Damascus Countdown

by Joel C. Rosenberg

  “He seems really worked up about Syria in the last few days, doesn’t he?” Ibrahim asked.

  “Yeah, he does,” Ali agreed. “He’s always been so focused on Iran. It’s out of character.”

  “Maybe God is speaking through him,” Dr. Birjandi said.

  “To tell us what?” Ibrahim asked.

  “I don’t know yet, but we should ask the Lord to show us great and mighty things we do not know,” Birjandi replied.

  Ali and Ibrahim agreed and made a note in their journals to start really praying for the people of Syria. Then Ali read them Najjar’s second tweet.

  “He writes, ‘More Muslims turning 2 Christ today than any other time in history. I did, and he’s changing my life. R U ready? Call on Jesus!’”

  “He’s so bold,” Ibrahim said. “I can’t believe they haven’t caught him yet. Is it because he’s in America that he speaks so bravely?”

  “No,” Ali quickly disagreed. “He’s bold because he has given up everything he has for Jesus. He doesn’t have any more fear. He used to be trapped in a prison of lies. Now he knows the truth.”

  “I agree,” Birjandi said. “And look how much impact you can make when you speak the truth in love and from your heart.”

  “Almost nine hundred thousand people are following Dr. Malik on Twitter,” Ibrahim said. “It’s too bad most people don’t have any electricity and can’t watch TV right now. I hear the satellite networks keep replaying Najjar’s interviews explaining how he became a follower of Jesus. Until my phone stopped working, I was getting text messages from people all over Iran who saw part or all of the interviews before the Israelis shut down the power.”

  “Do you think it was really the Israelis?” asked Ali. “How do we know Hosseini and Darazi didn’t order the power shut down so people couldn’t see Najjar’s interviews?”

  “Well, either way, his message is getting out. People all over the country are openly debating what he’s done and what he’s saying. Some are furious at him. Some are intrigued. But they all seem to be retweeting, don’t they?”

  Now the two young men took their places on floor cushions as Birjandi prepared to teach them. Ali couldn’t wait to hear what his mentor had to say.

  “Each of us was raised not simply as a good and faithful Muslim but as a devout and fervent Shiite,” Birjandi began. “What’s more, we were raised as Twelvers. We believed we were living in the last days. We believed the messiah was coming soon. We believed there were signs all around us indicating that the end of human history as we had known it was at hand, that a new kingdom was coming, and with it was coming judgment for the infidels and peace and prosperity for the believers. And we were right—correct?”

  “Absolutely,” Ali said.

  “Now, of course, when we were lost, we believed that the Twelfth Imam was our messiah. We believed the Mahdi was not only coming to save us and redeem us and rule over us and the whole world but that Jesus would be coming too, as the Mahdi’s lieutenant, as his deputy. But, my sons, we were deceived. We believed a lie. In our ignorance, we did not even think for a moment—for a single second—that what we had been taught might be false, that it might have been fed to us to corrupt us, to beguile us, to lure us away from the true path. Yet God took pity on us. In his loving-kindness and mercy, God chose us, reached out to us, decided to open our eyes and enlighten us and reveal to us the truth—that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords and that the Mahdi is a thief and a liar. Amazingly, we’re not alone. Najjar is right. God is waking up Muslims all over Iran and all over the Middle East and North Africa and across Central Asia and even in Indonesia. There is a great spiritual awakening under way right now. Millions of Muslims are renouncing Islam and choosing to follow the true King, Jesus Christ!”

  The young men heartily agreed.

  “Now, it’s important to realize that while Shia Islam has an eschatology—an End Times theology—so does Christianity. But while Islam’s eschatology, sadly, is built on the lies and the false teachings of men, make no mistake, gentlemen, the Bible is the truth—the very Word of God. The Bible is not shy about describing itself as a supernatural book. Yes, it was written down on tablets and parchments and scrolls of various kinds across the span of several thousand years by a wide variety of men, including shepherds, kings, warriors, fishermen, and prophets. But though the Scriptures were written down by men, they were not written by men. On the contrary, the Bible states clearly and unequivocally that it is the inspired Word of God himself, and yes, it does speak to the fate of nations, including Iran. And at this critical hour, it is indeed vital that you understand what the Bible says will happen to us. But brace yourselves, my sons. It is going to be very difficult medicine to swallow.”

  16

  JERUSALEM, ISRAEL

  The watch commander of the prime minister’s communications center got off the phone with the IDF war room in Tel Aviv. Asher Naphtali was hoping for an update from Dimona, but this was bad news on a different front.

  “Sir, we have a report that a hotel in Tiberias has collapsed,” the commander told the prime minister. “Emergency crews and hazmat teams are on the scene. At this point, they have no indications of radiation or other weapons of mass destruction. But fires are raging out of control.”

  “What happened?”

  “Witnesses are saying the hotel was hit either by a missile or possibly by debris from a missile that was intercepted over the Golan.”

  “How many casualties?”

  “Too early to say, sir. But I’ll let you know the moment we hear anything.”

  “And Dimona?”

