Seventeen-year-old Nemrut devoured books. He was always looking for something new to read, but few books in the Kurdish language were available in his dusty Iraqi<\/a> town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day he spotted something new in a local bookstore \u2014 a Kurdish translation of the Gospel of Luke. He wasn\u2019t sure what it was, but he was intrigued. When he asked about the book, he was disappointed to learn that the bookstore owner wouldn\u2019t part with it because it was his only copy. Determined to read the book, Nemrut made a deal with the owner to pay a lending fee so he could borrow the book and return it when he was done. He read until 4 a.m. the next morning. \u201cThis was the beginning of loving Jesus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luke\u2019s Gospel had planted a seed, but Nemrut still had much to learn. While he wasn\u2019t particularly committed to Islam, Nemrut had been born into a Muslim family. Like many Kurds, he held that faith lightly, feeling more loyalty to family and tribe than to religion. Zealous for an independent Kurdish homeland, Nemrut joined the Peshmerga forces, an armed group that protects the Kurdish region of Iraq.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\r\n\t Request your free magazine<\/p>\r\n\t\t\tSubscribe<\/a>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\t\n\n\n Nemrut had watched his people go through a very tough time. The Kurds in Iraq were treated harshly by Saddam Hussein\u2019s regime throughout the 1980s and into 1991. At the end of the Gulf War, protection from the U.S. helped the Kurds establish a semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq<\/a>; today this area is often referred to as Iraqi<\/a> Kurdistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although he had returned his rented Gospel of Luke as promised, Nemrut would never be the same after reading it. Even as a Peshmerga soldier, he often brought up the subject of Jesus with anyone who would listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Five years would pass before he\u2019d see the book about Jesus again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 1998, Nemrut had decided he should get serious about Islam if he was going to be a member of one of the biggest political parties in Kurdistan. He read through the Quran three times that year, trying to be more devout, but its teachings never seemed right to him. \u201cThe Quran was teaching followers about hating others, killing others; I didn\u2019t like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since he was known to be an avid reader, Nemrut was put in charge of his political party\u2019s bookstore. He purchased a New Testament as soon as he could and added it to the store\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He read the New Testament in less than a month, beginning in Matthew and taking notes as he read. \u201cWhen I got to Luke, I thought, \u2018This is my old friend, Luke,\u2019\u201d he said. The book resonated with him in a way that the Quran never had. He noted 345 times where the New Testament spoke about love. \u201cI never saw anything about killing others or hating other people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nemrut decided he would devote his life to the New Testament teachings. He tried to apply its lessons to his life, but as a Muslim he still had no idea that he could become a Christian himself. He didn\u2019t know a single Christian. Over the next three years, he read through the New Testament three more times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also loaned the book to others, after writing his personal instructions on the cover: \u201cRead this carefully and intentionally. Keep it in purity, and then return it to me.\u201d He told borrowers that since he had read it in a month, he would give them two months to complete the book and return it to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2001, he finally met a Christian, a man who had come to his city to distribute Bibles<\/a>, and asked him a pointed question. \u201cCan anyone become a Christian?\u201d Nemrut asked. \u201cI have read the Bible<\/a>, I know the Bible<\/a>, but I don\u2019t know if I can become a Christian.\u201d Later, Nemrut realized he had become a Christian the moment he had put his faith in the Jesus he\u2019d read about and begun to follow His teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nemrut continued to tell his friends about Jesus, and many of them accepted Christ. When the group of believers meeting in his home each week grew to 20 people, a local mullah found out about them. The next Friday, he made an announcement to those attending mosque: \u201cSome people became Christians in our town because of Nemrut,\u201d he said. \u201cAnyone who will drink with them will become an infidel. If you drink water from his house you become an infidel. You shouldn\u2019t speak to them, you shouldn\u2019t greet them and you should cut off relations with them because they became infidels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThen the persecution of believers started,\u201d