Sugar Land Bible Church

Guest (Male): While Pastor Andy has been on sabbatical, we've had some wonderful guest speakers. Our speaker this morning is no exception. Someone that some of us know well, Pastor Shahram Hadian. He's back. He was here in November, helped us with the re-vantage at the Sugar Land Town Center, and he taught in following Sunday morning services.

He's back and I want to tell you just a little bit about him. He's the founder of Truth and Love Ministry and is a sought-after speaker who travels around North America addressing critical issues facing us as believers and as Americans. He's a Christian pastor and former Muslim. Shahram was born in Iran, came to America to escape the oppressive Islamic regime, and had a powerful conversion to Christianity in 1999.

His unique background includes experience as a pastor, a police officer, teacher, coach, and servant-leader in his community. He was a candidate for governor in Washington state in 2012. When he became a believer, he immediately faced persecution and disapproval from his family and his culture. According to the teachings of Islam, his conversion meant that he is an apostate, deserving of death.

In spite of this opposition, Shahram persevered, enrolled in Bible College, and has become a Christian pastor since 2003. He graduated from Puget Sound Christian College with a bachelor's degree in Biblical Studies and Christian Ministry. Please welcome Shahram Hadian.

Shahram Hadian: All right, good morning. What a blessing to be back with you all here at Sugar Land Bible Church. Love Sugar Land Bible Church, love Pastor Andy. Some of you may have seen me with Pastor Andy before on Worldview 2 with Brannon Howse. I've had Pastor Andy on my show, and it's just a blessing to be here with a like-minded body of believers. It's an honor.

Let me pray for the word this morning that I'm going to be sharing. Father, thank You for this opportunity. Lord, we give You all honor and glory, and I pray that You will mightily, Lord, pour out Your Spirit upon this time, this word, this message that it would ground us in who You are, Lord, and it would ground us in our knowledge of the Scriptures.

We thank You that You are faithful, that Your word is alive, it is active, it is sharp, it teaches, it corrects, it informs and gives us understanding and revelation. It can also bring light onto the path of our feet so that we can continue to follow You all the days of our lives. We bless You and pray Your anointing again upon this time in Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen.

Well, first Sunday school hour we talked about the subject of anti-Zionism leading to anti-Semitism. If you were here, if you were not, I encourage you if you can to watch that on the livestream. It hopefully will be helpful there. Also tonight, as was not mentioned, but we're going to be here at six o'clock for a special presentation talking about the Battle for Texas.

The growing Muslim threat here, right here in Sugar Land, folks, right here in Houston is one of the major epicenters of the Islamic movement and what they're trying to do and how we need to respond. So please, if you're able to come tonight, we will be livestreaming it, but it is better in person if you can at six o'clock. Bring somebody with you.

This morning, I'm going to be talking about where I come from. As was mentioned, I was born in Iran and I'm going to be talking about Iran in Bible prophecy. Did you know that Iran is in Bible prophecy? Iran is not just in ancient Bible prophecy, but it's in future Bible prophecy and I wanted to bring that up.

But I also wanted to have this opportunity, maybe selfishly, to talk about what's going on in Iran right now as we speak. It's been in the headlines just a little bit, right? Just a tiny bit. I tell you, as someone from there right now with everything that is going on, I feel like I'm on a bad rollercoaster. It's just up and down, left and right. Deal, no deal. We don't know what's going to happen. Thirteen days of attacks, two days now no attacks, and we're going to have another deal happening. It's just crazy.

Let's bring it back to God's word, let's bring it back to truth. But I want to share with you a little bit too about just the backstory. Number one, by the way, if you want to connect with our ministry, don't forget to check out our table out there with our resources, grab a business card, sign up for our email newsletter to stay connected because these topics are happening so quickly. So much is happening. I do about two to three hours every day of research to stay on top of things.

Then we also have two live shows that we do as well as being on other shows. We have our own shows that we do on Rumble. Rumble is our main platform. We are on Facebook and YouTube as well, but Rumble is our main platform. This information is on our business card if you grab a business card, but if you want to check out our Rumble channel, rumble.com/ShahramHadian, please do so and if you would like, you can subscribe there on our channel.

This morning as I talk about the country of Iran, I want to bring some interesting things. First of all, this is modern-day Iran. This is where I was born. I was born right up there in the north. If you look at the Caspian Sea in the map up there, there's a city called Rasht, R-A-S-H-T. That's where I was born. Little Shahram was born there. I was the youngest of three in my family.

Iran was a very different place when I was born there until 1979 when everything changed currently. It is a very different place. But I want to go back a little bit more than just the modern history of Iran. I want to look at the history of Iran in the Bible. Is that okay?

Iran is mentioned under different names in the Bible. The most well-known name is Persia. This is kind of an idea of the Persian Empire during the reign of certain Persian kings that we're going to look at just in a second that were very instrumental. Persia is mentioned often in the Bible, especially as it relates to Israel. There's a very interesting dynamic between Persia and Israel.

Which, here's the other interesting part: I was born in Iran, I'm a Persian Christian. Of course, America is my home now. But a Persian Christian is standing before you as I did in the first hour, the 9:45 hour, and said, look, we're going to stand on God's word, we're going to stand on Biblical Zionism. So there is a very, I believe, spiritual symbiotic relationship between Persia and Israel.

Where do we see this? Well, we see it with the mention of the Persian kings in the Old Testament. There are several that are mentioned, but probably the most famous both to Iranians and in the Bible is King Cyrus. You see the biblical references there. Jeremiah's prophecy in Chapter 5, the Bible actually calls Cyrus "the anointed one", someone that God used and anointed. Ezra Chapter 1, Second Chronicles 36 as well.

