What does Bible prophecy say about the future of Iran?

How long will the Iranian regime continue to attack and threaten Israel? Will the Iranian people be saved from the tyrants that sit in Tehran? How are Christians supposed to understand the terrible war that Israel is facing on seven fronts?

In the latest episode of THE ROSENBERG REPORT on TBN, ALL ISRAEL NEWS Editor-in-Chief Joel Rosenberg turned to Bible prophecies to unpack the current critical moment in the Middle East and where it is headed.

Rosenberg showed excerpts of a sermon he recently delivered at a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he urged Christians to pay attention to two biblical prophecies in a context that most people tend to overlook.

“There are actually two major sets of Bible prophecies that concern the future of Iran. One was written by the prophet Ezekiel. The other was written by the prophet Jeremiah,” Rosenberg said at the top of the program.

“The first is found in Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39 – what Bible prophecy scholars call the War of Gog and Magog. The second is found in Jeremiah, chapter 49, verses 34 through 39. Both are equally important. Both will come to pass in the last days before the Messiah returns to set up his earthly reign... earthly kingdom right here in Jerusalem, and both might very well speak of the same moment in the future, but describing it from different angles and emphasizing different key points.”

Rosenberg described how God brings a series of messages through Jeremiah that ‘in the last days,‘ he is going to bring judgment on Israel, and also on the nations that have cursed Israel.

“God says, I'm going to destroy the military capacity of Iran,” Rosenberg noted. “There have been judgments of the nation of Iran or Persia throughout history. And so, this is not only a prophecy about the prophetic future, it's also a pattern… It's very specific about the last days, which means that period of time right before the return of Christ.”

Rosenberg explained that while Jesus is the fulfillment of Messianic prophecies about his first coming, not every Messianic prophecy has been fulfilled, indicating that other prophecies will be fulfilled after the second coming of Jesus.

‘I will bring upon Elam the four winds From the four ends of heaven, And will scatter them to all these winds; And there will be no nation to which the outcasts of Elam will not go’ (Jeremiah 49:36)

‘Elam’ is an ancient name for the country we now know as Iran.

“Verse 36 came to pass starting in 1979,” Rosenberg stated, referring to the Islamic Revolution in Iran that toppled the Shah’s regime.

“Iranians scattered. Many Iranians left, fled the country and scattered all over the planet. And if you talk to Iranian evangelical leaders – people have come out of Islam – they've come to faith, but they're Iranians and they live in exile outside of Iran,” he continued.

Then comes a pivot, when God tells Jeremiah that the future is Iran – ‘I will set My throne in Elam’ (Jeremiah 49:38).

“What did Jeremiah mean when he wrote that God is going to move his throne to Iran in the last days? Didn't Jeremiah also write that the Lord is going to take his throne and put it in Jerusalem and reign over the entire globe from Israel, when Jesus Christ comes back to reign over the world for a thousand years?” Rosenberg raised the questions.

He then offered an interpretation, saying: “We shouldn't be upset that God wants to bless the people of Iran. It means that spiritually speaking, before we get to the physical and literal second coming of Christ… He's moving his spiritual throne to Iran. He's going to wipe out the regime. He's going to wipe out their military. He's going to bless them. And my view, and the view of all Iranian Evangelical leaders that I know… Jesus is moving to Iran and he's going to turn Iran into a missionary-sending country.”

Rosenberg said that the biblical prophecy tells us that the radical, fanatical, Shia Muslims that right now hate Israel – will be “flipped” with the power of the Spirit and turned into a nation of “Apostle Pauls.”

“Iran is already the fastest-growing Church in the world, and more is coming,” he added. “I believe that God is preparing a massive, brave, courageous armor. You would almost say they're fanatics for Jesus the way you would say Paul was a fanatic… That passion that he used against the Church got flipped in the power of the spirit to be for preaching the Gospel, planting churches, making disciples. That's what's going to happen in Iran.”

Rosenberg concluded his sermon by saying that while we are in the most horrible and dangerous moment in the modern history of the Middle East, God is moving powerfully in the region.

Watch Joel Rosenberg's full sermon and commentary on the TBN website.

THE ROSENBERG REPORT airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. EST and Saturday nights at 10:00 p.m. EST – on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the most-watched Christian television network in the United States.