One For Israel

Yair Pinto: This moment is an opportunity for liberation for the Iranian people. I think that this is kind of the beginning of the end, but sadly this is a regime that has planned for this moment for more than 40 years.

Dr. Erez Soref: I believe that God has positioned us for such a time as this. A spiritual awakening would take hold in both Iran and Israel.

Ramin Parsa: Millions of Iranians are experiencing the same thing. They don’t want Islam.

Dr. Erez Soref: I am Dr. Erez Soref. I was born and raised in the heart of Israel, but I never heard the Gospel message until, on a journey abroad, my eyes were opened to the Jewish Messiah. From that point, my life has been dedicated to bringing this Gospel back to my people, Israel, equipping them to reach Israel and the world. Together, as Jews and Gentiles, we are one in Messiah, One For Israel.

The book of Esther tells the dramatic story of a young Jewish woman in Persia who became queen. At that time, our people were a vulnerable minority in exile, with no country, no power, and little hope. And the wicked Haman tricked the king into ordering the annihilation of the Jews. But Esther courageously revealed her identity and risked her life to save her people. Every year on Purim, we celebrate this story. God's sovereign hand, courage in the face of evil, and the deliverance from destruction.

Today, we are seeing another drama unfolding with the same players: the Jewish people and the violent madmen in the leadership of the Persian Iranian people. Over the past week, we have once again seen courage at work. On February 28th, Israel and the United States launched a joint operation to bring down the regime of Ayatollah Khamenei. Khamenei has been the Iranian Supreme Leader for 36 years. He has been responsible for sponsoring terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East while brutally oppressing his own people.

It is no small thing that this is happening around Purim. Even now, while war continues, many inside and outside Iran are rejoicing at the fall of the regime. This moment is an opportunity for liberation for the Iranian people. Just as in Esther's day, we may be living in a defining hour of history. And I believe that God has positioned us for such a time as this.

As of this filming, we're still in the middle of war with Iran, but in between the air-raid sirens, we were able to meet with my friend Yair Pinto, co-host of Boots on the Ground. Yair is a former Israeli special forces operative who now provides real-time updates from the front lines of Israel. With his years of military expertise, he offers insight into this war and how it could reshape the Middle East.

Shalom, Yair.

Yair Pinto: Shalom. It's good to be here.

Dr. Erez Soref: Yeah, thank you for coming. Many people are asking why Israel and the United States opened this attack. Is it unprovoked? Is it not justified? What happened?

Yair Pinto: Well, the Iranian regime has been stating openly, "Death to America," "Death to Israel." The United States is the big Satan; Israel is the small Satan. If that is not threats and accusations, then what is?

More than that, they have been acting on it. They have been developing nuclear weapons. They have been developing ballistic missiles and also intercontinental ballistic missiles, which means they can reach other continents, so not just Israel; they can reach the United States of America. And they have been funding terror regimes—Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and more around the region. More than that, I don't know what you need in order to carry out a preemptive strike to stop this regime.

Dr. Erez Soref: I agree 100%. From your experience, from what you're feeling now, from what you hear with your family, neighbors, and friends, what do you feel that the general Israeli public is thinking and feeling?

Yair Pinto: I think that the people of Israel are very happy with the government, happy with the United States of America, and happy that we are taking action against this threat that has been looming around our heads for 40 years now.

My goal, my dream, is that my kids and my grandkids will not need to fear the Islamic Republic of Iran, will not need to run into bomb shelters 20 times every single day. And I think that the only way to do something like that is to act.

It's very symbolic that this is happening in the time of Purim. The same enemy wants to destroy Israel, and we are standing up against him. I think it's just amazing to see that the Bible is alive and all the stories that took place thousands of years ago are repeating themselves again and again, meaning that our God is still faithful, like He was in the past, now in modern days.

He has been faithful in the past, and He is faithful now. He has been doing amazing miracles in biblical times, and we see amazing biblical-level miracles in modern times. So we serve a living God. Despite the unimaginable odds—92 million people in Iran against 10 million people in Israel—and we are still here, changing the Middle East. And it's not because of us; it's because of God.

Dr. Erez Soref: I wanted to ask, we were chatting a little earlier, I know you have little children, younger children, and I asked you how it is for the kids. Families with young kids, alarms in the middle of the night and so on. How has it been for you?

Yair Pinto: It's not easy, but sad to say, the kids are accustomed to it. This has been the reality for two and a half years on steroids, very intense. But before that, we also had missiles from Hamas in the Gaza Strip and from Hezbollah in Lebanon. And before that, my childhood was growing up with buses exploding and suicide bombers. So sadly, we know that this is the reality, and we are accustomed to it. We don't like it. We don't want war. But at least this time we are proactive to make sure to change this evil reality and evil regime.

