Archbishop Jonathan Ansar
Archbishop Dr. Jonathan Ansar (born December 10, 1950) is a Bible Teacher and Preacher - disciple of Jesus Christ. He edifies Pastors and Church Leaders and people involved in ministries. He also trained and sent church leaders to various field of ministry within India and abroad. Preaching and Teaching the Mysteries of the Gospel through television programs time to time thru God channel, Revelation TV, Genesis TV in UK, India and abroad. His life biography was widely telecasted in 2001 on ‘In Depth’ program hosted by David Aldous, aired on God TV, UK.
Brief Background
His Eminence Metropolitan Archbishop Dr. Jonathan Ansar previously known as Syed Mohammed Ansar Hussain was born to Dr. Abdullah and Sakina Sultan at Mumbai, India into the Royal Orthodox Muslim family. His mother is the great great granddaughter to the Last Mughal Emperor of India, Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar (popularly known as Bahadur Shah II), and great granddaughter to Mirza Jawan Bakht. He was educated in both religious and secular education.
Early Days
As a young child he was trained in Islamic Religious Education to become a 'Hafiz - the one who memorized the Koran from cover to cover.' At his young age servicing as Muslim youth leader, he became bitter against conversion and Christians preaching the Gospel in Burma.
While on his mission to prevent Muslims getting converted to the Christian fold, he published an article "Jesus Died in Kashmir", a two page handout which states that Jesus was not crucified, but instead another person a look-alike of Jesus was crucified on the cross. The handout also states that Jesus came away from that Israel and died a natural death in Kashmir where his grave is still there till this day.
Life Transformation
After the article against Jesus was published, one night, as he was ferociously writing letters to the Muslim leaders on how to prevent Christian preachers reach Muslims; suddenly he experienced a thick darkness and his whole body became stiff and fell into a trance and had a startling vision.
In his vision, he saw that he was falling into an endless dark pit. As he was falling, he started calling out all the names of Prophets & Holy Men he knew. But he continued to fall; when nothing helped, finally a thought came into his mind to call on the name of Jesus, the Lord of Christians whom he hated. He called out the name of Jesus and immediately he stopped falling and remained in mid-air. In the same thick darkness which was covered in surrounding, he saw a light with golden rays coming from a pin point area which soon filled the whole darkness. Slowly he noticed a small object which seemed to be like a shaded image of a cross, which grew into a huge cross, blood started to drip slowly and gradually speedup and became like a waterfall. While he was watching the vision, the cross drew closer and closer to him. He then heard a voice saying "I have chosen you to bear my name among all the Nations of this World".
The next day after he regained his consciousness, he realized that he was admitted to a asylum by his parents where he spent about 10 days. Although he had not lost his mind, his parents believed that this was due to the vision he saw.
While in the hospital he sought to read some books to pass the time. One of the nurses from the hospital promised to bring him a book unless he promised her not to destroy it. So she brought him a Gideon's New Testament Bible. He read from Matthew to Acts and became totally confused. However, when he read Hebrew 9:14 (How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!) a new light and understanding dawned.
While he continued reading further, he remembered his childhood experience when he was a 9 year old learning the Koran at his Islamic School. He remembered how he was asked to wash all over again his whole body before prayer by one of the religious leaders when the teacher noticed that flesh between his fingers was not washed ; the teacher said the body had to be perfectly cleansed before offering his prayers.. than Jonathan questioned his teacher "If water cleanses the body what can cleanse my conscious?" for that Teacher avoided him and left…
After the enlightenment, He asked the nurse to teach him the Bible, but she said Pastors could explain much better. Many pastors came, but they were unable to explain to his satisfaction. And as he continued to read the Bible, while reading book of Romans, he understood in an instant that the Word of God and the Holy Spirit cleanses his conscience.