But Cyrus is well-known for issuing the decree that allowed the Jews to come out of captivity and not only to come back to Jerusalem, but the rebuilding of the city walls, the rebuilding of the temple comes under the Persian kings. Do you remember before that, when they went into captivity, who was governing Israel or the Jewish people? It was Babylon, right? But approximately halfway through captivity, God raises up the Persians to liberate the Jews out of Babylonian captivity and the Israelites find great favor with the Persian kings.

You have also Darius. By the way, I'm teaching you how to say this in the Farsi way. So we don't say Cyrus, we say Kourosh. Now obviously that doesn't make sense in English because you're like where do you get Kourosh from Cyrus, it's C-Y-R-U-S. But we don't say Darius, we say Daryush. So you're becoming an honorary Persian this morning. You'll get your honorary Persian badge as you leave today, so we're going to be interconnected together as God's people.

Daryush obviously confirmed Cyrus's decree, enabled the completion of the temple in Jerusalem as referenced in the book of Ezra, chapter 5 and 6 particularly. Then you have the first Xerxes or the Bible calls him Ahasuerus. When does this happen? The story of Esther. Remember the story of Esther? Esther and the entirety of the story of Esther is happening around this Persian king and the plot of Haman to wipe out or annihilate the Jews.

It's funny when people tell you the book of Esther doesn't mention God. How could you not see God in the book of Esther? But we know obviously the story of Mordecai, the story of Esther leading to the second decree by the Persian king that ended up saving the Jewish people. Subsequently after the story of Esther, you have then the commissioning to take the law once they come out of captivity. Did you remember that it was the Persian king that issues a decree out of the treasury to spread the law of Israel, the law of the God of Israel throughout all the 157 provinces of Persia?

Finally you have the second Darius mentioned in Nehemiah chapter 12 regarding the priestly record. So at least five references to five Persian kings are in the Bible and in every situation it has to do with God's dealing with Israel. In another way of saying it, when God needed to do something for Israel, He raised up the Persians. That's why I always joke with people, it's good to keep a Persian around. You never know when you can use a Persian. Use me.

Here's the cool part. The history of Persia, which by the way the Persian history itself dates back in Persian writing to about 3300 years ago. But the biblical history was about 2500 approximately years ago. So 2500 years ago is about when the Bible references it, but it actually goes way further than that. Because in the Bible, there was another name that was given to the people of Persia going back all the way now to Noah.

So we're going to go all the way back to the story of Noah, all the way to the story post-flood when they come out of the flood narrative and now they're repopulating the earth. The Bible tells us very clearly Noah had three sons. And what are they? Shem, Japheth, and Ham.

Ham got in trouble. Remember that? He was not good because Noah gets drunk and Ham wants to get his brothers to go make fun of his dad. Shem and Japheth say no, and they're going to cover their dad and Noah gets mad and prophetically curses not only Ham but his children. We know that from the line of Ham comes, for example, Canaan, the Canaanites.

But I want to focus this morning on the lineage because I said in the first message that when you are against Zionism, anti-Zionism, it will always lead to the denial of the Jewish line of the Messiah. That's the goal of Satan. The goal of Satan ultimately, if he can't destroy God's plans, which he can't, is to seek to deny God's plans and God's purposes and deny the Messiah. What is an antichrist spirit? It is a spirit that is against Christ. It's to deny Christ.

Now we focus on the line of Shem because God says that I'm going to dwell in the tent of Shem. So God chooses Shem to bring this messianic line which goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 3. Because what was pronounced after the fall? "Hey serpent, your seed and the seed of the woman Eve, they're going to be at enmity with each other. You against the woman and your seed against her seed." Who's going to win out? Her seed.

What was that seed? That line, that lineage. By the way, why did God intervene during the time of Noah? Why did the flood come? Because we know there was a corruption on the earth and perhaps that corruption was even corrupting human DNA. So God had to preserve this line. Now post-flood, here comes Shem. Shem has five sons.

The second one is of importance to the messianic story because Shem's son Arphaxad, we're told back in the book of Luke for example, in the genealogy of Jesus, that if you trace the lineage of Abraham, Abram who becomes Abraham, Arphaxad is his great-great-great-great grandfather. So go a few lines down and from Arphaxad you get Eber, which is where we get the word Hebrew, and then you get Abram. So the line of Shem, the line of Arphaxad, is where we get the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which is where we get the line of the Messiah. Are we good so far? That's incredible.

But we're not done. Because there was another son, in fact his first son is named Elam. So who is Elam? Well, Elam is mentioned in Genesis 14, story of Lot. It is actually ancient Persia. It is the reference in the Bible to what today we call Iran, but there's a portion of Elam, a portion of the geography of Iran today that is actually ancient Elam.

Elam goes all the way back to Noah and Shem. It is mentioned at least 30 times in the Bible, the Elamites. Now, why am I bringing this up? Because if Elam are the father to the Persians—they were distinct, they were a distinct people group, but they're actually absorbed in and they sort of merge and they become Persia. If Elam is the father of Persia, and Elam and Arphaxad were brothers, we already established where do the Jewish people come from, the Israelites, from not just Shem but from Arphaxad. That means that the line of Arphaxad and the line of Shem, if they're brothers, that means those lines are cousins. So Persians and Jews are cousins.

That's why I believe there's such an incredible symbiotic spiritual relationship. Because Persians are not Arabs. It is not of the line of Shem where we get all the "ites" from. Ultimately the line that gives way to, for example, Ishmael—a lot of people believe that Hagar was a Canaanite. So that's the line of Ham. The Arabs come from that line, not the line of Shem.

So the line of Shem is Semitic. Persians are Semitic. That's why we stand against anti-Semitism. Because anti-Semitism isn't just to hate the Jews, it's to hate God's royal line. This is much bigger than we just hate the Jewish people. The way that anti-Semitism is used today, it actually really is going against God's messianic line and royal line that He blessed. The Lord chose the line of Shem.

