The greatest uprising since the Iranian Revolution of January 1979 is happening right now. It looks like a scene from the movie Braveheart, when Scotland cried “Freedom” during the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward of England, led by Sir William Wallace.

Evangelical Bible believers see it as a battle between principalities and powers. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

They see a similar battle that happened in Persia during Daniel’s day in the Bible, against a demon spirit called the Prince of Persia, described in the Book of Daniel, chapter 10, a demonic spiritual force opposing God’s purpose. It was a cosmic battle of spiritual warfare in which the angel Michael, the guardian angel of Israel, battled demonic forces.

Farah Pahlavi, Empress of Iran, held my book, Jimmy Carter, the Liberal Left, and World Chaos, in her hands in her home in Georgetown twenty-six years ago. The book documented president Jimmy Carter’s plan to overthrow the Shah of Iran.

She said, “It is absolutely true what you’ve written. He came to Tehran on New Year’s 1977 and told the King, ‘You will release political prisoners, give freedom of the press and freedom of religion, and you will allow Khomeini to come back. If you don’t, you will not get replacement parts for your helicopters and planes. I have the authority to do this under a human rights provision.’”

“When he left, my husband said, ‘If I agree, the Russians will invade Afghanistan, Iraq will attack Iran, an Islamic Revolution will be born in Iran, and who knows what horror will come upon the earth.’” She said, “Carter believed that Khomeini would be great for human rights because he was a cleric and could become a Gandhi-like figure.”

The day before my meeting with Farah Pahlavi, I met in the home of General Robert Huyser, former Deputy Commander-in-Chief of European Command and Jimmy Carter’s special emissary to Iran. He told me he was sent to Tehran to foment a military coup. Huyser’s job was to inform the generals that Carter was in favor of democracy in Iran and to persuade the military leaders to remain in Iran and work with the United States, assuring them that the US would protect them.

Huyser, with tears running down his face, told me in his home, “They all died because of me. They could have saved the country from the revolution, but Carter would not let them. They died believing in us.” Of the eighty top generals, more than seventy were tortured and executed, along with hundreds of lower-ranking officers. Almost seventy-five percent of the senior officers were killed.

‘Carter had abandoned an ally’

I flew to France and met with President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. He told me something similar. “President Carter called for a meeting on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean with the leaders of Britain, France, and West Germany. The United States had decided not to support the regime of the Shah and was working to overthrow him.” He said “Carter had abandoned an ally.”

Khomeini became the VIP darling of the Western media. France had become a command center for the launch of the Islamic Revolution. Khomeini gave over one hundred media interviews during his four-month stay in Neauphle-le-Château, France, and hosted over one thousand Iranian visitors a day. Two of Khomeini’s visitors were Farouk Kaddoumi, PLO department head, and a Libyan representative of Muammar al-Qaddafi.

His compound was surrounded by representatives of covert agencies from the major powers: the CIA, British MI6, Russian KGB, and the French intelligence organization SDECE. I later found out that funds were also being sent to Khomeini from the United States while he was in France to help him overthrow the Shah.

On September 23, 1980, I was in the home of Isser Harel, founder of Israeli intelligence Mossad, in Tel Aviv. I asked him three questions. First: “Do you think Jimmy Carter will win the election against Ronald Reagan?” Carter was ahead in the polls. Harel said, “The Iranians will have something to say about that. When Ronald Reagan puts his hand on the Bible, the hostages will be released.”

I then asked him what would happen to Sadat. He said, “We have saved his life several times, but at an opportune time, the Muslim Brotherhood will kill him.”

My third question was whether terrorism would ever come to America. He said, “The terrorists have the power but not the will. You have the will but not the power. All of that can change in time. You kill a fly and rejoice. We kill one, and a hundred come to the funeral. Your first terrorist attack will be in New York City, your tallest building.”

The deadlock between the United States and Iran seemed insurmountable until January 15, 1981. Just days before Carter was to leave office, Iran agreed to the terms. US bank officials worked marathon sessions. New documents were drawn up, and the Bank of England was approved as the repository of the escrow funds. Shortly after 4:00 a.m. on Inauguration Day, January 20, 1981, the Carter administration relinquished $7.977 billion to the Iranians. The transfer required fourteen banks and the participation of five nations acting concurrently.

As I watched Ronald Reagan place his hand on the Bible to be sworn in, a news flash announced that the hostages were being released. My phone rang. It was the senior advisor to Prime Minister Begin, Dr. Reuben Hecht, who had been in the meeting with me and Isser Harel. He said, “Harel is a prophet. It’s happening exactly as he said.”

Mike Evans is a New York Times #1 bestselling author of 119 published books and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He is the founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center and recently led an initiative that brought 1,000 evangelical pastors to Israel to combat antisemitism.

She was just an ordinary girl.  Esther had no famous or well-connected relatives.  In fact, she and her people were living as a minority in a foreign land where they had been taken by a conquering enemy army; yet, today her name is synonymous with faith and courage.  The short book that bears her name tells a story of divine deliverance—a message that is very much relevant to our day when once again a plot has been hatched in Persia to destroy the Jewish people.

