Praying for apocalypse
Why some prominent evangelicals close to Trump want all-out war between Israel and Iran
Some American evangelicals are beating the drums for war between Israel and Iran, convinced that U.S. bunker-buster bombs could end Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons development program.
But the reason some of the most prominent evangelicals close to President Trump want the U.S. to bomb Iran may have as much or more to do with the way they read the Bible than any desire to deprive Iran of nukes.
Simply put, they believe God wants Israel embroiled in an apocalyptic conflict that they believe would hasten the Second Coming.
Some Christian Zionists actively desire an apocalyptic war involving Israel, not out of hostility, but because they believe it’s part of God’s divine plan. This belief stems from a theological framework known as dispensational premillennialism, which views modern-day Israel as the stage for end-time prophecy.
According to this belief, the Bible predicts that Israel will face a massive war—often called the Battle of Armageddon—before Jesus returns. In this vision, Israel is attacked by enemy nations, chaos erupts, and at the height of destruction, Christ returns to defeat evil and establish a thousand-year reign of peace. Some Christians believe the rebuilding of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem must happen first, and that escalating conflict in the region is a sign the end is near.
This theology leads many Christian Zionists to support aggressive U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, oppose peace deals that involve a “two-state solution,” and promote unconditional support for Israel.
Some take it even further, seeing wars involving Israel not as tragedies to be avoided, but as necessary steps toward Jesus' return.
While you and I may weigh the strength of Israel’s case for U.S. participation in its attacks on Iran, we are likely to consider the arguments for and against in light of the U.S. national interests. We will consider the risk of embroiling the country in another costly war in the Middle East. Some of us will examine the question with our Iraq War misadventure in mind.
We’ll also consider the strength of intelligence about Iran’s nuclear capabilities and ask questions like, “How likely is it that Trump and his team are telling us the truth about this?”
But it’s important to understand that many Christian evangelicals, especially Christian Zionists, will not be asking any of those questions.
They want a war, and they want it sooner rather than later. Not for strategic reasons. Not for national security reasons.
They want a war between Israel and Iran for religious reasons.
These evangelical leaders are not on the fringe of the evangelical movement. They include some of the most prominent evangelicals in the United States. They are people with Trump’s ear. They include:
Mike Huckabee, Trump’s ambassador to Israel. He’s a former Arkansas governor and Baptist pastor. On June 17, Trump shared a Truth Social message from Huckabee in which the evangelical leader invoked divine guidance for confronting Iran.
Huckabee wrote Trump, “God spared you in Butler, PA to be the most consequential President in a century — maybe ever,” comparing Trump’s dilemma over Iran to President Truman’s 1945 decision on using atomic bombs in Japan.
Huckabee urged Trump to seek “only ONE voice that matters. HIS [God’s] voice” in deciding whether to join Israel’s attacks on Iran. “You did not seek this moment. This moment sought YOU!” Huckabee wrote, framing Trump’s role in prophetic terms and encouraging him to take decisive action against Iran’s nuclear program.
A longtime Christian Zionist, Huckabee suggested that, like Truman, Trump might even consider the nuclear option against Iran if necessary.
Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). In a June 16 interview with Fox News Digital, Hagee praised Trump’s resolve and warned against American “isolationists” who oppose backing Israel. “I do not think President Trump will allow himself to be played by Iranian negotiators or American isolationists. When it’s all said and done, I believe President Trump is willing to do what it takes to ensure Iran is defanged either by enabling our strongest ally, Israel, to defend itself or otherwise,” Hagee said.
After Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, Hagee issued an “action alert” video urging evangelicals to thank Trump for supporting Israel and to “stand with Israel today and every day.” He argued the U.S. “must take its seat at the head of the international table and stand alongside the only American ally in the free world willing to do what is necessary to protect the free world.”
Hagee grounded his appeal in biblical theology. He cited God’s promise in Genesis 12, which states that nations that bless Israel will be blessed. “If we turn our backs on Israel, not only will God turn His back on America, but we will lose freedom’s foothold in the Middle East,” Hagee warned.