Now here's what's interesting. Persians adopted the Elamite capital of Susa. Who can tell me where you hear the word Susa? Where is that mentioned? In the story of Esther, right? That was the capital of Persia at the time of Esther. All of the events that are happening in the story of Esther are happening in the city of Susa. Today in Iran, we have that city. It's called Shoushan.

Here's the other interesting thing. Now this is not according to canonized Scripture, but just from a historical standpoint, it is fairly well-documented, for example in the book of Jubilees. It talks about Shem. Shem had a child called Shoushan, and from that child, they have a daughter that becomes the wife of Arphaxad. So they actually marry together. So the lines are even more mixed and become one because of their children.

All of this is the continuation of God's plan for the Elamites, Persia. And then one final thing, the Elamites, we see them existent as a distinct people even in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 tells us that the Elamites were present in Jerusalem during the outpouring of the Spirit that happens in Pentecost. But yet again, so were the Persians. They're distinct, but they're ultimately blended into one.

Now, why do I bring that up? Here is where Elam was during that time. You see Persia, Parthia, and the Medes. So the Bible mentions the Medes, the Persians, but then the Elamites. But all of that is then ultimately absorbed in the Persian Empire. Now when did the Persian Empire cease to exist? The Persian Empire goes into the 7th century. In 651 is when, because of internal strife within the Persian Empire, it was greatly weakened and now we have the rise of another ideology: Islam.

Islam, which according to its supposed history was born in 571 or 570 AD depending on when you look at the life of Mohammed. But that's not really when he claimed. He claimed that in 610 AD, he got a revelation in a cave, of course he first believed he was demon-possessed, and that revelation ultimately becomes the so-called revelation of Islam. By 651, Islam conquers Persia. No more Persian Empire.

But Persians were not Muslims. Persians were not Arabs. Persians did not speak Arabic. And Persians did not follow Islam; they were Zoroastrian. They had their own distinct religion. Throughout from 651 on, the Persian identity persists even though Islam has conquered it and subjugated many in the Persian Empire to Islam.

Now I want to take you very briefly to more modern history where my story comes in. Because in 1941, you had the last empire, Persian Empire that was sort of still around, and that was called the Pahlavi Dynasty. The Pahlavi Dynasty was named after Reza Shah, which is the first Pahlavi, which came into power. But he was then overthrown in 1941 by a communist infiltration into Iran.

An Anglo, meaning the West, joined with the Soviet Union, with the communists from Russia, they took over Iran and they overthrew the grandfather of the guy on the screen. Reza Pahlavi was the Shah of Iran at the time that my dad was in the Iranian military and served under the Shah. My dad named me after the Shah. That's what the first part of my name means. S-H-A-H means a king.

So this is part of kind of my history. But his father was deposed at a very young age through some outside interference. He comes to power and remains in power until 1979 when the United States of America betrays Iran under Jimmy Carter. Iran under the Shah, under this Shah, Reza Pahlavi—remember the Shah is a title, it means the king. Reza Pahlavi was a part of the Pahlavi Dynasty. Under this ruler, Iran begins to see tremendous freedom, tremendous prosperity. In 1963, Reza Pahlavi leads what's called the White Revolution, where he intentionally says, we want to eradicate this Islamic influence and take Iran back to its Persian history.

This was not only seen as a threat by the Muslims or the Islamic clerics that were inside Iran, but it was also seen as a threat by the West. Particularly when he nationalized Iran's oil. That was when it all started going sideways because at that point, over 85 percent of Iran's oil revenue was going outside the country. He said, that's not right, we should use it for our own people. He nationalized the oil and then the globalists turned against him. They began to work against his removal.

Fast forward, Jimmy Carter gets elected. My dad was a liaison officer in the Iranian army with the US army. He used to come to the states several times a year or go to other parts of the world and do joint training exercises. When Jimmy Carter became president, all that got cut off. From that moment forward, everything changed in Iran. They began to work to undermine the Shah's government.

The Marxists—I'll talk about this a little bit tonight again, if you heard me back in November when I was here I shared this a little bit too—the Marxist communists were well-infiltrated in Iran and they worked with the Muslims, that red-green axis again, to work to overthrow the Shah. The difference was, instead of it being a Marxist communist revolution, it became known as an Islamic revolution because obviously they claimed Iran was majority Muslim. In fact, at the time of the coup, they claimed Iran was 98 percent Muslim at that time of the population.

But the Iran that I remember, this is the Iran that I remember: westernized, freedom, prosperous. Women had equal rights. My mom became a schoolteacher out of that era of those rights. Women were becoming nurses, doctors, lawyers, engineers. All of this prosperity, the wealth. Iran had one of the largest militaries in the world. They were the wealthiest nation at that time in the Middle East.

By the way, in 1979, Saudi Arabia was mostly desert. Qatar was a desert wasteland. Oman and the United Arab Emirates were mostly desert. It didn't exist to what it is today. It's all because of the oil revenue that they are now quote "influential countries" like Qatar that influences us to the tune of several billion dollars a year in our media and our academia and has three trillion dollars of investments in America, but that investment obviously comes with strings.

All of this changed because, again, there were hardline clerics inside Iran that were still trying to impose Islam. This was the guy that they got behind, his name was Khomeini, Ruhollah Khomeini. He had been exiled by the Shah. The Shah could have executed him for treason, but instead he exiled him and kicked him out of the country. He was in France until the United States of America under Jimmy Carter sided with him.

When they brought Khomeini back, the Shah was outside the country getting medical treatment for cancer. They claimed that he was kicked out; no, he left the country for cancer. They committed the coup. They had already begun to infiltrate—that's why my dad took early retirement from the military because he was seeing that the United States was sending over military personnel or civilian personnel to inform our military, if the people revolt against the Shah, do not resist them.

