URGENT: Death sentence for 8 iranian evangelical christians ?

8 Iranian church leaders jailed

Eight Christians arrested in Iran last Sunday

Nicolas Ciarapica, voxdei.org / aleloo.com

Early morning on Sunday 10th December, 2006, the Iranian secret service investigated the homes of several Christians belonging to an independent movement. Members were summoned by the police in their towns. All in all 8 were arrested, including 6 pastors.

The movement, entirely organised by local believers, have been plagued for years. Several brothers have lost their jobs at the same time. Homes have been systematically searched. One sister spent a night in a sinister secret service prison after attending a party at the embassy of Ivory Coast.

Recently, a believer, Issa Motamadi, was imprisoned for several weeks, guilty of giving his son a Christian forename. A child born with a Christian forename is spared from the charge of apostasy which can lead to death sentence in Iran. Despite repeated claims, Iranian authorities refuse to register Christian civil status and impose Islamic education on children.

Rumours have been going on recently, accusing the movement of modalism (the heresy according to which Godhead is composed of only one person manifested in three forms) or misappropriation of funds, in order to discredit it in the West. Questioned on these subjects, a leader replied.  « No Council has the right to define who God is. Theologians Karl Barth and Karl Rahner were aware of the problem. We are neither Trinitarians in the sense defined by the Council of Nicaea, nor Modalists, nor Arianists, nor Unitarianists. Limiting God is like attempting to build a tower that will reach the heavens.”

Under such a critical situation, we should set aside some minor thelogocical nuances that risk to create unnecessary divisions between Christians. Instead, we need to focus on the fact that brothers and sisters in Iran are facing death sentence because of their faith in Jesus Christ. This is an hour for unity, not for theoretical debates. As Etienne van Holderbeke from Awake Ministries puts it, how dare we justify passivity in the name of menial divergences while the body of Christ is being attacked ? History has taught us where such an attitude led.

Whatever one might think of the movement’s theology, not that far from messianic definitions on “tri-unity” of God, one has to admit it figures among main Protestant churches in the country. The charge against them is mainly evangelization. For this, the believers were arrested. Some good news though, a pastor was released early in December after a few weeks in jail. About 100 000 Iranians may have received Christ over the past years.

Behnam Irani, pastor in Karaj Bahman Irani, his brother Behrouz Sadegh-Khandjani, pastor in Teheran Chirine Sadegh-Khandjani, his sister Yussef Nadarkhani, pastor in Rasht Parviz Khalaj, elder in charge of new Christians Rasht Mohammad Reza-Taghizadeh, associate pastor Rasht Hamid Toolooinya, preacher Teheran

http://www.blogdei.com/iran.htm