  “No specifics yet, sir,” the commander said. “As you directed, the area has been cordoned off for a twenty-five-mile radius. Hazmat teams are assembling now and preparing to go in. I suspect we’ll know more in the next half hour or so.”

  “Do we have any visual evidence of the damage yet?”

  “No, sir, not yet.”

  “Have we sent in a drone?”

  “No, sir—not until we have a clearer sense of the radioactivity levels.”

  “Are we certain there was a nuclear explosion?”

  “We have no reports of a mushroom cloud per se, but beyond that I don’t have any more information. I’ve opened a line to the IDF commander in the forward position. I can put you on with him if you’d like.”

  “No, that’s fine,” the prime minister said. “Let him do his work. Just keep me posted.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Naphtali turned to Ambassador Montgomery. He thanked the American for coming to meet with him but said he now needed to turn his full attention to the ongoing rocket attacks. Still, he had a message for the White House he wanted Montgomery to deliver.

  “Tell the president I’m going on television within the hour to update the Israeli people on where we are in the course of this war,” the prime minister said calmly. “Tell him the enemies of Israel are going to pay dearly for what they have done. And make it clear that I am not going to ratchet this war down. To the contrary, I’m going to expand it. As of this moment, I am ordering a full ground invasion of Lebanon and Gaza and a massive new wave of air strikes into Iran. Simultaneously, I’ve sent a message through the British ambassador in Damascus to President Mustafa, warning the Syrians not to even think of joining this war. And so help me God, if any nation or terror group uses weapons of mass destruction against the State of Israel, they are going to trigger a level of retaliation the world has never seen.”

  Ambassador Montgomery’s face was ashen. But he nodded, shook the prime minister’s hand, and thanked him for the courtesy of his time. Then he was led by a security detail out of the residence and to his waiting motorcade for the quick drive back to the newly completed American consulate in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona.

  When he was gone, Naphtali speed-dialed his defense minister. “Levi, he’s gone,” he said calmly. “But I made our position clear. Now start the music. It’s time.”

  HA
MADAN, IRAN

  Dr. Birjandi leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and without notes began directing his students to key Scripture passages from memory.

  “Turn to Isaiah chapter 46,” he said.

  Ibrahim found the passage first. “What verse?” he asked.

  “Nine and ten,” Birjandi said.

  “Here it is,” Ibrahim said, stroking his beard. “Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord said, ‘I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.’”

  “Good,” the old man said. “Now turn to Jeremiah 33:3.”

  This time Ali got there first. He cleared his throat and read it softly. “‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’”

  “Very good,” Birjandi said. “Now I want you to always keep this truth in mind: the prophecies we find in the Bible are intercepts from the mind of the all-seeing, all-knowing God. They tell us God’s secrets. They tell us ‘great and mighty things’ that we do not know about the future. And often—not always, but often—Bible prophecies are storm warnings about the future. They warn us of wars or natural disasters or other catastrophic events that God has decided he is going to allow to happen or cause to happen. But he is not telling us these things to frighten us. He is telling us in order to prepare us, so we are not surprised and so we can be ready to take bold, courageous action in service to him when the time comes.”

  “But what about Iran?” Ali asked. “You said the Bible tells us about the future of our country, right?”

  Birjandi nodded. “There are two critically important prophecies about the future of Iran in the last days. The first is found in Jeremiah 49:35-39.”

  Ibrahim found the passage and began to read it. “‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, I am going to break the bow of Elam, the finest of their might. 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. So I will shatter Elam before their enemies and before those who seek their lives; and I will bring calamity upon them, even My fierce anger,” declares the Lord, “and I will send out the sword after them until I have consumed them. Then I will set My throne in Elam and destroy out of it king and princes,” declares the Lord. “But it will come about in the last days that I will restore the fortunes of Elam,” declares the Lord.’”

  “Elam is Iran?” Ali asked.

  “Yes,” said Birjandi, still leaning back, eyes still closed. “Elam is one of the ancient names of Iran, just like Persia. The passage tells us that in the last days, God will scatter the people of Iran all over the earth. For many centuries, this seemed impossible because we Persians are such a proud and nationalistic people. But as incredible as it was, this prophecy actually began to come to pass in 1979. In that year, for the first time in history, our people were scattered all over the globe. When the Shah’s regime fell and Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, Iran went into upheaval. Many were overjoyed, myself included. We were deceived. Our eyes were blinded. But many others understood the evil Khomeini represented. They understood Islam was not the answer and jihad was not the way, which is why many fled Iran as soon as they could. Guess how many Iranians now live outside our country.”

  “Half a million?” Ibrahim guessed.

  “No, higher,” Birjandi said.

  “A million?” Ali asked.

  “Higher.”

  “Two million,” Ali ventured.

  “There are now about five million Iranians scattered all over the world,” Birjandi said. “Such a thing has never happened before in the entire history of the Persian people. But it started happening in 1979, and it’s still happening today.”

  “My uncle left Tehran in 1979. He took his whole family; they went to Canada,” Ibrahim said. “My father still curses him today. Says he’s a coward, an enemy of the Revolution, and no longer his brother. I wasn’t even born yet. But that was it. He made his decision, and he and his whole family were dead to us. We weren’t allowed to ever mention his name. I did once and my father beat me with a cane.”

