Tracking developments in Iran.
President Trump’s speech to the United Nations this week heightened tensions in East Asia, when he declared that the USA will “totally destroy” North Korea if US interests are threatened by the rogue state led by Kim Jong-un.1 The rest of the world has watched anxiously as Kim’s antics have threatened global peace, while Japan has protested vehemently as rockets have been fired over its territory.
But could all this attention to North Korea be something of a red herring, diverting the eyes of the world away from a much greater and more imminent threat: Iran?
For alert, Bible-believing Christians, this should come as no surprise. After all, it is Iran, not North Korea, that is named in Scripture as a key player in the end times drama set to unfold around Israel.
A Vibrant History
The region we know today as Iran has a long and fascinating history stretching right back to the early chapters of Genesis.2 The Iranian plateau was first dominated by the Elamites (descended from Noah’s son Shem), who were eventually subsumed into larger empires, including those of the Assyrians and Babylonians. When Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great in 539 BC, the first Persian empire rose to prominence for around 200 years, becoming one of the largest empires in history.
‘Persia’, as the region became known,3 did not always set itself against God’s people Israel. Cyrus the Great, for instance, released the Jews from Babylonian captivity and allowed them to return to their land. The sparing of the Jewish people from the genocidal plans of Haman (perhaps a type of the Ayatollahs to come), as told in the Book of Esther, took place under the rule of the Persian King Xerxes nearly a century later. And Nehemiah oversaw the re-building of Jerusalem’s walls thanks to the support of Xerxes’ successor, Artaxerxes.
‘Persia’ has not always set itself against God’s people Israel.
After the Persian empire was overtaken by Alexander the Great, the region passed from one empire to another until the rise of Islam in the 7th Century AD. This blotted out the territory’s pagan religious heritage,4 consolidating it under the distinctive influence of Shia Islam which has, for the most part, dominated it ever since.
The Making of Modern Iran
Fast forward to the start of the 20th Century, and the Iranian plateau became a battle-ground as Britain and Russia competed for its oil reserves. After World War I Iran became a sovereign, secular nation, changing its name formally from ‘Persia’ in 1935.
The Islamic Revolution of 1979.Iran fought alongside the Allies against Germany and Russia during World War II, and afterwards entered into a long-term, positive relationship with the USA and Western Europe, exchanging oil for military and economic aid. It was this positive relationship with the West, and Iran’s increasing modernisation and secularisation, however, that fomented deep criticism from Islamic clerics, leading to an Islamist uprising in 1979.
The revolution, led by Ayatollah Khomeini (not to be confused with the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khameini), toppled the secular Shah, sieged the American embassy and replaced Western-friendly Iran with the fundamentalist Shia theocracy we see today. Iranian relations with the USA deteriorated rapidly as the US was recast as ‘The Great Satan’ and Israel ‘The Little Satan’. As its relations with the USA were upturned, so Iran’s connections with Russia also reversed – from bad to good. In fact, Iran has received long-term aid and investment from Russia since 1989.
From the 1980s onwards, Iran became involved in seeding anti-Semitic terrorism and has been outspoken about its intent to wipe Israel off the map (cf. Psalm 83:2, 4). It has even erected an audacious countdown clock in central Tehran giving Israel 25 years left to exist,5 whilst Iranian officials boasts that they could bring this deadline forward at any time. Last year a senior Iranian military commander threatened that Iran’s ballistic missiles, famously emblazoned with ‘Israel must be wiped off the earth’, could “raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes”.6
Iran’s positive relationship with the West collapsed after the Islamist uprising of 1979.
Iran’s Nuclear Capabilities
If Iran makes headlines in the West today, however, it is usually because of controversy surrounding its nuclear programme. It began developing nuclear capacity for peaceful purposes in the 1950s with US and Western European help. Following the 1979 revolution, these partnerships collapsed and Iran switched over to Russian expertise.
Soon after 2000, international suspicion was aroused that Iran’s nuclear activity may involve uranium enrichment for weapons. Investigations were followed by sanctions, but no amount of international pressure halted this activity.
Ayatollah Khameini, Iran's current Supreme Leader. See Photo Credits.In 2015, in a deal brokered by Obama, sanctions were eased in return for Iran’s agreement to “redesign, convert and reduce its nuclear facilities” and accept enhanced monitoring from external bodies.7 The deal was welcomed by most world leaders, except Israeli PM Netanyahu, who insisted that Iran could not be trusted and should be made to dismantle its nuclear facilities, not simply limit or convert them.
