When Iran is mentioned in relation to religion, Christianity is not typically the first thing that comes to mind.
This Middle Eastern nation is predominantly known as the largest Shiite Muslim state in the world and is widely recognized for its strict enforcement of Islamic principles.
The recent incident where a woman was reportedly shot by the country’s morality police for violating mandatory hijab laws has once again put Iran in the international spotlight.
Despite the rigorous implementation of moral codes, there is a glimmer of hope for Christians within Iran. Some commentators have suggested that Iran might be experiencing a “Jesus Revolution.”
In a Tuesday article for faith-based outlet CBN News, writer Gary Lane described how an “unprecedented number of Muslims are choosing to follow Christ, especially in Iran as people search for a better life.”
“You have a country with one of the highest drug addiction rates in the world. You have a country where corruption runs rampant. You have a country where more than half the people live below the poverty line,” said Todd Nettleton of The Voice of the Martyrs, a non-governmental organization focused around providing support for persecuted Christians.
“And the people of Iran are looking at this and they are saying, ‘Wait a minute. If this is what Islam has brought us in the last 45 years, we’re not interested. We want to know what the other options are.’”
Nettleton claimed that more than a million Muslims had converted to Christianity and that two-thirds of the country’s 75,000 mosques had shut down. This assertion has been repeated by other sources such as U.S.-based Iran International, but due to the closed nature of Iranian society, it is challenging to confirm.
“This is not something that is making the regime happy. And, really, in many ways, they are seeking to solidify their power and to crush any kind of dissent,” Nettleton said.
“We have heard multiple stories this year of Bible study, a home church being raided. Everyone there is photographed; everyone there is questioned. But then the leader of the meeting is held on to. They are arrested. They are detained. They’re put in prison.”
However, he said that family and friends are often easier on Christian converts than the government is.
“They kind of have the attitude of, ‘Hey, if you found something that works for you, if it’s Jesus or if it’s atheism or if it’s whatever, if it works for you … I know Islam doesn’t work, so I’m happy you found something that works,’” he said.
The shift towards Christianity in Iran may come as a shock to those who have only known the country as a harsh theocratic state. However, this is not an entirely new development.
In a 2023 article for the Washington Stand, a Christian publication, Lela Gilbert highlighted that “a significant survey conducted in 2020 by Gamaan, a secular research group based in the Netherlands, revealed that there is a growing number of Christian believers in Iran – more than one million.
In fact, participants in the ‘house church’ movement in Iran firmly believe that there are likely several million Christian believers in the country.”
“In my research and interviews, it has become clear that new Christians’ witness to others is mostly shared in quiet conversations, encouraged by low-profile online Bible studies, and affirmed by visions, dreams, and miraculously answered prayers. Due to their risky circumstances, recent Christian converts are enthusiastically communicating about their changed lives with friends and loved ones — but quietly and carefully. However, their discreet but persistent witness accounts for the extraordinary number of new Iranian believers, who meet in small house churches,” she wrote.
“These house churches are usually comprised of no more than 10 to 15 believers. On a given day, they arrive, one by one, at a small apartment or some other nondescript location. After the last one enters, the door closes and locks, and they all take a deep breath and relax, greeting each other warmly.”
And, one church leader quoted by Gilbert noted that this isn’t just in spite of the state, but because of it, as well: “What if I told you the mosques are empty inside Iran? What if I told you no one follows Islam inside of Iran?” he said. “What if I told you the best evangelist for Jesus was the Ayatollah Khomeini [founder of the Islamic Republic]?”
Don Shenk, the executive director of The Tide Ministry, mentioned that the developments in Iran are indicative of a broader trend, as reported by CBN.
“I think what’s happening there is actually representative of what’s happening in the Islamic world,” he said.
“We get responses from listeners who say, you know, now I understand that God loves me. I always thought that God wanted to punish me,” Shenk said. “And I think there’s an awakening that is taking place across the Muslim world, not just in Iran.”
Shenk said countries which have seen growth in new converts include Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and war-torn Yemen.
Nettleton agreed, citing — in one instance — a new openness toward Christians from nearby Saudi Arabia.
“Not necessarily welcoming with open arms, obviously. But just the understanding that it could happen, that there could be Christians here,” he said.
“And maybe that’s not the worst thing in the world. That’s such a change from what we would have seen 10 or 15 or 20 years ago.”
However, despite this, these individuals are still willing to risk their lives to pursue their faith in Jesus Christ.
It is truly a remarkable “Jesus Revolution,” underscoring the importance of supporting them with our prayers for spiritual growth and divine protection.
This incredible narrative will undoubtedly receive heavenly rewards, and we can only aspire for the spiritual renewal experienced by these Iranian Christians to also impact their nation.
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Interesting how churches in Western European nations are shutting down while Christianity is gaining a foothold and growing in such repressive Islamic nations like Iran that have produced many extremist Muslims that have been attacking and killing Christians over the last several decades as well throughout the history of Christendom.
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Thank God that the minds of the Iranian people are opening their minds to the truth of God’s Word. We need to pray for them.
Mary; you are so right there, and I just recently said to others that the way the dark forces and globalist elites are pushing their agenda upon us all in many specific ways, that if it gets to a point where I’m told you must have a digital facial recognition ID to be a part of their crazy system and they say, take it or die, I will gladly rather die!
See the thing is they are so power hungry driven, they now think of themselves as invincible and god like; but, “I will live on through Jesus Christ’s salvation in heaven for eternity” if I hang in there like I try to do, but those megalomaniac monster puppeteers will get their reward too, which will be “eternal damnation where their souls will live on in perpetual anguish and suffering beyond imagination!”
