All eyes in the world today are on Iran, the Middle East, and that slender Strait of Hormuz. The world is holding its collective breath, wondering when the oil prices at the pump will begin to fall, and if Iran is willing to give in or stubbornly continue its pursuit of the nuclear finish line.
Iran’s dogged refusal to surrender, even in the face of the threat of catastrophic destruction, is evidence that it values its radical theology above everything else.
What we can see on the surface today in Iran is bad enough, but behind the physical war, the Bible tells us that there is a spiritual war raging in the Middle East, with Iran at the center of the enemy’s strategy to oppose Israel and create chaos in the region.
Iran is Satan’s sinister agent to try to destroy God’s covenant people and drive them from their land.
The book of Daniel tells us about demonic spiritual warfare 2,500 years ago, involving a high-ranking demon called the Prince of “Persia”—the ancient name for modern-day Iran. This dark, demonic overlord was in charge of controlling and influencing Persia and its leaders in Daniel’s day, holding sway over this consequential region.
Daniel’s ancient prophecy helps us gain insight into the invisible spiritual war that’s still raging today in modern Iran. After all, if there was a demonic Prince of Persia in 530 BC, we could be sure that the same territorial demon is behind what’s happening there today. This demonic force in Iran is stimulating and stirring their strategy and stubbornness, inspiring their ideology, aggravating their antisemitism, and activating their anger.
Ephesians 6:12 pulls back the veil, allowing us to peer into this unseen world, into this invisible army of evil spiritual forces: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
The Prince of Persia has not gone away. Forces of good and evil are all around us behind the flimsy facade of this world, enabling, empowering, and energizing everything that’s happening today in Iran.
The Prince of Persia has been working there for the last 2,500 years, but in the last 47 years, he has experienced his greatest success. The people of Iran are imprisoned in the equivalent of a national concentration camp, under the oppressive iron fist of a radical ideology. Joel Rosenberg aptly referred to this Mullah regime in Iran as an “apocalyptic, genocidal death cult.”
This demonic Persian prince is energizing the erroneous eschatology that drives their avowed anti-Semitism and “Mahdi” theology, which thrives on chaos and conflict and drives them to hate the United States and Israel. They seek terror and confusion to hotwire their version of the apocalypse. It’s even turning them against former allies as they shoot missiles into neighboring nations!
Dr. Hormoz Shariat, known as the Billy Graham of Iran, not long ago said something fascinating. He referred to the Prince of Persia as a spirit of delay. And what do we see from Iran today? Tehran has refined a strategy built on violence, delay, and deception. Constant negotiations, never-ending talks, and ceasefires. The Prince of Persia is still a spirit of delay, but it’s also a spirit of destruction and hatred.
I also believe that this Prince of Persia is drawing Iran into an alliance with Russia and Turkey, as described in the prophetic battle of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39).
The real battle we see today is not what we see with our eyes. There is an invisible battle raging behind the thin facade of this world. Just as in Daniel 10, God and His angelic hosts will win in the end. God’s sovereign plans will prevail as they always do. His will can never be thwarted. No delay can keep Him from bringing His will to pass. That’s true in the Middle East, and it’s true every day in your life and in mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment