Morning Wire - The Spread of Christianity in the Middle East

Episode Date: April 5, 2026

In this encore edition of Morning Wire, Pastor Jacob Pursley joins us to reveal what’s really happening to believers inside Iran and why Christianity is growing in the region despite the brutality of hostile regimes. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 2717- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsors:Good Ranchers - Get $25 off your first order and free meat for life when you use code WIRE at https://GoodRanchers.com Fabletics - Get $29 denim when you sign up as a VIP! Head to https://Fabletics.com/wire, take a quick style quiz, and be sure to select wire when prompted to unlock your offer.- - -Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacymorning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don't miss the Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters. Merrill Street, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are back. In light of the recent scandal, I'm here to restore your credibility. I did not hire you, and all I need to do is find my time until you fail. On May 1st, I'm going to make something of this job. Rain. Be the bridges I burn. Night my way. Forever.

I just love my job. Get tickets now. The Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters May 1st, directed by David Frankel. Amid the current conflict in Iran. the long-running persecution of Christians under Islamic regimes has gained new attention. Christians in the Middle East have long faced harsh penalties, including death for converting from Islam and even owning a Bible in their native language. Because of that persecution, many Christians in Iran and neighboring countries have fled to Armenia.

In this episode, we revisit our sit-down with Jacob Persley, a missionary and pastor of the International Bible Church of Armenia, whose ministry has increasingly included Christians who have fled Iran. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. This is an Easter weekend edition of Morning Wire. A version of this interview aired previously on Morning Wire before the conflict with Iran began. The weather is finally warming up, which means grilling season is basically here. And if you're anything like me, you're already thinking about that first backyard cookout of the year. For me, I already know what's going on the grill.

Good Ranchers. Our sponsor Good Ranchers partners with local farmers and ranchers to deliver 100% American meat straight-tier. door. It's high quality, pasture raised meat with no antibiotics and no hormones, so you can actually feel good about what you're putting in front of your friends and family. You can build your own box with exactly what your crew actually eats, steaks for those weekend grills, chicken for busy weeknights, and maybe some burgers and hot dogs for that big neighborhood barbecue. Good ranchers knocks it out of the park every time in both flavor and quality. So whether you're grilling it up or cooking it fast and dirty in an air friar, you know it's going to taste

great. When you start your subscription, you get to choose a free meat that will be included in every single box at no additional cost. And when you use our code wire, you'll get $25 off your first order. That's free meat in every order, plus $25 off your first box with code wire. So get ready for grilling season and lock in your box today. Good Ranchers.com, American Meat delivered. Our sponsor Fabletics just dropped denim. Yep, you heard that right.

Real structured premium field denim. You probably know them for their performance gear, so seeing them nailed denim is a huge move. The best part is new VIPs get big savings on their first. pair, so now is the perfect time to try them out. When you sign up as a new VIP with Fabletics, you can get denim for only $29, and honestly, this denim does not feel like a cheap $29 pair of jeans. The quality is truly amazing, rivaling all the name brands. And from what I've heard, that's launch pricing, so I definitely get after it while it lasts.

Whether your vibe is clean and classic or a little trendier, you're covered. And the fit is super comfortable, they move with you, but still look sharp. I'm actually a huge fan of their men's athletic wear. I've got several pairs of shorts and shirts. They are comfortable and versatile for just about any sport or activity. Fabletics already has incredible deals, and we've got an exclusive offer just for our listeners. Get $29 denim when you sign up as a VIP. Just head over to fabletics.com slash wire.

Take a quick style quiz and be sure to select wire when prompted to unlock your offer. That's fabletics.com slash wire today. Here to discuss the ongoing persecution of Iran's large Christian population is Jacob personally a missionary and pastor of the International Bible Church of Armenia. Jacob, thank you so much for joining us. Wow, it's a privilege to be here. Thank you. So you minister in part to Iranian Christians. And can you give us some context?

