Despite the Iranian administration’s best efforts to stop the spread of Christianity, a large underground church program is rising.
Hundreds of Iranian people have been converting to Christianity, and many are being christened in large ceremonies in underground churches held in private homes across the nation. This month, Christian ministry ELAM estimated that more than 200 Iranian and Afghans were secretly baptized in service just across the Iranian boundary.
“It’s an astronomical increase,” Mani Erfan, CEO and founder of CCM Ministries, which has been elaborated in Iran’s underground church crusade for more than two decades, told FoxNews.com. “And it’s been predominately young people. We call it an awakening.”
Erfan says much of Iran’s young people have grown tired of the regime’s cruel religious rule, which often distorts Islamic teachings.
Monday, Dec. 24, 2012: Iranian Christians pray in the Christmas Mass at the Saint Mary Chaldean- Assyrian Catholic church, in downtown Tehran, Iran. ((AP Photo/Vahid Salemi))
“The young people have become restless and have looked toward an alternative to the command of Islam,” he said. “The youth find Western culture and the Christian church very fascinating.
“It’s become a counter-culture,” he added. “A counter-revolution to the [1979 Iranian] Revolution.”
Erfan adds that the evangelical movement began in the wake of 9/11 but has progressively increased in the past three to four years and that experts foresee that by 2020, the Christian population in Iran will top 7 million — or 10 percent of the total population.
Dec. 25: Christians attend the Christmas Mass at the St. Grigor Armenian Catholic church in Tehran, Iran. (AP)
“That’s a paradigm shift,” he said. “It would change the dynamic of the country and the region.”
The news out of Iran may provide a glow of hope for the Christian community elsewhere in the Middle East.
With the increase of extremism in neighboring Iraq and Syria, Christians have been under siege in the region due to ISIS. The Christian population in Iraq has plunged from 1.5 million in 2003 to current estimates of 275,000 and could be gone for good within five years, according to a report last summer. The decreasing numbers have been due to genocide, refugees fleeing to other nations and forced conversions.
Much of Iran’s Christian population is forced to obtain religious resources and teachings from satellite TV or social media forums like Telegram and Instagram and gather for worship services in the homes of pastors and other clergy members.
“The [Iranian] government says that they are mostly illegal gatherings,” David Yeghnazar, executive director of Elam Ministries, told FoxNews.com. “They are enforced to meet in these house churches which the regime deems to be unlawful.”
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Thank you Fox News and Perry Chiaramonte for sharing this.