Iran has been shooting Sunni Arab nations like the Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, and they even shot European countries. The Sunni Arab countries are really turning against Iran. It was a very bad move by Iran, by the way. I think it's a sign that they are losing control. I think that this is kind of the beginning of the end, but sadly this is a regime that has planned for this moment for more than 40 years. So that's why it's going to take some time.

Dr. Erez Soref: So Yair, a lot of people are contacting me and probably you, and they're asking how they can pray.

Yair Pinto: There are two major things that you need to pray for. So number one is the children, because we have a whole generation of kids that are growing up with sirens and alarms, with rushing to bomb shelters. And let's pray for their safety first, but also for their mental health, for their emotional well-being. Exactly. This will affect the entire nation of Israel because we are still in the middle of the trauma. We're not in the post-traumatic stress stage yet, and this is what we need to pray for the entire nation of Israel.

And then the second thing is to pray for the people of Iran. Because what we see now is the entire nation of the Persians or the Iranians are going to the street chanting in favor of Israel, our nation that is launching attacks against them, and in favor of the United States forces. They're praising Trump and Bibi. I mean, where do you see that? So imagine the amount of depression and oppression against these people. And I believe that we're going to see a whole different revival coming up from Iran, and the Middle East is going to be completely new.

Dr. Erez Soref: Well Yair, thank you so much. What a pleasure chatting with you, and thanks for coming. And let's do this again.

Purim, the holiday where we celebrate the bravery of Esther and Mordecai. Jews living in Persia who courageously stood up against the evil Haman. They exposed his wicked plan of Jewish genocide to the king. They saved our people from utter annihilation. It took bravery to confront such a powerful threat as Haman.

And today, we need brave peacemakers who will take risks and action to ensure peace. But even after Haman was killed and his plan exposed, there was still work to do. A planned massacre of the Jewish people was already in motion. So Mordecai needed to ensure that the Jewish people were able to defend themselves.

We find ourselves at a similar juncture in Israel today. A murderous leader in Iran has been assassinated. A man who for years threatened Israel and sponsored terror across the region. But there is still much work to be done in dismantling the systems of oppression and the destructive ideology he leaves behind, ensuring that another evil ruler does not rise to take his place. The threat has not disappeared.

Yet our prayer is that the Iranian and Persian people will step into their prophetic destiny. That in this pivotal hour, a spiritual awakening would take hold in both Iran and Israel.

I'm speaking with Ramin Parsa, born and raised in Iran as a devout Shiite Muslim. He encountered Yeshua and is now a pastor and evangelist with a heart for the Iranian people. Ramin offers firsthand insight into the Iranian regime and the Persian people. He will tell us what these historic shifts could mean for the church and spiritual awakening in the region.

Ramin Parsa, shalom, my friend. It's good to connect again. How are you?

Ramin Parsa: Shalom, Dr. Erez. Good to be with you. Amazing times we are witnessing.

Dr. Erez Soref: It is amazing times. And we were just reminiscing a second ago before the broadcast that we were chatting just a few months ago in June, when the previous round of war, and you were saying, I remember that you were saying to me, maybe we can go to Iran soon to share the Gospel with the Persian people. So maybe we're at a stage closer to that right now.

Ramin Parsa: Absolutely. Absolutely. We are very close. I'm very excited. You know, the Bible has been illegal in Iran for 47 years. And now the doors are opening. Despite all of that, the Gospel was going into Iran through satellite, through radio, and millions of Iranians have found the Lord.

One of the only good things about the regime in Iran is that they really showed us the true face of Islam. And because of that, as a result, millions of Iranians—I mean tens of millions of Iranians—have abandoned Islam and they are looking for the true God. And in my own case, I was one of them. I was born and raised a Shiite Muslim. I was very devout. My whole family were devout. But then I saw the true face of Islam and I began to search for the real God. And eventually, actually the Lord found me and He saved my life, the Lord Yeshua.

So millions of Iranians are experiencing the same thing. They don’t want Islam. The Iranian people want to be free. They want to be like Israel, like America. They like science, they like music, art, literature, poetry. It's a whole different culture. And this is why regime change in Iran will be a successful project that will affect the whole region, and it will be good for Israel, for America, and for the free world.

This was, I believe, God turned their counsel into foolishness, their wisdom into foolishness, because this was the worst thing they could do. Israel was warning the Arab countries and the world that this regime is evil, this regime is dangerous. And they just proved Israel and America right. So I am very optimistic that this regime will fall, Iran will be free, and I'm saying this: that Iran will be the first country that will be a Muslim country that will turn into a Christian country. And Iran will be a blessing and ally with Israel and with America, and this will affect the whole region and the world. And I'm optimistic about that.