After getting discharged from the Hospital, he returned home and told his father that he had accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior and God. He instructed his father not to wake him the next morning at 4:30 am for their ritual Islamic prayer - 'sallath' or 'nammaz.' The next morning his father knocked on his door, only to see him reading the Bible. His father gave him an ultimatum, to choose between being completely disinherited and his Christianity. At 4:45 am on a cold November morning in 1970, Ansar was driven out from his home with nothing but his Bible and the crutches on which he hobbled. In his frustration, he threw the Bible down. It fell open at Jeremiah 33:3, which had been highlighted by the previous owner. It read, "Call to me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you have never seen." He challenged God by giving Him 100 days to prove Himself through miracles every day to show that He was true to what He has said. These turned out to be 100 days of miracles!
The first church he attended on Sunday was a Roman Catholic church. Before entering, he asked a woman to teach him how to pray; she told him to copy what others were doing. Whatever the people did he copied, until the priest refused to give him Holy Communion. The following Sunday, determined to take the communion he was refused the previous week, he passed a Baptist church on the way. He entered it just as they were serving Holy Communion. He took two portions of bread and wine, to make up for what he missed the week before! The elder was upset by this and challenged him at the end of the service. On hearing Jonathan's testimony, the elder introduced him to the believer's baptism. Since then Syed Mohamed Ansar Hussain changed his name to Jonathan Ansar.
Ministry and Christian Life
It was on 14th Feb 1970; Jonathan had born again experience and got baptized in water on 10 April the same year though he dedicated his life for ministry on 5 March 1971.
He was in a seminary and later he studied in other theological studies too. In 1974, he was ordained as a Pastor to Anglican Church. He worked as an Anglican priest for some time. However, when he was baptized with the Holy Ghost on 21 October 1978 the Church eventually suspended him because he spoke in unknown tongues.
God showered His grace upon Jonathan to plant a few churches in Myanmar (Burma). Later in 1980, he came to India with a burning desire for the land where he was born. For initial 2 years he worked for World Islamic Evangelization as senior advisor and preacher. He also worked as a Pastor and planted more churches. He also went on to work as a Chaplain in a Christian Medical College, Ludhiana. From 1986-1987 he served as Chaplain of a School and Priest at Church of North India, Kashmir. Jonathan commenced church planting from 1987-1989 after which he became chaplain of the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana, Punjab, North India, for two years. Following this, he became Senior Pastor of Christian Fellowship Centre in Bombay (now known as Mumbai) from 1991 to 1995 during which the church grew from a few members to well over 1400 members.
His international ministry began in 1994 when he founded the "Revival Crusaders International" and during that year he reached 11 states of North India which was his vision. He has since travelled to over 62 nations preaching the gospel with the Power of the Holy Spirit.
He was ordained and consecrated as a Bishop in December 1995. In 1997 the Anglican community in India came together and later became THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNION OF THE EPISCOPAL RENEWAL CHURCHES (ICERC). He was Elected, Ordained and Enthroned to be the Archbishop in 2001 in the National Church of India.
Today he is the Presiding Archbishop over 44 Bishops and has around 3006 churches and 3446 Pastors and Ministers. He has lectured as a visiting teacher in various Bible colleges in India and abroad.
Supernatural Experiences
He had faced much persecution, hard times and crisis that made him to stand firm as a pillar for the name of Jesus Christ. He has witnessed the power of God through miracles and healings from the day He accepted Christ.
His personal experiences include surviving attempts on his life: couple of attempts has been made to poison him but they had no affect to him and a number of attempts to beat him to death. Once a man was mistaken for Jonathan and was brutally beaten. Another time a gang of men drove him to a secluded place and attempted to beat him with sticks. Miraculously none of the sticks touched him as he lay on the floor, but instead the sticks hit each other above from Jonathan's body. While some of the men argued amongst themselves whether to kill him or just beat him so he could escape and go away.
During one crusade two men tried to pull Jonathan of the stage. While a great crowd watched him, he shouted out, "In Jesus name!" The men fell to the ground. This was a great testimony of the power in name of our God.
The Archbishop’s Family
Jonathan is married to Raj Prabha on 7 Aug 1986 and has three kids; Today he is the Presiding Archbishop over 44 Bishops and has around 3008 churches and 3446 Pastors & Ministers. He has lectured as a visiting teacher in various Bible colleges in India and abroad.
His Most Inspirational Versus From Bible
He commonly quotes when people ask about his biography… the three quotes
Romans 15:18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said under.
Acts 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.