How to Bring the Gospel into the Unreached Jewish People of Turkey

Extremely few Jews exist in Turkey. The shear location of Jews in Turkey makes evangelism near impossible as a result of the government banning Proselytization. Jews have thus been trapped in Turkey for generations without exposure to the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only that but also since the main focus of evangelism has been on gentiles only ever since Paul the apostle of Christ stopped trying to evangelize Jews, what has happened is that Jews have been targeted far less with the gospel message. The Jews of Turkey have thus been considered an unreached people group, and what being called an unreached people group means is that, "...individuals for whom Christ died will not hear of His love unless someone follows the call of God and leaves their own culture." (Wagner, 578) Jews in Turkey thus not only suffer from being walled off from Christians politically, but they also suffer because Christians have often put Jewish evangelism on hold as a result of the preferences of the New Testament for evangelizing the gentiles.

No evidence exists that any Jews in Turkey worship in Christian churches as Jewish believers. For this reason, bringing the gospel to Jews living in Turkey would involve what is called a frontier mission, and the following is said about frontier mission work, "cross-cultural evangelism is essential, since no missiological breakthrough has yet been made." (Winter, 538) As a result of the need for viewing mission work among Jews in Turkey from a frontier mission prospective, the remainder of the paper will focus upon mission work and people group history mainly from a cultural perspective.

The cultural perspective used will involve investigation into the history of Turkey, the history of Jews living in Turkey, and the political problems of Turkey that emerge from internal strife and external strife. As a result of the broad nature of the investigation, identifying Turkey politically among other differing key nations will be necessary. The end purpose of the following paper will be to provide enough information that a well equipped mission's evangelist would feel comfortable about bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to Jews in Turkey.

Background of Jews Living in Turkey

Regarding the Ottoman Jews as the fifth largest Jewish community in the world Levy says the following,

"The story of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey deserves to be better known. For hundreds of years the Ottoman Empire was home to one of the world's largest and most vibrant Jewish communities. It is commonly believed that throughout most of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, more Jews lived in the Ottoman Empire than in any other state in the world." (Levy, xviii)

The point is that Jews have been in Turkey in large numbers for centuries, and this would have even been true in the time of Jesus Christ. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, today in Turkey less than two out of every one thousand citizens are likely to be either Jewish or Christian (World Factbook) as this is no more than one hundred fifty four thousand people in the entire nation.

In history Jews in Turkey served a very important role in the economy of the aria that they lived in. Consider what Levi has to say about the subject,

"In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they were instrumental in developing and expanding the Ottoman administration and economy, and they continued to maintain a prominent role in those areas for a long time thereafter. Jews performed important services as government advisors, ambassadors, tax farmers, financial agents, scribes, international and interregional traders, and in a wide range of urban industries and trades." (Levi, xix)

Unfortunately, times may have changed for the Jews in Turkey over the centuries as the Central Intelligence Agency reports that the income per capita in 2009 among all the citizens living in Turkey was only $11,200. (World Factbook)

During the time of the Ottoman Empire, the Jews had not been attacked like they had been in Europe and many other places. Levy makes this point clear.

"The Ottoman Jews also knew periods of material and spiritual impoverishment, reflecting the general decline of the Ottoman state and society. What makes their experience unique, however-especially when compared with that of European Jewry-is that over a period lasting six centuries, in good times or bad, Jews were never singled out for persecution or oppression because of their religion. In fact, for much of this period they enjoyed the status of a favored minority." (Levy, xix)

The point to be made is that at one time the land of Turkey would have been a favored land for Jews to live in even among other possible destinations on the globe, and this would have attracted wealthy Jews that could live in any region in the world.

Levy is clear that Jews have a very important part in the society of Turkey. Consider what Levy has to say about the subject,

"The 'special relations' between Jews and Turks has continued to the present. Today the Jewish community of Turkey is small, numbering about 20,000 and concentrated mainly in Istanbul. ...The Jews of Turkey are well integrated in Turkish society, and at the same time they maintain close ties with the world Jewish community." (Levy, xx)

Not only are Jews in Turkey found among the city of Istanbul (the seat of power of the Eastern Orthodox Church), but they also have the ability to connect with other Jews in the world such that if they had been properly evangelized they could encourage others as well.

