The True Cost of Being a Christian in Iran: Joshua's Story

The Islamic Republic of Iran is home to a Christian community that flourishes in secret. Joshua is one of the founders of the largest Christian groups in Iran today. Born into an affluent, religiously devout Muslim family, Joshua rejected that faith in his mid-teens. After a rebellious youth he converted to Christianity and began his ministry with the homeless and addicted of Tehran, but he couldn't avoid the scrutiny of the oppressive Iranian government. He was arrested, tortured, and incarcerated in the notorious Evin Prison. After his release he was forced to flee to Turkey as a refugee. While there he began another church to serve the refugee community. Joshua's arrival in America brings new challenges, new opportunities, and a family he never anticipated. This inspiring true story is a journey through three countries, the joys and losses of a man's life and his practical approach to faith grounded in the love and acceptance of all people.

Here's a breakdown of what is covered:
[00:00:07] - Special cohost welcome.

[00:00:25] - The story of joshua.

[00:01:40] - Who is joshua.

[00:02:38] - The need to tell his story.

[00:04:22] - How josh converted to christianity.

[00:06:03] - How did you get into drawing.

[00:06:55] - Do you forgive the iranian government.

[00:08:21] - Why become joshua.

[00:11:39] - Some bible verses joshua loves.

[00:12:26] - What americans don ’ t know about iranian christians.

[00:19:25] - The final thoughts.

[00:21:16] - The becoming joshua ministry.


https://becomingjoshua.org

Transcript

[Jared Easley]

Welcome to Starve the Doubts. Today I have a special cohost. His name is Cameron House. Cameron, thank you so much for being a part of today's special interview.

[Cameron H]

Well, thank you so much for having us on here today, Jared. We're excited about Joshua's story and what he has to share.

[Jared Easley]

Absolutely. So that said, my name is Jared, of course, and we have Cameron, and then we mentioned that we have Joshua with us today, and there's going to be people be like, well, I don't know about Joshua, and you're in for a real treat because there's a really good story here. So tell you what, if you're willing, Cameron, let's just have you go ahead and tell us a little bit about Joshua and then we can get started with chatting with Joshua.

[Cameron H]

Okay, happy to. So years ago in Iran, joshua grew up and he was a devout Muslim and he converted to Christianity and he started some underground house churches with some other people there in Iran. And he ended up spending some time in prison. He ended up going to Turkey, and then he came to the United States. And while he was in the United States, he needed some help with his writing in English and he met my wife and they became friends. And then Josh was introduced to me and we knew that we were all believers. And so we started Bible study together. And about four years ago, we ended up adopting Joshua as an adult. Adoption. And now we work with Joshua in a ministry called Go and do, which is where we are working with underground believers in Iran.

[Jared Easley]

Excellent. All right, well, Joshua, welcome to the show. And for those that obviously are not going to be familiar with you, which is pretty much everybody, would you be willing to tell us a little bit about yourself and about your background?

[Joshua]

Yeah, thank you for having me on your podcast, Jared. Sure. I really appreciate that. As you know, I'm Joshua, so I born in Iran as a Muslim and I grew up in a very Muslim family. I converted to Christianity, and then as soon as I converted to Christianity, we started having the house churches. And then as a result of having house church, I went to prison a few times and then I left the city and then I left the country, and then I end up to come to the United States.

[Jared Easley]

Oh, and that's a quick overview, but I'm sure there's a lot in between there. Yeah, I'd love to hear more about that. Go ahead and we'll just keep going here. Cameron.

[Cameron H]

Okay, Josh, tell us a little bit about why you feel the need right now to tell and share your story.

[Joshua]

That's a great question. I really appreciate this story. For years, I didn't want to talk about what's happened to me and what's happened to many others who converted in Iran and went to prison because of the situation that we lived. We learned to hide everything and every story. And when I came to America, that I learned these testimonies is very valuable because I was one of the luckiest people who come to America and survive. And I saw many of many of my friends, they didn't want to talk about their story, they didn't want to talk about prison, they didn't want to talk about what happened to them and to their family. So after a while, I feel the responsibility to start talking about all these trauma, to talk about all of these things happen to not just to me, too many other people. So that story is kind of the story of rejection. Rejection from my own family, rejection from my friends, from the country, even from some organization, because they didn't want me to be who I am. They wanted to make decision for me and for many of people like me to make a decision who we should be. So that's why I wanted to be a voice for many untold stories and be a voice for many people who are in prison and have no opportunity to tell their stories. That was the reason.

