GOING INSIDETHE REVIVAL IN IRANJesus is appearing in dreams and visions of ordinary Iranians as a dramatic awakening sweeps the nation. Will this impact world politics and Iran’s long-strained relationship with Israel and America? GODSPEED Magazine’s Editor in Chief David Aikman goes inside the revival.

by David Aikman
Photo by Ikhsan Sugiarto
The uncertainty surrounding the results of the 2020 American presidential election lasted well into this year. During this time, there was a great deal of bitterness in the United States.

Throughout much of the Christian world, there was deep disappointment that Donald Trump did not win a second term in office,

Photo by Brendan Beale
but in one of the most surprising and thrilling developments for the American Christian community, as well as the body of Christ globally,
THERE WAS TREMENDOUSLY GOOD NEWS COMING OUT OF IRAN.
By Tasnim News AgencyThe country whose most infamous and bellicose slogan since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 has been “death to America!” turns out to have been undergoing the fastest-growing Christian revival in recent world history.

Christians interested in missionary work around the globe may have known for several years that there was a dynamic Christian movement taking place in Iran.

Although that country probably had a total Christian population of only about 5,000 in 1979 when Islamic revolutionaries assumed power, estimates today of that the number of former Muslim believers in Jesus may exceed 1.2 million.
REVIVAL IN
IRAN
A Dutch secular group called GAMAAN (The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran) recently released a stunning survey of over 50,000 Iranians.

This study reflects the views of literate Iranian residents over the age of 19, who comprise 85 percent of Iran’s adult population. A third of them define themselves as Shi’ite Muslims.

Most interesting about the GAMAAN study is that 1.5 percent of the respondents described themselves as Christians. The current population in Iran is about 83 million, meaning about 1.2 million are now believers.

Only China, a nation with the world’s largest population of about 1.4 billion people, has claimed anything like this with such a fast-growing number of Christian believers.

A recent Council on Foreign Relations report found China is on track to have the world’s largest population of Christians by 2030. By one estimate, China has between 93 million and 115 million Protestants, with fewer than 30 million attending officially registered churches.
The figures in the GAMAAN study are remarkable in several ways. Not only do 60 percent of the Iranians polled in the study indicate that they do not pray five times a day, as required by their faith, but about half of the population has reported abandoning their religion.

It will be a long time before scholars and mission experts will be able to study closely the actual numbers of believers on the ground in Iran, but it is hard to think of any other country in the world where the gospel of Jesus Christ has expanded so rapidly in such a short time.

In an article titled
“Where Muslim Dreams May Land,” Uwe Siemon-Netto wrote that he’s heard reports of Muslims around the world having dreams and visions of Jesus appearing to them, helping explain the rapid increase in Muslims accepting Christ.

“I heard it from a Catholic missionary who had worked in Algeria; and from a Baptist whose surprise visitors told him that Christ had appeared to them in their tents in Saudi Arabia. An Anglican priest spoke to hundreds of Persian women attending secret Bible studies in Tehran following dreams. Pastor Gottfried Martens in Berlin estimated that at least two-thirds of his Persian and Afghan converts 

ALGERIA
Photo by Nasro aAzaizia
had followed instructions of a ‘figure of light’ identifying himself as the Jesus of the Christian Bible and not the ‘Isa’ of the Koran,” Siemon-Netto wrote.
IMPLICATIONS FOR GLOBAL POLITICS, ISRAEL, AND AMERICAPhoto by Sander CrombachThe implications for the global balance of power are far-reaching.

Despite Iran’s official slogan of “death to America,” in terms of their viewpoints toward Israel, a significant minority, perhaps numbering hundreds of thousands 
of Iranians, seem to have adopted a deep affection for the Jewish people, based on their conviction that Jesus Christ is not only the Messiah for the Jews but their Messiah as well.

Will this gigantic demographic shift among ordinary Iranians have an impact on world politics?
Undoubtedly it will.
What a major ingredient of hope in such a statistical change in membership in the body of Christ in a country so hostile to the Jewish state and the United States.
The future of Iranian politics and culture is ultimately tied into the dynamics of this surprising growth in the Church in Iran and for the body of Christ as a whole.
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