Daily Devotional By Desiringgod Ministry – John Piper Ministry 21 SEPTEMBER 2024 | Topic: God Still Visits Egypt
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God Still Visits Egypt
Reformation in the Making
Kirollos, a young man from Alexandria, Egypt, was part of a local-church Bible study on the book of Romans. The study profoundly impacted him, revealing depths of God’s grace and sovereignty he had never seen before. Through this study, Kirollos embraced Reformed doctrine, moving away from previous beliefs strongly shaped by man-centered theology and the prosperity gospel. His passion for sound doctrine led him to enroll in the Alexandria School of Theology (AST), where he deepened his knowledge and commitment to biblical principles. This year, Kirollos is set to graduate from AST, equipped to spread the truths he has come to cherish in a context that desperately needs faithful gospel proclamation.
By God’s grace, Kirollos’s story is not unique. Today, God is raising up a growing number of men and women who long to see Egypt and the Arab-speaking world filled with the knowledge of Christ.
Egypt’s Doctrinal Decline
Christianity in Egypt dates as far back as the first century. In the early centuries of the Egyptian church, prominent theologians such as Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria emerged, significantly contributing to Christian theology. Despite this rich heritage, however, the Egyptian church soon faced significant challenges — particularly after the Chalcedonian debate about the person of Christ in the fifth century, and even more after the Muslim conquest in the seventh century. The church in Egypt became known as the Coptic Church (“Coptic” is the name of a language descending from ancient Egyptian).
The Coptic Church constitutes about 9 or 10 percent of Egypt’s population, while Muslims make up around 90 percent. The Coptic Church, with its episcopalian governance under the patriarch of Alexandria, holds doctrines that differ significantly from Protestant beliefs, such as the mass as an atoning sacrifice, the priest as a mediator between God and man, the saints (especially the virgin Mary) as intercessors, fasting as an important means of mortifying sins, and baptism as regenerative. Protestants in Egypt form only about 1 percent of the population, with the majority of them Presbyterian (at least in name!).
The Protestant movement in Egypt began with Moravian missionaries in 1752, followed by the Anglican Church Mission Society in 1825, which focused on Bible distribution and education. Then the American Presbyterian Mission began in 1854, establishing the first presbytery in 1860 and a theological seminary in 1863. Tadrus Yusif became the first Reformed Egyptian minister in 1871. For the next century or so, the Presbyterian work was marked by vibrant churches, sound biblical literature, and a church constitution based on the Westminster Confession of Faith.
In the last few decades of the twentieth century, however, doctrinal decline and a shift toward the social gospel weakened the Presbyterian Church in Egypt. Over time, man-centered theology became rampant. Foundational Reformed doctrines, such as the doctrines of grace, were lost or even abhorred. Liberal professors and ideas invaded academia. Feminism spread throughout the church. And expository preaching was replaced by shallow motivational speeches, leading to a loss of the gospel message. This was the state of the Protestant church around the year 2000.
However, as the Scripture says, “But God . . .”
Sovereign Resurgence
God, being rich in mercy, has begun to visit the church in Egypt over the last two and a half decades. In 2005, the Alexandria School of Theology (AST) was founded under the Anglican church of Egypt, with a missionary from the Presbyterian Church in America as its first principal. This seminary has played a pivotal role in reintroducing sound doctrine to the Egyptian church. AST, with its emphasis on Reformed doctrines and solid biblical teaching, started training a new generation of theologians and pastors. Graduates from the school, along with other like-minded believers, have now begun to reintroduce faithful teaching to local churches throughout the country.
“God, being rich in mercy, has begun to visit the church in Egypt.”
One significant change was seen in Sidi Beshr Kebly Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, the church that introduced Kirollos to the sovereign God of Romans (and the church where I serve). Members of the church who studied at AST later became elders and leaders in the church, helping to move it toward robust Reformed doctrine. Soon, the church began preaching expository sermons and teaching on the five solas, the doctrines of grace, and the sovereignty of God.
Though this resurgence of Reformed theology was met with opposition and accusations of rigidity and arrogance (from both within and without), the church has been kept from division and has remained faithful to biblical doctrine, by God’s sustaining grace. At the same time, we became increasingly aware of the great need to bring these doctrines to others.
Publishing Sound Doctrine
In 2014, four lecturers at AST (two from my church — including myself — and two brothers from other churches) started to talk about bringing Reformed doctrine to the wider church in Egypt and the Arabic-speaking world. Eventually, we started a new teaching ministry named “El-Soora” (“The Standard,” from Romans 6:17) under the governance of our local church in Alexandria, focused on publishing, multimedia, and conferences. Our first major event in 2015 featured Don Carson in Alexandria, teaching a seminar titled “What Is the Gospel?” From this encouraging beginning, partnerships with like-minded ministries — such as The Gospel Coalition, Ligonier, Desiring God, Reformation Heritage Books, 9Marks, Crossway, and P&R — have furthered our reach.
God has been using AST and El-Soora in an amazing way to bring back Reformed doctrines to Egypt, but he has also quickened other brothers and sisters in Egypt and beyond with the same convictions. If the number of Reformed Christians in Egypt numbered in the tens in the early 2000s, now it is in the hundreds, if not more. Twenty years ago, finding sound Christian literature in Arabic could be very difficult. But now, translation efforts have made many sound books available in Arabic, and the number is increasing every year. Even more exciting are the Egyptian leaders who are writing articles and books in Arabic and speaking at churches and conferences in Egypt. One elder in a church has produced hymns based on Reformed doctrines from the Scriptures. Egyptian professors are also teaching Reformed doctrines at seminaries inside and outside of Egypt.
In 2019, El-Soora helped to start an annual Reformed conference. These gatherings have provided a platform to expose more leaders to Reformed theology and demonstrate that such doctrines align with the global church and the teachings of the early missionaries to Egypt. The conference also offers a safe environment for distributing and selling Reformed books from El-Soora and other publishers. By God’s grace, attendance has increased yearly, with 350 attendees at the last conference and hundreds of books sold.
Praying for a Harvest
Today, while truly Reformed churches remain rare in Egypt, interest is growing. The movement, though young, is expanding. The number of Reformed Christians is small in a country of more than 110 million people, but we can testify that God has visited us in Egypt. He did not leave us in our blindness. In the book of Acts, the church started with only 120 people, but by God’s grace the gospel went out, many churches were planted, and the word of God was taught and preached through the whole Roman world, even in antagonistic contexts (a reality that sounds familiar to us). “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:1).
As our Lord said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37–38). Despite the progress, we still see a pressing need for well-trained Reformed teachers and pastors in Egypt and beyond. The hunger for sound teaching and a gospel-centered pastorate is growing. Many believers struggle to find healthy local churches in which they and their families may be cared for as Christ’s sheep. We continue to pray for a revival in local churches and for God to raise more laborers for his harvest, confident that Christ is building his church and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
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