[Jared Easley]

Josh, I have not heard the story of how basically your conversion from being a Muslim to becoming a Christian, can you just share that and tell us a little bit about how that happened?

[Joshua]

As I explained in the book, I was very strict Muslim and my family, when I was so young, my father, he pushed us to learn Arabic and to study Koran variable. And he kind of devoted me to becoming a good Molah. And after I studied Quran, I had a lot of questions and I started to ask my questions, but I never got the answer. And then when I was 15 or 16, I started to say, okay, no one going to respond to my questions. I kind of ignored the religion. And I said, if Allah cannot answer me, no one can answer me. Until one day I was in some wedding and one of my friends, he introduced me the Bible and he told me, I know you read or not very well, but now I think you need to read the Bible, because in Iran, Bible is illegal. You cannot have a Bible. So I got the Bible, I start to read Bible, and I was like my first reaction when I read the Bible, especially Book of John, I was like, wow, Jesus is a very poor guy, I wish I could help you. And then that was the start the relationship between me and Joshua.

[Jared Easley]

So I want to ask a question about something that you do. How did you get interested in drawing?

[Joshua]

Since I was charged, I just love to draw. I was drawing everywhere, even on my skin. And all the stories started with that. I start to draw cross, and I didn't know why. I draw cross all the time. I was seven years old, I was drawing cross and even my family was like, why you draw a cross? And I didn't know until one day one of my friends told me, you draw a cross all the time in your forehead. Forearm, sorry, forehead. And we start to have a tattoo. So I wanted to have a permanent cross in my arms and that tattoo actually started everything.

[Cameron H]

Joshua, you spent time in prison and part of the thing about being in prison is that the government there wanted names of other believers. And the goal of a believer in prison is not to give up names of fellow believers and not giving up the names, the torture becomes worse. Do you forgive the iranian government for what they did? Because that's got to be a hard thing.

[Joshua]

That's a tough question because it's easy to say I forgive someone. And to me it took seven years until I get to the point that I'm going to forgive those people who tortured me because I think they are a victim. For seven years I was thinking I'm a victim until I got to this point, they are the victim of ideology, of the wrong ideology. And I wasn't the victim. So I got to this point, I'm going to forgive them. But until today, I don't think I'm going to forgive iranian government because they know what they are doing. But those people who torture me or who put me in present, they don't know. They are just following. So yes, I forgive those people who tortured me, but I still working on forgiving the government, which I think this is so hard to forgive.

[Jared Easley]

Yeah, understandable, we alluded to this a little bit, but we mentioned that there's actually a book, it's becoming joshua is the name of the book. And I was curious, why becoming Joshua?

[Joshua]

That's a wonderful question because I love Joshua. Not me, but the character of Joshua, which in hebrew would say you share. I earned that name. I think it took almost 30 years, working so hard, being in the wrong religion, losing the family, losing the friends, leaving everything behind, become a refugee and then come to America and learn other language. Until I earned that name. Until I became Joshua. I wasn't Joshua. I became Joshua. That's why that name is a lot to me. Because when Hameron and Michele, I told them you choose name for me and they told me they want to call you Joshua, are you okay with that? And I was like, this is my dream, to be a Joshua. So becoming Joshua, for me, it wasn't just the name. I earned that name.

[Cameron H]

Joshua, your message is about loving and accepting everyone, even the people in the iranian government who mistreated you. Why is this message so close to your heart?

