Jesus is appearing to Muslims in dreams, Justin Peters claims it’s satanic
Should we dismiss Muslims’ new-found faith in Christ as false because Jesus appeared to them in dreams instead of sending a preacher?
Jesus Christ has been appearing to Muslim people in the Middle East in dreams and visions, and millions are coming to faith in Christ because of this. Praise the Lord!
But wait… Popular evangelist Justin Peters is claiming that the Jesus who appears to these Muslims is actually Satan in disguise?! Let’s use scripture to examine this outrageous and extremely problematic take.
Justin Peters’ and Jim Osman’s problematic assessment of Muslim conversion testimonies
Popular discernment evangelist Justin Peters recently published a video on his YouTube channel in which he and fellow Calvinist Jim Osman address a surge in Muslims coming to Christ through encountering Him in dreams.
Here’s an article from The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) that talks about 1 million Muslims leaving Islam to follow Christ in Iran. Many of the things Justin critiques in his video can be found in this article.
In Justin’s video, he and Jim attempt to refute these salvations of Muslims, even going so far as to attribute Christ’s appearance to them in dreams as something demonic.
Justin starts by sharing a clip of a CBN video about Muslims coming to Christ through dreams.
One formerly-Muslim man says: “Of course when I went to Mecca, I was going there in order to pay homage to the Kaaba and to fulfill the requirements in Islam. But that night, I saw Jesus in a dream.”
He continues, “First, Jesus touched my forehead with His finger, and after touching me, He said, ‘You belong to me,’ and then He touched me above my heart.
‘You have been saved—follow Me, you belong to Me,’ He said. So I decided, okay, I’m not going to finish the Haj, the pilgrimage. Whatever it takes, I’m going to follow that Voice.”
Continuing with the CBN video, a woman whose identity was hidden for security reasons states, “In the church, if you ask…how people came to Christ, 80% will say they saw Him in a dream.”
Another woman was challenged by a Christian friend to ask God to speak to her personally. The woman reports, “So I did, and the next day… I saw in my dream, Jesus was a bridge. I decided to come to Him.”
Justin then asks Jim about his thoughts on these statements.
Jim: “If Jesus is showing up in dreams and visions to evangelize Muslims, He’s doing a horrible job of it because He didn’t even communicate the gospel to that man.”
Justin: “It’s like this Jesus hasn’t even had Evangelism 101.”
Jim: “He could learn a lot from Ray Comfort, apparently.”
Justin: “Right, exactly. (laughs) This Jesus needs to go through The Way of The Master a time or two.”
Jim continues to voice his skepticism, saying that the interview clips didn’t show that there was a gospel presentation given by Jesus in these dreams, and he wishes that other believers would share his skepticism.
This is a fair point to consider in some instances, but the Bible says that we will know them by their fruits, so if their lives are truly converted, we can safely conclude that these Muslims have indeed seen the real Jesus Christ and been saved by Him.
Interestingly enough, there’s no follow-up done on the part of Justin or Jim in this video on the fruit of any of these millions of Muslim converts that they refer to.
Out of millions of people they reference, you’d think it would be easy for them to find more detailed testimonies, but they choose to leave that matter unaddressed.
Additionally, a bit further into the video, Justin points out that these appearances of Jesus to Muslims in dreams have been going on for 20 years, yet he doesn’t seem to have taken the time to do any research and see where these people are today.
I can understand a degree of prudence in the idea of waiting to see if these are true conversions, but that is not needed here since we have the benefit of 2 decades to look back upon and see that these conversions were indeed true.
The church in these Middle Eastern areas continues to grow in spite of extreme persecution, yet Justin and Jim sadly choose to leave this inconvenient truth out of their video.
If their theology leads them to deny these brothers and sisters who suffer for following the Son of God just because He chose to make Himself known to them through a dream, then they would do well to reexamine their theology.
Sadly, they refuse to do their due diligence on following up with these millions of professing Christians over the past 2 decades. Instead they play one short clip from a CBN news video—and it’s easy to see that the interviews they share are merely snippets of broader conversations.
This CBN video is apparently meant as a brief news item, just being played as a short report that Jesus is saving many Muslim people through their encounters with Him in dreams. It’s meant to report news, not delve into each individual’s personal testimony, so it should be respected as such.
