Reported by Steve Bryan
Author Joel Rosenberg, former political adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu and Dr. Hormoz Shariat, founder of Iran Alive Ministries, engaged in a panel discussion on the topic entitled, “Finding True Peace in the Middle East” at the Epicenter Conference 2011 Jerusalem, on May 16 , 2011 . The following are highlights of their exchange:
Joel Rosenberg (JR): In 1979, [Shariat] and his wife were Shia Muslims on the streets of Tehran with millions of others shouting death to America, death to Israel. Then they thought maybe not yet, we’d like to go to graduate school….they went to Southern California and what set into motion was a despondency and discouragement with their lives and a lack of fulfillment with Islam that lead both not only to become followers of Jesus Christ, but to become evangelists, disciplers, church planters and satellite broadcasters back to Iran.
Dr. Hormoz Shariat (HS): I experienced what I was always looking for, the presence of God,peace and joy, and instantly God gave that. So I knew there was power. I could see myself changing, my wife changing. There was no power to change in Islam. You do all those rituals but you are still the same inside. I felt I needed to share that message, if I kept it to myself I would be selfish.
JR: The general sense seems to be there were just a few hundred Shia Muslim-background believers in Jesus Christ in 1979. Maybe 400 to 600 Christians. Now the estimate (they don’t know for sure) …seems to be over a million have come to Christ.
HS: Some put it at three million, but most Iranian leaders say one million is conservative. Lets go to the low [number] and be conservative [rather] than exaggerate. Put it at one million. Everybody says that. The consensus is one million have come to Christ.
JR: You asked me to come out to California and be on your satellite programs. Being on those shows and talking about Bible prophesy and walking people through God’s love for Iran from the Scriptures was really an amazing thing. Then to take live phone calls and then have people pray to receive Christ both days I was on, I want to thank you.
HS: It happens all the time. I am glad you were there to experience it first hand. It’s exciting, television is such a tool. First of all you hear about Ahmadinejad planning to wipe Israel off the map, developing a nuclear bomb. What you don’t hear is in Iran, Islam is experiencing its greatest defeat in the history of Islam. Millions of Iranians have rejected Islam in their heart, not necessarily to become Christian, but they have rejected and they are open. Just like my testimony, they have tried Islam for 30 years and it hasn’t worked. It hasn’t worked for me, my family, and look at my society. Iran is number one in drug addiction, hopelessness is amazing…through television you go into the privacy of their homes, you share a message that is so clear – the love of God, the purity – and once they hear that, they say, That’s what I have been looking for.
JR: How can we be praying?
HS: I wouldn’t myself pray for a government change because the current government is doing [a] great [job of bringing] people to Christ.
JR: You told me that you feel what Khomeini did in about two or three years the Church hadn’t been able to do in 2000, which is convince Iran that Islam was bad, unfulfilling and cruel.
HS: The situation in Iran…is very hard [and] you don’t want to see people suffering, but when the suffering brings people to Christ, you say it’s worth it. That is the situation in Iran. The economy is bad – the oppression, the violence. My number one prayer is God bring in the workers. Not many people know that Iran is that open, and fewer people are really involved. Here we see a great harvest…I pray God will wake up the west, not to look at Iran and hear Ahmadinejad and be negative because that is what the enemy wants, but [to] look at it spiritually [as] an open field where we can change history. …That is what God promises. In Jeremiah 49:38 God says, “I will set my throne in Iran.” …Let me show you another verse that blesses me – Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless Abraham and the sons of Abraham.” Then you look in the Bible and don’t find any countries that qualify for that verse except Iran. It was Iran and Cyrus who set the captives free. I believe God is now saying its payback time.
JR: As best we can tell, the Wise Men – the Magi, at least two of the three – were from Iran, [or] Persia. I had the Minister of Culture in Iraq tell me at least one of the Wise Men was Kurdish. It means wise Persians and Kurds were the first to come to see Yeshua.
HS: In Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit fell, the first three names are people groups inside Iran. There was an evangelist in Belgium who told me that was prophetic a word for the end times.… All those people groups are going to come to Christ [in] that order, and he said, “You guys are first, so hurry up.”
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