A percentage of the military, the Navy, the Army, the Air Force, defected and supported this guy coming back to Iran on February 1st, 1979. We fled late December 1978 because my dad got us out just before all this happened in the nick of time. We had left everything behind, caught one of the last commercial flights, and fled Iran because we saw all the uprisings that were happening, a lot of it orchestrated.

Now, why do I bring this guy up? Because when people ask me, why does Iran matter in America? Why should we even care about Iran? Why are we even over there? Well, we'll talk about that just in a second. But here's one of the reasons. Because the same ideology that was governing this evil man, Mr. Khomeini, who by the way claimed he was the Messiah.

He claimed he was the Imam Mahdi in the Shiite version, what we call the "Twelvers", where they believe that they're going to hasten the coming of their Messiah the more they cause chaos and the more they fight against the great satans, including us by the way. On day one of this Islamic regime, they declared America their enemy. They've been our enemy for 47 years, the regime. So I don't know when people say, "What has Iran done to us?" That's a disconnect from reality. Where have you been the last 50 years?

Khomeini ran as a Marxist. He ran as a socialist Marxist. He ran by promising people in Iran free things. You're going to have free healthcare, free housing, free education, free transportation. The Shah's decadent, we hate capitalism, we hate decadence. Does that sound familiar? So when people ask me, how would you describe Khomeini today? Here's how I describe Khomeini today.

That's why Zoran Mamdani is dangerous because he ran exactly as Khomeini did on the same principles, on the same values, on the same agenda. He's just a little bit younger, he's a little bit better looking, he's a little bit more suave, but he's the same guy. And by the way, he is also a Shiite Twelver Muslim. He believes in the same eschatology as Khomeini did. This is why it's so dangerous what's going on in America.

Now you guys know a little bit of the story after 1979, right? Immediately they declared war, they killed their own people, they killed a lot of their top leadership. Some of my dad's friends who were higher ranking than him were executed. Of course, November 4th, 1979, they stormed the US Embassy, took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days until Ronald Reagan became president.

Reagan actually said in the summer of 1980 that the betrayal of Iran and the Shah of Iran by Jimmy Carter was one of the worst egregious foreign policy actions the United States has ever taken in betraying an ally. Iran was an ally of America. Iran was a supporter of Israel at that time, the Shah.

The hostages came home, but what happened? Iran continued to kill its own people, continued to kill Americans, continued to then form all their proxies that they've had throughout the world, including in South America, including in Mexico. They've worked with the cartel, they've worked with Venezuela, they've worked to influence America. They have mosques that are supporting the Iranian regime right here in Houston.

Shiite mosques that are here in Houston supporting, mourning recently the death of Ali Khamenei. By the way, Khamenei was the guy who took over for Khomeini. They thought Khomeini was the Messiah. Problem was he died in 1989, so that kind of messed that up because, if you're the Messiah, you're not supposed to die, right? Khamenei takes over from 1989 until he was taken out in the strikes in February of this year.

As we pray for Iran, I'm going to tell you just a little bit about what happened and then we've got to get into the prophecy part of it. But this is the backstory because again, you're not praying for Iran, you're praying for Persia. You're praying for the Persian people. Since 1979, no US president has stood with them. No US president was willing to say we stand and support the Iranian people in the right to liberation, freeing themselves.

One other element people also kind of ask me sometimes because there seems to be a disconnect between the clerics that have run Iran since 1979, which by the way when they took over Iran, they immediately tore up the constitutional monarchy that was under the Shah and they set up an Islamic theocracy. Iran is one of two countries on the planet that is 100 percent theocratic. It's an Islamic theocratic government.

They have a president, they have a parliament; none of that matters because all that matters is what the clerics say. It is what the Islamic religious clerics decree that is the final say. That's what a theocracy looks like. By the way, isn't that what we came out of 250 years ago? We came out of a theocracy, correct? Everyone should be nodding their heads if you don't know your US history. The reign of kings, we came out of a theocracy to form a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy. Amen?

No president had stood up. Since 1979, there's been many times the Iranian people have stood up to try to overthrow this regime. By the way, these are all Arab Muslims who took over. Khomeini was from India like Mamdani. They also have that in common. Mamdani was born in Uganda, both his parents are Indian. They're both socialist Marxists.

Khomeini was from India but he was Arab. Khamenei is not from Iran, he's not Persian. We know that because recently on July 4th when they had the funeral for him, you know where they are burying him? Not in Iran, in Iraq, because he's an Arab. He's not Persian. They took over Iran, they conquered the people.

Many uprisings. The people are disarmed, they have no way of defending their rights, and they get killed. 2022, the Life Freedom Woman movement with the arrest of Mahsa Amini, the young woman who was beaten and killed, that brought a lot of attention, a lot of protests from inside the country. But December of last year, we saw major uprisings happening and all of us knew something is different. We've never seen anything like this, even 1979 which was not a revolution, it was a coup.

The people went to the streets. For the first time, a US president spoke out and said, "Take over your institutions, help is on the way." Unfortunately, help did not go, did not arrive. On January 8th and January 9th, millions of Iranians were in the street, protests in every province, every city in Iran. Largest we've ever seen, all saying one thing: down with the dictators. And they were chanting one name: the name of the son of the Shah.

They were chanting, "Pahlavi will return." They want the Persian dynasty, they want the Persian Empire, they want their Persian identity. They don't want to be known as Muslims, they don't want to be known as Islamic. But unfortunately, America didn't help. The White House recently revised their numbers up to 52,000, but we believe that number is between 85,000 to 90,000. On three days when the regime blacked out.

I'm of the opinion that if the United States had not meddled last year in June of 2025 when Israel launched Operation Rising Lion themselves, many of us believe that that would have been successful in dismantling this regime. Because Israel has many assets inside Iran for many decades. They have incredible intelligence, which I believe the US doesn't unless Israel shared it with them. But the United States intervened. Trump told them, "Stop, don't do anymore," and gave the regime a lifeline.

