The 18th-century philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) famously argued against the possibility of miracles in his work An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. There, Hume defined a miracle as a violation of the laws of nature and is therefore, by definition, impossible. In fact, Hume believed that eyewitness testimony, especially concerning the miraculous, should not be trusted, stating that it is more likely that men should lie than that the miracles actually occurred. That, of course, is one way to look at it. But what to do when credible people report extraordinary encounters? Twentieth-century philosopher Richard Swinburne argues that claims of the miraculous should be judged by the same standards we use to judge all human experiences. This criterion, which he terms the principle of credulity, states that reports of the miraculous, all things considered, should be accepted unless there is good reason to doubt their experience. This holds for all miracles, not the least of which are dreams and visions.
Jesus (Isa in the Muslim world), appearing unsolicited to unbelievers in dreams, turns out to be precisely what is being reported from around the world by a large number of people. In particular, there seems to be a significant number of reports coming from within religiously closed Muslim cultures from Egypt to Iran, and from Africa to Syria, and far beyond. However, what is truly interesting is that these dreams share many of the same characteristics. So common are the characteristics of the dream and so common are their occurrences among the people that, in fact, missionaries in various Muslim countries have rented billboards asking, “Have you seen the man in a white robe in your dreams? He has a message for you. Call this number.” One such dreamer is a Nigerian man named Mohammed.
As a teenager, a zealous Mohammed left home to study the Quran in Bauchi, Nigeria. Three years later, he returned home, where he began to have terrifying dreams of a man dressed in black trying to kill him. After several of these nightmares, finally, one night a man in a white robe began to appear in his dreams, who rescued him from the evil one and took him home. The dreams continued as before, a terrifying figure in black trying to kill him, only to be rescued by the man in the white robe. Finally, in what would turn out to be the final dream, Mohammed was under a tree reading many books when the man in white once again appeared and told him that the book he was reading was noneotherthantheChristianBible, introducing Himself as Isa (Jesus). Jesus then showed Mohammed a passage from the book of John: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Upon awakening, then and there, he first accepted Jesus as his savior, leaving Islam behind, and despite great personal costs, never looking back.
The same could be said of Khalil, the Muslim businessman who dreamedofthemaninwhitesaying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Follow me.” Or Ali from Turkey, who greatly resented Christianity andyetrepeatedlydreamedofJesus calling him to follow him. Much the same can be said of Khaleda of Bangladesh, or Imran of Iran, to whom Jesus appeared in dreams, calling them to repentance. Surely the list goes on. In an interview, researcher Tom Doyle says that Muslims are responding and coming to faith in “unprecedented numbers,” with daily stories coming in from observing missionaries. In fact, religious experience researcher Lee Strobell writes, “More Muslims have become Christians in the last few decades than in the previous fourteen hundred years since Muhammad.” Many of them were in direct response to the man in the white robe.
For the Christian believer, Mohammed’s Jesus-dreams, along with the dreams of so many others, should come as no surprise. In fact, the Bible references more than 200 dreams and visions, including a powerful passage recorded by the prophet Joel. There, speaking through Joel, God says “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28). And that seems to be precisely what is happening over and over in religiously closed societies where no Christian missionaries are allowed to work freely, and where the Bible is militantly banned, God, in His sovereignty, still reaches those whom He reaches by whatever means necessary. Indeed, Doyle notes that “It’s estimated that 50 percent of Muslims around the world can’t read, so how are you going to get the Scriptures to them? And 86 percent don’t know a Christian, so who is going to share the Gospel with them?” Beyond that, Islam is a faith rich in the interplay between the temporal and the spiritual, holding those things especially sacred. What better vehicle for God to reach a culture so steeped in an intricate doctrine of angels and visions as Islam? The answer seems unmistakable: the man in the white robe.
Through it all, it would seem, even in the most hostile of places, one thing is brilliantly clear: the God of Christianity still exists, he is still working, and He is not dead!
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.