About Daniel Shayesteh

Dr Daniel was born into a Muslim family in Northern Iran. He became a radical Muslim leader and teacher of Islam in the militant Free Islamic Revolutionary Movement, closely supporting Ayatollah Khomeini. However, after falling out of favor with Khomeini’s political group, he escaped to Turkey where there began an amazing journey to faith in Jesus Christ.

Daniel's mission is to help others understand and lovingly respond to those who do not know Christ. He is also deeply concerned for the future of Western societies, their loss of confidence in Judeo-Christian values, and their persistent naivete about the implications of the world-wide Islamic revival.

The Name of Israel Will Be Remembered No More!?

I never cease to be amazed at how the enemies of Israel have been trying to destroy her for thousands of years, aiming to annihilate her, so that no record of her name, Biblical values and God would remain in history.  Yet amazingly she still survives.  As an ex-fundamentalist Muslim, reading the following passage for the first time, I was astonished by what the Psalmist wrote:
They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, so that the name Israel may be remembered no more.” For with one heart they have plotted together; they have made a covenant against You-- the tents of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarites; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the people of Tyre; and Assyria has joined with them; they have helped the sons of Lot (Psalm 83:4-8).
Who are these nations who were drawn into such unity against Israel? To my amazement, they are the forefathers of the Saudi Arabians, Palestinians, Jordanians and non-Aryan Iraqis, who were living in the area centuries before the rise of Islam.

Eventually, Islam revealed itself as the best servant of hostility and established itself as the political religion of these nations, employing all available means to destroy Israel and remove her name from the face of the earth. It is quite remarkable that despite millennia of opposition to Israel, she is still a nation, has a land to govern with the rule of law, and will be around until the end of history.

Why? What is the secret behind the survival of Israel?

The answer is in the Bible. God chose Israel and set her aside for Himself in order to fulfill His eternal plan for the nations through her. Throughout history, God has proven that Israel’s protection, judgment, punishment, blessing and deliverance all were, are and will be according to God’s plan as laid out in the Bible. Time and time again, nations united against Israel, but God crushed them because their confederacies were against God’s plan. They were ignorant and did not know that they would not be able to destroy the ones whom God has decided to preserve for Himself, even if the forces of the earth unite against them.

What a lesson this is for the Church of God! We see and experience how the enemies of today’s Church unify to destroy the body of Christ, yet they are unaware that they are face to face with the Most High God. This is what must encourage the children of God and unite them to take refuge in God, whose almighty love has preserved the Church for Himself.

The enemies of the God of Israel failed to understand the true reason for the failure of their schemes. This is the same intelligence our contemporary world lacks. The Islamic world thinks that the so-called Great Satan, America and the West, is behind Israel and Christianity.  So, too, do the Leftists, who think that it is Capitalism that benefits from the survival of Israel and Christianity, and this is supposed to explain attempts to preserve them. Those who hold such views do not consider the irrationality of their beliefs, in light of the fact that neither America nor Capitalism were present throughout the millennia to protect the name of Israel or stand behind God’s Church.

Israel is the Israel of God, whether the world likes this or not. God wants the world to respect her existence. If the world respects God’s Israel, this is absolutely an act of respect for God, but if it does not, this is, in effect an act against the God of Israel. The life of Israel is hid with Christ in God in a mysterious way. If the world knew this, it would not want to hate them as it does.

Ignorance has filled the world and many are unable to understand how a tiny community, Israel, survived through thousands of years despite the hostility of many nations towards its people. Unfortunately, it is regarded as politically incorrect to desire to wake up the West to the truth of God’s plan for Israel. You may be called a racist, fascist or Nazi by pious Muslims, as well as by many leftists or humanists. Yet by no means has God rejected Israel. God has a covenant with her, and at the end He will send His deliverer to Zion to save her from her sins and enemies (Romans 11:1, 26).

The leaders of some nations have turned against Israel and exposed their countries to the wrath of God. Because of economic dependency, they are aligning their plans with the plans of cruel Islamic leaders who follow Muhammad.  They have already brought the wrath of God on themselves by fighting against the existence of Israel (Zacharia 9). The Allah of Muhammad is quite opposite to the God of Abraham and Israel. They are opposites of each other in every aspect. While the God of Israel guarantees freedom, Allah ordains war against freedom and threatens those who stand for freedom. Biblical values are in stark contrast to the authoritarian god of Islam, and it is for this reason that pious Muslims are nervous about our task of awakening the world to their plans.  They are doing everything they can in order to prevent us, for they know that the growth of freedom means the death of Islam.

Therefore, let us pray for those of our leaders who have, consciously or unconsciously, united with the enemies of Israel. Let us express our concerns to these leaders and the world; that we love our nations and countries and do not want to unite with the enemies of Israel, exposing our nations to the wrath of God. Let us pray for the enemies of Israel. so that they can see the plan of God for Israel. Let us pray for a change in Israel’s enemies, so they will respect her right as a nation and understand that their plans cannot prevail against the plan of God for Israel. Let us pray for the salvation of Jews so that they, like the Psalmist, might rely on God’s wisdom and leadership, and not on their own limited human power:
Keep not silence, O God; … Your enemies roar; and those who hate You have lifted up their head (Psalm 83:1-2).