Christians in Iran Share the Gospel with Boldness

The Islamic Republic of Iran restricted all access to God’s Word. But despite great risk, Iranian believers are sharing the gospel on the street with unprecedented boldness.

Two years after placing her faith in Jesus Christ, Fareena still hadn’t told a soul. Like most new Christians in Iran, she feared the backlash she would face if her family learned she had left Islam. Since doing so is illegal in the Muslim nation, new Christians are often imprisoned after going public with their faith. And many more are beaten for bringing shame to their Muslim family.

Aware of these possibilities, Fareena decided to read her Bible only in secret. Then, one day she saw something that shocked her. “When I woke up and headed to the living room, my father was sitting on the floor reading a Bible thoughtfully,” she said. “I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

Fareena returned to her room in a panic, thinking her father, Bilal, had discovered her Bible. After realizing the Bible he was reading was a different color, she asked him what he was doing. “I am reading an amazing book,” Bilal replied. “I found it in the mailbox today. It was wrapped in wrapping paper.”

Iranian Christians had gone house to house, placing Bibles in mailboxes throughout the neighborhood. Each one included a note saying the book was a gift for Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

To Fareena, the gift was a miracle. Using contact information included with the gift, she learned how she and her father could join a house church. “God called my father into His family,” she said. “My father has been reading the book every day and talks about it joyfully.”

Stories like Fareena’s and Bilal’s are common. God’s kingdom is growing faster in Iran than anywhere else in the world. And Christians there are taking advantage of a distracted government to share the gospel with disillusioned Muslims.

A Random Encounter

When the coronavirus pandemic began, Aref and his wife, Liana, were happy to follow Iran’s lockdown because their age put them at risk. But one day while getting some fresh air in a local park, they were approached by a man who talked to them briefly about God and gave them a Bible. Aref gave it a quick look and, when he got home, placed it on a bookshelf.

Months later Aref had a dream about a light shining brightly from the bookshelf and a voice saying, “I will reveal the true way to you. You will find Me there.”

“The next morning, I thought about my dream,” he said, “and then I went to the bookshelf and grabbed the Bible after eight months. I opened it with more passion, and curiously, I remembered also the guy who gave me this book.”

After reading some passages in the Bible, Aref returned to the first page and found contact information for the man who had given it to him. “I grabbed my phone and called the number to ask about my dream and questions that came to mind about God,” Aref said.

Aref is connected to a ministry that answers his questions and prays with him, leading him closer to Jesus Christ.

A New Family

When her husband divorced her, and her father considered her a disgrace because she was unable to have children, Jasmine went to find an old friend. But when she knocked on the door, an older woman named Huma answered and told her that her friend had moved. Seeing the anxiety on Jasmine’s face, Huma invited her in.

After talking for a while, Huma, who lived alone, invited Jasmine to stay with her for a few days. Jasmine accepted, and while there, she watched curiously as small groups gathered to sing and pray. “I found that they were Christians and they gave their heart to Jesus,” Jasmine said.

A few days turned into two years, and during that time Jasmine adopted two young girls, giving her the children she never expected to have. Around the same time, Huma invited Jasmine to attend a baptism. Jasmine had already started reading the Bible regularly and learning more about Jesus, and the secret baptism moved her deeply.

“I went to Huma and told her I wanted to get baptized,” Jasmine recalled. After talking and praying with a pastor, Jasmine confessed her sins, acknowledged the saving work of Christ and received baptism. She said she never would have come to know Him if not for Huma’s generous heart. “Huma and my new family in Jesus helped me to grow in God’s Word,” she said. “God blessed me with this new family to heal me and show me the way to righteousness.”

Huma died a short time later, leaving her home to Jasmine and her two daughters. But Jasmine, overwhelmed by grief, felt anchorless and slowly stopped attending church. Then, one of her daughters found a package in the mail and Jasmine’s grief turned to joy. A Christian worker in Iran had sent her several Bibles and a Christian magazine.

“I was overwhelmed by this gift,” Jasmine said. “I thought to myself, ‘It’s been awhile since we attended a church group.’ I was about to forget that I’m a believer, but our Lord never forgets His children. He sent me this gift to remind me what He has done in my life and why I have been here in this house. I want to say thank you to the people who sent us this gift that opened my eyes again.”

Multiplying Access

Jalil has been involved in a house church in northern Iran for three years, and the Bible is central to their time together. “There is so much trust and intimacy in our group,” Jalil said. “We study the Bible and have fellowship with one another.”

Because Bibles are difficult to obtain in Iran, the group shares one Bible. While they are grateful to have even one, group Bible study is a challenge. “We passed this one Bible to each other to read, and we took notes or pictures of the verses,” Jalil said.

In 2020, VOM workers smuggled a large supply of Bibles into Iran, and local house church leaders distributed them to Christians who did not own one. Jalil’s group recently received a package of the Bibles, and now every member has a personal copy.

“God blessed us through your ministry!” Jalil said. “Today, not only do we have our own Bibles, but we also can give them to our friends and family and share the love of God with them.”

With each gift of a Bible in Iran, God’s kingdom advances in one of the world’s most restricted nations.