A worker who has spent considerable time with the underground Church shares some glimpses into how it is to live as a Christian in Iran:
How do Christians in Iran deal with persecution? How do they get around the restrictions that they encounter?
Christians have to be creative with how they ‘do church’ in Iran. Church can be two people walking down the street, Christians chatting with other believers online or it can be a few friends meeting together in a home. However, Christians still need to be very cautious. The government will hire people as monitors living in apartment buildings, to report whenever they believe Christians are meeting together. The government also monitors Christian internet activity.
Many people are familiar with the speech that a political leader gave a few years ago, when he said he would ‘wipe Israel off the map,’ but many people do not know that in that same speech, he also said that he intended to completely eradicate Christianity in Iran. Since that time, the government has taken numerous steps to ensure this. At first, the churches which were allowed to meet openly were told they were no longer allowed to meet in Farsi, but could only meet in their native language. Soon after that, the government said that churches could not meet on Fridays (the day of worship in Iran), but had to meet on Sundays. This was problematic, since Sunday is a ‘workday’ in Iran and many Christians could not meet because they had to work. Then, the government demanded that all church leaders turn in the names of those who were in their congregations. Some refused, since they knew that it would bring harm to those in their congregation and began to face more trouble from the government. Though Christians strive to find ways to meet together, they are constantly met with numerous governmental roadblocks.
What are the greatest prayer requests from Christians in Iran
Christian workers in Iran have asked us to pray for wisdom and direction. They need God to help them come up with more creative ways in overcoming the obstacles that they face. Outside Christians have helped set up Christian TV programs and websites, but the government continually tries to block these programs. Now Christian workers are praying for more creative ideas for outreach, training and teaching in Iran.
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Gospel Fellowships ( - )
“Christianity was birthed in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and will only continue as we have this empowering from above. God is always looking for the willing vessels that will trust Him afresh for the impossible.” from: Principles for the gathering of Believers under the Headship of Jesus Christ.Since 2012, a growing group of believers in North America started to warn of coming persecution to western countries. This message was shared in a variety of ways. One of the responses to this was to compile a book taking principles from underground Churches around the world of how they thrived under pressure and persecution. The volume, Principles for the Gathering of Believers, had in a short time over 50,000 downloads in ebook format and much interest was shown. Some new house churches started through this and other existing groups were encouraged.