Famous for being the number one sponsor of terror in the world, a serious persecutor of Christians, and wishing death on everyone, the Iranian regime wouldn’t be missed by many if it went. But what might be the ramifications if it did actually fall?
As protests in Iran gained momentum in the first couple of weeks, two entire cities, Abdanan and Malekshahi, were quickly taken by the Iranian people back in January. Security forces started to defect, helping their fellow Iranians instead of fighting against them. However, the regime has hit back hard.
According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) by January 4, the protests had spread to at least 222 locations in 78 cities across 26 provinces, and many were immediately arrested and killed. Security forces first opened fire on protesters in Kangan in the south of the country, and the numbers slain have since spiraled to tens of thousands.
But for the first time since 1979, shops at the Grand Bazar have closed their doors, with shop keepers turning on the mullahs and joining the protests, signaling the severity of the situation. Even wealthy business people and those in cahoots with the government have started to change their allegiances as the Iranian currency has become next to worthless, and it has become impossible to make ends meet. Moreover, the country is facing a dire water crisis, spelling disaster.
Benjamin Baird, director of MEF Action, stated, “the uprising is an economic one”, adding, “sanctions work.” People are not just calling for reform this time, but for complete dismantling of the current regime.
This is not the first uprising of the Iranian people, but circumstances are drastically different now. The “locked and loaded” US administration today is far more amenable than it was under Biden during the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022-23, and infinitely more ready to help than Obama was during the Persian Awakening of 2009.
The Prime Minister of Israel is also encouraging the people and offering help with the water crisis in the event of a successful overthrow. Mardo Soghom, Senior Iran Analyst with the Middle East Forum, added that the war with Israel last year actually revealed the impotency of the Iranian regime, and gave great courage to those seeking its demise.
While previously the regime would impose media blackouts to quash organized protests and all connection with the outside world, this time Elon Musk is arranging free internet with Starlink satellite technology. Conditions are ripe for the dream of so many years to come true.
THE EXPLODING GROWTH OF THE UNDERGROUND CHURCH
It is often said that Iran has the fastest growing church in the world. In a census taken a decade ago only 117,700 were registered as Christians, 90% of whom were Assyrian or Armenian. However, there are at least a quarter of a million Armenians alone, and these figures do not include the evangelical church which has now burgeoned to millions, with estimates ranging from a conservative one to one and a half million to a whopping 7,000,000.
Daniel Pipes, a Jewish researcher and author wrote in Newsweek back in 2021: “Something religiously astonishing is taking place in Iran, where an Islamist government has ruled since 1979: Christianity is flourishing. The implications are potentially profound.”
He reported that David Yeghnazar of Elam Ministries said Iranians have become the most open people to the gospel, and CBN claimed eight years ago that “Christianity is growing faster in the Islamic Republic of Iran than in any other country.”
Pipes explained that a major reason for the growth was counter intuitively the extreme oppression of the Islamic regime. But this shouldn’t be so surprising — the gospel seems to flourish in times of persecution.
“This trend results from the extreme form of Shi’ite Islam imposed by the theocratic regime,” said Pipes.
An Iranian church leader explained in 2019: “What if I told you the mosques are empty inside Iran?
What if I told you no one follows Islam inside of Iran? …What if I told you the best evangelist for Jesus was the Ayatollah Khomeini?”’
Certainly huge numbers are sick of the radical Islam they have been subjected to for 47 years. Some 50,000 of Iran’s 75,000 mosques have closed, and lie empty and abandoned according to a senior Iranian cleric. Now more are being burned to the ground in the protests.
Lela Gilbert, adjunct fellow at Hudson’s Center for Religious Freedom, added that a survey taken in 2020 by Gamaan, a secular Netherlands-based research group, reported that while there were more than a million over five years ago, some believers in Iran are convinced that there are several million today.
So now consider what might happen if millions of Iranian Muslim background believers were suddenly free to travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories with the gospel.
Funnily enough, it was while living in Israel that Gilbert first became aware of the underground gospel revolution happening in Iran. “It was talked about among groups who were focused on Middle East evangelism,” she explained.
Indeed those in Israel and Iran have been linked with a common yearning for this regime to end for some time. With its tentacles stretching to proxies all around Israel and the responsibility for Oct. 7 and the subsequent war reasonably placed at their doorstep, Iran has been looming over Israel and threatening destruction for many years.
During the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, the main support for the movement seemed to come from Israel, while there would always be the obligatory Iranian brandishing an Israeli flag at pro-Palestine protests in the West. There seems to be a strange sisterhood between the two countries.
THE BIBLICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN ISRAEL AND IRAN
The exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi certainly seems to think so. “I think there are only two countries on this planet that can claim to have a biblical relationship: Iran and Israel,” he said. “This goes back 25 centuries. Cyrus the Great freed the Jewish slaves in Babylon and helped them rebuild their temple in Jerusalem,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
“This is not just rhetoric. Iranians believe that they will have a solid strategic partnership with Israel and with our Arab neighbors to make the Middle East get back on track. That’s part of the reason why the Abraham Accords were sabotaged by the regime in Iran,” he added.
Yet more than drying up the funding and drive for terrorism through Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, a huge wave of evangelism could be released as doors could open up not only in Iran but also around the whole region as terror groups lose their grip.
Pipes admitted that the fall of the regime is “likely to be a mess.” Other participants in the Forum agreed that a successful overthrow will probably be followed by a mad scramble for resources, but Pipes believes “anarchy is preferable to despotism.”
In the estimation of Pipes and the MEF, “The only lasting solution in the Iran problem doesn’t lie in nuclear deals or diplomatic band aids but in supporting the Iranian people’s aspirations for freedom.”
HOW TO PRAY
Here are some messages we’ve received from Iranian believers about how to pray:
▫️“Thank you for your heart for my country. We lift up the young people in the streets, facing violence and arrest, and pray for their protection and hope. We also ask that God’s will be done regarding this regime—bring justice, righteousness, and peace in His timing. People are really tired and disappointed.”
▫️“Thank you for your prayers. Everyone is worried and at the same time hopeful that it will be the end of this regime. We are hoping that Israel and Trump take steps to help the Iranian people.”
▫️“There is no trace of my brother, my family has been searching all day and can’t find him. They have visited hospitals, jails, police stations and nowhere to be found. But the Lord knows where he is, please keep him and all the protesters in your prayers.”
▫️“Please pray for an Iranian Christian here in Cyprus, whose nephew has been arrested. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.”
▫️“Please pray that this will be the end for this regime and Islamic republic. We don’t want any kind of Islam in our country.”
Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might. And I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven. And I will scatter them to all those winds, and there shall be no nation to which those driven out of Elam shall not come. I will terrify Elam before their enemies and before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger, declares the Lord. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them, and I will set my throne in Elam and destroy their king and officials, declares the Lord.
“But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 49:34-39)