Dr. Erez Soref: Help us and the people that are watching or listening get in the head, in the mind of the current Ayatollah Shiite regime. So in their thinking, what is the end goal? Why are they doing it? Why are they putting this octopus all over the world and the Middle East, not only towards Israel, but also towards the United States, the entire West, the entire world? What is the goal? What is the end game?

Ramin Parsa: To answer that question, we have to go back to the 7th century. When Islam started, when Muhammad started Islam, he said, "I will not allow a single Christian or Jew to remain in the Arabian Peninsula." This is in a hadith; it's written in the hadith, in Islamic hadith. Submission. The word Islam is an Arabic word; it's a command. It means to submit; it's commanding you to submit. And they want to bring the whole world to submission to Allah, that you must only bow down to Allah. That's their goal, that's their mission. They want to conquer the whole world and establish Sharia law.

Remember Haman in the book of Esther? He was angry with Mordecai because he was not bowing down to him. And it's the same spirit, same ideology. Because Jews refuse to bow down to Allah, because Christians refuse to bow down to Allah, they are angry and they want to annihilate them. And amazingly, Haman was not a Persian; he was an Agagite. And these same Ayatollahs also in Iran, they are not Persians. The Ayatollah and all of the leaders of the Islamic regime, they came from Iraq or Lebanon, and they somehow after the revolution, they got into power and they hate Persian history.

Cyrus was the first gentile Zionist that we know. His name is mentioned 27 times in the Bible. So that's why Iranian people now, they're identifying with their national heritage. They're saying, "We don't want Islam, we don't want Islamic identity; we want to have our own nationalistic identity." And who is that? It's King Cyrus. He helped the Jews to be free from Babylon, sent them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, and funded them. So we see that if Iranians want to be like Cyrus, definitely they would like Israel because Cyrus liked Israel.

Dr. Erez Soref: You know, Ayatollah Khamenei is no more; that he is dead. Many, many Persians in London, in the UK, I guess around the world, went out to the streets with the flag of Persia, not of Iran, of Persia. And they were just celebrating, actually flags of Persia and Israel, and they were celebrating and they were just saying, "Bring us back our Iran." Basically what you were saying.

Ramin Parsa: Even inside Iran, hundreds of thousands in all different cities came out celebrating, honking their cars, and they were celebrating the death of this terrorist Ayatollah. People are rejoicing at his death. This is a historic moment that we are talking about, that Iran overnight will go from an enemy country, the number one enemy of Israel, to the number one friend of Israel in the region. Israel will not have a better friend in this region than Iran in the future. And the Iranian people are celebrating and rejoicing and they are happy that they're being free at last.

Dr. Erez Soref: We are praying that as a result of this war, many, many people in Iran and in all the region of the Middle East, including Israel, many people will turn to have forgiveness of sins and spiritual life in the Messiah Yeshua, Jesus. So that's our prayer.

Ramin Parsa: Fifteen, 20 years ago when I was talking to Iranians, because I was pastoring an Iranian church in California, and I would ask them, "Would you like to go back to Iran one day?" They said, "No, you know, my life is here." But now every Iranian I ask, they want to go back. And just like the Jews who wanted to come back to Jerusalem, the Iranians want to go back. And hundreds of thousands of them have become Christians, have become believers. And they will go into Iran and there will be another wave of revival. And I believe Iran will influence the surrounding countries. When the regime in Iran falls, the Muslim world will be shocked and Iranian people will lead millions of Muslims out of Islam into the kingdom of God. And I believe that.

Dr. Erez Soref: Pray for that. Well thank you so much, Ramin, and God bless.

Ramin Parsa: God bless you. Thank you.

Dr. Erez Soref: The greatest battle our young adults face begins the day they leave their home to serve in the IDF. The battle we're describing is not about war or terror, but the battle over their heart and soul as followers of Yeshua. The most common expression among Messianic soldiers about their service in the IDF is "the spiritual desert." Here in Israel, we live in a reality where both men and women at the age of 18 must serve two to three years in the IDF and defend their country. There is no doubt that serving in the IDF is a great privilege, but it is also a crucial moment for many of the followers of Yeshua.

This spiritual desert can raise fear among believing soldiers, with some putting on hold their walk with Jesus for a period of time, living a life of compromise. There are estimations that 30 to 40% leave the faith altogether until the end of their military service.

Guest (Female): It is possible to finish the military service more mature and more like Jesus and not just the last spiritual survivor. We must not adopt a spirit of defeat, but a spirit of victory and excellence.

Guest (Male): We strive to model that excellence as we host soldier conferences to encourage and equip soldiers with powerful resources and teaching.

