They both need Christ.
The Bible gives the command to "love thy neighbor as thyself." We live in a global community. Like it or not, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. are all our neighbors. They need Christ. They need Christ as much as that unsaved Baptist and it is our obligation to get the message of the gospel to them.
You begin with a defeatist attitude, an attitude that says: "With God all things are impossible." You state that missionaries can't go into countries like Iraq preach on the street corners, openly hand out tracts, etc. Therefore they cannot be effective. Let me ask you, what percentage of American city Baptist churches do you think there are that still go out and stand on street corners having open air meetings? There may be some, but not many. Not even the majority of the churches in America evangelize that way. Why would you expect to impose that method of evangelization in Iraq.
Secondly, do all the Baptist churches you know have an aggressive door to door visitation program. Perhaps a good many of them do. Ours still does. The one I used to attend did not. Not every church believes that door to door evangelization is the best way of evangelization today, but you act or talk as if it is a requirement in another nation.
There are missionaries in all of the nations I mentioned: Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan--all of them volatile Islamic nations. These missionaries are effective and doing a work for the Lord. As I say to a friend who has a habit of saying "Why haven't I heard of it?" Because you aren't God, and you aren't omnisicient. There are many good works being done quietly among missionaries all over this world that go unrecognized by the great majority of this world. Just because you haven't heard of people being saved doesn't mean it isn't happening.
Missionaries go to nations like Iraq because God directs them to go there. They go there without the fear of man, but with a fear of God. They sacrifice the comforts of their North American homes and their families, and live in conditions which would seem unbearable to many others. No sacrifice is too great to win some.
And BTW, when asked, most often they do tell that they are missionaries there to tell them about Jesus Christ, not ashamed of gospel of Jesus Christ, the very reason that they are there--to tell them of the One that can save. But what would one who has never been on a mission field know of the wonderful protection and guidance of the Lord Jesus Christ?