He declared at the time that "Such a deal would not block Iran’s path to the bomb. It would pave it"8 and assured the international community that safety would not be guaranteed until Iran’s regional aggression was curtailed and its vow to annihilate Israel rescinded. Indeed, only recently an Iranian official boasted that the country’s nuclear enrichment facilities could be back up and running in five days if the Obama deal is scrapped by President Trump.9
Greater Threat Than ISIS
Since the beginning of the 21st Century, therefore, a fascinating global picture has been emerging. Every day we seem to move closer to the war depicted in Ezekiel 38-39, which prophesies a ‘last days’ alliance between Russia, Iran, Ethiopia, Libya and Turkey coming against Israel and being utterly destroyed by Divine intervention.
Since the so-called ‘Arab spring’ of 2011, many Arab states have experienced instability or descended into civil war – yet Iran has been growing in power, investing in regional power struggles to its own advantage.10 Meanwhile, Israel has been watching with a wary eye.
Now, Iraq and Lebanon are acknowledged Iranian proxies11 and Syria lies in ruins. The American and European concern to eradicate ISIS will further clear the path for Iran’s ascendancy, with experts warning that this will present a far greater threat to global stability than ISIS ever did.
Every day we seem to move closer to the war depicted in Ezekiel 38-39.
Indeed, there is a growing Iranian presence around Israel’s borders, with the US recently agreeing to allow Iran-sponsored militias within 10km of the Golan Heights.12 Iran is making no secret of its agenda, its flag joining a host of others on a hill overlooking Israel’s northernmost town, Metulla. Nearby, a sinister poster depicting Ayatollah Khomeini’s face glowering over the Dome of the Rock reads “We are coming” in Hebrew and Arabic.13
Meanwhile, strong connections exist between Iran and North Korea, as journalist Melanie Phillips notes: “Iranian scientists and military brass have been reliably tracked to North Korea inspecting or witnessing its nuclear weapons programme development; and…almost certainly Tehran has outsourced some if not much of [its] programme to Pyongyang.”14 She argues that the current brouhaha with North Korea is actually a ‘dry run’ for Iran, testing out international responses for signs of weakness.
Where Next?
The biblical jigsaw puzzle is on the way to completion, but we are not there yet. Iran still has a complex relationship with Russia, which has its own regional agendas and is still open to working with Israel. Furthermore, the prophesied alliance with Turkey is yet to materialise.
However, the general trend in the region is clear to see: unchecked Iran consolidating its power, investing in strategic military operations and alliances to extend its reach westwards, obsessed with annihilating Israel. With all the fuss about North Korea – which may or may not yet prove to be a red herring – let’s not ignore the word of Scripture being fulfilled before our very eyes.
References
1 Read the full transcript here.
2 The historical information in this article owes a significant debt to Darrell Young’s 2004 survey of Iranian history, found here.
3 The name ‘Persia’ comes from the Greek ‘Persis’, a Hellenised form of ‘Pars’ (a region in southern Iran), whereas the term ‘Mede’ was used for those who settled in the centre and north of the region.
4 The region’s religious heritage involves a blend of the Zoroastrianism of the Medes and Persians and the Hellenistic religion of the Greeks. But Medes and Persians are mentioned in Acts 2:9 as being present at Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit – and so may well have been among the first Christians. Today, Christians in Iran make up a sizeable minority – though many are secret believers.
5 Iran Sets Up Clock Counting Down to Israel’s Destruction in 2040. United with Israel, 26 June 2017.
6 Iranian commander: We can destroy Israel 'in under 8 minutes'. Times of Israel, 22 May 2016.
7 Iran nuclear deal framework, Wikipedia.
8 Toosi, N and Gass, N. Netanyahu warns of nuclear arms race. Politico, 3 April 2015.
9 Iran could make weapons-grade uranium within 5 days, nuclear chief claims. Jerusalem Post, 23 August 2017.
10 For instance, Iran has been known to fund Shia militias to fight against ISIS (which is Sunni), whilst also funding ISIS terror attacks against civilians in the West. It is now reportedly recruiting ex-ISIS fighters out of Mosul into its own regime.
11 Last week former Israeli defence minister Moshe Ya’alon described Lebanon as “kidnapped by a terrorist organization [i.e. Hezbollah] operated by another country [i.e. Iran], but the reality is that the international community has become used to the world order and does not deal with it”.
12 Winer, S. US to let Iranian-backed militias within 10 km of Golan Heights — report. Times of Israel, 31 August 2017.
13 Frantzmann, S. Iranian flag joins array of enemy symbols planted on Lebanon border. Jerusalem Post, 28 June 2017.
14 Phillips, M. The Iranian symptom of the West's auto-immune disease. 4 September 2017.