By Mark Ellis —
Like other boys in his Pashtun tribe along the Pakistan-Afghan border, he was sent to a madrasa at age four, where he was compelled to read, recite and memorize the Koran.
“The children mimic or copy the mullah, who is very heavy-handed. You have to memorize out of fear,” says John Taimoor, founder of The Crossbearers, a ministry devoted to presenting biblical Christianity within an Islamic context.
By age 14 he was reading Shakespeare and searching for heroes, when he stumbled across the name ‘Isa,’ the Arabic name for Jesus in the Koran. “I read the name of Jesus and became curious,” he says. “The Lord reached me right in the mosque.”
When he asked the priest about Jesus, he was told that Moses and Jesus were brothers. When he asked how to find out more, they told him to find ‘The Book of Isa.’ “Nobody had ever heard of a Bible.”
Taimoor searched for a ‘Book of Isa’ for two years. When he asked his teacher or inquired at the library he was met with suspicion. “What are you up to boy? Do you want to become a Christian?” they asked.
He met a young man at school rumored to be a Christian. “I begged him to get me a Book of Isa,” he says. “He got so scared he never returned to school again. He thought they would stone him or kill him.” There were times Taimoor rode his motorbike 30 to 40 miles because he heard about a gathering of Christians. “No one was willing to give me a Bible they were so scared.”
“Being strong-willed, the more people stopped me, the more determined I became,” Taimoor adds.
One day he happened to meet a missionary passing through the area north of Islamabad handing out small New Testaments. Taimoor spied the man from a distance and hurriedly rode his motorbike toward him. “He looked at me and greeted me like a Muslim and said, ‘This is the Book of Isa.’”
“It hit me like a bullet,” Taimoor says. “I was almost paralyzed.” Hesitantly, he asked the missionary the cost of the book.
“Nobody can pay the price for it,” he said. “If you want it, you can give me whatever you would like to give.” Taimoor fished into his pocket and pulled out the U.S.equivalent of 20 cents.
Racing home, Taimoor underwent a ritualistic cleansing, deciding this would be appropriate before reading such a book. “I didn’t understand it in the beginning,” he says. “But when I got to the fifth chapter of Matthew something supernatural and unusual happened in my mind.”
He read: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” After reading this verse, he believes the Holy Spirit fell upon him—and filled him—as his heart and mind were regenerated.
“I got saved without the help of any individual,” Taimoor recalls. “I didn’t say the sinner’s prayer or go to any altar call,” he says. “Within six months I discovered Jesus Christ is God in human flesh.”
It would be five years before Taimoor had any meaningful contact with other Christians or saw the entire Bible. In the meantime, he set out to memorize the New Testament. “As a Muslim, I thought every good Muslim memorizes the Koran,” he recalls. “Naturally, Christians must be memorizing their books.” He thought he should memorize the books before meeting other Christians. He also feared the book might be taken away from him at any time.
When his mother found out about his new faith she told him, “If I had known you would become a Christian I would have strangled you as a baby.” Several years later, Taimoor’s mother and brother both became believers.
Because Taimoor’s faith developed outside of mainstream Christendom, some of his views would be considered provocative to Christians. “I respect Muhammad and use him next to the Bible and the church as the third great witness of the glory of Christ,” Taimoor says. “I am proving to the Muslims the God they worship is the same God as ours,” he says. He believes Muslims are like Jews–they worship the same God as Christians– but reject Jesus as Messiah.
Taimoor finds common ground with Muslims in their approach to eschatology, the study of “the last things.” Many Muslims are waiting for ‘Jesus, Son of Mary,’ to return as a sign the Day of Judgment has come, according to Taimoor.
“Some Christians are uptight because I show them the term ‘Allah’ is legitimate,” he says. He faults scholars who attempt to prove Muslims are worshipping the moon god. “Muslims don’t worship the moon at all,” he says. He notes the Bible Society has a Bible that uses the name Allah for God.
Many Christians will not understand John’s strategy because it sounds like compromise. “To some degree it is,” he admits. At the same time, he emphasizes his main thrust is to prove that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. “We worship Him as the Creator and the Savior.”
Taimoor believes more people with “guts” will be needed to carry out the Great Commission. “Jesus told us to go, but we don’t go,” he says. “There is too much education in America and not enough deployment.” At the same time, he confesses it is difficult to leave the comforts of the U.S.behind for the ever-present risks in the Middle East.
