“In Iran, if you accept Christ privately but never witness, you don’t have a problem. But the person who accepts Christ and begins to minister in Iran, their life is being threatened constantly. Many times we have been about caught by the government. Our lives have been threatened many times.”-the words of a former Muslim, who now is a Christian minister.
Islam is one of the largest and fastest growing religions in the world, with major strongholds in the Middle East and throughout Asia. Iran is a country where nearly 74 million Muslims resided, where Christianity is considered evil, and Christian are often persecuted for their faith.
This area is incredibly unreached with the Gospel. Of the 103 people groups in the country, only ten of these, which make up a minute 0.6% of the population, are considered reached by Christianity. These people have never heard of an alternative to Islam. Even if they wanted to hear, they couldn’t.
Of its population of nearly 75 million, only one-half of a percent are Christians. Those that have heard the call of Christ and have chosen to follow Him are threatened by radicals, and pressured by the government. As I write these words, a 34-year-old pastor is imprisoned for his Christian activities. He was sentenced to death, and if the court finds him guilty of converting from Islam, he will be executed by hanging. Another pastor, who was arrested in September of last year, is facing a yet-unknown sentence.
It is very dangerous to stand up for Christ in countries like Iran. In 2005, a former Muslim turned Christian and a house church leader was assassinated. But yet, in the darkness that overshadows this country and the Christians within its borders, there is a light of hope shining to the hopeless.
In Iran, between 1980 and 2005, more people came to believe in Jesus than in the last thousand years combined. God, despite man’s effort to stop it, is doing mighty things in the country of Iran. In 2006, the Iranian president angrily stated that there are five to six hundred Muslims converting to Christianity each month. In reality, he was wrong. The amount, though we don’t know the exact number, is much higher. The hopelessness of these peoples country is driving them to the arms of Jesus like never before. Many are realizing that Islam is not enough and are turning Christianity instead.
Please remember to pray for our brothers and sisters in Iran. Many have lost much for following Christ; others have paid with their lives. Yet the church continues to grow, even when their lives are threatened. May God give them the courage to press on, to be a shining ray of hope to a lost and dying world.
-Reagan Schrock, GOA blog manager
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