During the time of Adolf Hitler, Turkey was seen as both a Jewish safe haven and a powerful advocate to the Jewish people. Consider what Levy has to say,

"Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany in January 1933 placed in immediate danger Jewish scholars and all opponents of the regime. At precisely the same time, the Turkish republic, under the leadership of President Kemal Ataturk, undertook a major reform of its system of higher education as part of a massive effort to modernize the country. This undertaking created an urgent need for scientist and scholars to take on this task of building the new universities and scientific institutions. The result of this historic coincidence was that several hundred highly talented individuals felling Nazi persecution where able to find shelter in Turkey, in spite of German oppression." (Levy, xxviii)

The point is that many Jews may never want to leave Turkey because Turkey would have taken the Jewish people in during incredible times of persecution when no one else would.

Turkey actually fought hard during the time of the holocaust in order to protect Jews in other nations, and this cannot be said of many of the other places in the world that refused to help the Jews.

"Although the German and French authorities insisted on applying racial laws against all Jews residing in France, irrespective of their nationality, the Turkish government refused to accept this position. Turkey argued that these policies violated the treaties it had signed with France, which provided that Turkish nationals were to enjoy the same civil rights in France that French citizens enjoyed in Turkey. In addition, the Turks argued that the racial policies discriminated among Turkish citizens of different religions, which violated Turkish constitutional law. The steadfast vigilance of Turkish diplomats resulted in the rescue of thousands of Jews, in France as well as in Greece, from deportation to extermination camps." (Levy, xxiix-xxix)

An obvious observation is that despite the fact that Turkey has historically been predominantly Muslim the government of Turkey fought harder to protect the lives of the Jews than the predominately Christian nations such as France and Germany.

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and after the fall of the Soviet Union, four visions dominated world politics,

"In the last decade of the twentieth century, four competing visions vied for influence in the Middle East: George Bush's vision of a New World Order, Saddam Hussein's New Arab Order, Turgut Ozal's New Turkic World, and Shimon Peres's New Middle East." (Bengio, 167)

The point is that while the Middle East was being shaped by four competing visions, Turkey had its own vision of how the Middle East should be governed. The competition between competing visions and the firmness of Turkey to uphold its own vision would have caused a patriotic tendency that would have locked many of the statesmen away from being influenced by groups that carry foreign political ideology such as what western Christian missionaries would have to offer. Not only that, but also many Turkish Jews would fight hard against politics coming from Christian lands as a result of hard feelings about the holocaust.

In Fuller's work on the subject of contemporary Turkish politics, he discusses the rise of Neo-Ottomanism as opposed to Western imperialism as he writes the following,

"During the eighties... some reconstruction of the Ottoman past began on the part of intellectuals of the left and right-but not among those in the mainstream. Rightists, in part influenced by Islamic fundamentalist thinking, found grounds for pride in the accomplishments of the empire, especially in its greatest period of vigorous expansionism." (Fuller, 47)

The point to be made is that, only a few decades ago, the fundamentalist Islamic faction was very serious about bringing back Ottoman values in something like a new Islamic state as this was being proposed against Western ideology. Not only did the Turkish government have to affirm itself against Neo-Ottomanism taking control from the inside, but at the same time the government had to compete with politics on the outside as well. The point is that despite the safety given to the Jews in Turkey, the government may become unstable for anyone living in Turkey.

Fuller recollects the fall of the Soviet Union as he gives this event credit for the emergence of various national groups (Fuller, 163). With the rise of nationalism, Fuller describes

"A huge Turkic belt that has now revealed itself, stretching from the Balkans across Turkey, Iran, and Central Asia, up into the Russian heartland of Tatarstan and into western Siberia, deep into western China, and to the boarders of Mongolia, comprising in all some 150 million people." (Fuller, 163)

The problem that thus exists is that the span of people in various lands that identify themselves with Turkey is so huge as to involve a serious political threat to other Middle Eastern political groups that may all desire the power of an empire as they compete to obtain that power. With the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland, Israel can become involved in the Middle Eastern political struggles along with Turkey, and this could affect Jews living in Turkey.

