Photo via mnnonline.org

A Christian message counters continued disintegration in Iran

G8 leaders are alarmed by Iran's post-election crackdown--although dissenters remain defiant. The instability in the country reminds many of the disintegration that occurred in the Islamic revolution, reports MNN.

Mir Hossein Mousavi calls President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election a fraud and wants the results scrapped.

The official outcome of the June 12 vote triggered days of street protests. Authorities responded with a heavy-handed silencing of activists, academics, journalists and lawyers. They also clamped down on internet and website access as well as on media, jamming many of television and radio signals for a while. That did little to staunch the flow of information with the end result being a mixed bag.

There are also both good and bad possible outcomes from this situation for the church, says Evangelist Sammy Tippit. "It seems as though the government is so caught up with what's taking place and the protests, that they have forgotten about believers, and so left them alone, to some extent, but in other places, they're blaming the believers."

Many believers are underground, but Tippit says their television broadcast is reaching them. "I'm going through that series about how to face those hills in life right now, in my broadcast, coinciding with a very difficult time in the life of the nation,"...although sometimes they're jammed, they're currently providing discipleship training materials.

Their broadcast is a series of messages that Sammy Tippit preaches at various training conferences for Persians around the world and is then translated and sent out to Mohabat television, a Christian Iranian TV station.

Mohabat, which has been in existence for about 1 1/2 years, transmits all of its programs in Farsi, but its channels reach throughout Europe and the Middle East as well.

The Iranians have been very open to the Gospel and this is a great tool for the Word of God to be spread throughout the Middle East. STM's Iranian broadcast is unique because most of the preachers who speak on Mohabat television are Iranians who live in the West. Tippit is one of the only Americans who preaches on this station, with the help of a translator.

The open witness of the Good News is banned and government spies monitor Christian groups. Believers are discriminated against in education, employment, and property ownership and also face arrests, imprisonment, and sometimes even death.

That's why believers need prayer support. "Pray that they would not give in to fear, but that they would be strong in the Lord and that during these days they would have great opportunities to share the Gospel."

New iPad POLL! VOTE NOW! Will you buy new iPad?

TAGS: Iran Christian message disintegration G8 leaders post-election crackdown Islamic revolution Sammy Tippit Mohabat television

[07/14/2009]

Print Version