The regime went to China and got satellite blocking technology as one of the things they got besides weapons from Russia and China and they went in there and they blocked. This time around in January of 2026, as the people are protesting and there's all these—every time Reza Pahlavi posted something, it was getting 80 million views and he was telling the people on this night go into the street, on this hour chant this. And they were doing it until there was a blackout.

The regime blacked out internet, satellite, any ability for news to come in or go out. Our hearts sank because we knew exactly what that meant: they were going to start killing people. The White House just upped their numbers from 40,000 to 45,000, now they're claiming 52,000 were killed in two days. But all we saw after the blackout, the only images that were coming out were body bags after body bags after body bags after body bags. A massacre of its own people. That's what you call an attempt at genocide.

It wasn't just old people, it was young people. Because Iran is very unique. Do you know that over 50 percent of the Iranian population are under the age of 30? It is one of, if not the youngest population on the planet. Yet these people were chanting the name of the Shah. What's crazy to me is they weren't even born when the Shah was governing. How do they know? They know because they studied their history. Something we should do in America. Amen?

They killed and they killed and they killed. Children, teenagers. They didn't care. If you were out there, you were a target. It wasn't just the regime, it was their foreign mercenaries. They brought in 5,000 Arab mercenaries from Iraq, from Afghanistan, from Pakistan to do their killing. They factored that some within the regime would not kill their own people, which is what we need to hope for now for the defections.

If you were fortunate enough to survive being shot at, you went to the hospital and then they came and killed you there. They went into the hospital and shot people point-blank. They went into the hospital and tortured and raped and killed nurses and tortured doctors who were helping the people. Yet the world was silent. The media was silent.

These are the same people that were chanting "Israel is committing genocide" all day long, but they were silent about what was going on in Iran. Not one word. The Hollywood elite, the leftist media, and many Evangelicals. Many Evangelicals who I was watching for two and a half years put on Facebook and social media that Israel is an apartheid state, Israel is a terrorist state, Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Yet not one word about the Iranians and not one word about the Iranian Christians.

Iran has the fastest growing church numerically on the planet. They estimate today that of the 93 million people, potentially five million are Christians. That's underground, under great persecution. Not only were they silent about the killing of the Iranian people, they were silent about the killing of their brothers and sisters in Christ. You'd think at least they could have gone out there and said, "We're praying for the persecuted Christians in Iran."

Because of the now—again, we believe that number over those two days was 86,000 to 90,000 just those two days. Not alone how many they've killed since and how many they've executed since. We don't know. Why? Because there's still a blackout. They're still blocking information from coming and going. Internet is intermittent. They were tracking people who had satellite. If you had a Starlink because Elon Musk had opened Starlink for the Iranian people, it didn't matter because the regime would use IP detectors and detect IPs and go in there and either get the satellites or arrest or worse kill the people who had satellites to try to get information in and out.

Yet you know who wasn't silent? The millions of Iranians outside Iran. About 11 million all over the world. In Los Angeles here, in Vancouver, Canada, in Toronto, millions of Iranians. This was in Germany. Millions of Iranians came out in support of the Iranian people. By the way, you notice their flag is different? The flag is not the Islamic Republic flag. The flag is with the lion and the sun and the sword; that's the Persian flag. They're trying to tell you something.

They came out and they've continued to come out. They've continued to be a voice for the Iranian people because they know that the message for Iran is a message for America. How does this matter? It matters to America. By the way, they were only chanting one name: Reza Pahlavi. That's the son of the Shah. Javid Shah, they chanted, "Javid Shah!" That means long live the Shah.

Now I want to switch gear here because biblical history, genealogical history, all that modern history is leading us up to Bible prophecy. Iran is in Bible prophecy, not just in the past. I've covered with you the stuff that's in the Bible in the past. But I want to share with you that I believe there's two clear prophecies that are for the future. Starting with Ezekiel chapter 38.

Most of us are familiar obviously with Ezekiel chapter 38, right? I mean Dr. Woods has done a brilliant teaching of chapter 38, the Gog Magog war, the nations that are involved in that war. Nations that are mentioned by name and one of those nations that's mentioned by name is Persia. The Bible mentions Persia as being an entity coming against Israel in chapter 38. Going back to what we talked about earlier, for that to happen, there has to be an Israel.

What happens in chapter 37 of Ezekiel? The rebirth of Israel. What's the dry bones? Israel, it tells you. The dry bones come back to life, correct? That's Israel, part one. Part two, God puts His breath in them. Some would argue that hasn't fully happened yet because that means that they come to salvation and trusting Him as the true God, as of course in the Messiah Jesus Christ, Yeshua.

Nevertheless, Ezekiel 38 talks about a future battle that I don't know anybody that believes has happened unless you're part of the camp where you think everything is in the past like the Preterist. But anybody that's dispensational believes this is a future battle that's going to happen and these nations are going to gather: potentially Russia, certainly Turkey, because Turkey is mentioned at least four times in that prophecy. Persia is mentioned.

Depending on where you look—if you look at Magog, for example, Gog Magog, if you look at Magog in the table of nations, part of Magog today is Central Asia, today it's mostly Muslim countries. But back then, during the time of Ezekiel, part of Magog was western China. There's been some speculation, could China be a part of that coalition that comes against Israel?

But here's the interesting thing. Remember, the Bible says in Ezekiel 38, particularly in verse 10 and 14, there's an interesting condition that has to be met for it to happen. Because it says Israel, not only are they a nation again—okay, so that had to happen, right?—but they're also in the land and it says they're in unwalled villages. There's no bars, there's no checkpoints. They're in security.

Question: Is Israel in security today? Can they put their guard down? No, they're fighting multiple fronts. Hamas in the south, Hezbollah in the north in Lebanon. They've got Syria now, Mr. Al-Assad. They've got Jordan to contend with, they've got Iran to contend with, they've got the Houthis. They have Turkey that says they want to invade Israel and we just gave them F-35s. Doesn't sound like a good idea.