Lovatt provides a timeline for the development of Turkey in terms of military, politics, and economics that spans from the years 1923-2001. Lovatt indicates that in 1923-1929 Western recovery and free trade with low tariffs characterized the conditions of the nation, 1929-1939 started industrialization with a mixed economy, and 1939-1946 started the neutral war economy. (Lovatt, 3) 1946-1959 focused on agriculture as democracy became evident in 1950, 1959-1962 became a time when a military regime replaced democracy, 1962-1980 involved the liberation of the labor market with democracy and comprehensive planning, 1980-1985 involved a military regime running government with limited democracy and labor repression, and 1985-2001 was again marked by democracy. (Lovatt, 3) Overall, ever since the fall of the Ottoman Empire Turkey has had a history of having a fluctuating set of politics, economics, and military involvement, and despite the low numbers of Jews in Turkey they have not been exterminated as a result of political changes.

Heper writes the following regarding the political climate of Turkey, "The importance of leaders in shaping political outcomes in Turkey stems largely, though not exclusively, from the near absolute control that they exercise over party organizations." (Heper, 3) The point to be made is that contemporary Turkey is usually controlled almost entirely by whatever leaders are in power at the time. The difference between Turkey and most stable western nations is that when a change of leadership happens, then almost overnight the entire nation could suddenly run differently as the result of an extreme change of politics. In 2005 during this author's personal walk through western costal Turkey, a major concern among the people appeared to be the threat of sudden overthrow of the government that would result in the installation of an Islamic state. Given the history of Turkey to be friendly with the Jews despite changes in politics, a Turkish Islamic state would be unlikely to harm the Jews living in Turkey in any way.

Carkoglu wrote an interesting statistical study that focuses on the relations between Greece and Turkey, and one of the reasons why this study is important is because it can be used to demonstrate how Turkey (a secular nation) fairs against Greece (a western nation with a national Christian church). Carkoglu gives an exhaustive study into the relations between the two enemies, and he demonstrates how military spending was very similar with both Greece and Turkey in 1989 but in 2001 Turkey made a huge jump of about three and a half times the military spending of Greece in 2001. (Carkoglu, 86) In the 2005 publication of Carkoglu's statistical studies he records his results from a survey of Turkish perceptions of the world, and what was recorded is that a little more than half of the people had been worried about an attack on Turkey over the next few years. (Carkoglu, 131) Twenty-nine percent of these people thought that the attack would likely come from Greece, twelve percent thought that the attack would come from the United States, and sixteen percent thought that the attack would come from Iraq. (Carkoglu, 131) Carkoglu also demonstrates that the top main publicly identified threats to the national security of Turkey listed from highest to lowest are corruption in politics, radical religious terrorism, ethnic terrorism, and public uncertainty and chaos. The point is that Turkey is a politically unstable place that has threats from the outside and from the inside; moreover, any efforts for a United States citizen to perform evangelism in Turkey would not only raise animosity regarding western concerns but it could also pose concerns with terrorism, international security, and religious upheaval among the secular state. Overall, given the history of Jews living in Turkey along with the national threats from groups having foreign political ideology, the most favored mission work that would be the safest would be for one Turkish Jew that believes in Christ to evangelize another Turkish Jews that does not.

In the 2005 investigation of western Turkey conducted by this author's physical walk through the nation, several important points of politics had surfaced. First, the western nation of Israel sells high powered weapons to Turkey that came from the United States most advanced arsenals, and Turkey gives Israel the preciously cherished bottled water from Turkey in exchange for the weapons. Turkey at the time had the world's largest standing army with mandatory subscription into the military by its male citizens, and the army is so very large that if a problem between the Arabs and Israel ever occurred in the Middle East, then Turkey could come to the aid of Israel. Turkey applying for admission into the European Union overall, suggests that it has strong interest in firm unity with western states as this could result in Turkey no longer having control in printing their own money. The admission of Turkey into the European shared economy of the European Union could end the strife of Turkey with the West, and this could open the doors to both Turkey having increased comfort with the Jews of Israel and increased comfort with the politics and religion that Western missions would bring.

