Questions about Jesus
By a worker in a restricted area People from all over Central Asia send us messages with questions about Jesus. They watch our TV programs and take our online Bible courses and then they write to us with their questions or their objections. Often they request literature. Sometimes they ask for a visit. We do our best to respond to these requests. Recently, I went with another brother into a remote part of Central Asia where several people had invited us into further discussion about the person of Jesus and the message of the Gospel. Soon after we arrived into the area, a journalist approached us. But once we were alone with him, we were surrounded by local police. We had no idea that the man was only posing as a journalist and was actually a member of an international terrorist group. When the police were convinced that we were not terrorists ourselves, they left us alone with the man and we shared the Gospel with him for about two hours. That night, we met another man in the city center. His name was Mahmoud and he told us that he was an atheist. He invited us to meet with him in his house. At first, we were hesitant to go, because it seemed unsafe, but we went regardless and spent more than three hours talking with him. He had many sincere questions about Jesus and 4 | witness
we were able to answer most of them. We did our best to discuss our beliefs about God and to give him a summary of the Bible. Mahmoud had been educated at some of the top universities in Central Asia. After getting advanced degrees in Philosophy and Anthropology, he moved to this area to study Russian Language and Literature. Mahmoud told us that he had read more than 2000 books. “I was only thirteen years old when I first read the Quran,” he told us, “and since then I have been an atheist.” Finally, I told him, “We could debate until the morning, because you have so many great and deep questions. Even if I could answer them all, something would still be missing. What really matters is your heart; it all ends there. Just talk to God. If you can’t pray, just talk to him. He helped me and he will help you too.” Then we prayed over Mahmoud and left his home. It was after midnight. Back at our hotel, we took the opportunity to share the Gospel with the hotel manager, who was the owner’s son. For two hours, we talked with him about what it meant to follow Jesus. God touched his heart, but he was afraid. He said, “If I choose to follow Jesus, my family will kill me.”
