increase because the authorities are aware of the growth in the number of Because that tsunami will come, and if the seeds have not gone deep in the hearts of the believers, it will wash away.

a Christian he or she can end up in prison for a year, while the person who [19], The government guarantees the recognized Christian minorities a number of rights (production and sale of non-halal foods),[citation needed] representation in parliament, special family law etc.

But every time Christians became rich and powerful, they subjugated others and dismissed them. Lazarus Yeghnazar, whose research suggests as many as 1 million Christians now live in Iran, has been expecting something like this for years. However, rapid growth also presents a risk to the church because of a lack of biblical teaching and discipleship. So, in general, Christians have been pushed to a corner.

‘Persecution is on the The survey also revealed that Iranians are turning from Islam. ... 09-05-2020. [32] Mehdi Dibaj was arrested and imprisoned for more than 10 years before he was sentenced to death in 1993, but after international pressure, he was freed in 1994, although the death sentenced was not lifted.

The regime is taking steps My good wife Laurie and I (43 years in October 2020! “The church in Iran is quite scattered, it’s very fragile and it really does need to come out of isolation. The way we behave as Christians when that happens will determine the future of the Church in Iran.”. Mike Ansari of Mohabat TV, a ministry that broadcasts the Gospel into Iran, was quoted as saying, “Iranians are turning their back [on] their faith, [on] their institutional faith, and receiving Christianity as their new faith.

been supporting the families of Christian prisoners in Iran, training house Christians of Iran have played a significant part in the history of Christian mission. Call (800) 700-7000 or request prayer.Learn why Truth Matters at CBN News.

If we mess it up, it will be an unforgivable act. Box 414 (CP) – In a recent survey of about 50,000 Iranians over the age of 20, a Netherlands-based secular research group found that 1.5% of respondents identify as Christian.

He believes that, if war comes, it will create a humanitarian crisis but also an open door for evangelism—“a tsunami of disaster and a tsunami of opportunity.” And the 70-year-old Iranian Christian is in a position to know. Christians are applying for asylum to the West, most have been refused. We’re available 24/7. [25], Christianity remains the second-largest non-Muslim minority religion in the country.

Some[who?] Don’t go after numbers. Christians have been suffering for the last four decades in Iran.

We forget about that reality.

But I do ask, “What do you think a regime like that, with that kind of DNA, would do with one?”. Other hundreds of thousands of Christian Georgians and Circassians were furthermore deported and resettled during the same Safavid era and in the later Qajar era within Iran, although both communities are exclusively Muslim nowadays.[11].

But we need to give them time to mature. Iran is imploding due to things happening inside.

converts and house churches – and are determined to stem this.’, The Release partner believes

The Christian Post is the nation’s most comprehensive Christian news website and was launched in March 2004, incorporated with the vision of delivering up-to-date news, information, and commentaries relevant to Christians across denominational lines. From Persian-ruled Assyria (Assuristan), missionary activity spread Eastern-Rite Syriac Christianity throughout Assyria and Mesopotamia, and from there into Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, the Caucasus and Central Asia, establishing the Saint Thomas Christians of India and erecting the Nestorian Stele and the Daqin Pagoda in China. He adds: ‘Hundreds are fleeing in desperation. The number of Christians in Iran was further significantly boosted through various policies of the subsequent kingdoms that ruled from 1501. Due to the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, almost half of the Armenians migrated to the newly independent Armenia, but one estimate from 1999 placed the number as high as 310,000. "Over the last 40 years, the country has gone through a gigantic socio-cultural transition," he said. [citation needed], In 1918, during the Persian Campaign, about half of the Assyrians of Persia died in Turkish and Kurdish massacres and in related outbreaks of starvation and disease. Everyone is worried about Iran getting a nuclear bomb. Multiple Persian translations and versions of the Bible have been translated in more recent times, although distribution of Christian literature in Persian is currently illegal. Those numbers suggest there are probably hundreds of thousands of Christians in the Islamic Republic and could quickly be approaching one million. There are approximately 300,000 known Armenian and Assyrian Christians who have lived in Iran for centuries. Some are going to Russia, where their friend, [Russian president Vladimir] Putin, will accept them. in evangelism and teaching. For years, mission groups have been talking about the rapid growth of Christianity in Iran and now a survey of Iranian citizens is backing up those claims. A survey of Release International partners has highlighted Iran as a country where persecution is likely to increase in 2020. Iranian mourners attend the funeral procession of military commander Qassem Soleimani in Tehran on January 6. Daniels and Esthers are not produced en masse. In 2008, the central office of the International Union of Assyrians was officially transferred to Iran after being hosted in the United States for more than four decades.

Most Assyrian Catholics in Iran today are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church. STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FREE CBN NEWS APP Click Here Get the App with Special Alerts on Breaking News and Top Stories, What is prayer? For example, in 1606 during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18), king Abbas I resettled some 300,000 Armenians deeper within modern-day Iran, as well as establishing their own quarter in the then-capital Isfahan, which is still largely populated by Christian Armenians some four centuries later: the New Julfa district.

Leaders urge Americans to “put aside partisan politics” and pray in the spirit of 1 Timothy 2.

15. But the DNA of the Revolutionary Guards is agitation and confrontation. led to a number of believers leaving Iran – and this movement is likely to

This group had a faltering start but has existed as a separate church since Pope Julius III consecrated Yohannan Sulaqa as Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon in 1553.

Evidence for the accelerated growth of Christianity in Iran has also come from the Iranian government itself. Need prayer? regard the Assyrian Church of Mart Maryam (St. Mary) in northwestern Iran, for example, as the second-oldest church in Christendom after the Church of Bethlehem in the West Bank. There are approximately 300,000 known Armenian and Assyrian Christians who have lived in Iran for centuries. ? [15][16] Nowadays, this number for the same city lies at 1% to 2%. various other denominations, some examples are: This page was last edited on 21 September 2020, at 17:04. However, from about the 10th century religious tension led to persecution once more.

On many occasions, properties have been taken by the government, and many [people] were expelled from work, losing pensions, as soon as someone learns that they are Christian believers. When Islam came to Iran, it was not as if the church had not had the opportunity.

I pray for peace. How are Iranian Christians reacting to Soleimani’s death?

Love for their country and the Iranian church, as well as a successful engineering business, led them to stay in their home during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. concern for Christian persecution in 2020. They directed their operations towards supporting the extant churches of the country while improving education and health-care. [45], In May 2019 Iran's Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi expressed concern over Iranian Muslims converting to Christianity and said the Intelligence Ministry have dispatched agents active in "countering the advocates of Christianity" to areas where there is a potential for people to convert.[46]. "We told them that 'Islam is the religion of brotherhood and peace.'

In the early 20th century, once again Iran's stable and extant Christian population was boosted - this time due to the effects of the Assyrian Genocide (1914-1924) and the Armenian Genocide (1914-1923), as many tens of thousands of refugees poured in. A number of Christian denominations are represented in Iran.

[24], Iranian Christians tend to be urban, with 50% living in Tehran. How committed is the growing church?

What will happen in case of an escalation of hostilities and engagement in a war? It has always been a minority religion relative to the majority state religions (Zoroastrianism before the Islamic conquest, Sunni Islam in the Middle Ages and Shia Islam in modern times), though it had a much larger representation in the past than it does today.