In exhibit one in the appendix what can be seen from the expression of the face of a Greek guard in Samos Greece is that he is in terror despite the power of his gun, and this is the case because Turkey and Greece have visual sight on one another at Samos since they are so close together and separated only by water. The guard in the photo is at a terrorist hot spot, and he may be concerned that he might not see his family again because of things that might happen at work. Seeing a guard holding a massive automatic weapon while in terror in this situation means that anti-western groups still exist and are dangerous even in the Western lands that border Turkey, and this says much for the environment of Western mission work in Turkey.

Exhibit two gives a view of the type of people in uniform in Turkey that would apprehend a Christian missionary performing mission work as these people would start a missionary on the process of being put to death for the capital offence of Proselytization. Exhibit three gives a view of this author in full clerical uniform just a few city blocks away from the soldiers of exhibit two. Notice that in exhibit three the tourists are seen expressing a high level of comfort. Given the background of Turkey, missionary work is more than possible among Jewish people in power despite challenges.

Survey of Mission Work Done with Jews in Turkey

Levy carefully writes about Christian mission in the city of Izmir in the Ottoman Empire as he says,

"A Protestant mission was active among the Jews of the city, attempting to convert them. This mission was also active among the Eastern Christians, but it was not allowed to operate among the Muslims. Many Jews attended the modern European schools that were established in Izmir as of the 1830s. ...The Christian population (Greek and Armenian) became increasingly hostile towards the Ottoman regime and the Muslims as their national consciousness was awakened by their communities struggle for independence. In this they were supported by European powers. The difficult economic conditions led to a persistent and merciless rivalry among the various groups in Izmir, and the economic conflict contributed to increasing interreligious tensions. The Jews of Izmir were caught in the cross fire. The Christian communities made use of both traditional-religious and modern-nationalistic forms of anti-Semitism to consolidate their religious and nationalist consciousness, as well as to achieve economic goals." (Levy, 49-50)

The main point that Levy is making is that the introduction of Protestant missionaries in Turkey to target the Jews and Eastern Christians in the 1830's generated lots of political problems between Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and Muslims, and the point that Levy makes is that Christians became rich from profiting by the political struggle between people groups.

In 1854 Dwight writes regarding Christian mission in Turkey as he says the following regarding the next big movement in Christian mission among the Turks,

"It is the object of the present work to record the principal circumstances of the beginning of a reformation, which is still in progress in the Armenian Church, and which, it is hoped, will not cease, until the whole body is cleansed from its multiform errors, and brought entirely back to its allegiance to Christ. This reformation, it will be seen, has been commenced and carried forward to its present point, chiefly through the instrumentality of the missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions." (Dwight, 15)

The point to be made is that Protestant mission work in Turkey in Dwight's time was often noticeably involved in targeting other Christians instead of evangelizing unreached people groups. The problem is that targeting Jews and Eastern Christians in Turkey in the 1830's that ends in large profits and a conflict between people can only get worse if the mission of Dwight in 1854 was to promote reeducation of Christians in Turkey based upon the superiority of English Reformed Christianity.

Fuller points out that that in regard to contemporary Turkey, "The great majority of Turks are Muslims in the same way that most Europeans and Americans are Christians. Their religion is an integral part of their culture and significant in an individual's life..." (Fuller, 5) What can be made from Fuller is that if a person does any mission work in Turkey, then dealing with Muslims and Muslim practices may become center stage even if a person is not targeting Muslims. Even if Jews have a separate culture that is contained in Turkey, the vast majority background culture of Turkey is Muslim based that both missionaries and Jews have to adapt to.