  “I’m so sorry,” said Dr. Birjandi, sitting up and leaning forward. “But you’re not alone. The Revolution divided many families. But at least you know what I’m saying is true.”

  “Yes, I guess I do.”

  “Well, that’s just the beginning of the prophecy,” the old man continued. “The Lord says he is going to ‘break’ the current structure of Iran. Do you see that in the text? And the Lord goes on to say that he will ‘shatter’ Iran ‘before their enemies.’ He says he will bring his ‘fierce anger’ against the leaders of Iran and says, ‘I will send out the sword after them until I have consumed them.’ In verse 38, the Lord then says he will specifically ‘destroy’ Iran’s ‘king and princes.’ Now, what does all this tell us?”

  “That we’re doomed,” Ali said.

  “Why do you say that?” Birjandi asked.

  “What do you mean?” Ali replied. “God says he’s going to destroy us. He’s going to shatter us. He’s going to break us. Sounds to me like he’s going to unleash his vengeance upon us and let the Israelis utterly annihilate us, just like the Ayatollah has been threatening to annihilate them.”

  “In that case, young man, you’re not reading the text carefully enough,” Birjandi said. “What does verse 39 say?”

  Ibrahim took that one. “It says that God will ‘restore the fortunes of Elam.’”

  “Exactly,” Birjandi said. “What does that mean?”

  The two young men were stumped and silent.

  “Hello? Are you boys still there?”

  “Yes, sir, we’re still here,” Ibrahim said.

  “Then when does it mean?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “Really? Why not?”

  “Well, it seems contradictory. Is God going to destroy us or bless us?”

  “Could it be a little bit of both?” the old man asked. “Look, gentlemen, the truth is that God loves the people of Iran. He has a beautiful future planned for us. He promises to bless us in the last days. But before he can bless us, he has to purify us. Which means he is going to judge our political leaders and our religious leaders and our military leaders. He’s going to break them and shatter them and consume them. Not all the people, but the leaders. See how he specifically refers to the ‘king and princes’? The Lord is talking here about judging the leadership of the country. Not the people. Quite the contrary. The Lord says he is going to restore our fortunes and move his throne here—right here, in Iran.”

  Ali and Ibrahim were silent, poring over the text and trying to grasp the magnitude of its importance.

  “Can you imagine?” Birjandi asked.

  “Are you saying that after God judges our leaders and military, he’s going to allow the people of Iran to become politically free and economically prosperous?” Ali asked.

  “That’s one interpretation, and I would certainly love to believe that. However, I lean more toward the interpretation that God specifically means he will bless the people of Iran spiritually. I believe he is going to pour out his love and forgiveness and his Holy Spirit on the people of Iran. He’s going to open their hearts and their eyes and help them to see clearly that Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord in this world. And when he says he’s going to move his throne here, I believe that means he is going to make Iran a sending country—a base camp, as it were—from which thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of Iranian followers of Christ will fan out throughout the Middle East and around the world, preaching the gospel, making disciples, planting churches, and advancing the Kingdom of Christ. Iran is not doomed, my dear ones. Iran is on the verge of one of the greatest spiritual awakenings in the history of mankind. We are about to begin exporting the Jesus Revolution, not the Islamic Revolution. I know it looks very dark now, but the Truth is about
to dawn on the Persian people.”

  SYRACUSE, NEW YORK

  It was almost two thirty in the morning.

  Marseille Harper was exhausted, physically and emotionally spent, and as she pulled her Ford Focus rental car into the driveway of her friend’s childhood home in Fayetteville, a quaint and upscale suburb of Syracuse, she couldn’t wait to tiptoe downstairs to the guest bedroom, slip into her nightgown, crawl into bed, and pull the covers over her head. She didn’t want to see anyone else. She didn’t want to talk to anyone else. She just wanted to hide away from the pain all around her and ask the Lord to hold her while she cried herself to sleep.

  As grateful as she was for the time she had just spent with Dr. Shirazi, she was deeply worried for him. He was actually doing better than she had expected for the moment, but that was on the outside. What was really happening inside? He didn’t know the Lord. He didn’t know what the new day would hold, much less what was waiting for him in eternity. She wondered if he would ever be able to recover from the immense grief of losing his wife of more than thirty years. And she feared what news of David’s death might do to Dr. Shirazi if it came in the next few hours or days, as she increasingly expected it would. She dreaded the prospect of attending yet another funeral for yet another dear, close, personal family friend. But she was beginning to steel herself for just such a prospect.

  David was a CIA agent operating deep inside Iran in the midst of a cataclysmic war, the worst in modern Middle Eastern history. She didn’t know exactly where in Iran he was, of course, or exactly what he was doing, but did that really matter at this point? Every minute of every hour could bring a death sentence. He was in God’s hands, of course, and that, she believed, was the safest place to be. But who was to say that the Lord wouldn’t allow David to die? She was praying for his safety, but she knew all too well that sometimes God said no.