What Happens to Christians if the Iranian Regime Collapses?

The day before the Iranian regime cut off the nation’s internet access, Sam Ahmadi spoke with an Iranian man interested in following Jesus. 

Less than 24 hours later, Iran went dark. Authorities disabled internet and phone connections, as massive protests against the Islamic regime spread to 180 cities across the country.

Thousands of Iranians have been arrested. Thousands have been killed, though that number is difficult to assess, given the nation’s internet blackout. And it’s impossible to know where it all leads, as danger rises.

But Sam is thankful for that last call he was able to make. 

He’s an Iranian himself, but fled Iran over a decade ago after facing severe persecution for his Christian faith. He still maintains connections with Iranian believers, as well as with Iranians brave enough to inquire about Christianity in a country that forbids it.

During his recent call to Iran, Sam says the man he talked with came to faith in Christ. And Sam wonders: What if this new believer could worship openly and share his faith freely? 

That’s what Sam dreams about when he imagines what freedom might look like in Iran, if the regime collapses after nearly 50 years of ironclad rule: Freedom from injustice. Freedom from oppression. 

But most of all, the deepest freedom that Sam and other Iranian believers long for: Freedom to gather as the church—and to share the gospel with millions who have never heard it. 

Amid all the huge stakes in Iran’s massive protests, that’s one that many Christians are watching: Whatever happens, what does it mean for the church and for the gospel of Christ in a country that desperately needs it?

IMAGINING FREEDOM IN AN UNFREE LAND

This isn’t the first time Iranian Christians have asked that question.

Just a few months ago, believers faced a fresh wave of persecution after a U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and a fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel. A few months before that, an Iranian court sentenced three Iranian Christians to a combined 40 years in prison.

It’s a cycle that’s gone on for decades. 

After the country’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, citizens from historically Christian backgrounds retained freedom to worship, but by the 1990s the dynamic changed. Iranian authorities cracked down on all Christian activities in Farsi, and the church went underground. 

But the movement grew, and the church along with it. Some think Iran may have as many as a million believers, though others find that figure overly optimistic. But it’s clear that many Iranians have continued to display a significant interest in Jesus, even as their own government forbids Christian teaching and persecutes believers.

Sam, who partners with Radical, is one of the Iranian Christians seeking to help believers and unbelievers in Iran through online discipleship and evangelism.

But what if that could also be done openly and in-person? 

That’s the question that he and others are considering as they watch the unrest spread in Iran. The demonstrations began as protests against the country’s plummeting economy, but have turned into something much bigger. The chants on the streets are emphatic: “Freedom, freedom, freedom.”

BE PREPARED TO GO MAKE DISCIPLES

Of course, freedom is often complicated. 

It’s unclear who might step into power in Iran if the regime collapses, or how much a new government might allow. But Sam wants Iranian believers to be prepared. If freedom comes, “it means we have a lot of work to do.” 

Even if the most optimistic estimates of one million Christians are correct, the population of Iran is still over 90 million. “We have so many unreached people,” he says. Most believers live in large cities, leaving many towns and villages mostly untouched by the gospel. 

Sam hopes believers in cities like Tehran are prepared to send missionaries from their own local churches to carry the gospel to the places that need it most. Eventually, he would love to be one of them. In all his hopes for the Iranian church, he hopes he can eventually return to be a part of it. 

In fact, he says, “I never wanted to leave.”

PREPARE TO BE FAITHFUL NO MATTER WHAT

Meanwhile, there’s another question believers must face: What if things don’t change? What if the regime stays in power? What if things get worse?

Well, that’s an opportunity too. Sam says it’s a chance for the church to show its trust in God’s sovereignty and care, no matter what happens. He hopes the global church will pray for the Lord to help Iranian believers maintain a bold witness and live out the gospel during very uncertain days. 

He also hopes that whatever human powers rise and fall, Iranian believers will remember “at the end of the day, our hope is not in man, it’s in the Lord who provides.”

Sam knows it’s impossible to predict what will happen next. But he knows this much: If Iran does regain freedom, “I’ll be on the first plane back home.”