Today very little is known about missionary work in Turkey among Jews because so few Jews exist in Turkey, and because Turkey is locked away from the Christian world for the most part as a result of Turkey having a super secular nation. Consider the political problem between Greece, Turkey, and Israel mentioned by Nachmani,

"Tripartite relations among Greece, Turkey and Israel, if discernible at all, revolve around the crises which constantly besets the Middle East and the East Mediterranean. Even then, it is not a triangle per se: the three states seldom pursue a common policy. What is perhaps the most usual feature of their interrelations is the 'ganging-up' of two of the sides against the third." (Nachmani, vii)

What most all Turks know about Christianity they know based upon the national Church of Greece that is Greek Orthodox, and this often being the enemy of Turky causes problems with any Christan mission work in Turky. The best political climate for doing mission work in Tukey among Jews is when Turkey, Isreal, and Greece are all at peace with eachother because at this time Jews, Christans, and Muslems would be considered not for their national policital baggage but instead for their actual relgious belifs. The problem is that the tripartite relations model that Nachmani describes can make this process of peacful relations imposable.

The point to be made is that the mission work of the 1830's caused incredible evil to occur, and this can greatly reduce the platform that Christians have for doing mission work among the Jews in Turkey because people in the Middle East have very long memories of how their families have been wronged in past generations. The mission of 1854 made Protestant missionaries look ridiculous because Christians had been sent into Turkey to evangelize other Christians in Turkey when the two groups of Christians did not differ as much as what Jews differ from Protestants. Not only that but also the arrogance of a Protestant mission going in to train Christians in Turkey to be 'real Christians' would have caused conflicts to be so bad that Jews and other such people would have been glad to not even be part of the strife between Christians that would have emerged. Today the extent of Jews in Turkey being reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ most likely only come in the form of Bibles, the Jesus Film (see Joshua Project), and Greeks that centered around Istanbul as Istanbul would have had visitors from all over the world coming to see the historic eastern orthodox seat of power in the world. Overall, even if visiting Christians do spend time in Istanbul Turkey, the fact that Jews of Istanbul would likely speak the Turkish of the land while visited Greeks and Europeans would speak other languages would cause a serious language barrier.

Unfortunately, very few churches exist in Turkey at all, and I am confident that none of the churches or almost none of the churches house Jewish believers in Jesus Christ. The theory used to come to this conclusion is that if only a number such as a dozen Christian churches exist in Turkey total, then the possibility of even one of those churches being a Christian church that houses Jewish believers is next to none as a result of the limited size of the Jewish population in the nation of Turkey. The point is that mission work among Jews in Turkey has perhaps not been done in any intentional targeted endeavor for almost two hundred years, and Turkey is thus about due for a Jewish mission.

Methods Employed for Bringing the Gospel to Jews in Turkey

Although nothing is wrong with showing the Jesus film in the Turkish language and distributing Bibles in the Turkish language, someone has to physically bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to Jews in Turkey in order for congregations to be started. Since the distribution of Bibles in Turkey can result in the prosecution of a capital crime, freely distributing Bibles should be done with the understanding that a person is risking their life. Instead of openly handing out Bibles in public, better methods exist for continuing survival without having to be put to death.

A Jewish convert to Christianity could learn the Turkish language, learn the culture and laws of Turkey, and then all the person has to do is to approach the Jewish heads of authority such as the Synagogue teaches and the heads of state. All the person would have to do is just simply ask a set of challenging questions that relate to the messianic passages. The idea is that the Jewish Christian presents themselves as someone that believes in Christ, but yet the person just simply has some questions about Judaism.

Opening dialog between Jews and Jewish Christians in Turkey may not require the death penalty because people would just simply be talking about religion. If however a person entered Turkey, handed out free Bibles, and screamed at people to repent, then Turkish laws would require the death penalty. The idea thus is not to tell people what to believe, but instead to question people into realizing the truth.

Consider how questioning a Jewish teacher about why the messianic age has not happened yet could lead into questions about how the messianic age may have happened without certain people realizing it. If a Jewish teacher wanted to know more about the subject, then it would be really easy to explain how certain people got locked away (by politics) from being told about this news. Overall, the fact is that what is very likely is that many Jews in Turkey have never even heard anything at all about Jesus Christ, and hardly any may have even the smallest amount of knowledge regarding Christianity.

What is important to understand is that Turkey puts anyone to death that performs Proselytization, and the likely reason for this is because the secular nation of Turkey does not want to have a sudden overthrow of the government by an Islamic state. Some Muslims for example would believe that in order to have a true Muslim practice that they must be part of an Islamic state, and for these Muslims killing would be a lesser sin than being oppressed. The point is that the nation of Turkey is not trying to be Islamic, but instead they are trying to keep from being Islamic by being super secular (far more secular than the United States).