[Joshua]

Because first time when I read the new testament, the only thing that touched my heart until today and every day to me. This is afresh. It was Jesus message. His message was love one another and accept each other. The first time when I read that, when I understand why Jesus came to earth, yeah, take my sin and save me. But his main message was accept each other and love each other. And that became for me, it became a big deal. And I started to tell you, all of our houses are like every day when we start, we start with they love each other, accept one another because I cannot love you if I don't accept you. And because the message of love each other and accept one another, it's not about color, it's not about culture, it's not about who you think you are. It's very international. It's about black and white, any religion. If you don't have love, you're dead.

[Cameron H]

People today get it backwards though, right? They think, oh, if I love somebody, then I will accept them. But they need to accept first.

[Joshua]

Oh, definitely. This is how even go. And do we go by that? We say accept each other first, accept and then love, because until I don't accept you, I can't love you.

[Cameron H]

And to your shoes biggest commands were love God with all your heart and love your neighbors yourself.

[Joshua]

Yeah, definitely.

[Jared Easley]

Joshua, what are some Bible verses that have encouraged you throughout all of these experiences?

[Joshua]

I have a few verses that I love. One of the most important verse to me was John, chapter eight, verse 32 you shall know the truth and the true will set you free. Because this verse, I think I told that word to more than 1000 Muslims. They were all looking for the truth. And I was using dad versus all the time because they were always telling me Allah is the truth. And I was telling them, you think this is the truth because someone else told you you should find the truth. And if you're looking for the true, you will find it because true is right in front of you.

[Cameron H]

Do you think there are things that people in America do not know about Iranian believers or about the underground church? And what would those things be that.

[Joshua]

They don't know American Christian or overall or Christians overall, the media about Iran, you don't know the truth, you don't know what's happening in Iran. And some of my experience, like most people, when I say I'm from Iran, they tell me, oh, you have a lot of desserts. And I'm like, no, we have a lot of mountains. I'm sorry, what's the question? Sorry.

[Cameron H]

Are there misconceptions from Americans about Iran as a country and about Iranian believers?

[Joshua]

It's kind of weird. Tough question about Iranian believers. We are talking with Iran and Christian who converts it in Iran. In my experience, in 15 years experience working, converting in Iran, and working with people who converted in Iran, when they convert, they are ready to give up everything they have. But converting for them is not just, oh, I convert to Christianity. When they convert it, from the moment they accept the Christ, it means I'm ready to give up everything I have. I'm ready to give my life. So that's very different. When I came here, I saw a lot of chairs, a lot of believers, and I see a lot of knowledge. Every church I go and most of the Christian I see in America, they know Bible very well everywhere because they have a lots of class, lots of testers. We don't have this stuff. But one thing that I feel here, I don't know if I can say or not, I want to be very honest, but at the same time, I don't want to break anyone's heart, but I see here they miss the real issue. I'm sorry if I say that because I love believers here. They teach me a lot. But most of the chairs, when I go, I see Joshua as a brand, not as a god. And that breaking my heart. And I see Joshua. Very simple. I think sometimes they make it very simple, like, oh, it's here, over there. We give our likes to know one sentence about Joshua, maybe because the freedom, sometimes freedom makes people think, I have everything I want. I know that is not good for podcast. I know, Jared, maybe you can cut that part. That question was one of the hardest questions.

[Jared Easley]

No, I think it's a good question. And I think it's very easy as an American Christian to be you forget you only are focused on what's going on in your own world and you don't understand. A number of Christians in the United States don't understand what's happening in Iran or in other countries where it's illegal to own a Bible, like you said, and you could be punished severely or even killed for having faith in Jesus. So that, I think, is you're right. I think that is sad that there's a number of American Christians that probably do take their faith for granted because they've not had the experiences and had the difficulties of really being fully committed to the faith and what that cost truly is. Even though Jesus says, if you follow me, you got to pick up your cross daily and you have to follow me. So I appreciate you sharing that. Joshua, I think that's a good word for people to hear and to realize.

[Cameron H]

Josh, where can listeners either go online to find out more about you, about the book, about the gallery, about the ministry? Where can they go?

