Christian Pastor Saeed Abedini has explained that he is backing Donald Trump for President because of a vision he had four years ago while in prison in Iran.
"I saw a young man with blue eyes, blond hair. I was sitting with him in a room," Abedini said in an interview with HuffPost. "Someone told me, 'He's going to be the next president of the United States and you're going to be friends with him.'"
At that time he did not recognise the man in the vision. When the original candidates for the race were announced, he looked through all the photographs and none matched his vision, so he thought the vision perhaps applied to a future election.
But then he found his blond, blue-eyed man in a Facebook post and he started to shake.
"Ohmygosh, this is the one that I saw in the dream!" he told HuffPo. He clicked through and found it was a photograph of Donald Trump as a young man.
"I believe that this was a vision from God," said Abedini, who believes he saw a vision of Trump when he was the age God decided he was to be President.
This is not the first time Abedini has voiced his support for the Republican nominee.
On his Facebook page he wrote: "When Donald Trump supported me in prison, he wasn't even a candidate for president. Hillary Clinton didn't do anything, and she was the Secretary of the United States of America. She had the position, but didn't do her job for Americans detained in Iran during the first year I was in prison.
"Donald Trump didn't have a political position, but he did the job, and he did a good job! This paradox should make everyone think. It clearly shows who has the real heart for America.
"One person who does NOT have a political position but does the responsible thing. The other person has political position but does NOT do their job.
"Who do you vote for? I voted for the person who does NOT need a position to do the right thing; Donald Trump."
He also wrote that Trump helped provide for the needs of his family in Boise, Idaho while he was locked up in an Iranian prison for his faith. The pastor said Trump gave his family $10,000 while he was imprisoned for three and a half years.
"I am finally free in a free country. Last year on the same day I was sick and in chains for Christ, and now I can vote to choose my next president.
"And most amazingly, I can vote for someone that I know fought for me and called my name so many times. He met my family and gave them a $10,000 gift. I think his ideas are more biblical than the other candidates."
In contrast, Abedini said Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton did not do or say anything to help secure his release from Iranian prison. The pastor said Clinton never spoke his name or met his family.
He has also described Trump as "the Cyrus of our modern day" but like everyone a flawed person, in the process of spiritual growth.
He added: "When we hear that this candidate or that candidate is not a strong Christian or has a past that disqualifies him to be the president of the United States, my answer is that we are a nation, a people who are also sinners, saved by grace."
Abedini was arrested in Iran 2012 and sentenced to eight years imprisonment for preaching the gospel.
He and three other Americans were released in January in exchange for seven Iranians.