One of Taimoor’s ministry objectives is to establish new communities of ‘messianic Muslims’ throughout theMiddle Eastbased on the Book of Ephesians. He likes to say his travel style is patterned after John Wesley. “I work in a circuit and then move on. I move fast,” he says. “Some will follow along.”
“If I had not become a Christian I would have been a Taliban,” Taimoor says. His houses near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan are lined with prayer rugs, and have the feel of an Eastern worship center. They’re completely filled with Islamic books except for one—the Bible.
People can stay there for extended periods while they read and memorize the Scriptures. “When people come here they want to know what this black book is all about,” Taimoor says. “If they’re serious, I tell them they can stay.” Group meetings in his homes can last up to six hours, but he refuses to call this ‘church,’ instead preferring the term ‘Jaamat Rabaani’—which means ‘gathering of the people of God.’ “If it looks like a church they will burn it,” he says.
“There are a lot of people in the Middle Eastwho are really hungry and seeking,” he notes. “They only fear Western missionaries because they think they are cultural terrorists. We need to be one of them and go in on their level.”
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To listen to this raw telephone interview testimony on the Best of God Reports Podcast, listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/best-of-god-reports-interviews/id1560279290?i=1000590690184
Now that’s a GOOD story
Moses, you, me, & everybody has been invited to be in Jesus’s Heavenly Family of Saints. How we get there is the mysterious, unpredictable power of the spirit. Amen
Sounds like a modern-day Apostle Paul, meeting the people right where they are.
Mighty god bless your ministry to make all Muslims to know about redeemer , MESSIAH Jesus Christ.
John Taimor is a model for applying the great commission to witness to his own family and ethnic/nation group. We were close neighbors in Pasadena and I was always impressed by his personal kindnesses and his wonderful wife and son.
May our Lord Jesus Christ bless you in every way, and may He lead you to many lost souls watching to hear the Good News.
Meeting Muslims where they are at makes all the sense in the world! We need to discern the difference between western cultural forms wrapped in the religion called “Christianity” and true Christ followers.
It is encouraging to see Jesus proclaimed in a way that Muslims can understand. Only cultural preferences in opposition to Christ and his kingdom principles need to be discarded.
Love this story.
I pray for John’s health and safety. Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving.
What an encouraging story. Glory be to God!!!
Keeping walking in true holiness and grace and mercy be with you and all true beleivers in Christ that are proclaiming the true gospel of the good news that was given freely to all who beleive. I will keep you and your family in my prayers.
This story gives me great hope for the spread of Faith in Christ. God still reaches out to ALL his people – we just have to listen and act.
Good story! I have to disagree with the god the Muslims worship and the One True God being the same, however. Allah is NOT God the of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I’m so very glad this person found Jesus and thus found God the Father!
We all view reality through dark glass, describing the God we see as best we can – Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. However, only Jesus Himself reveals our Father as He really is. Neither language, culture nor religion hides that revelation from those who surrender to, and follow Jesus.
Rachel, indeed our God, the same Allah muslims worship, is the one True God. The reason “their” Allah does not seem to be the same “God” we worship is that they have interpreted Him according to their own thinking and not through the knowledge of His Son, Jesus, who is God incarnate, nor with the help and indwelling of His Holy Spirit, which come to us when we acknowledge the Son of God/Allah as God. John Taimoor is truly a modern day apostle Paul – and we are so incredibly blessed to have him ministering among us as an example! I, too, will be praying for his health and strength and ministry. I will also pray for the receptive hearts of the people to whom he takes his message. God be praised!
This story touched my heart.
I teach music in a christian school, which is attended by Christians, Drus and Muslims. I teach them “Hymns” as a part of the music lesson for all the children . Please pray for them that they will have the same thirst that you had to know the truth, that Jesus loves them all and he doesn’t care from which religion they are coming from . Because : ” God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton son , that who ever believes in him should not perish but have ever lasting life” ( John 3:16 ). Our Lord Jesus is a gift for the whole Human race.
Blessings, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the Light of the world. God bless you John! I will pray for you and your mission to show all the people Jesus ‘Yeshua’, God in the flesh! God bless and keep you in all your ways.
WHAT A GREAT LIVING TESTIMONY…I COULD HARDLY SAY MORE AS THIS TESTIMONY FROM BROTHER TAIMOOR SPEAKS FOR ITSELF. GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST!!!!!!
My God Almighty, bless this man in everything, protect him with the precious blood you shed for our salvation, I ask and pray to you Jesus that You will save my husband also, a muslim and he is living in darkness. Send someone to convert him.In Jesus mighty name amen…
Wonderful!
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