Esther became queen of the Persian Empire without the king or anyone in authority knowing that she was Jewish.  This was on the wise advice of her guardian Mordecai, who instructed her to hide her ancestry for the sake of her future.  Not long after Esther became queen, an evil man in a high government position named Haman, motivated by his hatred of Mordecai (who refused to bow before Haman because he would only bow before God), devised a scheme to destroy the Jewish people.

Haman presented the king with a distorted picture of God’s Chosen People.  He falsely accused them of disobeying the laws of the Persian Empire and suggested that destroying them would promote order and stability throughout the realm.  To further sweeten the deal, Haman offered to pay a large sum of money to the royal treasury to cover the expenses of exterminating the Jewish people.  The king went along with the plan, setting a date for the destruction of the Jewish exiles living in the 127 provinces that made up his kingdom.

When Mordecai received this news, he began fasting in sackcloth and ashes, along with Jewish people throughout the Persian realm.  There seemed to be no hope for them, but God was at work behind the scenes.  Mordecai sent word to Esther that the time to reveal her heritage had come and that she should use her position as queen to plead for the Jewish people to be spared.

When she pointed out that entering the king’s presence without an invitation was a capital offense, Mordecai made his famous declaration that God had put Esther where she was “for such a time as this.”  Esther courageously went before the king, and God granted her favor in his eyes, and he spared her life.

Esther asked the king and Haman to come to a private meeting.  Then she asked them to return a second time, and finally revealed to the king the evil that he had unknowingly agreed to support.  The king’s wrath was kindled against Haman, and he ordered the evil plotter to be hung on the very gallows that Haman had constructed to have Mordecai executed on—and provided the Jewish people the opportunity for self defense.  The Jewish people were spared from destruction.  Even to this day, this wonderful miracle of deliverance is celebrated as the Feast of Purim.  Esther remains a wonderful example of what we can do when we fully rely on God.

As I read this story again recently, I was struck by something that doesn’t often receive a great deal of attention.  Esther did not face her moment of crisis alone.  Here was her response:  Spiritual battles are not meant to be fought alone.  Before Esther entered the king’s presence, risking her life to plead for her people, there was a massive campaign of prayer and fasting on her behalf.  The deliverance of Israel depended on the power of God, and the people of God sought His face and His help together.  That is a perfect description of the work of the Jerusalem Prayer Team. 

In 1844, Willem ten Boom started holding a prayer meeting for the Jewish people at his home in Haarlem in the Netherlands.  His family home was also his place of business, a watch shop.  The tradition of making and repairing clocks and watches was passed on to his son Caspar.  So was the tradition of praying for God’s Chosen People.  Long before World War II began, the ten Boom family were noted for their love and generosity to the Jewish people.

When the Nazis began deporting Jews to the death camps, the ten Boom family opened their home, risking their lives to provide the famous Hiding Place.  Today that home and watch shop in the Netherlands is owned and operated as a museum by our ministry.  We are doing everything that we can to keep this vital story from being forgotten.

In 1944, the ten Boom prayer meeting came to an end when the Gestapo raided the home, arresting Caspar ten Boom, his daughters Betsie and Corrie, and his son Willem.  Because Caspar was 84 years of age, they offered to let him go if he would promise to stop helping and hiding Jewish people.  He refused, saying, “It would be the greatest honor of my life to die for God’s Chosen People.”  Two weeks later he passed away and was buried in an unmarked grave.

Betsie also died in a prison camp, but Corrie ten Boom survived Ravensbrück—released through a “clerical error” not long before all the prisoners in the camp were killed.  She traveled around the world telling the story of her family.  I had the privilege of meeting her in Texarkana many years ago.  I did not know who she was, but saw her carrying her luggage into a hotel and went across the street to help.  We shared a meal together, and I was able to tell her my family story and listen to her firsthand account of all that she endured.

Today we are carrying on in the spirit of love for the Jewish people that motivated the ten Boom family to risk and sacrifice so much.  We are continuing that 100-year prayer meeting.  The Jerusalem Prayer Team has united millions of Believers together to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the protection of Israel.  The largest prayer army in the history of the world has its headquarters at your Friends of Zion Center located just 600 meters from the Temple Mount in the Holy City.

From this place we are not just praying, but like the ten Booms did we are putting feet to our prayers.  We are delivering food to thousands of poor Holocaust survivors each week.  We are welcoming those who have suffered injury and loss in terrorist attacks to help them heal.  We are hosting elderly Holocaust survivors as they come to the Holy City, showing them Christian love in a way most of them have never experienced.  We are bringing all the members of the IDF—the Israel Defense Forces—to the Friends of Zion Museum as part of their training.

The list goes on and on.  But it is all made possible by the generous support of friends like you…Friends of Zion who are truly making a difference.  Thank you so much for being part of this vital ministry, and for all you are doing for the sake of God’s Chosen People.

”Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.” – Corrie Ten Boom