Nemrut said. \u201c[The Muslims] started to beat their sons and daughters who became Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nemrut\u2019s relatives stopped speaking to him, and when they saw him in the street they cursed him. His own sister built a fence between their adjoining properties so Nemrut and his wife no longer had access to a bathroom they shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His wife was afraid. \u201cWhen this started, she wasn\u2019t fully believing in the Lord,\u201d he said. \u201cDuring this time she was crying … because of all the problems that happened. For me, it was clear that when I made this decision for sure, I was going to face problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angry Muslims tried to attack Nemrut several times. One Friday after morning prayers, police stopped a mob of about 200 men who were heading toward his house. When the head of security told Nemrut about the thwarted attack, he warned him that the next time he wouldn\u2019t be able to stop the attackers. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you stop reading the Bible<\/a> and speaking to people?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some members of Nemrut\u2019s group were beaten by family members at home, causing injuries that still trouble them today, and others returned to Islam because of the pressure. Still, Nemrut sees how God used the persecution to strengthen believers. \u201cThe persecution that happened to the brothers and to us made the believers here be more faithful and to have more faith in the Lord,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nemrut left the Kurdish political party in 2001. After openly embracing Christ, he didn\u2019t feel like he could remain in the party as a Christian. Since leaving the party cost him his job, he scraped by as a freelance trader, carrying goods in and out of a city on the Iraq<\/a>–Iran<\/a> border. Though it was a step down in jobs for him, it ultimately led to Nemrut\u2019s next endeavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were three types of items the government of Iran<\/a> didn\u2019t want coming into their country: weapons, drugs and Bibles<\/a>. Nemrut never intended to start trafficking in illegal goods, but the Bible<\/a> had so dramatically changed his life that he wanted to share it with others. He bought all 35 Farsi Bibles<\/a> available at the Bible <\/a>Society and boldly wrote his name and phone number inside each book before sending them into Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When people who had received the Bibles<\/a> contacted him with questions, Nemrut invited them to meet him in the border city where he lived. He taught them as much as he could about Jesus, preparing them to go back into Iran and share the gospel. Those he taught would often then return, bringing others to learn about Jesus. \u201cMy house became a center for Kurdish people from this city and Kurdish people from Iran<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because he\u2019d been persecuted himself, he knew what the new believers might face. He told them they might be beaten if they followed Jesus, but it would be no more than Jesus Christ experienced himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to his Bible<\/a> work, Nemrut also led the small church in his hometown. In 2010, he planted another church in a neighboring city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others soon became interested in supporting Nemrut\u2019s work and providing more Farsi Bibles<\/a>. Over 10 years, Nemrut sent about 310,000 copies of the Bible<\/a> into Iran<\/a>, until Iranian<\/a> government surveillance forced him to stop in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) invaded nearby Mosul in 2014, the region of Kurdistan became more dangerous, and Christians in Nemrut\u2019s village faced new difficulties. Strangers often appeared in his yard, threatening the family, and he received personal threats on a weekly basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nemrut and his wife were deeply troubled. After praying about it for a while, his wife told him they needed to leave Kurdistan. \u201cYou cannot force them to accept Jesus,\u201d she told her husband. Nemrut agreed, but they kept on praying and by morning realized they were wrong. They needed to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after they made the decision to stay in Kurdistan, a Kurdish church in Erbil called and asked if Nemrut would take over as pastor because the current pastor had chosen to leave the country. Though it would be a challenge, Nemrut sensed the Lord\u2019s leading and agreed to pastor the church. The move would also allow his family to live in a safer place, out of the spotlight of their village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/plugins\/vom-custom-block-subscribe-ad\/assets\/magazine-cover.jpg\")
\r\n\t\t<\/figure>\r\n\t\t“CAN ANYONE BECOME A CHRISTIAN?”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Becoming an Infidel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bible Smuggler into Iran<\/h2>\n\n\n\n