If Justin and Jim seek to discredit former Muslims who have come to Christ, they should do their due diligence and locate the full interviews.
We must be so very careful not to dismiss the testimonies of people who proclaim that Jesus Christ saved them.
And why would we want to do that in the first place?
Yes, we must be long-suffering to see the fruit of true conversion, but that is no justification for writing off these former Muslims’ encounters with Jesus as false, or even satanic. (More on that in a moment).
1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love is patient, rejoices in truth, and hopes all things.
So while these Muslims who have seen Jesus in dreams give glory to Him for saving them, if we are walking in love, we should not rush to discount such testimonies. Rather, we should hope in them until given reason to do otherwise, and we should rejoice in the truth that is unfolding in these communities—that Jesus saves!
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Erroneous assumption about the Jesus of Islam
Let’s continue to test the credence of Justin Peters’ claim that Jesus’ appearance to Muslims in dreams is satanic. He continues in his video, saying, “Any number of pagan religions have experiences, so the question is: what is the source?”
He goes on to assume that the Jesus that Muslims must be seeing in their dreams is the false Jesus found in Islam, a mere prophet but not the Son of God.
The problem with this is that Justin is looking at these events through a Western lens, and additionally, he seems to draw a hard line that marks the Jesus of the Bible as the true Jesus (which He is), and the Jesus of Islam as a false or demonic Jesus.
Here’s the problem with that. Is Jesus misrepresented by Islam? Yes. Is the Koran’s teaching of Jesus erroneous? Yes. Was Jesus merely a good man and a prophet to emulate? Of course not, we know that He is the resurrected Son of God who died for the sins of the world.
BUT MUSLIMS HAVE BEEN MISLED ABOUT THIS. They believe that the person of Jesus that we believe in is the same Jesus they know of in their teachings, they just don’t believe He is God’s Son and the Savior of the world.
Now please don’t misunderstand me—when I say “just” I don’t mean to indicate that it is a small difference. What I mean to indicate is that they believe our Jesus and their Jesus is the same person—the difference is in WHAT we believe about Him.
They are not creating a false Jesus in their head who is complacent and even accepting of their sins like the Jesus you would find in the New Age or in progressive/woke churches in America and some parts of Europe.
Muslims believe in the same historical figure of Jesus that we do, but they believe He was only a man whereas we understand that He is divine as God in the flesh. The difference isn’t in historicity but in divinity—they have been blinded by the evil one and so reject Jesus as the Son of God.
All that being said, we can see that Justin Peters and Jim Osman hold an erroneous perspective, assuming that Muslims believe in a completely separate Jesus, saying then that any Jesus who appears to them in dreams must be a false Jesus only belonging to Islam.
Not quite. Because if a Jesus who lines up with the historic Jesus of Islam appears to them in a dream, THAT IS THE SAME JESUS OF CHRISTIANITY, and He would be appearing to them in loving correction, to unveil their spiritual eyes and make that truth plain!
RELATED: 11 simple ways to successfully share the gospel (with examples)
The grievous offense of attributing the work of God to Satan
Jim Osman sadly continues his attempt at refutation of these Muslim salvations by cautioning that Satan can appear as an angel of light.
He adds, “That is a paradigm of theology that we have to keep in mind as we hear these accounts of Jesus showing up in light, and in white. I think it’s a demonic deception.”
Justin replies, “Yeah. I do too. I do too.”
Yes, you read that right. Jim and Justin agree that Jesus Christ appearing in the splendor of His glorious light to offer salvation to Muslims is a “demonic deception.” 😟
Can you believe these Christian leaders are making such atrocious comments?! It’s maddening and heart-wrenching at the same time.
Friends, such a statement is surely egregious if not blasphemous in nature, for it attributes the marvelous saving work of God to the work of Satan. 💔
To be clear, this is not a small point. It is an incredibly serious thing to attribute the work of God to the work of demons. Here is how the Lord Jesus addresses such matters:
Then a demon-possessed man, who was blind and couldn’t speak, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see. The crowd was amazed and asked, “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?”
But when the Pharisees heard about the miracle, they said, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan, the prince of demons.”
Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart. And if Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided and fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive.”
“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.”
