Samuel Marinus Zwemer wrote this around 1940, after retiring from a long service as missionary to the Middle-East and Arab world, which continued indirectly while he taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. Known as “the apostle to Islam,” he focused on one certainty: Muslims need Christ as he is revealed in Scripture. A convenient, rational, domesticated Christ, such as the Jesus that was already promoted in Zwemer’s day, would not do.

“The deity of Christ makes all the difference in our Christmas joy. He who came to the manger was God’s Son. To deny this is to deny essential Christianity. If the Savior of men is not identical with their Creator, there are no good tidings of great joy for the human race and no help in the cross for the sinner.”[1]

Samuel Marinus Zwemer wrote this around 1940, after retiring from a long service as missionary to the Middle-East and Arab world, which continued indirectly while he taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. Known as “the apostle to Islam,” he focused on one certainty: Muslims need Christ as he is revealed in Scripture. A convenient, rational, domesticated Christ, such as the Jesus that was already promoted in Zwemer’s day, would not do.

“In our day we are told to look for ‘the historic Jesus,’ the man of Galilee, a teacher sent of God, the friend of the outcast and the oppressed, the critic of society and the Jewish church, very like other great reformers even in his limitations,” Zwemer wrote. “But a merely human Christ, no matter how humane and tender, can not suffice. We need the Lord of Glory, the Christ of eternal love and eternal redemption, the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. We need a Saviour who is alive forevermore and who abolished death and brought life and immortality to the world by His incarnation.”[2]

This is the Christ Zwemer was committed to bring to the world.

Bearing a Hole Through a Mission Board

Zwemer was born on April 12, 1867, in Vriesland, Michigan, to a family of Huguenot-Dutch immigrants, the thirteenth of their fifteen children. It was a pious family, and four of his brothers entered the Christian ministry. Samuel was active in the campus mission group at Hope College in HoIland, Michigan.

A visit to the college by Robert Wilder, of the Student Volunteer Movement, kindled in Zwemer’s heart a passion for the mission field. After completing his studies, first at Hope College, then at New Brunswick Seminary, New Jersey, he was ordained minister in the Reformed Church of America (RCA). That’s when he began to make concrete plans to move to the mission field – specifically to the Arab world, where true Christianity was still largely unknown.

At New Brunswick, he had met three like-minded men: John G. Lansing, a professor of Old Testament and former missionary to Egypt, and two students, James Cantine and Philip T. Phelps. Together, they approached various missionary agencies, but were turned down. The Arab world was too difficult and dangerous for Christians.

They decided to form their own agency. Zwemer is quoted as saying, “”If God calls you and no board will send you, bore a hole through the board and go anyway.”[3]

In 1890, Zwemer was finally able to leave for Beirut, Lebanon, where he joined Cantine for a time of study of the Arabic language. In the meantime, Phelps stayed in the United States as treasurer and fundraiser of the mission. From Beirut, Zwemer and Cantine went to Cairo, Egypt, where they joined Professor Lansing. After exploring different possibilities, they moved to Basrah, Iraq, where they stayed for six years. Since Arabs found his name difficult to pronounce, Zwemer adopted the name Dhaif Allah, “The Guest of God.”

Samuel and Amy

In 1896, Samuel met someone who was going to become his greatest missionary partner: Amy Wilkes, an Australian nurse. Visiting Amy was not easy, because her missionary agency didn’t allow single ladies to spend time with men, but Samuel overcame that obstacle by offering his services as an Arabic teacher. From the start, he knew she was meant to be his wife. He proposed, and they were married on May 16, after a short engagement.

Since now Amy was going to work with Samuel, the Australian agency asked for a reimbursement of the expenses they had faced in sending her to the mission field. Samuel paid, saying, jokingly, that he had purchased a wife, in good Arab fashion.

On June 1, Samuel and Amy moved to Bahrain, where Amy worked with local women. This was the first known effort to bring the gospel to Arab women. Samuel, who had volunteered at a missionary clinic in New York City, was glad to have Amy at his side as they offered their medical services to the community. A hospital, built in 1903, grew over the years, attracting patients from other regions.

It was around this time that Samuel started to write his first book, Arabia: the Cradle of Islam. At that time, the weather was so hot that he had to wrap a towel around his hand to keep his sweat from dripping on the paper. The book was well received and went through four in 12 years. His second book, Raymond Lull, First Missionary to Moslems, was published in English, Arabic, Spanish, German, Chinese, and Dutch.

Amy wrote three books during the same time, with her husband as co-author: Moslem Women, Zigzag Journeys in the Camel Country[4], and Topsy Turvey Land: Arabia Pictured for Children.[5] The last two delightful books for children were especially unique for their time and were well-received.

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