Over 3,500 Muslim refugees have turned to Christ and been baptized in Germany in the last two years, a new survey reveals.
Churches report revealed that many of the refugees being baptized had converted in their home countries such as Syria and Iraq, and especially Iran, but had lived in fear of danger of being killed by Muslims if they disclosed their new faith.
Shortly after they escape and find safety in Germany, they were able to publicly declare for Christ and be baptized.
All Germany’s 20 Protestant state Churches and the five largest free Churches were surveyed by the German evangelical organization Idea.
The survey reported that most of those baptized are former Muslims from Iran, Iraq and Syria.
There are over 2,500 baptized in the Evangelical Free Churches and more than 1,000 in the Federation of Pentecostal Churches. There are 850 baptisms in the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church and 700 in the Union of Evangelical Free Churches, consist of Baptist and Brethren churches.
The report of nine of 20 Protestant Churches revealed that, not less than 1,000 refugees have been baptized since 2014.
Pastors were confident they could exclude baptisms for “purely opportunistic reasons”, a spokesman for the Wurttemberg church told Idea.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Wurttemberg recorded as many as 300 Muslims baptized into the Christian faith. The Evangelical Church of Westphalia recorded 200 refugees baptized in the last three years, with many from Iran. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany reported “several hundred” baptized.
Among the new convert, such as from Iran, had previously been in contact with Christian house churches already in their native land. Some of the churches have appointed special pastors to minister to the large numbers of Iranian refugees arriving in their parishes.
The Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau recorded up to 200 baptized refugees since 2015: “It is thus not a mass phenomenon, but does happen,” Idea was told by the Church.
No pastor baptizes a Muslim refugee “lightly”, Idea was told. All converts are questioned as to their motives and faith, although this is not remotely an “an inquisitorial conscience control”