Posted on 01/03/2022 7:10:12 AM PST by Cronos
Around 300,000 to 370,000 Christians live in Iran, however, they are enjoying the freedom to perform their rituals and celebrate their festivities for four centuries.
Most of the Christians in Iran are Armenians who have lived here for centuries. Assyrians, Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelical Christians constitute the rest of the Christians in Iran.
The Assyrians of ancient Iran converted to Christianity since its onset, particularly in the first to third centuries AD. Like most Christians around the world, Assyrians in Iran celebrate December 25 as the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ.
Assyrian Christians fast for 25 days before the birth of Christ, during which time they abstain from eating meat and dairy products. After December 25, they break their fast and hold Communion at church.
On December 25, Assyrian people go to church to visit Assyrian clergies and wish them a happy Christmas, and the next day, it is the clergies who go to visit their fellow believers.
Unlike all other Christians who consider January 1 as the beginning of the new year, Armenians follow the Oriental Orthodox denomination of Christianity and accordingly, celebrate Christmas on January 6, concurrent with the Epiphany.
In fact, Christmas decorations and celebrations take place throughout the country, specifically in major cities such as Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz, and even religious cities such as Mashhad. They mainly gather in the Majidieh neighborhood in Tehran, and the Jolfa neighborhood in Isfahan.
Since the time of Shah Abbas in 1014 AH, Armenians moved from Jolfa located near the Aras River to Isfahan and settled along the Zayandeh-Rud River. In memory of their former homeland, they named their new home Jolfa.
And New Year celebrations are also held every year at midnight on January 1 in the biggest and most beautiful church in Iran, Vank Cathedral.
Iranian Christians also have three members in the Majlis (Iranian parliament). The representative of the Northern Armenian Christians is elected by the votes of the Iranian-Christian citizens in the provinces of Tehran, East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Ardabil, Ilam, Khorasan, Zanjan, Semnan, Qazvin, Qom, Kordestan, Kermanshah, Golestan, Gilan, Mazandaran, Markazi, and Hamedan.
The representative of the Southern Armenian Christians also voted for the Armenian citizens living in the provinces of Isfahan, Yazd, Khuzestan, Fars, Kerman, Hormozgan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Lorestan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Bushehr, and Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad.
The other representative of Iranian Christians in the parliament is also elected Chaldean and Assyrian Christian citizens.
Thanks for posting this. It would surprise most Americans to know of the antiquity of the Assyrian church in Mesopotamia. I think the Iranian Mullahs allow this sort of ritual Christianty; they just don’t want evangelism going on.
actually, Christians are allowed to live and practice their religion rather peacefully in Iran. But not preach or convert.
This is not good, but better than Saudi arabia where Christians are not allowed to have any churches or practice any Christian services
If you visit prisoneralert.com you will find many Christians imprisoned in Iran for doing nothing but attending worship.
Christians, (and even Jews) have it much better in Iran than almost anywhere else in the Middle East,
As groups like ISIS and the Wahabis gain power in the Sunni Muslim countries, the theocracy of the Iranian mullahs seems almost friendly by comparison.
Most people have no idea, but the so called “Assyrian Christians” are not “Christian” at all, but remnants of one of the most dangerous heresies to ever plague this world. They are NESTORIANS, who were condemned by Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, in 431 AD.
Nestorius taught that the Virgin Mary did not give birth to the Godhead, but only to the man, Jesus Christ. This doctrine denies the idea of the dual natures of Christ, and that those natures and the Holy Trinity, are co-substantial, co-equal, etc.
That may make them erroneous, but dangerous?
In my conversations with one of these Assyrians, those high-level subtleties haven’t come out. In fact I suppose he’s not even aware of them; he’s mainly proud of the antiquity of the sect. He had many questions of me, an evangelical, and listened attentively.
This guy, named Eli, was whisked out of Kuwait in ‘91 before all hell broke loose there. He has since become a US citizen and is staunchly patriotic, has a towing business, loves Trump and hates liberalism. My kind of guy. Plus I’m encouraged that he seems to be inquisitive about being born again.
True. Those are converts to Christianity. I’m not saying they aren’t bad, just that our allies the Saudis are worse
That’s false. Their teachings are from Mar Babai.
They aren’t Nestorians in their beliefs
Who was Nestorian.
In 486, the Metropolitan Barsauma of Nisibis publicly accepted Nestorius’ mentor Theodore of Mopsuestia as a spiritual authority. In 489, when the School of Edessa in Mesopotamia was closed by Byzantine Emperor Zeno for its pro-Nestorian teachings, the school relocated to its original home of Nisibis, becoming again the School of Nisibis, leading to a wave of Christian dissidents immigration into Persia. The Persian patriarch Babai (497–502) reiterated and expanded upon the church’s esteem for Theodore of Mopsuestia.
Check your facts
Their doctrines are a threat, not the person.
However note that they accepted his mentoring, but their belief system is not "Nestorian" as you described which is adoptionism. They believe that Jesus was God right from conception
Common Christological Declaration
In this document the Assyrian and Catholic churches confessed the same doctrine concerning Christology (the divinity and humanity of Christ):I also thought at one point that they were Nestorian in belief, but learnt that they aren't.The Word of God, second Person of the Holy Trinity, became incarnate by the power of the Holy Spirit in assuming from the holy Virgin Mary a body animated by a rational soul, with which he was indissolubly united from the moment of his conception. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ is true God and true man, perfect in his divinity and perfect in his humanity, consubstantial with the Father and consubstantial with us in all things but sin. His divinity and his humanity are united in one person, without confusion or change, without division or separation. In him has been preserved the difference of the natures of divinity and humanity, with all their properties, faculties and operations. But far from constituting "one and another", the divinity and humanity are united in the person of the same and unique Son of God and Lord Jesus Christ, who is the object of a single adoration. Christ therefore is not an "ordinary man" whom God adopted in order to reside in him and inspire him, as in the righteous ones and the prophets. But the same God the Word, begotten of his Father before all worlds without beginning according to his divinity, was born of a mother without a father in the last times according to his humanity.The humanity to which the Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth always was that of the Son of God himself. That is the reason why the Assyrian Church of the East is praying [to] the Virgin Mary as "the Mother of Christ our God and Saviour". In the light of this same faith the Catholic tradition addresses the Virgin Mary as "the Mother of God" and also as "the Mother of Christ".
That part's true.
This doctrine denies the idea of the dual natures of Christ, and that those natures and the Holy Trinity, are co-substantial, co-equal, etc.
Nestorius had no problem with the dual natures of Christ, but he thought that there was also a dual person-hood of Christ, and the the two persons were closely connected but not a single person. Mary (in his view) only gave birth to the human person of Christ.
Theodore of Mopsuestia was Nestorius’ teacher, but wasn’t condemned or even censured by Ephesus.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.