We’ve been spending a good deal of time in the OT book of Daniel over recent months for our Sunday morning sermons, as we’ve considered how we’re to remain faithful to Jesus whilst living in a culture that is unsympathetic and at times outright hostile to the gospel.

Thanks to Doug for drawing my attention to the recent BBC documentary, Decadence and Downfall: The Shah of Iran’s Ultimate Party, (which can be found online for a limited time here), which outlines events in Iran during 1971 and shows how the then Shah saw himself as a modern-day equivalent of King Cyrus, ruler of the Medes and Persians 2500 year ago.

For us in the West the program provides striking insight into the mindset of a modern-day absolute monarch, who self identified as the ‘king of kings’, and it gives us some idea of how the kings of Babylon and then Persia who form part of the narrative of the book of Daniel, saw themselves and their people.