This was a point made by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz this week in his explosive interview with Tucker Carlson. “As a Christian, growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed. I want to be on the blessing side of things,” he said in an apparent reference to Genesis 12:3.
Mike Evans, an evangelical author and founder of Friends of Zion. Evans, whose pro-Israel organization claims nearly 30 million members, has emphasized Trump’s support for Israel’s biblical rights to its land. He noted that evangelicals delivered Trump’s election victory and expect him to uphold Israel’s “biblical rights to its historical heartland of Judea and Samaria,” citing Jesus’ words about witnessing in “Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria” (Acts 1:8)
Amid the Israel–Iran war, Evans praised Trump’s hard line on Tehran: “The Trump strategy is brilliant because he’s giving Iran a way out, but he’s not taking it off the table that the U.S. will bomb Iran … he’s made it very clear that if Iran does anything to attack U.S. bases in the Middle East or Americans, they will have hell to pay.”
Evans also echoed the Genesis 12:3 promise, arguing that “God said, ‘I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.’ Evangelicals believe that pressuring Israel to give up land will bring a curse on America. If they have to choose between God’s word and anyone else’s, they will choose God’s word.”
Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Graham, who is close to Trump, took to social media as the conflict escalated, framing Iran’s aggression in biblical terms. On June 15, he posted on Twitter that “Iran has said that they want to wipe Israel off the face of the map. They would also like to destroy America. Iran is a sponsor of terror … Israel has been forced into defending itself and needs our prayers.”
Graham asked Christians to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem. (Psalm 122:6). Pray that this can be resolved quickly.” Emphasizing the spiritual bond with Israel, Graham told Fox News that evangelicals see Israel’s cause as God-ordained: “Most evangelical Christians believe the Bible … we believe God gave the land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and that every inch of that land belongs to the Jews.” He said that continued U.S. support of Israel is vital, both strategically and as a matter of faith.
Pastor Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas. Jeffress, a prominent Trump ally, offered an unabashed theological justification for confronting Iran. In a message shared by his church on June 16, Jeffress declared, “To attack Israel is to attack God — and no one succeeds in attacking God. Iran will NOT succeed in their attack against Israel!”
This is a perilous approach to global politics. It treats Jewish lives and Israeli sovereignty as props in someone’s distorted spiritual narrative. And it risks turning real-world conflict into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It’s not just bad theology—it’s reckless geopolitics. Supporting Israel shouldn’t mean rooting for war.
Christians are called to be peacemakers, not cheerleaders for Armageddon.
The gospel isn’t about hastening destruction. It’s about hope, justice, and peace—especially for the people already living in the world’s most contested lands.
The War Prayer
I’m finishing up Ron Chernow’s wonderful new biography of Mark Twain, and it reminded me of one of Twain’s most controversial and provocative essays, “The War Prayer.” I shared it with readers about 15 years ago in an earlier iteration of this newsletter.
Twain wrote it in 1904 or 1905, apparently out of revulsion over American imperialism during the Spanish-American War. It remained unpublished at the time of his death in 1910. It appears to have been published for the first time in 1923, in a collection of Twain’s essays.
I cannot think of a better time to share it again with my readers:
“The War Prayer”
By Mark Twain
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation
*God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!*
Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.
"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.
"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. The *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory --*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
(*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
For these pastors, it's as if the Age of Reason never occurred. History tells us that nothing good ever comes for societies dominated by such religious zealots.
While I believe in Israel’s right to exist, I am also believe in a loving God. As such, I do not believe a loving God approves and supports Israel’s treatment of the people in Gaza; withholding food and medical aid, bombing hospitals, shooting civilians standing in line for food and the continued expansion of settlements on the West Bank. Support for Israel should not mean supporting these atrocities or denying freedom of speech to those who protest against them. Yes, Israel is our ally, but they depend much more on our help than we do theirs. We should use the influence we have to dissuade them from these horrific policies.