What is good about a Jewish mission is that Muslims would not feel threatened in any way, but if any Muslims felt that Christians got an unfair advantage in promoting their beliefs, then it could cause a stark reason among Muslims that would feel that they are being oppressed from not being able to instill Islamic law while Christians go about promoting their own religion. The Muslim view could easily be that by Christians indoctrinating Jews that the doctrines would have a political result that would change Turkish government into Christian government like what the Greeks have with their national church. The Muslims could thus feel very oppressed because they may feel that if they are the majority, then if anyone should set the government rules, then it should be them.

Since Jews would be more understanding to the fact that religion does not always have to take a national form in order to be practiced, they could understand more readily that believing in Christianity does not necessarily constitute a threat to the state. On the other hand since Jews in Turkey most likely would have only seen eastern orthodox Christians whenever they saw a Christian, they may associate all Christianity with a set of teachings that when combined result in a national Christian church. The way to get around the fear that Christianity leads directly to nationalism and thus to opposition to secular government is to perform enough extensive dialog with Turks to gain enough trust that no one suspects that any secrets are being hidden.

Once trust is established between a Jewish disciple and a mentor, discussion of Christianity may perhaps take place in the open in public places. When discipleship happens in public, then others would overhear the message and then ask questions that would result in even more people believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ. As enough people begin to believe, Jewish houses of worship would then be used for Christian services. The mainstream public may not realize that Jewish houses of worship are being converted into Christian churches because the same people would be attending the same places at the same times that they normally would.

The main principle of converting Jews to Christians is to encourage the Jews to remain with their people. Consider what Mcgavran has to say about the subject of what to do with new converts, "The principle is to encourage converts to remain thoroughly one with their own people in most matters. They should continue to eat what their people eat." (Mcgavran, 629) The point is that converting a Turkish Jew into a Christian should not be about suddenly changing everything, but instead the only change that would take place is that the Jew would begin to believe in the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

Of course the gospel message of Jesus Christ would slowly transform a Jew into a person that lives righteously, but what would be best is to not involve a sudden transformation of a Jew into a rebellious person. Once a Turkish Jew has been converted, a pork roast for example should not be the celebration of the conversion as the Jew invites all of the friends of his people group to a barbeque. Not only would an act of defiance of Jews of such sorts cause a new Jewish believer to undergo extreme social hardships, but it could also cause extreme hostility to arise along with a mob of angry Jews that seek retribution to be served upon Christian missions workers.

The very best policy thus is to take a very non confrontational approach to mission work performed in Turkey among Jews. Even though repentance, baptism, and communion are all essential elements of the Christian faith, they should be gradually and carefully worked into the practices of a new Jewish believer. John the Baptist for example would find difficulty in converting Jews in Turkey with the tactics that he employed in the New Testament, and not only that but also he would most likely have an extremely short lived mission that would end in his execution by secular authorities.

Conclusion. A Jewish mission in Turkey is entirely possible, but the most important element of success is to target people for evangelism through questioning. Preaching the gospel truth to anyone in Turkey could quickly result in the death sentence not because of the 'gospel truth' but because of the 'preaching.' The trick is thus to get people to explain what they believe, and in doing this an evangelist can point out contradictions, points that are misinformed, and other such problems that derive from not knowing the truth. Overall, the best strategy is to make people believe that they are not really changing the way that they believe but instead clarifying their thinking.

If a mass transformation of Jews in Turkey happened, and if this transformation made its way into the Muslims as well then exhibit five in the appendix would likely characterize the new attitudes of the people. Today however Turkey is an incredibly terrible place to be, and if not for the natural beauty of the land along with ancient remnants almost no one from Christian lands would ever want to visit Turkey in any way. A mission to Jews in Turkey could thus transform the entire nation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bengio, Ofra. The Turkish-Israeli Relationship: Changing Ties of Middle Eastern Outsiders. New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Carkoglu, Ali and Barry Rubin. Greek-Turkish Relations in an Era of Détente.

New York, New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2005.