[Joshua]

So we have a website becoming Joshua.org. And we have a book becoming Joshua. His First Two life. We wrote that book. We established that website. And I tried to draw a lot of black and white pictures. The reason I did that, because I wanted to show the pain. I wanted to show the cost of being Christian. I wanted to people go to that website, read that book, not to understand, not because to see who I am, because we have a loss of Joshua in Iran. And even here sometimes you can be persecuted when you're in freedom country, when people reject you. I saw here a lot of good Christian, they rejected by some other maybe churches or pastors or people just because they wanted to follow exactly what Jesus want. So I want people go to that website. I want people read that book, not because of me. I want people kind of awake the soul to understand its cost to be Christian. It's not free.

[Jared Easley]

Jasmine. How can someone who's listening to this, who is a Christian and wants to know, how can they pray for you? How can they pray for the underground church in Iran? What do you tell that person?

[Joshua]

If that message touched someone hard and they want to pray for not just Iranian believers, people in Iraq and Afghanistan, middle east is really hard to be Christian or convert to Christian. Maybe this is like opposite than what they think. I don't want to pray for safety. I want they pray for the light come all over the Middle East. Safety is good to have, but since we convert and we believe in Jesus, we are done, we are safe. But if that message really touched their heart, I want to pray for the light of yeshua, for the light of Jesus. Come to the Middle East, touch Muslims hearts and touch Muslims governments to change the whole Middle East, because this is the place that Joshua born. This is the place that the word of God came. So when they pray, that word goes to people's hearts and spread it.

[Jared Easley]

Joshua, we always like to finish the podcast with Final Thoughts. So you've shared a lot of really wonderful things and you just gave some really good perspective on how Christians can pray. What's the final thought about the book or just about your experience that you want to share with people listening?

[Joshua]

The final things we established here, go and do ministry and Go and do is based on Jesus 12th steps. If they can join, join. If you want to do more, call us. We have that ministry. We want to make it grow. We want especially in America, I want to bring as much as people in America into the turkey and show them ephesian, corinthian the cities that Paul had the first churches years ago. So maybe I should do this again because I don't know why I can't focus. Can you say it again? Jared, I'm so sorry.

[Jared Easley]

Actually, I don't think we need to redo it. I think this has been very truthful and honest and I think that's helpful. Yeah. Joshua, I appreciate you I appreciate your sacrifice. I appreciate you being willing to share. Maybe that's not easy at times, but I'm grateful that you are willing to do that. And there are a number of people that need to hear your story. They need to read this book and need to be aware of what's going on so they can, as you said, pray that the light of Jesus will be spread amongst these nations, which we know from Scripture that it will be. So we just pray that God will be done and that he'll allow that and he'll do that. So I really appreciate you being bold, having the courage. I appreciate you sharing today and thank you for being a guest on the show.

[Joshua]

Thank you so much for having us.

[Cameron H]

Thank you so much.

[Jared Easley]

Jared, you did mention that ministry real quickly. Cameron, can you tell us where people can check out that ministry?

[Cameron H]

Sure, if you go to becoming Joshua.org, there's a link there for ministry and it'll explain a little bit about what we do. And one of the things that we've done for the last couple of years is work with underground believers and we've been teaching them Bible and teaching them English. And so if they go to the website, they can find out more information. If they would like some more information directly, they can email us at Goondo 27 at@gmail.com and we'd be happy to share more information with them. But basically, we have people in America who are teaching believers in Iran and it could be Bible, it can be English, it could be guitar. So we're doing a lot of things like that to help encourage them. But it's incredible the amount of encouragement that we get from them, the fact that most of them don't have a Bible, they don't have strong concordance, they don't have books by their favorite Christian authors, they can't Google things, but yet they're learning about Joshua and it's because of the Holy Spirit. Iran is number nine on the World Watch list, so number nine as far as persecution, but yet they're also the hotbed of Christianity. People are converting by the thousands there. So if people are interested, we're more than happy to give them more information and they can check out Josh's website to get that information.

[Jared Easley]

Wonderful. Again. Joshua. Thank you. And Cameron, thank you as well, and definitely look forward to following up you in the future to hear about how things are going and hopefully we have continued good reports and good news to share, so thank you again.

[Cameron H]

Thank you very much, Jared.

[Joshua]

Thank you so much, Jared.