But it says that they have to be in unwalled villages. Again, no doubt some part of Persia is involved. But here is part of again—and there's no doubt in my mind that this is future, this has not happened yet, this is going to happen. It tells us that later in verse 18 and 23 that this is going to be a future fulfillment.

However, here's the thing to look at. What's interesting is what was Persia at the time of Ezekiel's prophecy? This is a map of the near time of Ezekiel's prophecy. Look at the size of the Persian Empire. It wasn't just modern-day Iran. It went all the way to Turkey, to parts of Western Europe, or Eastern Europe I should say. You had obviously Iraq, Jordan, modern-day Israel. You had parts of Arabia.

Then look at this map later around 500 BC. This is including today Pakistan, Afghanistan, again northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt. It's massive. What's interesting is outside of modern-day Iran, something significant has happened. Because the problem is, modern-day Iran, more than 60 percent of the population support Israel. Iran has the lowest anti-Semitism numbers in the entire Middle East.

There's a disconnect there because in one sense the regime is vehemently against Israel and has been since day one. America was the great satan, Israel was the little satan. They've been against Israel and they actually have a unit called the Al-Quds Force, Q-U-D-S, which is a force dedicated to the retaking of Israel. Now they just activated their Quds Force for assassination. Number one on the list Bibi Netanyahu, number two on the list President Donald Trump. Lindsey Graham was on that list, by the way, before he quickly dies after coming back from Ukraine of a heart attack.

The Iranian regime makes a Lego AI—if you haven't seen that, it's out there. I'm not kidding you. They made Lego reels, AI Lego, like Legos you play with, taking responsibility for his assassination. Claiming in the Lego that they were behind it, that one of their operatives was behind it. Whether that's true or not, I'm just telling you what they're doing.

Going back to this prophecy of Ezekiel 38, there's no doubt that Persia is part of it. God's word said they're part of it, some part of Persia is part of it. But I'm just trying to show you, Persia was way bigger than Iran today. It was way, way bigger. All of the other countries that were in the Persian Empire at the time of His prophecy are against Israel.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, again Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, all these other areas, Egypt, are against Israel. The Al-Quds Force, the reason they call them Al-Quds is because the word Jerusalem is not in the Quran. They claim that it's theirs, but it's not listed one time. They have another kind of rough term which is Quds, which they kind of claim is that term even though it's not Jerusalem, and the purpose of that is that they have to liberate Jerusalem.

Why? Because in Islam it teaches that their Messiah, whether you have the Sunni side that believes in the Mahdi or you have the Shiite that believes in the 12th Imam being the Mahdi, either way they believe the Mahdi will come back to Jerusalem to rule and reign for Islam. The biggest problem for Islam is the Jewish people in Jerusalem. As long as Jews are occupying Jerusalem—and this goes back to what we talked about this morning, remember Zechariah 12 and Zechariah 14, all the nations will gather against Jerusalem in the last days.

They want Jerusalem because they believe their eschatology is based upon it. As long as the Jews are there, Islam has a problem. As long as Jews are occupying, it means Islam is false. Think about that. Moving on. So people ask, "Shahram, what are you saying?" I'm saying some element of that landmass of Persia is going to come against Israel.

Does that mean it's going to be modern-day Iran? And does that mean it's going to be all of modern-day Iran? Because here's why. There is another prophecy in the book of Jeremiah chapter 49 that some of us believe has not been fulfilled yet. Now there are some Bible scholars who believe it's already in the past. I do not, because of what God's word says. I'm going to read to you the last two verses of Jeremiah 49 so that you can see this prophecy specifically against Elam.

Remember we established, what is Elam? Ancient Persia, right? We already established that. If you look at the image on the screen, you'll see the portion that southwestern portion of modern Iran is where Elam is. That is where right now over the last couple of weeks they've been attacking. Because that's part of that port, there's a port there called Bandar Abbas in that region or close to that region.

You can kind of see where that narrows, that's that Strait of Hormuz where the Iranians claimed ownership of it and they're blocking all the stuff. Elam is where Daniel, the prophet Daniel, was buried in Elam. Again, the story of Esther, Susa, the city of Shoushan is in Elam. So it's very strategic.

What does Jeremiah 49 say? Judgment against Elam. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah to prophesy against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. "Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, their foremost of their might." We know that to be allegory for what? Their military, their might. "Elam is going to be scattered to the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, scatter them towards all those winds. There should be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies and before those who seek their life. I will bring the disaster upon them, my fierce anger," says the Lord, "and I will send the sword against them until I have consumed them."

If you stop there at verse 37, you go, "Oh Shahram, that's probably in the past at some point." That's what some people say, this was past history. Now here's the challenge. Let's look at verse 38 and 39. Because something remarkable is about to happen. Something remarkable is about to happen that is historic and could go back to this symbiotic relationship between Elam and Arphaxad. The symbiotic relationship between the descendants of Elam and the descendants of Arphaxad.

It says, "I will set My throne in—" Wait a second. The Lord just said He is destroying Elam, breaking their bow, scattering them, they're going to be dismayed before their enemies. Then He turns around and says, "I'm going to set My throne in Elam and will destroy from there the king and the princes," says the Lord. God is going to establish His throne in Elam. That's never happened in the past. Never was His throne there.

Here's the other incredible thing. Where does the Bible say God's going to set up His throne when He returns? Jerusalem. Do you know this is the only other place in the Bible that God says He's going to set up His throne somewhere other than Jerusalem? And it happens to be in Elam. It happens to be this symbiotic relationship between Elam and Israel. But I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

Why do we know this is future? Why do I believe it's future? Because verse 39: "But it shall come to pass in the latter—" or some translations say "last days"—"that I will bring back the captives of Elam," says the Lord. He's not done with them. In the last days, He's bringing them back. How can you interpret this as not the last days, but other verses if it says the last days we go, "Well, that's talking about the last days," but this is not talking about the last days? Or it's already been fulfilled. I believe this is in the future.

