In Iran, whose ancient kings etched freedom of religion into stone, today’s rulers raid living rooms for Bibles, surveil Jewish schools, and bulldoze Bahá’í cemeteries. The Islamic Republic is waging a war on the heritage of faith and freedom woven into the nation’s fabric since the time of Cyrus the Great. At the center of this assault lies its campaign against the Christian witness.

The Cyrus Cylinder, created at the direction of the Persian king in the 6th century BC, restored displaced peoples to their homes and affirmed the Jewish people’s right to worship. That act preserved a lineage that shaped Judeo-Christian values for centuries. America’s Founding Fathers, with many avid readers of the Cyropaedia, looked to Cyrus as a model. James Madison, drawing from principles pioneered by Cyrus, called religion “the conviction and conscience of every man,” and together with the Framers built a constitutional order to protect it.

Between these pillars runs a deep river of Iranian-Christian history too often forgotten, or actively erased.

Between these pillars runs a deep river of Iranian-Christian history too often forgotten, or actively erased.

The Acts of the Apostles records Parthians, Medes, and Elamites among the first to carry the Christian message east. Apostles and scholars built communities that translated knowledge and enriched Iran’s public life. Across conquests and upheavals, for nearly two millennia, Christianity persisted parallel to and intertwined with Iranian heritage itself. Orthodox and Catholic communities, rooted in the Early Church, flourished alongside a growing Evangelical population beginning in the 18th century. Together, they represented a bastion of liberty standing at the edge of Christendom.

Reza Shah Pahlavi, seeking to modernize Iran and unify its national identity, embraced the Persian Bible translation produced by Protestant missionaries. He found it a tool for spreading literacy and promoting the Persian language. Because Christianity had assimilated into Iranian society, its propagation was encouraged from the 1930s until the fall of the Pahlavi era.

The Islamic Republic has spent 46 years trying to reverse this truth. From Evangelist Rev. Hossein Soodmand, executed in 1990 for refusing to renounce Christianity, to a pregnant woman sentenced in March 2024 to 16 years for hosting a Bible study, Christians in Iran have been systematically persecuted. Earlier this year, armed agents raided a gathering of 80 worshippers in northern Iran and seized what they called “contraband.” The contraband was Bibles. (RELATED: Faith Under Fire: Persecution of the Church — At Home and Abroad)

In 2024 alone, at least 139 Christians were arrested for their faith. Ninety-six received a combined 263 years in prison and 37 years in exile — a nearly sixfold increase in sentencing length compared to 2023, despite even more arrests that year. The trend reflects harsher punishments. Coupled with the 127 percent year-over-year rise in Christian arrests in 2022, this reveals a parabolic escalation in crackdowns since 2021. (RELATED: Middle East Christians Face Choice of Extermination or Exodus)

But persecution does not end at church doors. Bahá’ís are stripped of property and barred from universities. Sufi dervishes are beaten and jailed. Zoroastrians are harassed for honoring ancestral rituals. Jews may live only within a narrow, muted communal life, so long as it is monitored.

Yet repression has not crushed belief; it has fueled it. Despite decades of raids and show trials, Iranians continue to seek meaning beyond the regime’s narrow dictates. Hundreds of thousands have been drawn to the Cross and the salvation of Jesus Christ.

If free thought is truly what the regime fears, we must counter it with ideas, not battalions. Marines in Tehran are not needed to honor Iran’s inheritance. What is needed is moral clarity, practical tools, and the courage to use both. Keep Iranians connected by enforcing rules that allow satellite internet into homes and phones. Punish persecutors: sanction Revolutionary Guard units, intelligence agents, judges, and prison wardens who target believers; deny them visas and seize their assets. Offer amnesty to conscripts who refuse unlawful orders to beat women, raid house churches, or smash shrines. Amplify the truth by putting victims’ names behind every diplomatic microphone.

None of this is “regime change from abroad.” It is what free nations do when a captive nation asks for help. The alternative is not stability. It is only the unstable status quo. The Islamic Republic will never be a reliable partner abroad. A democratic Iran, answerable to citizens who bear the cost of isolation, could be.

Cyrus won hearts because he trusted free people to live by their convictions. The Founding Fathers trusted the same and built a republic worthy of it. Iranians have not forgotten either legacy. Neither should we. If an ancient Persian cylinder could carry the language of liberty across millennia, surely modern democracies can carry it across a border. Let us move forward by looking back, and by standing with every Iranian whose conscience the regime cannot crush.

Dr. Saeed Ganji serves as president of the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI).

Steve Berger is a pastor and the founder and president of Ambassador Services International (ASI).

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