Both American and Israeli the war with Iran unfoldssome American Christians are talking about the conflict in biblical terms, mapping end-time prophecies to current events in the Middle East.
In a sermon on March 1, 2026, for example, John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, described war as part of a divine plan. “Prophetically, we are confident,” he said.
Later, he prayed that “Almighty God may be brought into the field of battle, and the enemies of Zion and the enemies of the United States may be destroyed before our eyes. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered.”
Meanwhile, Singer and Christian activist Sean Feucht referred to “the open end-time doors of what (God) will do in Iran when this regime is prayerfully removed.”
This kind of apocalyptic thinking has its roots in the 19th centurywhen many American preachers turned to more literal readings of the Bible. These readings also emphasized the Bible story that God promised the ‘Holy Land’ to Abraham and his descendants.
But the influence of Christian Zionism in politics has grown over the past half-century, as I write in my book Zeal for Zion.” Today, this mindset seems to be moving through the halls of American government and the army.
End of an age
“Dispensationalism” is a Protestant idea that is human history divided into different agesor dispensations, each of which unfolds God’s plan for the world.
Churches that embrace it, that tend to be evangelicalbelieve that the present dispensation is coming to an end. But that time can only be entered with great suffering, a period known as the “tribulation of Jacob”. Israel is where they believe these tribulations will begin and where they will culminate at the Second Coming of Jesus.
In the US, the most powerful manifestation of dispensationalist and apocalyptic thought is Christian Zionism. The term refers to the strong support of many Christians for Israel, rooted in the biblical account of God’s covenant with the Jewish people.
Even before Israel was created, conservative evangelicals have been doing this long time lover of the idea of a Jewish return to Zion. In the 1940s, the Protestant emphasis on these biblical narratives influenced American public opinion and helped make the case for a Jewish state.
But in the first two decades of Israel’s history, from 1948-68, fundamentalist Christians had few direct allies among Israeli or American Jews. Neither showed much interest in working with conservative Christians, some of whom were involved in missionary work. Why would Jewish groups join forces with Christians seeking to convert them?
The turning point
The results of Israel’s 1967 war with a coalition of Arab states changed that situation. From Syria, Israel invaded and occupied the Golan Heights; and from Jordan, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. From Egypt, Israel gained the Sinai Peninsula, from which it eventually withdrew, and the Gaza Strip.
As Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg noted, “The Six Day War did more than create a new political and military map in the Middle East. changed the mythic mapin a part of the world where myths have always bent reality.”
In the view of some evangelicals, Israel’s victories in the Arab-Israeli wars were the triumph of divinely ordained good over evil. For them, God’s plan in history, revealed to humanity in the Bible, was now unfolding in the Holy Land. Many conservative Christians see the return of Jews to Israel as a prelude to the Second Coming.
This theology had appeared before the war of 1967. But afterwards, it placed its hope in the fulfillment of a very specific scenario: that the government of the Jewish state would rebuild the ancient temple in Jerusalem and thus set the scene for the end of days. With the return of Jesus, the historical mission of the Jewish people would be fulfilled. Many Jews would die and the remnant would become the vanguard of believers in Jesus.
This scenario, once promoted by small groups within some Protestant denominations, had by the 1990s become widespread in popular culture. The Left Behind series, apocalyptic novels inspired by the biblical Book of Revelation, sold over 80 million copies.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, hostility towards Islam also boosted Christian conservative support for Israel. Televangelist Pat Robertson, for example, said that Islam was “violent at its core.”
At the same time, in an important political shift, many American Jewish organizations welcomed the support of Christian Zionists. As Israel’s treatment of Palestinians drew more criticism, the Israeli government and some Jewish groups in the US began rethinking their relationship with conservative Christians.
In 2002, the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group that has historically promoted liberal and civil rights causes, took out an ad in major US newspapers. In that ad she reprinted a statement by Ralph Reedformer head of the Christian Coalition, which was founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.
In the government
Today, however, it seems that the influence of Christian Zionism has increased a new level in government.
Since the attacks on Iran began on February 28, 2026, the Military Foundation for Religious Freedom, a watchdog group, reported over 200 complaints about commanders who told troops across the branches of the US armed forces that the current war with Iran was part of a divine plan, invoking biblical ideas about the “end times.”
“Every time Israel or the US gets involved in the Middle East, we realize these things about the Christian nationalists who have taken over our government, and certainly our US military,” Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, the foundation’s president. told The Guardian.
Another sign of Christian Zionism moving into government was the 2025 nomination of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. as ambassador to Israel. Among the most influential and prominent Christian ZionistsHuckabee, a Baptist minister, for years led the “Holy Land Tour” in Israel.
“I believe it’s a special place because God made it special,” Huckabee said conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirkwho was killed in September 2025. “I believe in the Scripture, Genesis 12: Those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. I want to be on the side of the blessing, not on the side of the curse.”
Shalom Goldman is professor emeritus of religion, Middlebury College
This article was reprinted from Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read on original article.
