Iran and Armageddon: US extremists believe war is ‘part of God’s plan’

While fears of retaliation by Muslim extremists in Iran and their regional proxies continue to plague the West as the Middle East conflagration intensifies, the incendiary behaviour of other extremists, including white nationalists and Christian Zionists, has largely been overlooked.

Several incidents have recently come to light regarding the attitude of Christian Zionists in both the US government and its military, specifically its leaders, in encouraging the attacks on Iran.

“We have a lot of Americans who are ­saying, ‘Move on, this is Armageddon coming, this is the promised end of the world’. We are hearing lots of reports of this being preached in the military,” said American economist and political analyst Jeffrey Sachs in an interview. He added that many people believe the worse the war gets, the closer the second coming of Christ.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) in the US has received about 200 complaints from soldiers about their military commanders telling them that the attack on Iran is “part of God’s plan”.

“This morning, our commander opened the combat readiness status briefing by urging us not to be ‘afraid’ as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now,” one soldier stated. “He urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

“He said that President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”

Thirty Democrats have subsequently asked for an investigation to take place.

Fundamentalist Christians believe that the second coming of Christ will be preceded by a war (Armageddon) in the Middle East. One of their core beliefs is that Israel-Palestine belongs to Jews only.

“Their whole ideology is based on the idea that Jews have to be collected in Palestine, and that will hasten the rapture and the return of Christ. And in pursuing that agenda, they have no concern for the indigenous people of Palestine,” said Middle East analyst Na’eem Jeenah, director of the Afro-Middle East Centre, a research institution in Sandton.

“They believe Palestinians are an obstacle to this religious agenda and if the Israeli state is going to get rid of that obstacle to the rapture and Christ returning, then so be it,” added Jeenah, who is also a research associate with the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg.

However, Vivienne Myburgh, South Africa national director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, challenged this view, saying that Christian Zionists regard supporting Israel as their duty and those who do so are blessed by God.

She also condemned what she said was the “twisted view” of Israel presented in the media, such as accusing it of being an apartheid state when other, worse human rights abuses in the world are ignored.

“Israel treats all its citizens equally and goes out of its way to respect human rights, especially in trying to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. But it’s hard when Hamas uses schools, hospitals and mosques to launch attacks from,” Myburgh said.

This assertion contradicts meticulously documented evidence from practically every internationally respected human rights organisation, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch as well as Israeli rights groups such as B’Tselem and Hamoked.

At one stage, some Christian fundamentalist groups were considered such a threat that Israeli intelligence established a unit to monitor them. It followed an incident in 1969 when an Australian extremist set fire to the mosque in the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, Islam’s third-holiest site, hoping to encourage a religious war and the onset of Armageddon. Israel also denied entry to a Christian cult in 1999 on the grounds that its members were planning violence at Al-Aqsa.

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News commentator, white nationalist and Christian Zionist, has also displayed a gung-ho attitude to the attacks on Iran. He wrote a book titled American Crusade: Our Fight To Stay Free that was published in 2020. The targets of Hegseth’s crusade are leftists, environmentalism, feminism, socialism, Nato, the UN and Islam. He also has a Crusader or Jerusalem cross and the word “infidel” in Arabic tattooed on his chest and arms.

US President Donald Trump and some members of his administration’s cavalier attitude towards the Iran war has led to a number of analysts criticising the White House’s portrayal of the war as a video game, CNN reported. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, another Christian Zionist, also triggered heavy criticism from Muslim and Arab countries in February when he said Israel has a divine right to much of the Middle East.

Although Christian Zionism is a religious movement, it also uses sociological methods to garner support for Israel. In an article titled “Christian Nationalism and Christian Zionism: Two sides of the Same Coin”, published on the website of Christians for Social Action in 2021, Rev Dr Mae Elise Cannon and Dr Bruce N Fisk argue that both Christian nationalists and Christian Zionists espouse an ideology of exceptionalism.

“Christian nationalists contend that America has always been, and must remain, distinctively Christian. Christian Zionists likewise contend that the Holy Land has always been, and must remain, distinctively Jewish,” they wrote. “For both groups, when it comes to narrating history, selecting sacred symbols, elevating cherished values, or determining public policy, the perspectives of American Christians and Israeli Jews must be privileged.”

An extremist Orthodox Jewish group in Israel, the Temple Mount and Israel Faithful Movement, has advocated for the destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque and rebuilding the Third Jewish Temple in its place. Christian Zionist groups have also funded and politically supported the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

But a crack is developing in the strong economic, political and religious ties between Tel Aviv and Washington. Despite the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), one of the strongest lobby group in the US, actively advocating a strong pro-Israel line, Americans are beginning to question the relationship.

“The crack we are seeing in the Maga movement, which has been based on the Christian right and Christian Zionism, is happening for more political than religious reasons, although politics is shaping the religious side of it,” said Jeenah.

“The Maga movement has come together over the ‘America First’ ideology. The split is between those who believe that this ideology includes Israel, which incorporates the Christian Zionist agenda that believes Jews are God’s chosen people... and the other part, which believes America First should be taken literally and that [current] American foreign policy places Israel’s interests before those of America and its people.”

Maga influencers, who include political commentators Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, “have millions of followers, so the logical next step for them, in addition to questioning the Israel-US relationship, is to question Christian Zionism”, said Jeenah.

The rift between American supporters of Israel and those who oppose the US giving it billions of dollars in aid annually shows no sign of abating. CNN reports that some Democrat politicians are seeking to distance themselves from AIPAC. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.