Christian ministries focused on the Middle East are hopeful that the war in Iran could open the door for the gospel. “The doors are going to open up, and if they do, it’s going to be a flood,” Dirk Smith, vice president of Eastern European Mission, says.
Smith’s team is ready to send a huge shipment of children’s and teen Bibles, plus other Christian books written in Farsi, into Iran. Patrick Klein, president of Vision Beyond Borders, said he and his Bible smuggling team recently met in Armenia near the Iranian border.
“There’s also a lot of trucks, about a thousand oil tankers coming across the border every day, carrying oil to Western Europe,” he told CBN News. “So it’s a great border. And we just went with our team and prayed at the border and asked the Lord to open the borders.”
Some Christians argue that Bible smugglers need to wait. They warn that civil war and insurgency soon could make Iran too dangerous for spreading the gospel. Iran on Tuesday agreed to a ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz after threats from President Donald Trump.
READ: Iranian receiving Christian TV despite crackdown
“Too dangerous to spread the gospel?” Smith asked rhetorically. “How does that work? I guess I would ask somebody to find me the scripture. You know, we pray for safety a lot. I find that interesting. You know, I go to church, and I keep safe, and I’m like, I don’t know that I find that in the Bible. I don’t find a prayer for safety. How is something too risky? Is it? Is it ever too risky to share the gospel of Jesus with someone?”
Smith expects a historic change and dramatic breakthrough that will change everything.
“Our prayer is that we’re prepared,” he said. “We’re ready to go. And that was what happened when the Berlin wall came down in ’89. The opportunity came. And again, when we pray, God will open those doors. And that’s what happened when the wall came down with the Soviet Union; we were able to walk in and distribute hundreds of thousands of Bibles.”
Klein urges Christians worldwide to pray for a future where every Iranian can own a Bible and read it freely.
“One man just got one, and he was so grateful,” he said. “And he said, ‘Now I have the truth for myself. I can read the word of God anytime I want, day or night.’ And he’s just so grateful to have the word of God, We believe God is going to change Iran, and I believe it’s going to affect the whole Islamic world.”
You can listen to exciting and uplifting stories from the ministry on its progam airing on Bott Radio Network.
–Alan Goforth
