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Chapter 1: What challenges do Christians face in Iran today?
As Iran's Islamic regime continues to crack down on dissent amid the anti-government uprising, Christians in the country face even more scrutiny. In this episode, we talk to a pastor who works with Iranian Christians in Armenia who are forced to flee their homeland amid ongoing persecution. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. This is a weekend edition of Morning Wire.
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Chapter 2: How are Iranian Christians seeking refuge in Armenia?
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Here to discuss the ongoing persecution of Iran's large Christian population is Jacob Pursley, a missionary and pastor of the International Bible Church of Armenia. Jacob, thank you so much for joining us. Wow, it's a privilege to be here. Thank you. So you minister in part to Iranian Christians, and can you give us some context? How did this happen?
Where are you located in terms of your church and your ministry? And why are Iranians fleeing into Armenia in the first place?
Well, we have an English-speaking international church in Yerevan, Armenia, and it caters to all the internationals that come in. And what is amazing is that Armenia borders Iran, and so Iranian Christians that flee persecution come up to Armenia as the only free and democratic nation in the region. And so when they come up, they want to know what the Bible says. They want to be discipled.
And so they come to our church, and we baptize them. And so we have great ties and connections with the Christian community now within Armenia, but also in Iran.
Aaron Ross Powell Iran has an unbelievably rich history, obviously. One of the most ancient countries on the planet. Same with Armenia. Armenia, the first Christian country. Do you get, I have too many questions for you, but do you get a lot of support from the Armenian government in terms of freedom to worship and freedom to minister to whoever you want, etc.
? Yes, Armenia has freedom of religion. It's the first Christian nation, 301 A.D., so they continue to allow that within their country. And that is what brings the Iranians up to Armenia, because they know that this is a Christian nation, and they want to have freedom of religion, which they do not have in their own country. They're not even allowed to have a Bible in their own language.
It's illegal. And conversion from Islam to Christianity in Iran is capital punishment, death. So it's a very risky thing to convert to Christianity in Iran. But we are seeing Iran is the country in the world. When you look at missions and the church growth, it's the fastest growing Christian nation in the world right now.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of Armenia for fleeing Iranians?
So that's a good question. You know, Armenia has been really, up until the prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, up until he came to power, it's really been under a Russian influence. And with the new prime minister, he's really done a lot to move away from, not disconnecting from Russia, but moving away from that influence and trying to integrate with the West.
And what I've seen now is that relationship is getting better with now J.D. Vance in the country of Armenia. It is sending us a clear signal that religious freedom is important. Freedom and democracy is important. And it's giving hope to a lot of Christians that this connection is now being made.
I don't know if this is too complicated of a question to answer, but the flavor of Christianity in the region. I mean, I imagine it's very diverse, very diverse backgrounds in terms of traditions, et cetera. How do you deal with that in terms of your ministries? How do you make it open enough that it's flexible enough in terms of traditions? What does that look like?
That's a great question. So the Armenian Apostolic Church was founded in 301 AD. So it's the largest state church, longest going state church in the world, which we have great respect for. I mean, missionaries came to Armenia. Actually, some of them had Persian ancestry. And the oldest coming back from Jesus' disciples, Thaddeus and Bartholomew, came to Armenia.
So they are, they're our brothers and sisters, right? I mean, as Protestants or Catholics, we have one Jesus, one Bible, one faith, one baptism. And so I think what I've seen is I have great relationships within the Arminian Apostolic Church. We've worked together on projects. So I think if we're focusing on the majors, it's great.
And specifically, when you face persecution from other nations that are not friendly to Christianity, it gives us another reason to come together as one body.
Obviously, the relationship between the U.S. and Syria has been very complicated, and particularly Armenia and Syria's relationship. What elements of your ministry bleed over into that? I mean, how much does Syria impact what you do?
So I've been doing ministry in Syria since 2005, when the Qamishli massacre took place, when Bashar al-Assad's soldiers came up to massacre the Kurdish population. This is before ISIS. So I've been very involved in Syria. hoping that the Kurds would not find their hope necessarily in a politician or an army, but in Jesus Christ. I'm a missionary. That's most important for me.
And unfortunately, we've seen a lot of difficult things happen in the country of Syria up until now. And what I've seen is that there is a good relationship with Syria and Armenia based on Armenian population that has been native in Syria since the Armenian genocide. And they are... So there's...
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Chapter 4: How does the Armenian government support religious freedom?
But they're also looking back to Donald Trump saying, you made this promise. We're being massacred. When are you going to come and help us? Because we're dying. So please come and help and fulfill your promise.
Well, we really appreciate you coming on the show and everything that you do in that region. I'm sure that's a very hard job, but it seems like you love it. Thanks so much for coming on. You're welcome. Thank you so much. That was Jacob Persley, a missionary and pastor of the International Bible Church of Armenia. This has been a weekend edition of We Mind.