Posted July 03, 2026
Iran has ranked among the top ten on the Open Doors “World Watch List” every year since the list began in 1993. Their ranking has fluctuated over that time, peaking at number two as recently as 2011, but they’ve been toward the back half of the top ten in recent years. While that could be seen as a sign of progress, it’s important to note that their fall in the rankings has more to do with the destabilization and increase in persecution among many of their neighbors than anything actually improving in Iran.
And, if the latest news is any indication, their position on that list could rise soon.
You see, much of Iran’s persecution over the last decade has focused on the underground church and attempts to limit the freedom of Muslims to convert to Christianity. In 2009, the government began pressuring churches in Tehran to cancel their Persian-language services, with the largest of those churches—St. Peter Evangelical Church—forced to ban Persian-speaking Christians in 2014.
As such, the majority of officially recognized Christians in Iran have been among the Armenian and Assyrian minorities that are not considered to be much of a threat. However, even they have now come under pressure, and the circumstances look dire for believers in Tehran.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced last week that it would soon confiscate St. Peter—also known as Qavam Church—and evict the families staying on its grounds. The move was justified by referring back to a 1998 ruling by the Revolutionary Court in which all ten acres of the complex—which includes two schools and dozens of homes in addition to the church—were ordered to be handed over to the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO).
Founded by American missionaries in 1872, St. Peter is the oldest Protestant church in Iran. As such, the regime held off on exercising that order over fears of American reprisals. Now, it would seem, those fears are gone.
As Sasan Tavassoli, an Iranian Presbyterian pastor with contacts at St. Peter, described, Iranian officials warned the church’s leaders that:
We were concerned about America all these years. America came. They slapped us on the face. We slapped them on the face back. And then America withdrew. So we are no longer afraid of America.
Describing the level of devastation wrought on Iranian forces and cities as a slap in the face is inaccurate to say the least, but both the warnings and actions speak to the mindset among Iran’s leadership when it comes to how they see America and the newfound freedom they appear to feel when it comes to confronting the nation’s Christians.
Attieh Fard grew up as a Muslim in Tehran but fled to the UK and converted to Christianity at eighteen. She has since become a solicitor and advocate for religious freedom based in London and warns that the IRGC has long maintained an intelligence department dedicated to monitoring Christians.
Yet even in the face of existing persecution, Iran is considered to be one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the Middle East, with an estimated 1.2 million believers. And most of them have already been the target of direct government persecution.
Being caught worshiping in one of the nation’s underground churches can carry a sentence of ten to twenty years in prison, while sharing the gospel with Muslims is treated as a national security threat. And so Fard speaks for many when she warns that, “Unless the Iranian constitution changes, unless we see a different team in charge, the persecution will continue, the radicalization will continue—and in the long term, it will be a threat to the West.”
President Trump called for such a change in his remarks at the outset of the war, but has since backed off from that goal. Time will tell whether Iranian citizens will be able to bring about such a change, but if they try, what role should the nation’s Christians play in that process?
As we prepare to celebrate America’s 250th birthday tomorrow, it’s a question worth revisiting for believers here as well.
A reader recently wrote in to ask how the Bible-believing Founding Fathers addressed Paul’s admonition in Romans 13 to submit to the governing authorities. Given that it’s difficult to square the idea of a revolution with such submission, is tomorrow a celebration of our Founders’ sin, or were their actions justified in a way that would not run afoul of God’s word?
To be honest, there’s not really an easy answer.
To start, it’s worth noting that the Founding Fathers were at least aware of the debate. Those who pushed for peace with Great Britain often based their arguments on Romans 13:1–7 and the similar instruction in 1 Peter 2:13–17. As such, those who argued for war had to find a way to defend their position in light of Scripture as well.
Admittedly, some of their arguments were stronger than others.
For example, the prominent preacher Jonathan Mayhew argued that it was actually King George who was ruling in violation of Scripture and was so wicked that he could not be considered “God’s servant.” Mayhew went so far as to claim that “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
But while that claim sounds good—and the British monarch was something of a tyrant toward colonists—the governing authorities that Paul and Peter wrote about were led by Emperor Nero. For all his faults, George was certainly not that bad.
They did, however, find further support for this idea of resisting tyrants in Hebrews 11, where the author portrays heroes of the faith, such as Gideon and Samson, as examples of those who stood against the oppression of the Philistines and were praised for it. Granted, God directly called those leaders to rise up against their governing authorities. Was the same true of the Founding Fathers?
Ultimately, that’s really the crux of the question when it comes to whether their rebellion against Great Britain violated the commands of Scripture. Unfortunately, we can’t know for sure.
There were those who claimed a divine mandate for the war, and colonial leaders, both leading up to and during the Revolution, often wrote about seeing God’s hand at work. Moreover, it seems clear that even if it was a sin to rebel against the British, the Lord has redeemed that act to accomplish amazing things for the world and for his kingdom through the United States.
Still, we should be careful not to be too quick to justify an action based solely on its results. It’s certainly possible—even likely—that it was God’s will for the colonial authorities to become the governing authorities in the United States. If so, our Founding Fathers acted in obedience to God’s word rather than against it.
However, some of the church’s darkest moments have come from people erroneously claiming to act on God’s behalf in furthering their own selfish ends, and we must be careful not to fall into the same trap.
So, as we reflect on the founding of our nation and what it means to submit to the governing authorities today—be it in America, Iran, or anywhere else—let’s remember that the conversation needs to start by going to God in prayer and asking him what that looks like. He has a plan for our country and a plan for each of us, but we’ll never know what they are if we begin by assuming it’s up to us to figure them out.
Have you asked him what that plan looks like for you?
“Christians have to discern between the bad traditions we must change and the inconvenient truths that must change us. Scripture is our guide, not the world and our individual ‘truths.’” —Justin Giboney
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