Tunisia . . . An Unprecedented Opportunity for the Gospel

By Name Withheld

A year ago, most Americans had never heard of the small African country of Tunisia. Global awareness changed in January, when a desperate young fruit vendor set himself on fire and Tunisia became the first of a string of Arab nations to revolt against oppressive dictators.

Now, in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution, Tunisians are recovering from the shock of the past, putting the pieces back together, and dreaming about their future. And Christian workers and believers in Tunisia are taking advantage of an unprecedented window of opportunity for the gospel.

Christianity is intricately woven throughout Tunisian history. In the early centuries after Christ, the church thrived in Tunisia and North Africa, despite intense Roman persecution.

The stories of two women, Perpetua and Felicitas, who were martyred in Tunisia, continue to inspire and challenge believers. The remains of the coliseum where they and other Christians were martyred are still accessible. You can sit in the holding cells where many early Christians spent their last few minutes before proudly approaching the throne of their Creator.

Tunisia also produced some of Christianity”s prominent early theologians and thinkers, especially Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine. Many of their writings and philosophies continue to shape the theology of Western Christians. These men were influential in preparing modern thought on topics such as the Trinity, baptism by immersion, and salvation by grace.

Augustine, perhaps the best known of the three, even chaired the Council of Carthage in Tunisia, where they contributed to the canonization of the Bible.

After the time of Augustine, it looked like Christianity was going to thrive throughout northern Africa, but religious confusion, selfish ambition, and political struggles changed the course of Tunisia”s future.

 

Surprise Extinction of the Church

In the midst of turmoil and persecution, the church in Tunisia saw growth and faithfulness, but when doors in the country were opened for religious freedom and outreach, the church rapidly declined and eventually disappeared entirely.

As acceptance for Christianity grew and the church became more structured, the members were lost in the midst of power struggles and competing doctrines. Adding to this disappointment, most structured church services were held in Latin, a language the Tunisians no longer knew. Because of this, their knowledge of the Bible was virtually nonexistent, preventing Christians from testing and affirming the propaganda they were receiving from the competing sects of Christianity.

Many Tunisian Christians became impatient with the church and immune to the faith of their fathers. Their biblical knowledge was inaccurate, at best, and often nonexistent. There was little to no fellowship among believers, and no missional outreach. The church was dwindling away.

To make matters worse, Arab invaders, with their powerful forces and persuasive weapons, began conquering the lands. Initially, they offered the Christians protection””for a price. The invaders gave Tunisians the choice of converting to Islam or paying a tax. With few emotional ties to the Christianity of the land, conversion was often an easy option, and the already thin church was effectively eliminated in Tunisia.

For centuries following, there were no known Christians in Tunisia. In an environment where even questioning Islam is a sin, most Tunisians did not know they had any other options. To be Tunisian was to be a Muslim.

Political discord continued to define and shape the country. By the time Tunisia became an independent republic in 1957, the Tunisian people were accustomed to corrupt leadership and rule by intimidation. The hostile Islamic police force did not even attempt to conceal that they were censoring access to information, monitoring conversations, and responding to dissension with swift cruelty.

With the evaporation of the church, a deeply entrenched Islamic mind-set, and no access to the truth, the future of Tunisia was grim.

But then God”s people began to pray.

 

Kingdom Coming

In the early 1990s, the Western church began a focus on the 10/40 Window, raising new awareness and emphasis on Tunisia and other unreached nations. As Christians began to pray for Tunisia, God”s Spirit began to move in tangible and dramatic ways.

Throughout Tunisia, people began having dreams and visions about Jesus. The Holy Spirit was moving in the hearts of God”s lost children, most of whom had never thought of Jesus before that time.

A few Tunisians began to believe, and the Tunisian church grew from 10 to 30 known followers to about 300. At that, Tunisian Muslims still outnumbered Christians more than 33,000 to 1. Most of the 10 million people there still had never heard about Jesus, God”s Son, and definitely didn”t know of any Tunisian believers. The majority of the country still believed that Islam was their only option.

This misinformed opinion changed with the introduction of a Christian TV show. Local believers partnered with a ministry to create 106 episodes of a Christian talk show that reflected the testimonies and hope of Tunisian believers. These episodes aired on satellite TV, incredibly pervasive through the country, and then on the Internet.

For the first time in their lives, Tunisians knew that some of their countrymen were choosing Christ””at great risk to themselves.

With the continued use of mass gospel sowing through media outlets, Christian workers and local believers set up elaborate systems for identifying and following up with seekers. Though the government constantly kept finding and blocking Christian websites for Tunisian seekers, the number of believers continued to gradually grow.

The new Christians had several similarities. Many new believers had experienced some kind of dream that had sparked their search for truth. An overwhelming number had downloaded Scripture in their own language and found new hope and love in the words of Christ, despite devastating family and social persecution. Almost all of the Tunisian believers were relieved and overjoyed to discover the presence of other Christians in Tunisia.

As a trickle of Tunisian seekers became Tunisian believers, the identity of the nation changed. While Christianity was still decisively a minority, there was no longer a doubt that Tunisians had a choice, however unlikely.

This was the state of Tunisia in December 2010. And then came the revolution.

 

Unprecedented Opportunity

It seems that no one, Tunisians least of all, anticipated the events of this past January, which resulted in a national revolution, the removal of the cruel and corrupted leaders, and the collapse of the status quo in Tunisia. Government censorship and police rule crumbled. Almost instantly, Tunisians had access to a future they”d never imagined.

For the first time in their lives, Tunisians had a say in how they wanted their government to look. They could demand justice for the crimes they”d been forced to endure. They could question the past and participate in their future.

And, in ever greater numbers, Tunisians are asking more questions in their search for truth. The websites the government was blocking are now open, and seekers are visiting in record numbers.

The workers and Tunisian believers are not wasting this window of openness to the gospel. They are making the most of every conversation with friends and neighbors. And they are praying and recruiting with determination. They”ve started the movement, Pray4Tunisia, which has united more than 2,600 Christians around the world in focused prayer for the people of Tunisia (www.Pray4Tunisia.com).

Tunisians know this wide-open window of change and opportunity could close at any moment. More than 100 political parties have formed in hopes of steering the new Tunisia, adding to the chaos and causing optimism to fade. The doors that have opened to allow truth in have also let in all manner of lies. Tunisian seekers have been left to sort through all of the information on their own.

Tunisia”s history is punctuated by forgotten Christianity. Centuries have been lost, but the future can be decided in the next few months.

May St. Augustine”s words written hundreds of years ago in his work, City of God, be true for Tunisia today:

Despite the fiercest opposition,
the terror of the greatest persecutions,
Christians have held with unswerving faith
to the belief that Christ has risen,
that all men will rise in the age to come,
and that the body will live forever.

And this belief, proclaimed without fear,
has yielded a harvest throughout the world,
and all the more when the martyrs” blood
was the seed they sowed.

The writer is a Christian worker with firsthand knowledge of the gospel”s impact in Tunisia.