Iran, Israel, and Christian Nationalism

A US combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers that the Iran war is part of God’s plan to usher in the End Times and bring about Jesus Christ’s second coming.

Interesting.

There are multiple reports that the American Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has fielded more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the U.S. military between the war’s start on Saturday morning and Monday night. The complaints came from more than 40 different units stationed in at least 30 military installations.

Some came from professed evangelical Christians.

God’s Divine Plan?

One complaint wrote, “This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be ‘afraid’ as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now. We were urged 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. He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this which made his message seem even more crazy.”

The Late Great Planet Earth

Turn the clock back 35 years to when the US invaded Iraq. I would have celebrated a US commander justifying war by biblical prophecy. That’s not me today. What changed?

I was a 70s fan of Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth. I took it to high school as my lunch hour reading material. My original copy is worn, underlined, and has a few pages falling out. The author built his book around the theology of dispensationalism. The theology of what?

In the 19th century, theologian John Nelson Darby proposed that God relates to humanity through a series of distinct eras or “dispensations.” This dispensational theology spread quickly through North American evangelical churches. The church I grew up in was one of those churches. The Bible College I attended taught dispensationalism. To believe anything else is to be out of step with evangelicalism.

A Future War

As part of his theology, Darby argued that Ezekiel 38 portrays a future war where nations will align themselves against Israel and God will bring judgment against them. In 1909, Cyrus Scofield published the Scofield Reference Bible, promoting dispensationalism. Scofield took Darby’s claim and began to apply it to modern geopolitics.

“Russia and the northern powers have been the latest persecutors of dispersed Israel” and connecting the contemporary treatment of Jewish people in his day to end-times prophecy.

While Darby and Scofield mentioned Iran in passing, Lindsey placed national Iran as an indispensable geopolitical ally: “All authorities agree on who Persia is today. It is modern Iran.” He explained how Russia requires Iran’s alliance to facilitate a land invasion of Israel.

That’s the conviction that shaped my view of the world from age 17 into my 50s. Again, what changed?

Following Or Using Jesus?

Adherents to dispensationalism hold the uncritical attitude, Israel right or wrong. No matter how cruel Israel acts, Christians must support Israel because the Jews are God’s chosen people. A basic tenant is the establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948 set in motion of a series of God-ordained events that conclude with the return of Jesus. War with Iran is on an end times checklist, a prophecy to fulfill. According to dispensationalism, anyone pursuing peace stands in the way of Jesus.

Writing this post is a radical departure from my evangelical roots. Why? Because evangelicals are living through a radical departure from orthodox Christianity. Christians using political power are no different than Islamists using political power.

There is a chasm between people who follow Jesus and people who use Jesus.

Christian nationalists labour to engineer the future through end times theology. There is little difference between Christian nationalism and radical Islam. Both are distinct religious-political ideologies that seek to merge religious identity with political authority. They justify the use of power or violence to enforce their worldviews.

The Way of Jesus

The way of Jesus is not the way of military power.

The witness of the Church has seldom faced a greater threat from within than today. Co-opting eschatology to advance political ends is a misuse of Scripture and the basic teachings of Jesus.

Beware of Scripture-quoting politicians or military generals who justify war by their religion.

Growing up, I was captivated by the “End Times.” That theological framework trained me to first look at headlines of war, and human suffering in the Middle East as if they were coded prophecy. Decades later, I am shaped by a more in-depth understanding of Jesus in the Scriptures.

Russel Moore, a principled American evangelical theologian, warns, “War, in every case, is hell. Let’s watch out for ourselves, lest it also make us hellish.”

Shane Claiborne worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, and founded The Simple Way in Philadelphia. He says, “No one kills with more passion than someone who believes that God is on their side.”

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