As the world watches Iran, Christians look on with another set of eyes.
Wherever we reside, we watch and pray with a spiritual vision that transcends natural concerns and our own nation-state. We are Americans, Brazilians, Canadians, Dominicans, Emiratis, yet in Christ, we are now most fundamentally citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20). Our supreme allegiance is to Jesus, risen, ascended, and reigning over all nations for the special good of his church — even in the great sorrows of these days.
Some estimate that in recent weeks the Muslim regime has killed more than thirty thousand protestors. As of today, the United States and Israel have executed six days of coordinated attacks on strategic targets in Iran. Over one thousand Iranians are reported dead, a number that includes soldiers, civilians, and the nation’s 86-year-old supreme leader, who had ruled since 1989. Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes across the region. So far, twelve Israelis and six Americans have died in the conflict.
How might Christians look on, and pray, in these tragic and potentially momentous days in Iran and the Middle East?
Persia and the People of God
“Iran” is the fairly recent name for the ancient civilization known as Persia, which plays an important role in our Scriptures. (The name Persia appears almost thirty times across five books in the Old Testament.) For the first-covenant people of God, Persia emerged as a liberator from their exile in Babylon. The Persian king Cyrus the Great issued the proclamation that freed the Jews to return home and rebuild the temple (2 Chronicles 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–4). In his wake followed kings Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes, who ruled over the post-exilic lives of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
In a manner reminiscent of how God once stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, he has stirred the hearts of many Iranians against the Muslim regime, especially in the last decade-plus. An annual gathering in late October at Cyrus’s tomb has grown to tens of thousands who rally to remember Persia’s pre-Islamic past. The Muslim regime came to power in 1979 following the nation’s frustration with its shah (king) and his oil-money personal excesses, friendships with the West, and modernizing efforts.
The history of twentieth-century Persia/Iran could go on at great length. But relevant to our immediate Christian interest is the widespread disillusionment with Islam in the Middle East in the twenty-first century, and especially so in Iran.
Disillusioned with Islam
The present conflict comes in the wake of a movement that’s been gaining steam for many years, and is part of a larger restlessness within Islam. Operation World reports that “50,000 mosques have closed in recent years as Iranians are disillusioned with both the regime and with Islam” and that “the younger generation is fed up with the legacy of oppression, bloodshed, cruel ‘justice,’ corruption, economic hardship, and cultural isolation from most of the world.”
According to Mindy Belz, the trend was undeniable even a decade ago: “An estimated two to seven million Muslims have converted to Christianity since the start of the twenty-first century. They occur in all parts of the Muslim world, including areas most hostile to Christianity, like Afghanistan and Iran. More than 80 percent of such movements began after 9/11.” In the last decade, the trend has continued, and accelerated, particularly in Iran.
Stunning Turn in Iran
Pastor Afshin Ziafat, a contributor to Desiring God who lived in Iran till age six, wrote for us in 2019:
As of 1979, there were about 500 known Christians from a Muslim background in Iran. In 2005, it was estimated that there were 40,000 ethnic Iranian Christians (not including ethnic minority Christians who live in Iran). That number grew to about 175,000 Christians in 2010. . . . Today, the average estimates of Christians within Iran range from 300,000 to upwards of one million, according to some missions experts. . . . More Iranians have become Christians in the last twenty years than in the previous 1,300 years, since Islam came to Iran.
What a stunning turn — especially since it has happened while evangelism, conversion, and owning or distributing the Bible in Farsi has been illegal. According to Operation World, “Massive numbers of Iranians have come to Jesus in recent years! From only 500 Muslim-background believers in 1979, some estimates suggest the number is even greater than 1 million just in Iran alone. Large numbers of Persian people have also encountered the risen Christ outside of Iran.”
Ziafat updated his congregation briefly this past Sunday that present developments feel “very momentous”:
For 47 years, the people [of Iran] have been under the oppressive Islamic regime. . . . Some of the most hospitable, sweet, kind people — I mean this — that you will ever meet in life are Persians. And so, I really want to make sure you separate the government of Iran from the people of Iran in your mind. And the people of Iran have been tired of this Islamic regime. This could be a very momentous occasion if it leads to a regime change, [not just] for freedom’s sake, but also for the sake of the church. (For more, see Ziafat’s new video update.)
Rather than passing along prayer points, our team at Desiring God would like to offer this public prayer and invite you to join us as we intercede for Persia and the surrounding region.
Our Prayer for Persia
Father in heaven,
As this crisis unfolds, with its devastating sorrows and tremendous hopes, we who trust in your Son watch with the eyes of faith. Help us to see beyond what our fellow earthly citizens perceive with natural eyes: economics, world leaders, militaries, weapons. We want to see by your Spirit and ache for the unfolding of your good purposes to exalt your Son as the hero of all history and in every nation.
We pray for the many nations and world leaders now involved. May truth hold sway and true justice be done. Guard them from the fog and excesses of war, and bring a deeper and more lasting peace on the other side of this conflict. And may this conflict be brief and not escalate unnecessarily. We ask for the protection of civilians and for the minimal loss of life inside and outside Iran.
Father, for the Persian church, oh guard her in these days. Give grace to endure persecution and out-rejoice opponents. May these terrifying times usher in a new era in which your church might come above ground and your people lead peaceful and quiet lives that are wildly fruitful in evangelism and the establishing of new churches (1 Timothy 2:1–4). May Persians who claim the name of Jesus emerge in surprising ways to shine as lights in the darkness.
Father, how remarkable it would be if the doors of one of the world’s most significant “closed countries” could swing open for Christian missionaries and teachers. Already, before now, the harvest has been great and the laborers few. May these critical days in Iran change this, that doors for the word would open (Colossians 4:3), and that trained leaders could more freely train more leaders.
And Father, we know that the building and beautifying of Jesus’s church will happen with and through the spread of the gospel. So, we ask for even more conversions to Jesus. Keep these countless disillusioned Muslims from going to other broken cisterns like atheism and Zoroastrianism. Open their eyes and hearts to treasure Jesus and find true peace in him.
May the good news that Jesus saves sinners spread like never before in Persia, for youth disenchanted with Islam, for women who have struggled under its demeaning structures, for the aged who have been deceived or cried out for rescue for decades. We pray that Persian Christians, and all Christians, might declare the gospel of your Son clearly and boldly, as we ought to speak (Ephesians 6:20; Colossians 4:4), that the word of Jesus “may speed ahead and be honored,” and that Persian believers, new and old, “may be delivered from wicked and evil men” (2 Thessalonians 3:1–2).
Father, as Paul anticipated that the prayers of fellow Christians, with the help of your Spirit, would “turn out for [his] deliverance” (Philippians 1:19), so we pray, expectant that you might use this prayer, offered by those who gladly bow before and treasure your Son, to work Christ-honoring wonders in Iran and beyond, both for the ending of these temporal sufferings, and for bringing decisive rescue from eternal suffering.
Make the great sorrows of Iran for these last fifty years, and in the present time, give way to millions discovering the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord (Philippians 3:8). We testify that the very heart of eternal life is to know you and your Son (John 17:3). May the spread of true life in Iran far outstrip the shedding of blood, to the glory of your Son in the newfound joy of countless souls in him.
In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.
Desiring God