My point in regard to this article is that these Iranians who see the light know this to be true and are very brave to “face the music” as the saying goes “to seek God’s truth and light and turn away from the obvious evil” they have lived amongst and know all too well how dark it is!
You are correct, that we should pray for them.
God bless them and us here seeking the light and truth to obtain the redemption and salvation of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
For 2700 years Jews were in Iran, then known as Babylonia AKA Persia.
The origin of the Jewish diaspora in Persia is connected to the deportation of Israelites in 727 B.C. from Samaria (ISRAEL) to Media and Persia.
The famous “Cyrus Declaration” allowed the Jews who were living in exile by the river of Babylon to return to their homeland, Judea, to rebuild their lives.
Meanwhile, in Iran, the Jews flourished under the Shah, however eventually they were being exiled and killed in Iran in the 80’s when there was a mass exodus of Iranian Jews to the US and Israel.
Because of the hatred of Israel and modern Israel it’s not surprising that the Iranians would turn to Christianity to uplift them from the theocracy of Islam, HOWEVER, had the jews remained in Iran and not fled, Judaism would have been the attractive religion to lift the people out of the Islamic Coma led by Khomeni…. Bottom line, the people are waking up, and I’d like to see this spread to Afghanistan and Iraq as well as other extreme Islamic countries.
Kerem; good history and points of contention to point out! The escalation of hatred and madness from that region has been ongoing for millennia but the firebrand and master conquest plan took off in earnest starting with the false prophet madman Muhammad on through even the Ottoman Empire (Caliphate) into the 1920’s which he also inspired and who I know was inspired by Satan.
I’m so sickened, disgusted by all the lies and deception going on daily, but, making it even more painful the volume is totally unprecedented as I see how utterly poisoned and deeply contaminated our modern civilization has become! Now to a level where not so long ago what was obviously dead wrong is being called right and then what I know in my heart and soul to be good and truly right is now being condemned as vile and wrong! What gets to me so badly, agitating me so much at times, is how phony and actually drunkard or actually diabolical our society has become; all of which I feel must be called out in no uncertain terms, with what I sincerely hope is some “righteous indignation!”
Will it do any good in this fallen bad place, I sometimes have to wonder.
Then the only thing I can do that makes sense of it all is to look at His word!
2 Timothy 3:2-5 “For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these.”
Matthew 24:9-14 “9Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. 10“At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. 11“Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 12“Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. 13“But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. 14“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Romans 8:30 “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
Matthew 24: 23-25 “At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. 24For false Christ’s and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible. 25See, I have told you in advance.”
Several years ago leading up to Christmas and right on Christmas Day this phony and deceptive guy who was commenting on a post kept twisting truth like the Devil to make Jesus nothing more than some guy like Muhammad or even less actually. His denouncing Jesus and Christianity therefore on Christmas set me off onto my mission, as he would not stop it no matter how many important things I tried to explain to him. He was a clever deceiver. He did however stop after this piece I wrote to him on the post!
Aツaz Your own words; “live the way you want and not dictate as you are just a human and not a messenger of GOD, like Jesus and Muhammad were.” Muslim hoax” I am wondering how you equate a “hoax” with facts of an Islamic Empire”
Wonder NO MORE, Pay attention and learn of your blaspheming error! You have a huge inaccuracy that needs to be corrected! Saying that Jesus is another prophet like Muhammad is blasphemous. First Jesus was not a mere prophet but was God Himself and therefore the Redeemer and Savior of Mankind as he said. Muhammad was only a supposed prophet and there is irrefutable evidence in the historical text of the time he lived that points to his being an outright liar and heretic as well as a criminal and child molester along with his being a polygamist! The following statements are highly accurate and actually proven.
“In 632, only months before he died, Muhammad apparently met for the first time with a Christian community as such. An official delegation of Christians, probably led by a bishop, came to Mecca from Najran in Yemen. After engaging the Christians in discussion, the Prophet is said to have realized that Christian teachings are indeed incompatible with Islam, after which the revelation followed that only Islam is acceptable to God as a religion. The Quran also says very specifically that those who refer to Jesus as God are blasphemers, and that ‘Christians saying that Christ is the son of God is an imitation of Jews, who earlier had said that Ezra is the son of God.’ According to the Quran Jesus was only a servant; Jesus the son of Mary was no more than an apostle of God. Quranic verses dealing with Jesus’ death have been interpreted differently by commentators, but generally they have been taken to mean that Jesus did not die by crucifixion. For Christians the Quran has thus served as a denial of Jesus’ incarnation and death on the cross and of the reality of the Trinity.” (Oxford University Press)
This was a Heretical attack directed upon God’s plan, which was foretold by all the previous prophets going all the way back to Abraham. This attack on Christmas Day and denial of what Jesus Christ said regarding who He was; to me makes such a person Anti-Christ and supportive of the Devil or all that is unholy. And Christianity is backed up with solid historical evidence and prophecy over much time by many prophets.
“And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.” Revelation 19:20 (NASB)
“And the devil that deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Revelation 20:10 (NASB)
“Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14 (NASB)
“And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15 (NASB)
Revelation 21:7-9 “7The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son. 8But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.” 9Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
Please watch and listen to this video because a young Muslim woman shakes in her boots literally to see the light finally!
Here is a man Sam Shamoun a former Muslim who I give respect God bless him for speaking out so truthfully, and who now helps many to wake up and turn to Christ; as he did for this young Muslim woman! That is so beautiful her connecting to Jesus’ love for her!
“Female Muslim Starts SHAKING LIVE After Learning The TRUTH About Islam”
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pJfjlpYDu4