Dr. Erez Soref: One For Israel's Soldiers Ministry exists as a spiritual armory and training center to support all believing soldiers, equipping them to stand firm in their faith and shine as leaders in their units. For most Israelis, the experience they have in their military service will set the course for their life. These key moments will create ripple effects that reverberate through Israeli culture. Will you stand with us in prayer and support to raise up the next generation of Israeli soldiers full of faith and excellence? Stand with us and become One For Israel.

As we witness these historic world events, we want to pray for our troops on the front lines. But ultimately, our hope for peace is only in the Messiah. It's Yeshua alone that can truly liberate and set people free. We are praying that this war would lead to a move of the Holy Spirit for both Israelis and Iranians, that as hearts awaken, they would encounter Yeshua in a radical way. Lasting peace can only be brought about by the Prince of Peace.

Listen to this testimony of an Iranian Muslim whose heart was filled with hatred. He used to chant "Death to Israel" until Yeshua changed his life. And if Yeshua can do this for him, He can do it again and again in Iran today.

Darius Zarian: When I was in Iran, every morning before class, saying, "Death to Israel." And there's a very strange hatred about Israel, hatred about Jewish people came to my heart.

I went for military service and they sent me for extra training like a commando. I became addicted to drugs. I stopped all religious activities. When I finished military service, after that I found a very good job, business job, and receiving good money. I left Iran just for a better life. My illegal journey started. I flew to Turkey, Istanbul, and from Turkey I flew to Bosnia. That was a very risky and dangerous way. When I arrived in England, I applied for asylum. I didn't have any good reason. I left Iran just for a better life. I decided to tell a lie to the government. Through the application form, I told them because I was a persecuted Christian, life was dangerous for me, and sent these documents to the Immigration Office in London.

I said to myself, "Darius, if government asks you about Christianity, what do you have to tell them?" I decided to go to church just to get information about Christianity. I went to the church, I heard all the basic things about Christianity: about the Messiah, about repentance, about the Cross, He rose again after three days and He's alive, He can change lives. My brain was full of information, but my heart was still dark.

When I received a letter from government for interview, I picked up the phone and I called my pastor. "I'm going for interview. Could you come and help me, what to say, what not to say to government?" When he came, he said to me, "Darius, you are not Christian. It is all a lie. Yeshua asks you to stand on truth and truth will set you free." I became very angry and said, "No, I can't. They'll deport me back to Iran."

I went to my room, I locked the door, and I bowed down. I cried and shouted, said, "If there is any God, You show Yourself to me. I can't continue anymore." When I said that, that moment He revealed Himself. That moment He came. That moment He healed me completely from drugs. That moment I gave my heart to Him. He touched my heart and He gave me strength and power. That was a power just working inside my heart because I tried several times before to give up the drugs but I couldn't. But that time I asked Yeshua to start a new life, and He did. And He said to me, "Darius, I love you as you are with the dirty things because I died on the Cross for you."

I went for interview in London and the officer said to me, "We have just a couple of questions." I said to him, "I'm so sorry about application form. I wasn't Christian in Iran, life wasn't dangerous for me, I came to this country just for a better life. But two days ago, I gave my heart to Jesus. If you want to send me to Iran or anywhere, I am ready for that." He looked at me and said, "You told a lie?" They refused the application form.

In my court, the judge, he looked at me and said, "Mr. Zarian, what did you do yesterday?" because my court was on Monday. I told him, "Yesterday I was leading a worship group." And he said, "How did you do that?" And I told him, "I was reading Psalm 96." And he said, "What's Psalm 96 says?" And I said, "Everyone in the court just open the Bible, everyone just read Psalm 96: 'Sing a song for the Lord, sing a new song for the Lord, proclaim His salvation.'" And that was a miracle. He said to me, "You are accepted to stay in England."

For a long time I used to believe a lie about Israel, about this nation, about Jewish people. I started to read the Bible from the beginning. And through the study, God gave me a passion and love for Jewish people because the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Yeshua Hamashiach, saved my life, changed my life. I am One For Israel.

Dr. Erez Soref: This Purim, remember us in prayer. For our safety in Israel, for safety of civilians in Iran, for our brave Israeli and US soldiers. And most of all, that the blessing of the Gospel would reach every dark place. Through your support, our team has stood in the gap to provide critical aid to the victims of war and terror. Gathering resources and mobilizing aid packages, we've purchased life-saving intensive care ambulances and bomb shelters for the communities in need. But here is the critical factor: all of this was done by Messianic Jews in the Land of Israel in the name of our Messiah Yeshua. We invite you to stand with us and show our people the love of the Messiah. Join us today in prayer and support. Show Israel and the world that you are One For Israel.