How did this happen? Where are you located in terms of your church and your ministry? And why are Iranians fleeing into Armenia in the first place? Well, we have an English-speaking international church in Yerevan, Armenia. and it caters to all the internationals that come in. And what is amazing is that Armenia borders Iran. And so Iranian Christians that flee persecution come up to Armenia as the only free and democratic nation in the region.

And so when they come up, they want to be, they want to know what the Bible says. They want to be disciples. And so they come to our church and we baptize them. And so we have a great ties and connections with the Christian community now within in Armenia, but also in Iran. Iran has an unbelievably rich history, obviously. Yes. One of the most ancient countries on the planet.

Same with Armenia, Armenia, the first Christian country. Do you get, I have too many questions for you, but do you get a lot of support from the Armenian government in terms of freedom to worship and freedom to minister to whoever you want, et cetera? Yes, Armenia has freedom of religion. And so they are, it's the first Christian nation, 301 AD, So they continue to allow that within their country.

And that is what brings the Iranians up to, excuse me, the Iranians up to Armenia because they know that this is a Christian nation and they want to have freedom of religion, which they do not have in their own country. They're not even allowed to have a Bible in their own language. It's illegal. And conversion from Islam to Christianity in Iran is capital punishment, death. So it's a very risky thing to convert to Christianity in Iran. But we are seeing Iran is the country in the world. When you look at missions and the church growth, it's the fastest growing Christian nation in the world right now. Incredible.

Does this create tensions between Armenia and Iran, I imagine? It definitely does. And does that not complicate it for the Iranian government to knowingly have churches that have a lot of people from Iran in them? Well, I can't answer from a political perspective because I'm working as a pastor. but I am sure that there are religious figures that are not happy about religious and Christian freedom. Now, I don't know how that's voiced or what's going on behind the scenes, but Armenia as a country allows for religious freedom, no matter who that is. So we have a mosque in Yerevan, we have a Jewish community, we have Yazidi community, Baha'i community, and everybody's worshiping freely with no persecution. The trade negotiations and the peace negotiations overseen by the Trump administration, or at least helped come into being by the Trump administration.

How has that changed things on the ground for you? Have you seen any effect so far? The main change, I would say, is Iranians that are Christians feel like they have hope for the first time. They've been under great persecution, and specifically with the uprising and protest in Iran against the essentially. Islamic regime, they believe, and they've listened to Donald Trump, President Donald Trump, and he said that he would intervene if people were killed. And now we've had up to 60 to 80,000 civilian protesters murdered brutally by the Islamic regime. And so my Iranian Christian brothers and sisters are saying, please help. I mean, they're looking to the United States as a world leader to come in and stop this persecution.

That's a really high number you just gave. And there's a lot of conflicting reports because we don't know. But that's what you're hearing. Oh, yes. 60 to 80,000. Oh, no, 100%. Now, there are some now facts coming out where just on one day hospitals in Tehran reported 1,800 deaths. That was just in one day.

And so we do are now getting some hard statistics on the death, but it's probably greater than that. And they are targeting civilians. There's people out there protesting. The presence of J.D. Vance in Armenia, that's symbolically, I think it probably means a lot, right, to that region. Have you seen renewed confidence that the U.S. has the back of those people who are fighting against tyranny in the region? Have you seen that effect? So that's a good question. You know, Armenia has been really up until the prime minister, Nikol Poshinian, up until, up to the prime minister,

until he came to power. It's really been under a Russian influence. And with the new prime minister, he's really done a lot to move away from, not disconnecting from Russia, but moving away from that influence and trying to integrate with the West. And what I've seen now is that relationship is getting better with now J.D. Vance in the country of Armenia. It is sending a clear signal that religious freedom is important. freedom and democracy is important, and it's giving hope to a lot of Christians that this connection is now being made. I don't know if this is too complicated of a question to answer, but the flavor of Christianity in the region. I mean, I imagine it's very diverse, very diverse backgrounds in terms of traditions, et cetera.

