May 29, 2009 (updated June 2, 2009)

by John M. Lindner, D.Miss.

Everyone is worried about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s secret weapon in Iran. What they may not know is that God also has a secret weapon at work in Iran--though it should not be called a weapon, because it is not against anybody. It is for everybody. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And how He is bringing it to the Iranian people is amazing.

“My great-grandfather was a Jew,” the Iranian Christian spoke softly but affirmatively. “About 75 years ago he became a Muslim and adopted a Muslim family name. Then, several years later, his next generation became a followers of Jesus Christ. I just learned that about five years ago.”

Farshid Seyed Mehdi, representing an ethnic Iranian ministry organized outside Iran, came to Christ after his family moved to Holland. Now, as a Christian, he dare not go back. But he is part of a group that is training Muslim-background Christians to know how to plant and lead churches and disciple others when the doors open--and he is sure they will open.

He said, “The churches of Europe prayed for 70 years for the Iron Curtain to come down, and then when it came down, they were unprepared to take advantage of the situation. We want to be prepared when the veil keeping Iran from the rest of the world comes down.”

And preparing they are. In 2003 they opened a traditional classroom Bible college with 40 students, but it was short-lived. In September 2004 the government shut it down.

So after three years of research, they decided to open an online Bible college. Today there are at least 800 students, and they expect there might soon be several thousand enrolled. This would have been impossible using the traditional brick-and-mortar Bible school method.

They also conduct seminars and conferences--outside Iran.

222 photo shows one of their conferences.

The group takes its clue from 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (NKJV). In fact, they call themselves 222 Ministries International.

Their stated goal is “to train and release the Timothies of this generation to establish churches in every town and city in Iran and in every nation where there are communities of Iranians--so that through the work of the church fulfilling its calling, nations can be impacted for Christ.”

Though Armenians were the first Christians in Iran, 222 Ministries targets Farsi speakers, the traditional Persian Iranians. According to Mehdi, there are eight “accents” of Farsi speakers, and each is so different, a person knowing one finds it hard to understand another. So the ministry distributes copies of the “Jesus” film in more than all eight accents, or dialects, in Iran, and into Afghanistan and Tajikistan, as well.

Yet these Farsi speakers are hungry for spiritual reality. Recently the government became aware of the group’s websites and showed them on national TV with a warning to avoid them. Last month those websites scored 4 million hits, pushing them near the top of the Google hit list.

Some estimate as many as 1,000 Iranians a month are trusting in Christ.

And some claim that it is nothing less than the hard-line clerics that push them in this direction.

One of the things that distinguishes Shiite followers of Islam from Sunni is that the Shiites believe the religious leaders should lead the government. Yet Iran’s youth (70% of the population is under 30) are fed up with the hard-line restrictions of the Ayatollahs, and many of them are seeking something different, even if it’s Western, or perhaps because it’s Western.
222 photo shows men praying for a fellow worker.

A Middle-East writer using the pseudonym Krikor Markarian wrote in Mission Frontiers’ Sept-Oct 2008 magazine: “If the government says it’s bad, it must be good. The Mullahs have become the best marketing campaign for American products and culture there has ever been.”

Time magazine ran article in 2002 titled, “How the ‘Great Satan’ Became Just Great.” In it author Azedeh Moaveni, writing from Tehran, said, “While elsewhere in the Middle East consumers are boycotting American goods to protest U.S. foreign policy, Iranians can’t get enough of them. Coca-Cola’s exports to Iran have increased nearly threefold this year. Toy stores are struggling to keep up with the growing demand for Barbie dolls.”

Another means of assuaging the Iranian thirst for knowledge is satellite TV. Even though satellites are illegal, millions of satellites allegedly have been smuggled into Iran by corrupt members of the same government that banned them, according to Makarian.

The 222 website states that satellite TV is available to 20 million Farsi speakers, and that more than 2 million of them regularly watch 222 Ministry’s programs aired there, phoning the ministry’s call center regularly for follow up.

Makarian quotes an unnamed Iranian Christian leader as saying, “Starting churches in Iran is easy! Everywhere you go to evangelize, people are ready to receive the gospel, or they have already become believers through satellite broadcasts.”