Matthew 12:22-26,30; NLT
Satan doesn’t need to disguise himself as the Lord Jesus in order to deceive Muslims—they are already deceived by the false teaching of Islam. If Satan wanted to keep them in deception, the last thing he would do is appear as our loving Savior and beckon them to follow Christ.
Understanding how Christ appears to Muslims—as the Living Word and fullness of God
At this point in their video Justin and Jim move on to discussing Romans 10:14:
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
Romans 10:14, NKJV
Justin and Jim point to this verse and conclude that the Jesus of Muslims’ dreams can’t be the Jesus of the Bible because He did not preach to them a gospel sermon.
Candidly, It’s hard to believe what I’m hearing here. The context of that passage is to exhort the believers in Rome (and all believers everywhere, but specifically this was a letter to the Romans) to go out into unreached communities and share the good news of salvation in Christ.
While this passage serves to commission preachers, the intention of this writing is not necessarily to say that the only means through which God will reveal the good news of Christ is by a preacher physically going to each person.
Rather, the intention of the writer is to exhort his hearers that they should have a heart toward the lost as God does—to go out and share the good news, ministering to the lost.
The point of the passage is that we should obey the Lord, share the gospel in all the world, and leave the consequences to Him. Nowhere does it say that He will not personally reveal Himself in dreams to those who seek the truth and desire to know who He really is.
And if Jesus Himself decides to personally appear to someone, why would we think that He would need to preach the gospel? “Gospel” simply means “good news”—Jesus IS the gospel!
For scripture plainly states that Christ is the living Word that we are to preach:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14, NKJV
If the good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to save sinners, and He comes and appears to you personally, you have seen the gospel in the flesh—Christ Jesus, the Living Word!
I love how one comment on Justin’s video put it:
“THE GOSPEL SHOWED UP TO HIM FACE TO FACE”!
Colossians 2:9 goes on to describe this with even more detail and beauty:
For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].
Colossians 2:9, AMPC
Wow! What a wonderful picture!
It’s so obvious here that when we see the Lord Jesus with a humble, repentant, and receptive heart, we have seen the fullness of God dwelling in Him—He is the complete expression of God’s nature!
He IS the gospel!
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Is the Word made flesh not enough to save Muslims? Isn’t preaching better?
In Justin’s video, Jim Osman goes on to make some even more heinous statements regarding Christ making Himself known to Muslim people through dreams:
“You would think that Jesus would just evangelize them in the dream—explain the gospel to them. […] Dreams and visions are unnecessary. We have the final and full revelation in Jesus Christ.”
This! Exactly this. And for those Muslims who haven’t yet known the truth, Jesus loves them enough to make that full revelation of Himself personal. This is not a contradiction of scripture but a confirmation!
Justin and Jim go on to site the first couple verses of Hebrews 1 to support their position, but it clearly undermines it:
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.
Hebrews 1:1-2, NKJV
The context here is about God’s supreme revelation of Himself to the world through His Son, Jesus Christ. Scripture contrasts the prophets of old to this new way of revealing Himself in Christ, and that is exactly what these Muslims are experiencing, the revelation of Jesus—praise God!
Following this, Justin poses another question that leaves many of us baffled. He asks, “Why would God resort to some inferior method of evangelism as compared to the scriptures and preaching those scriptures?”
Did you hear what I just heard? This is tantamount to concluding that Jesus is inferior to the Bible.
Sometimes I wonder if these men realize the implications of what they say.
JESUS. IS. THE. LIVING. WORD.
And lest we forget, what about the thief on the cross?
When the man on the cross next to Jesus turned to Him and was saved, did Christ preach to Him a gospel sermon? There was no need.
When you see the Lord Jesus for who He is, you have SEEN the gospel! 🌟
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Muslim testimonies of coming to faith in Christ through seeing Him in dreams are worthless to Justin and Jim
And just in case their video received any pushback, Justin and Jim wanted to bypass dealing with those calls to correction ahead of time by addressing some concerns upfront, like this one:
What about a Muslim who says he knows for a fact that Muslims are indeed coming to Christ through dreams, because he is one of them?
Well, to that Jim would answer, “Your experience doesn’t tell me anything about what scripture says. Your experience is just an experience.”
So basically, he finds their testimony worthless.