How do you deal with that in terms of your ministries? How do you make it open enough, that it's flexible enough in terms of traditions? What does that look like? It's a great question. So the Armenian Apostolic Church was founded in 301 AD. So it's the largest state church, longest going state church in the world, which we have great respect for. I mean, missionaries came to Armenia. Actually, some of them had Persian ancestry.

And the oldest coming back from Jesus' disciples, Thaddeus and Bartholomew, came to Armenia. So they are, there are brothers and sisters. I mean, as Protestants or Catholics, we have one Jesus, one Bible, one faith, one baptism. And so I think what I've seen is I have great relationships within the Armenian Apostolic Church. We've worked together on projects. So I think if we're focusing on the majors, it's great. And specifically, when you face persecution from other nations that are not friendly to Christianity, it gives us another reason to come together as one body.

Obviously, the relationship between the U.S. and Syria has been very complicated, and particularly Armenia and Syria's relationship. What elements of your ministry bleed over into that? I mean, how much does Syria impact what you do? So I've been doing ministry in Syria since 2005, when the Khomeishli massacre took place when Bashar al-Assad's soldiers came up to massacre the Kurdish population. This is before ISIS. So I've been very involved in Syria hoping that the Kurds would not find their hope necessarily in a politician or an army, but in Jesus Christ.

I'm a missionary. That's most important for me. And unfortunately, we've seen a lot of difficult things happen in the country of Syria up until now. And what I've seen is that there is a good relationship with Syria and Armenia based on, Armenian population that has been native in Syria since the Armenian genocide. And they are, so there's good relationships among the peoples because of, there's Armenians in Syria and Armenians in Armenia. But it's really unfortunate what's happened to specifically my expertise is the Kurdish populations. How much outreach is there from Christian communities to the Kurdish population? That is a very good question. Unfortunately, when you're under an Islamic regime, they have rules where you are not allowed to propagate your religion.

And if you do, you can be communally punished. So, you know, wearing a public display of a cross in Iran in other Islamic countries is illegal. So there's been a pressure and an oppression on ethnic, Christian communities to really just to survive. And if they do try to reach out in their communities, which they have, now that happened in Iran with a man named Haikov Sapion. And he was one of those Armenians within Iran that did share his faith, but he was also murdered for that. So if you're very active in sharing your faith, it can be very dangerous for you. And it is a miracle, though, that the ethnic Christians have survived this long, even under Islamic suppression.

What we've witnessed over the last few years is Iran being systematically defanged by Israel in the U.S. in ways that are rather incredible. A lot of their key militants that they used as their proxies almost eliminated, if not at least really really. Weekend. Is there a sense of growing hope in the region in general that there can be a larger lasting peace and particularly for the Christian population? Is there a sense that this is a chance to grow in ways that we haven't seen before? You said Iran is the fastest growing, you know, in terms of percentage of Christians. Is there a region-wide sense of that? Well, when we're looking at the, when I'm talking to the Christian populations, I think

people are very hopeful for Iran at this moment. I mean, the book of Jeremiah chapter 49 has a promise for Iran that God will restore its fortunes after it's been destroyed. It's really interesting prophecy. And so there's a lot of Christians that are looking at the Bible, and they're looking at what's happening internally in Iran, and they're seeing a move from Islam. So most people become first atheist, they're atheists from a Muslim background. And then when they hear about Jesus and actually get a hold of a Bible, which is illegal, then they're like, this is the truth. This is a God of love.

And so that's why it's growing fast. And the one thing I would say, even if I'm talking to my Christian brothers and sisters, they say that they need help. And they need help from other Western Christian powers to help to set them free. Kind of like a Moses set my people free. They need somebody that can come in. And I know they're praying and their hope is in the Lord, but they're also looking back to Donald Tripp saying, you made this promise, we're being massacred, when are you going to come and help us because we're dying? So please come and help and fulfill your promise. Well, we really appreciate you coming on the show and everything that you do in that region. I'm sure that's a very hard job, but it seems like you love it. Thanks so much.

You're welcome. Thank you so much. That was Jacob Persley, a missionary and pastor of the International Bible Church of Armenia. And this has been an Easter weekend edition of Morning Wire.