Iranians also are the most web-savvy of any country in the Middle East. According to the 222 website, there are an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Iranian bloggers (43,000 originating inside Iran), causing the E.U. to list Farsi as the second-largest blogging language.

Iranian Christians launched the Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN) website in 2006. There Farsi speakers can read the news from a Christian perspective. Mehdi says 80% of all Iranians regularly check out FCNN.

In the early centuries of the church, Persia (Iran) became a refuge for Christians fleeing persecution from all parts of the Roman Empire. When Constantine became the protector of the church in the West, the Shah of Persia began to consider the Christians, mostly foreigners, as threats to his sovereignty. Then Christians in Persia developed their own brand of Christianity called Nestorianism, which believed the divine and human natures of Christ cohabited in His body (as opposed to being joined), and refused to use the phrase, Theotokos, “Mother of God.”

Christianity gained momentum, but the power of Zororastrianism prevailed in the 7th century. Then between A.D. 634 and 652, the region succumbed to the invasion of Arab armies, that brought with them a new religion called Islam. That, plus the fact that the Bible was never translated into Persian (Farsi), left the Persian church weak. This was finally remedied when Henry Martyn translated the Scriptures into Persian in the early 19th century.

But it took the Iranian Revolution of 1979 to wake up the church. In the years leading up to the revolution, missionaries had targeted the resident Armenians as a bridge to reaching the Persians of Iran. One of those reached was Haik Hovsepian, shown at right in his mature years. (Photo courtesy of "Cry from Iran.")

He grew strong in the faith, became a Christian minister, and boldly defended Mehdi Dibaj, a Muslim convert to Christianity imprisoned by Iranian authorities for ten years. Due in part to international pressure raised by Haik Hovsepian’s efforts, Dibaj was released without explanation on January 16, 1994. Three days later Hovsepian’s body was found with stab wounds to the chest. Dibaj also was found murdered on July 5th of that year.

Many believe Hovsepian’s bold, public stand for Christ set the Persian church in motion. The church in Iran today is determined that they will prevail. Members of Hovsepian’s family have produced a DVD, “A Cry from Iran,” that tells his story.

One brother had a dream in 1998 in which he was told: “You do not have to build churches. The mosques will become churches.”

Indeed, Mehdi shows a picture of a mosque with a mosaic cross inlaid in its courtyard. Meanwhile there are underground churches in some 40 cities throughout Iran, and a thousand prayer groups in Tehran.

And God is not silent. He is reaching Muslims in Iran and elsewhere with dreams and visitations. Mehdi said God told them, “I am changing the bad things for the good for My children.”

Mehdi says over 1,000 Iranians are trusting in Christ every month.

The revolution has only begun.

But neither has the persecution stopped. On March 5th two Christian ladies, Maryam Rostampour, 27 (left), and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, 30, were arrested and put in prison on charges of “taking part in illegal gatherings” and “acting against state security,” according to Compass Direct. Harassment of relatives of Iranian Christians living abroad as well as threats against Christians inside the country continue. (Elam photo)

However, according to Ken Walker, writing in the December 2008 Charisma, one Muslim background believer (actually from Egypt) requested, “Don’t pray for us; pray with us.” He explained, “If you pray for us, you will pray for our safety, and the persecution will stop. If you pray with us, we can be sure the persecution will increase. Pray we will see millions [come] to Christ... Pray we will be faithful, even if it costs us our lives.”

The same strategy would be very appropriate for Iran.

Support for 222 Ministries can be given through Christian Aid in the USA, and through Intercede Now in Canada. For more information visit the 222 Ministries International website www.222Ministries.com. Also, you can visit the English site of FCNN to get Farsi Christian News in English. Click here to visit the Farsi home page.

Charisma magazine published a feature article entitled “When Muslims Find Jesus” in its December, 2008 issue, as well as an online article, “Muslims Finding Christ through Dreams.”

Mission Frontiers magazine last fall published a series of articles on Iran, all of which were read as preparation for writing this article. Go to www.MissionFrontiers.org and click on the September/October issue (lower right corner).

Elam (Biblical name for Iran) operates training centers for Iranian Christians living outside Iran. They have recently printed 100,000 Farsi New Testaments for distribution in the Iran region.