Recently, reports came out in several news outlets (see for example https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/03/us-israel-iran-war-christian-rhetoric) saying that a US military commander told the troops that the Iran war was part of God’s divine plan to precipitate the Battle of Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ, and that Trump “has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to earth.” What are we to make of this?
The term Armageddon appears only once in the Bible, in Revelation 16:16, which says, “they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.” In connection with this battle, also described in Revelation 19:11-21, Jesus Christ comes again and defeats the armies gathered at Armageddon (19:19-21). The context of the Armageddon reference in 16:16 is that this is part of the 6th bowl of God’s wrath at the end of the Great Tribulation. Verses 13-14 describe what precipitates the gathering together of kings for this battle: “Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for battle on the great day of God Almighty.” The dragon, beast, and false prophet are identified in chapter 13 and are generally understood to refer to Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet. It is these that precipitate the Battle of Armageddon by gathering the nations for battle. God does not need the armies of America and Israel to initiate a kind of holy war against Iran to precipitate Armageddon, nor does he need President Trump to be an “anointed one” to bring this about. The Anointed One (Messiah) we are waiting for is Jesus himself.
In the war against Iran, Israel is an aggressor in the attack, but the scenario of the Battle of Armageddon is that the whole world will be gathering against Israel and only Christ’s return will save a remnant of Israel. We see this in Zechariah 14:2-3, where we read: “I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west … then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.” The outcome will be the establishing of God’s kingdom on earth: “The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name” (14:9).
The time of fulfillment of end time events may indeed be near and what is happening now may likely fit into the scenario that prepares the way for what happens, but in what manner it is too early to say. But almost certainly it is not in the way that the Christian Nationalist narrative is suggesting. And Mr. Trump may have a role in the end-time events, but not in the way they are thinking. More on that in a future post.
American Christians for Truth and Justice 