Iran’s secretive supreme court has reportedly overturned a\u00a0death sentence handed down to an evangelical pastor for leaving Islam, surprising trial\u00a0observers who were earlier informed about an execution ruling.<\/p>\n
However concerns remained Monday, July 4, about the future of 33-year-old Yousef Nadarkhani,\u00a0as he remained under pressure to recant his faith in Christ, his lawyer and Christians said.<\/p>\n
“The supreme court has annulled the death sentence and sent the case back to the court in [his\u00a0hometown] Rasht, asking the accused to repent,” said his lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, in a\u00a0statement to French news agency AFP.<\/p>\n
The verdicts can be overturned if the convicted person “repents” and “renounces” his conversion,\u00a0experts say.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Evangelicals argue it’s impossible to renounce their faith as the Bible teaches they have become “born\u00a0again” and a “new creation” after they “accepted” Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.<\/p>\n
Even “renouncing” Christ would therefore not change their Christian identity, they claim.<\/p>\n
Pastor Nadarkhani wrote recently to his fellow believers not to fear\u00a0persecution in the strict Islamic nation, saying Jesus Christ gives him strength. \u201cAs we\u2019ve heard\u00a0He has said: \u201cBlessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake: for theirs is the\u00a0kingdom of heaven. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for\u00a0so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.\u201d<\/p>\n