What are the scenarios? Shahram, how's this going to fit? Persia is mentioned in Ezekiel 38 as an enemy of Israel, but yet God's going to break the bow of Elam but then He's going to bring them back. When do you believe that's going to happen? In my opinion, when does He come to set up His throne? After the Tribulation, correct? After the seven-year Tribulation, where He comes to rule and reign for a thousand years.

At that time, wouldn't it make sense that if there was to be another throne, it would happen at that time where at the end of the Tribulation He's going to restore Elam, bring their captives back, and set up His throne in Elam? There's also of course the outstanding land covenant going back to Abraham, which was in Genesis 15 and Exodus 23, which gave Israel land they've never possessed.

That has got to be in the Kingdom because they've never even come close to possessing even during the time of Joshua. It was only a sliver of the land because God says from the River Euphrates to the River of Egypt they're going to have that land. They've never even come close to that land. Nobody can ever show me where they ever occupied that land. That Abrahamic Covenant was a future land covenant.

The bottom line is we're dealing with Iran today. What are you going to say? What do you think is going to happen? Here's three scenarios. Number one scenario: this regime in Iran collapses. It will only collapse if we stop negotiating with it. You cannot negotiate with evil, you cannot bargain with them, you cannot make deals with them. We've already seen.

In fact, that MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding, lasted hours, not days or weeks, hours. Because the Iranians lied. Islam lies because they can make treaties and break treaties. It's called Hudna. It's a lie of treaty. Make a deal knowing you're going to break it. Make a deal to buy time, make a deal to regroup, make a deal to get something out of it. Because remember, at the point where they made that deal, the US had imposed a blockade on the strait and they were losing half a billion dollars a day in oil revenue.

The Saudis, who came and I think I have an image of this, they're losing money, all these Arab Emirate countries are losing money. That's why they want America to make a deal, number one. Number two, they want America to make a deal with the Iranian regime because they can't tolerate a free Iran. Because if Iran liberates, Reza Pahlavi said not only is he going to make a peace treaty with Israel, but he will sign what's called the Cyrus Accord with Israel.

So here's one scenario. Scenario one: nothing happens. This regime stays in power, Islam keeps control of Iran or quote "Persia," and at some point in the future they will come against Israel and join that coalition, only to be defeated. So that's scenario one. That could happen.

Scenario two: what if God liberates the Iranian people for a short period of time? Why? Because remember the condition in Ezekiel 38: Israel has to be in unwalled villages in safety and security. Quick second question: do you think Israel can ever be at peace as long as this regime in Iran is breathing? When their expressed purpose is to wipe out the Jews from Jerusalem? No. So that's why I tend to think something has got to happen for a period of time. Because remember, we know we are going into a time of false peace.

What is President Trump going to do after he leaves office? Go into rocking in a retirement home? No. He's going to run the border of peace. He's the head of the border of peace and Jared Kushner is his vice-head, his son-in-law. They wrote it up so that it stays within the family. I'm not saying whatever that means, I'm just saying the Bible has told us that we are going into a time of false peace.

Something has to happen for the Daniel 9 condition to be met where Israel will sign that, affirming that covenant with the many for that final seven-year period, which has to include Iran. It has to include these Arab nations. Something's got to happen. But I'm telling you, every one of these deals right now is betraying America, is betraying the Iranian people, and it's betraying Israel. It's not getting anywhere and it's not going to be worth the paper it's written on.

Meanwhile, the regime, as I said, July 4th, decided to have Khamenei's funeral on July 4th. Not an accident. As we're celebrating 250 years as a country, they're out there with signs saying "Kill Trump". They're paid activists, they're paid protesters in Iran. Recently this is what they did: now they're blockading the Red Sea.

The Houthis, which are a front for Iran, are now—the Saudis took 75 percent of their oil exports and they moved it from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea trying to get their oil out, and now the Houthis are blocking that narrow strait on behalf of Iran. We made a huge mistake as a nation not understanding this. Because again, when Israel attacked Iran last year, when they started the attack, they attacked in the south, they attacked in the port of Bandar Abbas. They went after that.

Anybody with half a brain would know the Iranians were going to use the Strait of Hormuz as a bargaining chip because they've done it before. They've shut down the strait, they put mines, they try to choke off the world's oil. Because the moment you and I have to pay two dollars more at the gas pump or pay more for groceries, we're going to say, "Enough, enough, we surrender." With all due respect, right?

A free Iran is a problem. So scenario number two: Iran liberates for a time, and then the leadership of Iran goes along with the false peace including, in my opinion, the Abraham Accords. Then the Antichrist comes to the surface, comes to the forefront, and then you have all the rest of that that's going to be fulfilled.

Scenario number three, and this is a real problem right now for Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah. Because even if he is accepted in Iran, you still have about eight percent of the population that are hardcore Muslims that will never accept him. But you have 92 percent of the population that will never accept this regime. They'll die as they are and they'll never accept it. No deal, nothing, period. There is no negotiation for the majority of the Iranian people.

It will not obviously be in the best interest of America when we understand the influence operation of the Iranian regime along with the Arab nations like Qatar on our elections and here. The number of Shiite mosques you have in Houston here is growing, and the Iranian influence right here in Houston is growing. The regime has a foothold here in Houston with clerics and mosques that are supportive of the Islamic Republic. Why they're operating, why they're open, why they're not being investigated, that's crazy.

Here's the third scenario. Third scenario: Iran breaks up. Just like the Soviet Union did. Iran breaks up into several parts because there are different groups: you have the Kurds, the Baluchi, the people from Lorestan, Persians, and Arabs. You have a lot of different people groups in Iran and one of the things that Pahlavi is fighting right now is keeping it all together, saying, "If we come, we want a unified Iran." Great goal, but it could break. What if Iran breaks and Elam breaks off of the rest of Iran?

