Will Iranian Government Be Broken By Fearless, Christian Women?

A movement of Iranian women, who are risking their lives for Jesus, is taking Iran by storm. That’s according to New York Times bestselling author Joel Richardson, who joins me this week on The Roys Report to tell this remarkable story. Richardson is an internationally recognized expert on Biblical prophecy and Islam and has just finished producing a film depicting this move of God. Learn how to catch the premiere of this livestreaming event. I really hope you can join us for The Roys Report, this Saturday morning at 11 on AM 1160 Hope for Your Life and on Sunday night at 7 on AM 560 The Answer! Show Transcript Note: This transcript has been edited slightly for continuity. Segment 1 JULIE ROYS: Welcome to The Roys Report, brought to you in part by Judson University. I’m Julie Roys. And today, we’re going to talk about one of the fastest growing Christian movements in the world. And surprisingly, this movement isn’t occurring in the West where there’s a lot of religious freedom, or in the Global South, where Christianity is also booming. In fact, there are currently more Christians in the Global South of the world than in the Global North. And the Christian community in Latin America and Africa alone account for one billion people. But this incredible movement that we’re going to be discussing today is happening in the Middle East of all places—in the mostly-Islamic country of Iran. That’s right, in Iran, a country where the government is engaged in systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom, Christianity is booming. In a country where Christians can face imprisonment, torture, and execution, Christians are actively and successfully evangelizing. It’s an incredibly inspirational movement. And next Friday, there’s a new film telling the story of this amazing movement will debut as a live-streaming event that you and your friends, your church, your small group can watch. In fact, there are about one-thousand different watch parties scheduled for this Friday, August 23rd. And I’ll be telling you a lot more about that in the rest of this show. But joining me now is Joel Richardson, a New York Times best-selling author and co-producer of this new movie called, “Sheep Among Wolves.” Joel also is an expert in biblical prophecy and spends a lot of time in the Middle East, ministering among Muslims. So, Joel, welcome! It’s a privilege to have you with us! JOEL RICHARDSON:  Julie, thank you so much for having me on. JULIE ROYS: Yeah well, and you’re recently back from the Middle East is that correct? JOEL RICHARDSON: Well, yeah, we’ve made some short-term trips, a few different countries. We did a tour actually to Jordan and Israel earlier this year. I was recently in southeast Asia and I may have forgotten a couple of other places. JULIE ROYS:   I know you’re always on the road seems like every time I contact you you’re somewhere around the world that sometimes you can’t tell me or you can’t speak about publicly because you sometimes go into areas that don’t really allow Christians. And speaking of which Iran is one of those. And so, I think when we talk about there being a booming Christian movement, the last place we expect it to be is in Iran. But yet, this is where this Christian movement is booming. And I know you’ve spoken to a lot of the leaders of that movement. So help us understand why on earth, of all places, is a Christian movement spreading throughout Iran. JOEL RICHARDSON:  Well I think in the natural, when people hear that, they’re like, “What in the World?” Persecution there is intense. Christianity is restricted. The government is really going to hammer, bring the hammer down, on any Muslims, particularly, that convert to Christianity. But from a biblical perspective, we see that the gospel is to those that are poor in spirit, to those that are downtrodden, to those that are broken. The gospel is for the poor. And so, there’s a few realities in Iran that most people are not aware of. The i