Thankfully, the Lord Jesus does not:
“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Romans 10:9-10, NKJV
So just because Jim chooses to dismiss the testimonies of these dear ones, it does not mean that God does, because he tells us that we overcome the evil one by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. (Revelation 12:11)
The reality of Muslims who forsake all to follow Jesus who appeared to them
Next up, Justin Peters makes a bold assertion in light of the persecuted church:
“If Muslims were coming to Jesus in the numbers that they report, you would think that… (laughs) you would think that the Middle East and Indonesia and countries like that would look far differently than what they actually do.”
Jim Osman reiterates this sentiment by responding, “If millions of Muslims are coming to Christ in the Middle East, where’s the evidence of that? Where’s the fruit of that?”
I would like to give the benefit of the doubt and think that perhaps they’re merely disputing the large number of conversions that are being reported.
However, after taking a comprehensive view of their argument, it’s clear that they take issue with any salvation that happens through Jesus appearing in dreams.
Justin continues by imagining himself in Satan’s place, saying he would want to make Christians think they don’t need to evangelize Muslims because Jesus has it covered.
There is absolutely no evidence presented that salvations in Muslim countries are hindering the gospel.
In fact, the more people that come to Christ, the more evident it is that the Holy Spirit is at work there, and we can conclude there is a greater need for laborers to reap the harvest!
Yet, somehow, Justin and Jim come to the outrageous accusation that Jesus saving Muslims through dreams is satanic deception.
Yes, Justin actually says that, and I quote, “I think this whole thing is a satanic deception.” Jim heartily agrees.
To be blunt, I can see no other reason for such a foolish conclusion other than their blatant ignorance of the persecuted church.
In today’s world, Christian pastors and evangelists have ample knowledge of believers who face persecution around the world, so why do Justin and Jim choose to ignore these persecuted brothers and sisters?
They would do well to remember those imprisoned as though in chains with them, and also to weep with those who weep, for those dear ones suffer because of their boldness to follow Christ no matter the cost!
The Voice of the Martyrs is just one of many Christian organizations that seeks to make known the plight of the persecuted church and to serve them. Sign up here for their free monthly magazine to find out how you can give, serve, and pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters.
Here are just some of things that former Muslims face for forsaking Islam to follow Christ:
- Their homes are burned
- Their families are attacked
- They’re shunned from their villages
- They’re kicked out of their homes
- They’re excommunicated from their families
- Their crops or businesses are burned
- Their young daughters are kidnapped and raped
- They’re decapitated
- Their genitals are hacked with machetes
And all because they choose to follow the Lord Jesus who saved them! 😭
My friend, does this sound like false faith to you?
Does it sound like the Jesus who would inspire this degree of devotion is anyone other than the one true Son of God?!
What a disgrace to turn a blind eye to the persecuted church and refuse to fellowship with those in chains!
Passages of scripture on dreams & visions — Paul’s encounter with a vision of Christ
With all this rebuttal of Jesus appearing in dreams and declaring it as satanic, why do Justin and Jim remain silent on passages of scripture that address this very thing?
Jim does mention a couple of times offhandedly about there being no verses in the New Testament about Jesus revealing Himself in dreams and visions.
So are we to follow the philosophy of some errant preachers and suggest we should “unhitch” from scriptures like the following just because they’re from the Old Testament?
Let us remember Hebrews 13:8 that tells us that the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so of course we should not be quick to dismiss the Old Testament accounts of dreams and visions.
Remember Jacob’s ladder? In Genesis 28, the Lord God spoke directly to Jacob in a dream. When Jacob awoke, he responded in verse 16:
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” (NKJV)
What illumination! God revealed Himself in a dream and Jacob’s eyes were opened to receive that revelation of truth!
The chapter continues to describe how Jacob went on to choose to worship God when he says in verses 20-21:
“If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.” (NKJV)
“Then the Lord shall be my God.” That. That is Jacob proclaiming His faith in the Lord because He appeared to him in a dream.
So we see that, because God revealed Himself to Jacob in a dream, he decided to make Him his Lord. Jesus is now doing this for Muslims and they are choosing to follow Him—He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!
Let’s look at another passage of how God uses dreams. Here Joel prophesies how the Holy Spirit will come upon believers in the end times leading up to Judgment Day:
“Then, after doing all those things,
I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams,
and your young men will see visions.
