Right now, Iran is a country where owning a Bible can lead to prison. Churches are sealed with padlocks. Pastors are arrested or disappear. Converting from Islam to Christianity can carry the death penalty.

On paper, Christianity in Iran should be extinct—reduced to a historical footnote, a faith crushed under the weight of repression. And yet, the reality is the exact opposite.

Today, the Christian Church in Iran is growing faster than anywhere else in the world.

This is where the mystery begins. This is where human logic fails.

There are no foreign missionaries. They were expelled decades ago. There are no public evangelistic campaigns, no street preaching, no flyers, no churches open to the public. If human voices have been silenced and doors have been sealed, then a disturbing question emerges:

Who is preaching the Gospel in Iran?

The answer unsettles skeptics and defies sociological categories. Yet it is documented, ongoing, and happening as you read these words—quietly, invisibly, in the darkness of Iranian nights.

Thousands upon thousands of Muslims are encountering Jesus Christ in their dreams.

They meet a man dressed in white.

And what they report is too consistent, too widespread, and too transformative to be dismissed as fantasy.

Is This Real—or Just a Religious Internet Myth?

Before examining the testimonies, a legitimate question must be addressed: is this true, or is it just a viral Christian legend?

Christians are called to love truth, not sensationalism.

The data is solid.

The organization Open Doors, which has monitored Christian persecution for more than sixty years, confirms that the underground church in Iran is growing at an explosive rate. From only a few thousand believers in 1979, estimates today range from 800,000 to over one million Christians—despite relentless repression.

Even more striking is the research of missiologist David Garrison, documented in his book A Wind in the House of Islam. Garrison interviewed more than a thousand former Muslims across the Islamic world who had converted to Christianity. When asked what led them to follow Jesus, he expected theological or philosophical answers.

Instead, a remarkable number gave the same response:

“I dreamed of Him.”

Not vague dreams. Not symbolic visions. But encounters with specific, recurring features—experienced by people who had never met each other, lived in different regions, and had no contact with Christianity.

They described a man whose face shone like the sun, so bright they could not look directly at Him. He wore a white, luminous robe. And He spoke—clearly, purposefully—often using phrases drawn directly from the Bible, words they had never read.

“If the Police Block the Roads, Jesus Enters Bedrooms”

Dr. Hormoz Shariat, a former Muslim and now a Christian pastor often called the Billy Graham of Iran, has publicly stated:

“I have hardly ever met an Iranian believer whose conversion did not include a dream or supernatural vision. God has chosen to bypass human censorship. If the religious police block the roads, Jesus enters bedrooms.”

To grasp the power of this phenomenon, we must listen to real stories—human lives changed beyond explanation.

Miriam: Saved from Death by a Dream

The first story is that of a young Iranian woman we will call Miriam, to protect her identity.

Miriam’s life was marked by violence, oppression, and despair. Crushed by a suffocating family situation and a religion that felt distant and merciless, she reached a breaking point. According to testimonies gathered by ministries such as Elam Ministries, Miriam had prepared to take her own life.

Alone in her room, sobbing, she cried out one final time:

“God, if You exist, why are You letting me die? If You are there, save me—now or never.”

Exhausted, she fell asleep.

In her dream, the room filled with light—not a physical light, but a presence. She saw the man in white. He did not condemn her. He did not rebuke her despair. He came close and spoke gently:

“Come to me. I am the way and the life. I will not hurt you. I love you.”

When Miriam woke up, the despair was gone—physically gone, as if a crushing weight had been lifted from her chest. She did not know who the man was, but she knew He was not the god she had been taught to fear.

Risking everything, she began to search. Eventually, she found a Christian. When she was shown the Gospels, she said through tears:

“These are the words He spoke to me in the dream.”

Today, Miriam is alive—and she is a leader in an underground house church.

When the Man in White Appears to a Persecutor

But Jesus does not appear only to victims. He also appears to persecutors.

One documented testimony concerns an officer in the Iranian security services. His job was to hunt underground churches, arrest believers, and shut down Christian activity. He believed he was serving God by destroying what he saw as heresy.

After one such raid, he returned home and went to sleep.

That night, he dreamed of the man in white.

This time, the presence was not only gentle—it was overwhelming. The officer tried to resist, to fight, to draw his weapon, but he could not move. He was pinned to the ground by something stronger than force: a love so heavy it crushed his hatred.

The man asked him one question:

“Why are you persecuting me?”

The echo is unmistakable. It is the same question spoken to Saul on the road to Damascus.

The officer woke up shaking, drenched in sweat. The hatred that had defined him for years was gone. He sought out the Christians he had arrested—not to torture them, but to ask forgiveness. He was baptized.

No argument could have done this. No debate. No sermon.

Only an encounter with the living Christ.

Why Dreams?

Why does God use dreams instead of public miracles?

There are two profound reasons.

The first is cultural. In the Middle East, dreams are taken seriously. In Islamic tradition, dreams are often believed to carry divine meaning. God, in His wisdom, speaks the language people understand best.

The second is biblical.

In the book of Joel, God promises:
“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”

What is happening in Iran is not strange. It is the fulfillment of Scripture.

When governments attempt to imprison the Holy Spirit with laws and violence, the Spirit overflows.

A Question for the Free World

This leaves us with an uncomfortable question.

In the West, we have everything—Bibles everywhere, churches on every corner, total religious freedom. And yet our faith often feels tired, habitual, lukewarm.

In Iran, people risk their lives because they fell in love with a man they met in a dream. They may lack theology, but they have Him—and that is enough to give their lives.

The story of the man in white reminds us that God has not stopped acting. No prison wall can block Him. No censorship can silence Him.

Perhaps it is also an invitation—to ask God to awaken us again, to let us see His glory with the same wonder as our Iranian brothers and sisters.

Write this in the comments as both a prayer and a declaration:

“Your light cannot be chained.”

Let us pray for the Church in Iran—and that the same light shining in the darkness there may illuminate our hearts today.

May God bless us all.