Iran’s Underground Church in Wartime
By Jonathon Van Maren - Posted at The European Conservative:
Life is hard,” Yahya, a leader in Iran’s Christian house church movement, told David Yeghnazar of Elam Ministries recently. Yahya (not his real name) was sending voice messages due to Iran’s wartime internet blackout, which makes it nearly impossible for Christian leaders like the Iranian-born Yeghnazar outside the country to reach their contacts in Iran. “But we are continuing. And the Lord is showing his glory.”Despite having no church buildings, Iran’s evangelical population is the fastest growing in the world—some have called it a full-scale underground Christian revival. There are now over one million Christians in Iran. Mosques are closing down, with some saying that the “Jesus revolution” in Iran is partly to blame; Reza Pahlavi, the erstwhile crown prince of Iran and son of the former Shah, noted in 2024 that, “Iran has probably right now the fastest-growing faith in Christianity than any other faith that the country has had. We have hundreds of underground churches.”
The regime views this revival as an enormous threat to their repressive and theocratic Islamist vision for the ancient nation. It is illegal for Muslims to convert and for Christians to evangelize to them. Pastors—including Yahya—have suffered harassment, imprisonment, and torture for their faith. Since February 28, they are also enduring wartime conditions, and many fear that a regime crackdown is coming.