Joel 2:28, NKJV
And we see this passage from Joel first coming to pass in Acts 2, describing how the Holy Spirit will operate upon salvation:
What you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days,’ God says,
‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on my servants—men and women alike—
and they will prophesy.
And I will cause wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below—
blood and fire and clouds of smoke.
The sun will become dark,
and the moon will turn blood red
before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.
But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.’
Acts 2:16-21, NLT
As we can see, these passages speak about the age we are in currently—after the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of believers at Pentecost, and before the return of Christ for His bride, the church.
This is something Justin and Jim should address as these passages clearly state that people young and old will have dreams and visions, and all who call upon the Lord will be saved.
And yes, just as in these passages, Muslims who encounter Christ in dreams do go on to prophesy—that is, to forth-tell, teach, or declare the gospel!
And what of Paul’s vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus?
As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
“Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one!
Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus.
He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
Acts 9:3-8, NLT
Perhaps Justin and Jim don’t bring up this passage because they already condemned a vision of Jesus who appears in bright light.
It might also be because they already condemned accounts of salvation where Jesus does not preach a gospel sermon.
Are you seeing how grievously severe Justin Peters’ and Jim Osman’s accusations against these salvations are, my friend?
I daresay they are dismissing important scripture passages that don’t fit their theology. It is an incredibly dangerous thing to bypass important scriptures.
We cannot ignore the passages of scripture that speak of God making Himself known through dreams and visions.
Jesus’ appearance to Muslims in dreams is the embodiment of the gospel
At this point in the video, Jim Osman brings up the former-Muslim man from the CBN news snippet:
“I wanna sit down with him and interview him and say, What is your Christology now? What did you understand about Jesus differently after that vision than you did before that alleged vision?”
Wow. This brought to my mind the biblical account of the man who was blind from birth that Jesus healed. The Pharisees accused Jesus of being wicked because He did this thing, and the man whom Jesus touched answered:
“Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”
John 9:25, NKJV
Christology? Give me a break.
At that moment of his conversion, that man is a babe in the faith. He is unschooled in theological terms.
Yet when a Muslim who encounters Jesus gives this heart-cry, it is a testimony of His salvation, and we must take him at his word: “This I know: I once was blind, but now I see!”
Yet Justin and Jim seem to believe that Jesus’ appearance is not enough—that it is greater for a missionary to come and preach the gospel than for the embodiment of the gospel to show up Himself.
You see, Jesus IS the gospel!
He need not preach it, His holy appearance reveals it!
The Living Word of God appeared to this Muslim man. “Gospel” literally means “good news”—Jesus Himself is the gospel!
Imagine seeing Him, beholding His glory, knowing immediately that He is the Lord God of all creation in the flesh—all-righteous, all-holy, and when you see Him standing before you, revealing to you who He truly is, you KNOW He is Lord!
And if you recognize in that moment how wretched you are in your sins, and your heart cries out to Him, “Lord!”—THAT is repentance, that is faith, and that is the moment of your salvation and new birth in Christ.
Here are a couple more testimonies of Muslims who have come to Christ after seeing Him in a dream, and how they now share the good news with others and disciple new believers:
Shiite Muslim Dreams of Jesus, Shares Christ Through Facebook – Read more at The Voice of the Martyrs
Fulani Muslim Dreams About Jesus, Finds Refuge in Christ – Read more at The Voice of the Martyrs
Final thoughts on Justin Peters’ dangerous claim that Jesus’ appearance to Muslims is satanic
Remember how Revelation 21 talks about New Jerusalem and how we won’t even need the sun because the Lord will be the light?
And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light.
Revelation 21:23, NLT
What a bright illumination is the presence of the Lord Jesus! And so He would be when appearing to a Muslim who is seeking the truth—the very illuminating presence of the gospel Himself!
Despite the dangerous, misguided efforts of some Christian leaders to refute these salvations from Islam, the Lord in His mercy is using that culture’s value of dreams and their historic account of Jesus to reveal Himself in a personal way to these Muslims who are sincerely seeking God and desiring to know Him. HALLELUJAH! 🌟
🤔 What do you think about this topic? Share your opinion in a comment below!
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