God loves the People of Tehran
Today, American and Israeli missiles and fighter jets fill Iran’s skies. In turn, Iranian missiles fill Arabian skies seeking out American targets based in sister nations like Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE. Do you know anyone in Iran? Me neither. And except for those with loved ones in the military, the lazy way to view this war is as a conflict with little more consequence than a soccer match featuring famous athletes that none of us know personally. The political way is to weigh it by whether or not we and other countries despised by Iran can look forward to a safer future.
It’s far more than either of these.
None of us has enough information to know if a pre-emptive strike on Iran was the wisest course of action. But, as God’s prophet pointed out, God always uses nations to accomplish his work—sometimes in judgment, sometimes in blessing (Daniel 2:21). Secondly, our thinking on this should not be only as Americans, but as believers (Jonah 4:11). There are many people who are being affected in Iran, a nation of 92 million people. Some know Christ. In fact, when the 1979 revolution deposed the Shah and put the Islamic mullahs in power, it was believed that there were no more than 500 Christians in the country. Today the Iranian church may be the fastest growing one in the world with an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 believers.
Reports are already trickling in about the toll the attacks are taking on the church in Iran. Open Doors reports that a Christian man in a large city sent his wife and two daughters to another city for safety. After they left, he was killed in the bombardment.
Although supposedly 90-95% of the population is Muslim, not everyone who claimed to be one in the last Iranian census, is actually devout. In 2020, the Gamaan Institute’s anonymous survey of 50,000 Iranians tallied these results: Only 32% identify as Shi’a Muslim (the majority sect), only 9% as Sunni Muslim, and 50% either said they were non-religious or had lost their religion.
When Iran’s wildly popular revolution returned the Ayatollah Khomeini from exhile to rule, most anticipated a government that would be just, provide moral clarity, and liberate the people from western influence. While those in Khomeini’s leadership tree believe they’ve done just that, few Iranians agree. In the Gamaan survey, 70% opposed all religious laws—including the one requiring women to wear the hijab. In recent months, nearly every city has been rocked by anti-government demonstrations with tens of thousands of people filling the streets. The government cracked down hard and has admitted to the deaths of 3000 Iranians. Other less-biased sources put the number closer to 30,000.
What triggered the street demonstrations was a widespread merchant’s strike over a floundering economy. Iran’s currency has lost over 95% of its value since 2018 due in large part to Western sanctions over Iran’s pursuit of nuclear power. But it’s also due to Iran’s unflagging support of it’s proxies. It costs a lot to arm and equip the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza.
I urge you to read and listen to the news these days with a bowed head. Not only are people’s lives at stake, so are their souls. No one knows what Iran’s future looks like. Will the people rise up and establish a new government that is not Islamic, not Sharia-based? Or will the new leadership remain in power, only weakened? Or, will anarchy prevail? While these are interesting questions, they’re purely geopolitical. This question isn’t: are people open to Jesus? Is the Iranian church boldly taking advantage of the current instability to share their faith with their friends and family members? Is the Holy Spirit at work in the nation? How can I help? How should we pray?
Of Iran’s 92 million people, about 10 million live in the capital of Tehran. This prayer video about that great city from our friends at prayercast can help guide your prayers. https://prayercast.com/prayer-topic/tehran/