We’ve all seen the terrible scenes in Iran, and we are praying for freedom for the Iranian people. But what would their freedom mean for the Middle East?
Dr. Erez Soref talked with Ramin Parsa, an Iranian exile now living in Israel, about what the spiritual implications of the fall of the Islamic Regime might be. A free Iran could signal a totally different era in the whole region.
“If the regime was taken out,” Iranian exile Ramin Parsa explained, “the Middle East will become peaceful — a very different place.”
“There is a spiritual hunger in Iran, a lot of people are getting disillusioned with Islam,” agreed Dr. Soref, recalling their previous conversation. “They are just open to everything, spiritually — there’s a spiritual search… So we are sitting here in Israel, you know, we’re not far away. And as followers of Yeshua, we want to give spiritual hope for the Farsi people, for the Iranian people. What can we do? besides prayer? We’re going pray, of course.”
“We need to be prepared,” Ramin replied. “When the regime falls, we can take teams, take groups into Iran, to do philanthropy work like giving out food, you know, things to help people, and at the same time, give the gospel.”
“Because Iranians, they rejected Islam. King David said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” but in Iran, the people tasted Allah, and it was bitter, and they rejected it. So there’s a spiritual vacuum there, Iranians, and we need to be prepared to go and to share the gospel… they are open.”
“I believe in Iran there’s a great revival ahead of us,” said Ramin.
“Imagine when Iran is free and Christians can travel there — the underground church comes out and we can go there, we can do amazing works, and help people to come to know Yeshua.”
“We’ll get several hundred Israeli followers of Yeshua, and go and share the gospel in Iran,” Dr. Soref responded, adding, “ Is that prophetic or what?!”
Ramin shared that a free Iran would allow the two nations to be friends again. While this may be surprising to some, he explained that many Iranians love Israel. Dr. Soref recalled an incident which optimizes this when he was being followed by a tall, beaded man in Germany.
“He comes towards me, and he says, “Are you from Israel?
And I said, “Yes.”
“Are you from ONE FOR ISRAEL?” he asked. I said, “Yes,” He says, “I’m in Iranian, I leave in Germany, I follow your channel!”
The uniqueness of Persian people
Iranians are not Arabs, they are Persians. They are also not, by and large, Muslims anymore. The country has been under Islamic rule since it was conquered in the seventh century, but as Ramin and many others can tell you, most are sick of Islam. According to Iran International news outlet,1 a senior Iranian cleric said in 2023 that around 50,000 of Iran’s 75,000 mosques are closed, and that the numbers attending mosques were declining. Many Iranians have abandoned religion completely, while others pine for their Zoroastrian roots. Adherents to the Baha’i faith are persecuted, but faith in Jesus that has swept across the land.
Iran has been the fastest growing church in the world for some time now. While the 2016 census counted only 117,700 registered as Christians, 90% of whom were Assyrian or Armenian, the truth is that it didn’t count those in the underground church. Today estimates range from one to more than seven million Christians in Iran today, out of the population of 93,000.2
A few years ago, an Iranian church leader confirmed what we see in the New Testament — persecution often leads to the flourishing of the church.3
“What if I told you the mosques are empty inside Iran? What if I told you no one follows Islam inside of Iran? …What if I told you the best evangelist for Jesus was the Ayatollah Khomeini?” he was quoted as saying in Newsweek.
Or, to put it in secular terms, “This trend results from the extreme form of Shi’ite Islam imposed by the theocratic regime,” according to Jewish researcher, Daniel Pipes.
As Ramin states, the people have tasted Islam and it tastes bitter.
“Iranian people are different,” Ramin explains. “Most people in Afghanistan, and Iraq, in Islamic countries, they hate America, they hate Israel, they hate Jews, they hate Christians. Not all, but mostly. Iran is the opposite. The Iranian people, the vast majority, are pro-Israel, pro-America, pro-West. They don’t want to be a part of the Islamic caliphate… If you go to Iran and say you’re an Israeli, I guarantee you, people will love you, they will take pictures with you — with any Israeli — because there’s a favor. I believe that Israeli believers can go to Iran. I’ll be your tour guide, and we take groups there and we can share the gospel!” said Ramin.
Dr. Soref was all for it. “We look forward for a day like that, and you know, it’s a short flight away. That would be absolutely amazing.”
- Iran International, Senior Cleric Claims Religion In Iran Weak, 50,000 Mosques Closed, June 2, 2023
- Derech Avraham, What would happen in the Iranian regime were to fall, January 9, 2026
- Newsweek, Iran’s Christian Boom, Daniel Pipes, June 24, 2021
Photo by Ollie Barker-Jones on Unsplash
