When my wife (Rachelle) was a teenager in the 1970s, she lived with her family in Tehran, Iran. Her father worked for an oil company that had a business in the Iranian capital.
Rachelle and I love the Persian people.
I am writing this post to help you understand the difference between ancient Persia (Iran), the Persian people, and the modern Muslim clerical Arabic leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran who dominate the Persian people by force.
Why should every American know the difference between the dark Islamic Republic of Iran and the Persian people?
Because our sons and daughters may soon be fighting in the Middle East, and the Persian people are not our enemy.
The government of Iran is leading a proxy war against Israel and the United States.
The war is real, though unofficial. It is evident by chants like “Death to America” and “From the River to the Sea,” as well as the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel where Islamic militants invaded Israel and raped, kidnaped, and murdered hundreds of Jews.
The weapons, aerial assault, and murderous rampage through Israel on October 7, 2023, were funded and coordinated by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The drones and missiles striking U.S. cargo ships in the Red Sea are Iranian-made.
Israel bombed the Iranian Embassy in Syria this week in retaliation, killing several Iranian military officials who organized the October 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
The war is spreading.
The Noble Iranians (Aryans)
Adolph Hitler was an evil psychopath. He created a horrific false ideology of “white supremacy” based on a belief in a mythical race that he called Aryan. Sadly, Hitler took the remarkable word Aryan and destroyed it.
Aryan, in ancient Sanskrit, means “noble ones” or “free.”
Aryan had nothing to do with race and was a title that meant: A noble people who treasure their freedom.
The word Iranian has “Aryan” as its root. Where did these noble, free people (Iranians) come from?
Noah had sixteen grandsons. In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), one of these grandsons was named Madai. His descendants were known as the Medes (through Moses’ son Japheth). The Medes migrated from Turkey (named for Noah’s grandson Torgarmah) to a plateau between two mountain ranges (Zagros and Hindu-Kush), the land we know today as Iran.
Madai is the ancestor of modern-day Iranians. They migrated from Turkey to Iran and were known as “noble, free people.” Whenever you read Mede in your Bible, it is spelled “Madai” in Hebrew. The historian Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37- 100) wrote, “The descendants of Madai were called Medes by the Greeks.”
Elam is another grandson of Noah through Shem. Elam’s family migrated to the same mountain plateau as Madai’s family. The Elamites settled in the Mesopotamian valley between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, with the Iranian mountain plateau to their direct east. The Elamites, the name used in the Bible for Persians, intermarried with the Medes, and their union became the MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE (see Daniel 5:32).
The Medo-Persian people are “noble and free” and are mentioned in the Bible in several places, including Daniel 5:32 and Acts 2:9 (the Elamites), and I Chronicles 1:17. Contrary to Hitler’s stupidity about the word Aryan, these noble and free people are composed of both Semitic and Japethic ethnicities (Jews and Gentiles).
The Jews were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in what is called The Babylonian Captivity (586 BC to 539 BC). Cyrus the Great, king of the rising Persian Empire, conquered Babylon and freed the Jews to return home and rebuild their city and Temple (see details below).
The Jews have always loved the Persian people.
The United States Army War College, Carlisle, PA
During the last massive solar eclipse (August 21, 2017), I spoke at the United States Army War College about Cyrus the Great (cs. 600 BC—530 BC), King of Persia from 550 BC—530 BC. Generals today study the Greek historian Xenophone’s (430-345 BC) biography of “Cyrus on Leadership” and how this Persian king conquered the Babylonian Empire.
Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede of the rising Medo-Persian Empire diverted the Euphrates River and had his army march under the ancient walls of Babylon, and he and Darius conquered the Babylonian army in one night (October 12, 539 BC). You can read this incredible story in Daniel 5.
After Cyrus's time, the Medes and Persians are mentioned together in historical literature. They became one kingdom with one law—‘the law of the Medes and Persians’ (Daniel 6:8, 12, 15). Later, “Medo” or Madai was dropped, and the people were called Persians. Since 1935, they have been called people from their native Iran (Iranians) in honor of their reputation as a “noble and free people” (Aryan).
Cyrus, King of Persia, is called “The LORD’S Messiah” in Isaiah 45:1 because he conquered Babylon on October 12, 539 BC, and released captives (including the Jews) to return home.
The magi from the East came from Persia to worship the newborn Messiah because they had the scroll of Daniel and knew from Daniel 11-12 when the Messiah would be born. Daniel, one of the early Jewish captives in Babylon, stayed in the land after the Persian Conquest and established his “school of the magi.” Daniel’s tomb is in Persia (Iran) to this day. So is Ezekiel’s tomb.
On the Day of Pentecost, Jews whose ancestors never returned to Jerusalem after the Exile (539 BC), come from Persia to Jerusalem and are mentioned:
“The Medes and Elamites (Persians), residents of Mesopotamia…heard Peter’s message at Pentecost (spoken in Hebrew) in their tongue (Farsi)” - Acts 2:9-12
The Persian people are throughout the Bible. The Persian people have always been noble people who believed in freedom.
The Muslims Conquer the Noble People
Ten years after the death of Mohommed (622 BC), the Muslims of Saudi Arabia invaded the noble, free people of the Medo-Persian Empire. The Persian people became subjugated to the Shiite Muslim branch of Islam.
For 1350 years, the Persians acquiesced to moderate Muslim governance. Their kings (Shahs) were nominally Muslim, but their culture and heritage were predominantly Persian.
In that year, the radical Islamic Shiites overthrew the King of Persia and established a dark, radical Islamic Republic of Iran, ruled by radical Islamic clerics, beginning with Ayatollah Khomeini.
The Iranian Revolution occurred during President Jimmy Carter’s tenure.
President Jimmy Carter is a friend. He’ll turn 100 on October 1, 2024.
I love the former President of the United States because Jimmy Carter loves Jesus. He’s my brother in the Christian faith. My eternal relationships precede temporal political differences. About fifteen years ago, I met the former President in his Presidential Library, and he shared some remarkable stories from his presidency.
The event that defined Mr. Carter’s legacy as President was the Iranian hostage crisis.
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