Fact check: Are U.S. military leaders telling troops that Iran war is tied to Second Coming?
Some evangelicals see suggestions of current war in Biblical prophecy
There’s no question that a minority of evangelical Christians, often on the political and/or theological fringe, are convinced that the undeclared war underway involving the United States and Iran — or perhaps a future war something like it — was predicted in the Christian Bible. A smaller minority might even go so far to say that divine will led to the election of President Donald Trump so that he could get the U.S. involved in a war that would lead to Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil that some believers see in the book of Revelation as a prelude to the Second Coming of Christ.1
Chances are that at least a few pastors scattered throughout the country said as much during sermons this past weekend. But are military commanders saying the same thing? Yes, say some news reports, even though it would be unconstitutional for military officers, while doing their official duties, to present religious justifications for war or even to link military actions with religious beliefs.
As the The New Republic told the story:
Without any clear message coming from the White House with regard to the purpose of the Iran war, U.S. military commanders have turned to Jesus, apparently telling American troops that the war is “biblically sanctioned.”
Here’s a sampling of headlines conveying such “news” in recent days:
Newsweek: US Commander Said Trump ‘Anointed by Jesus’ to Attack Iran: Report
The Intercept: Military Leaders See Iran War as “God’s Divine Plan” — a Chilling Turn for Trump’s Fascism
Al Jazeera: US troops reportedly told the war in Iran is intended to bring about biblical end times, Armageddon
The Guardian: US troops were told war on Iran was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’, watchdog alleges
Military.com: Commanders Accused of Framing Iran War as Biblical Mandate, Jesus’ ‘Return’
What can we make of these news accounts?
Truth verdict: ❓
It is hard to know. If they are true, they reveal an extraordinary breach of military protocol. And if they are false, they might be some sort of disinformation designed to stoke divisions within the military or the public.
Journalistically, the problem is that all the news stories are based on a single source: the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which provided the information to fellow Substack writer Jonathan Larsen. And all the information provided by the MRFF, which like any advocacy organization has its biases, comes from anonymous sources. As an advocacy group, the MRFF is not restricted to journalistic traditions that restrict when the words of anonymous sources can be used.
The stories that these sources provided are alarming. Here’s part of one, one that led to many of the headlines:
I am a [NCO rank withheld] in our unit. 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. 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.”
The story very well could be true, and it would not be surprising if some rogue commander made such a statement. But as a journalist, I have no way of knowing with certainty. It is worth noting the some of the most reliable mainstream news media — The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Reuters — have yet to publish any of those reports, even though most if not all the media presumably have carried out their own investigations.
It also appears that the some of the media publishing the reports have sought verification or denials from the Pentagon, only to not have their questions directly answered.
What we do know
Even though the specifics of these accounts are so far unverifiable, we do know that within the military — beginning with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — there are those who hold religious motivations for going to war with Iraq. Hegseth sports a tattoo of the Latin words Deus vult, a phrase used by Catholic soldiers during the Crusades. And if you consider that Iran is a predominantly Muslim nation, what he wrote in his 2020 book, American Crusade: Our Right to Stay Free, is chilling:
Next to the communist Chinese and their global ambitions, Islamism is the most dangerous threat to freedom in the world. It cannot be negotiated with, coexisted with, or understood; it must be exposed, marginalized, and crushed. Just like the Christian crusaders who pushed back the Muslim hordes in the twelfth century, American Crusaders will need to muster the same courage against Islamists today.
Hegseth has not made public pronouncements with similar views since he became secretary of the Department of Defense, but he has made general religious statements about seeking divine support, as have some previous military leaders and U.S. presidents. According to an official transcript of a press conference last week, he gave this response to a question about his prayers for the U.S. military members:
First of all, my prayer for them is that I do pray for them. My wife prays for them, our family prays for them, our Cabinet prays for them. None of this is done on a whim. Having been in their boots, having been in their shoes, having been in their flight suits, I think we — I mean, I know we think about them with every decision that we make and every recommendation that we make to the President of the United States.
Those — those recommendations are made prayerfully. And when I pray every day for them and for this mission, I pray simply for the biblical wisdom to see what is right and the courage to do it. It’s going to take courage to follow through on this. There’s going to be a lot of noise. And we pray for that, and we hope all of you do too — do as well.
A belief in a Second Coming of Jesus Christ is held by nearly all evangelicals and, in fact, is a tenet of the Nicene Creed accepted by a broad swath of Christendom, including Roman Catholics and most Protestants. But details of the Second Coming, and what will precede it, have been the subject of debate for centuries. Intense interest in the linking of contemporary Middle East events to the Second Coming is a relatively recent development and is a mostly American phenomenon, generally beginning with the 1948 creation of the modern state of Israel and accelerating in the decades after that thanks in part to popular mass media such as Hal Lindsey’s 1970 book The Late Great Planet Earth and the Left Behind series of books and motion pictures beginning in the 1990s.