Dwight, H. G. O. Christianity In Turkey: A Narrative of the Protestant Reformation in the Armenian Church. London, England: James Nisbet and Co., 1854.

Fuller, Graham, Iran O. Lesser, Paul B. Henze, and J.F. Brown. Turkey's New Geopolitics From the Balkans to Western China. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993.

Heper, Metin and Sabri Sayari. Political Leaders and Democracy in Turkey.

Oxford, England: Lexington Books, 2002.

Joshua Project http://www.joshuaproject.net/peopctry.php?peo3=18274&rog3=TU

Levy, Avigdor. Jews, Turks, Ottomans: A Shared History,Fifteenth Through the Twentieth Century. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2002.

Lovatt, Debbie. Turkey Since 1970: Politics, Economics, and Society.

New York, New York: Palgrave, 2001.

McGavran, Donald. "A Church in Every People: Plain Talk About a Difficult Subject." In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, 4^th edition ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven Hawthorne, 627-32. Pasadena, California: Paternoster Press, 1981

Nachmani, Amikam. Israel, Turkey, and Greece: Uneasy Relations in the East Mediterranean.

London, England: Frank Cass & Co. LTD, 1987.

Wagner, Peter. "On the Cutting Edge of Mission Strategy." In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, 4^th edition ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven Hawthorne, 574-82. Pasadena, California: Paternoster Press, 1981.

Winter, Ralph and Bruce A. Koch. "Finishing the Task: The Unreached Peoples Challenge." In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, 4^th edition ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven Hawthorne, 531-46. Pasadena, California: Paternoster Press, 1981.

World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tu.html

APPENDIX

Exhibit One:

A Greek soldier is seen holds a massive gun on the island of Samos Greece in 2005 just off the cost of Turkey as he looks back and forth in terror despite the fact that his gun is so massive that it could eliminate hoards of terrorists at a time. He leans under the weight of his gun because it is an extremely heavy bit of steel and this is why he uses the shoulder strap as well. Evidence exists that he is at the end of a very long day by the way that he is standing, and he uses the shoulder harness because he realizes that he is not in any immediate danger.

Exhibit Two:

Two Turkish soldiers walk the street of the remnants of Ephesus just as the Apostle Paul would have done almost two thousand years prior. They appear to work as a team, and the ancient stonework could cause bullets to hit the stones and change directions multiple times if the guns had ever been fired. If a real problem ever existed with terrorism, then the most strategic method would be for the soldiers to get off the street and lay on the ground on either side of the street with guns aimed unless the suspect would be easily held in custody. By the way the soldiers walk and carry guns, they have little fear, and this suggests that upheaval is not a concern. Proselytization however can carry the death penalty, and the soldiers are ready to enforce a system of justice if needed.

Exhibit Three:

I am seen dressed in full clerical uniform in front of the place that nearly two thousand years ago was the setting for Acts 19:23-41 that caused a near public riot of the entire city as a result of the teaching of Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ. What most of the people around me may not realize is that I am armed with the most powerful weapon of all namely the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Notice that despite the policy of shutting down the entire aria for visiting eastern orthodox clergy as a result of the threat of terrorism, I am able to stand in clear view of day without any immediate threat of being convicted of Proselytization and thus sentenced to death. An entire group of people stand beside me in the photograph as they make casual conversation with each other, and no one at all is concerned about safety.

Exhibit Four:

An entire row of soldiers are seen in full combat uniform in Athens Greece as they file in a row.

Exhibit Five:

One of the soldiers in exhibit four is smiling as he marches in guard, and the expression on his face suggests that his entire work in Athens Greece is just for show and that he is very happy doing his job. Greece is an eastern orthodox nation, and from the look of the soldier and the aria surrounding the guards the people feel an incredible peace and joy that is rarely felt in the United States and would be almost completely foreign to Turkey. The happiness that these people feel as Greek citizens with the little that they have is incredible, and the willingness and readiness to share in that happiness makes foreign threats nearly impossible by terrorism. This exhibit demonstrates what the ultimate social reward is for successful mission work, and in this case the daily expression of happiness of the entire region can be characterized by the facial expression of the soldier.