Posted April 08, 2026
President Trump announced on Truth Social late yesterday afternoon that he would “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks” subject to Iran’s “agreeing to the complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz.” He added that the US is “very far along with a definitive agreement concerning long-term peace with Iran, and peace in the Middle East,” and stated that a “two-week period will allow the agreement to be finalized and consummated.”
Mr. Trump’s announcement delayed what he had warned would be an attack that would cause “a whole civilization” to “die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, responded with a statement on behalf of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council: “If attacks against Iran are halted, our powerful armed forces will cease their defensive operations. For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s armed forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.”
This is obviously good news for the people of Iran and for those in neighboring states whom Tehran had threatened to attack if attacked by the US. Stock futures in the US surged over a thousand points this morning, while oil plunged.
But while much with Iran has changed in a day, much has not.
Prior to the Mr. Trump’s announcement yesterday, Iranian officials called on young people to form human chains around the country’s power plants. Iranian media showed people gathering outside electricity stations in response.
And so, as with their massacre of thousands of protesters earlier this year, Iran’s leaders are once again willing to sacrifice their people to protect their regime. Conversely, they believe that America will not attack civilians as they do.
What explains the difference?
The answer points to the one change in Iran that can secure its true peace in the present and beyond.
Prior to the First Great Awakening, colonial America was trapped in moral and spiritual malaise. The spiritual fervor of the Pilgrims and Puritans who had settled the New World was gone. Not one in twenty people claimed to be a Christian. Samuel Blair, a pastor of the day, said religion lay as it were dying and ready to expire its last breath of life.
As one commentator wrote,
The new generation had forgotten God. Immorality, debauchery, and self-interest ruled. Few worried about the next world. Even those who held to the externals of religion had lost the heart of it.
Into such spiritual darkness stepped courageous evangelical preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. Convinced that salvation comes only through the “new birth” of personal commitment to Christ, they and their fellow evangelists began warning the colonists of their spiritual peril and urging them to turn to Jesus.
And they did, in massive numbers.
The gospel led them to personal salvation and sanctification, unifying the body of Christ and setting it on mission in the New World. Converts took up humanitarian causes, caring for the poor, sick, needy, and uneducated. Missionaries took the gospel to Native Americans and African Americans, many of whom were slaves. Several evangelical colleges were founded, causing literacy rates to rise.
The children of the First Awakening became the fathers of the American Revolution. And our nation’s commitment to the equality of all people, as poorly as we have sometimes kept it, is nonetheless at the heart of our national ethos.
By contrast, the Iranian regime views its people as a means to apocalyptic ends. As I have written often, the country is led by despots bent on the destruction of Israel and the West as a catalyst for the return of the Mahdi, their messiah. They enabled Hamas in its murderous October 7 invasion of Israel. They foment terrorism around the globe. If they were to possess nuclear weapons, they would endanger us all.
Imagine, however, the difference if Iran’s leaders had a Damascus road experience and turned from persecution to preaching. Imagine the difference if multitudes of Iranians turned from the hypocrisy and barbarism of their leaders to the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Imagine the difference if a spiritual awakening akin to the one that swept colonial America were to sweep the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Imagine the difference for the world if Iran and its leaders were to embrace the one true Savior and love their neighbors as themselves.
If you pray about this war, I believe the Lord will burden your heart as he has burdened mine to pray for the eternal souls of the Iranian people. Just like you and me, they are loved by the Savior who died for us all.
One of the most moving scenes in A Great Awakening, a film about the ministry of George Whitefield, takes place in a coal field in England.
The evangelist assembles his portable pulpit so he can preach to the miners. One of them tells the preacher he is not wanted here. “Not wanted, but needed,” he replies. The miners then throw stones at him, bloodying his face and lips.
Whitefield spits blood from his mouth, turns to the crowd, and implores them to turn from such sin and embrace the Savior. The man who threw the first stone falls to his knees in repentance, and the crowd follows.
In his journal, Whitefield wrote:
“One taste of Christ’s love in the heart will make amends for all.”
Let us pray urgently for Iranians—and Americans—to “taste” such transforming love, to the glory of God.
“Lord, if I can but be made instrumental to save one soul, I care not if I am tossed on the ocean through my whole life.” —George Whitefield
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