And somehow that gets separated so Elam doesn't participate. I'm just telling you, there are different scenarios. I have no doubt that some aspect of Persia is involved in the Gog Magog war, but I also believe that Jeremiah 49 is yet to be fulfilled and God is dealing. Here's why a free Iran is a threat to the world. Number one, Iran is becoming un-Islamized, which is what we need in America.

Iran now, two years ago, even the clerics themselves admitted: of the 75,000 mosques in Iran, over 50,000 have shut down because mosque attendance now is under eight percent in Iran. Amen. Remember I said 1979, 98 percent identified as Muslim? This was a study done in 2021—it's old, I tell you it's higher than this—but only 32 percent of Iranians identify as Muslim now. They're either turning to secularism, Zoroastrianism, or they're turning to Christianity.

I believe that Iran has the potential to become a Christian nation. In fact, Reza Pahlavi has said so. He doesn't want a Christian theocracy, he wants a constitutional monarchy with pluralism, but he spoke at Liberty University at their convocation and said, "We are monitoring the underground church movement, it's a powerful movement and Iran has the potential to become a Christian nation."

What if Iran can open up for a short period of time, whatever that time is before that final—God's will will be done, God's word will be fulfilled, no doubt about it. But what if that window of opportunity, even if it's a few years, where Iran can open? I think Iran can not only win its own country, but it can send the gospel out because that's how bold the underground churches are in Iran.

So when we say pray for Persia, we're not just talking about their geography or their political situation. We're praying for the churches. This is why the church shouldn't have been silent when Iranians were being massacred because Christians were being massacred. Just like the church shouldn't be silent about Nigeria, Sudan, Mozambique, Congo, Pakistan, China, Syria, and everywhere else where Christians right now are being murdered predominantly by Muslims.

Yet we're sitting in America talking about Islamophobia. It's sickening. We're not praying for the underground churches, we're not praying for our believers in Christ. If they can have one message, brothers and sisters, for us, it'd be: America, don't make the mistake we made 47 years ago. Don't think it can't happen. Texas, don't think it can't happen here.

That same red-green axis is at work right here in Texas. Don't think it can—they're just a minority, they have no power. That's what the Iranian people thought. They thought this small percentage of clerics in Iran, this small percentage of these fanatical Muslims, they're not going to take over Iran. With outside help, they did. 47 years not only the Iranian people are paying the price, the world has been paying the price.

If Iran becomes free, it's going to be free from Islam. That's why it's a threat to the Arab nations. That's why none of the Arab nations support regime change or liberating Iran from this regime, because they know what it would mean. If Iran becomes free, it becomes Islam-free. It unshackles itself from Islam and any kind of governance by Islam. Now all other Muslims and other countries are going to be watching and going, "Wait a second, if they did it, we want to do it."

Turkey could go back to becoming more secular. Egypt could go back to becoming more secular. Pakistan could go back to becoming more secular. Jordan. So you see, it's an existential threat right now. That's why this all matters. Ultimately, of course, it matters to Israel, because we're supposed to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, we're supposed to pray for them and their protection, and as long as this regime in Iran is there, there is no scenario in my opinion where Israel is going to be at peace.

It matters for America. This title today, "Iran in Bible Prophecy: Lessons for America and the Church." What is the lesson for us? It can happen here, it is happening here, and we've got to rise up right now. The church of Jesus Christ has got to rise up right now. But I hope I've shown you today that the Bible speaks on this. It's in prophecy in the past and in the future.

The things that are happening, God is still sovereign. So let us just pray. Lord, Your will be done. I don't know the scenarios, there's maybe more than three scenarios, but whatever it is, number one: we know God's word will come to pass. Number two: let His will be done. Number three: we've got to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We've got to pray for the persecuted believers.

We've got to pray, and we've got to have a much higher level of boldness in this nation. We've got to have much more urgency for the gospel, much more urgency for sharing the gospel, especially with these Muslims, because I'm telling you, no political solution is going to stop what they're doing other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, other than God's intervention.

Come tonight if you want to hear more about what's going on, the Battle for Texas. The Battle for Texas is the Battle for America, by the way. They see Texas as the pinnacle of what they're doing in America. They believe if they win Texas, this red-green axis, this Islamic movement, they've won America. You guys are like front and center of this battle. So please come tonight at six o'clock.

If it's okay, let me close in prayer. Thank you guys for listening today, thank you for praying for all of this. Of course pray for wisdom for the President, pray for discernment within the church, and pray that we would return back to God's word and return back to the truth.

Father, thank You for today and for this time. I pray You would again continue to anoint, Lord, use this word as You see fit. Lord, anything that is not of You let it fall to the ground, but Lord, that which is of You let it remain and take root and motivate us to urgency for our freedoms, urgency for the gospel, urgency for the truth, urgency for God's word, urgency to declare that truth to this world that is dying.

Lord, we thank You that You're sovereign, we thank You that You're in control. I pray a blessing on each one here today, Lord, that as they leave that You would minister to them in Jesus' mighty name I pray. To all this we say, Lord, come soon, Lord Jesus, come soon. You're coming soon as the Lord of lords, as the King of kings, but first for Your bride. You will first come for Your bride to remove Your bride from the wrath that is to come, from the judgments that are to come.

Lord, then You will come again to rule, to reign, to set up Your throne, and perhaps You're also going to set up Your throne in Elam as You are in Jerusalem, the eternal kingdom. Lord, thank You for that symbiotic relationship, and thank You that You have called many Persians to stand with Israel and many people from Israel to stand with Persia. I pray we can do so in Jesus' mighty name. Amen and amen. Thank you guys, God bless you guys. I think you're doing one more hymn. I'm so sorry. I will get myself off the stage. All right.