IRAN: From Atheist to Persecuted Pastor
VOMRadio
The Voice of the Martyrs
4.9 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2020
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Robert Aserian first prayed to Jesus, it was an atheist's prayer: I don't know if you are real, Jesus, but if You are please show Yourself to me. Jesus answered that prayer, and Robert has been following Him passionately—and encouraging others, including Iranian Muslims, also to follow—ever since. He even taught a class on Christian theology to Islamic clergy members.
Listen to Robert's story of coming to faith, then experiencing God's call to ministry. Robert will share about different martyrs of the church in Iran he knew and learned from, and describe how their legacy emboldened him to serve Christ inside the Islamic Republic, no matter what persecution he might face—including the day authorities came to his house early in the morning to take him to prison.
Today, Rev. Robert Aserian is the Director for Training at Pars Theological Centre, training and equipping leaders for the Iranian Church. You can hear conversations with other leaders of Pars here and here. You can also hear directly from children of some of the martyrs Rev. Aserian was inspired by, including the son of Pastor Haik Hovsepian and the daughter of Pastor Hossein Soodmand.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Islamic Republic of Iran is closed to gospel workers, but the Iranian border is not closed to God's spirit. |
| 0:09.0 | When Pastor Robert Assarian was a young man growing up in Iran. |
| 0:15.1 | His very first conversation with Jesus sounded like this. |
| 0:20.3 | Jesus Christ, I don't know you exist or not. |
| 0:23.0 | But if you exist, please show yourself to me. |
| 0:26.0 | If you are not true, anyway, this prayer is a meaningless thing. |
| 0:30.0 | So I just had that prayer. |
| 0:32.0 | I didn't know even someone is hearing my prayer or not. |
| 0:35.0 | And from the next day, amazing things happen in my life. |
| 0:42.0 | Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. |
| 0:45.0 | In fact, he told his disciples that the world would hate them. |
| 0:49.0 | He sent them out as sheep among wolves. |
| 0:52.0 | Jesus's words came true in the life of the Apostles and |
| 0:54.6 | they're still coming true today in the lives of his followers around the world. |
| 0:58.7 | Join host Todd Nettleton as we hear their inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now on the |
| 1:04.6 | voice of the Martyrs radio network. Welcome again to the Voice of the |
| 1:08.1 | Martyrs radio. My name is Todd Nettleton and we are on the air this week with Pastor Robert Assyrian. |
| 1:15.0 | He is the director of training for Pars Theological Seminary. |
| 1:19.5 | He is also a former pastor and prisoner inside the Islamic Republic of Iran and we're going to |
| 1:27.3 | talk about that this week. Robert, welcome to Voice of the Martyrs radio. |
| 1:31.7 | Thank you very much Todd. |
| 1:33.7 | I'm also very happy that I have this opportunity |
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