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Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

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Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

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The ancient prophecy behind the Iran war is a modern invention

Religious leaders warn that apocalyptic beliefs might outweigh the nuclear taboo

Published March 15, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)

In the earliest days of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, it became clear this conflict has strong religious undertones. Whistleblower reports from the military detailed accounts of American commanders telling troops that the new war in the Middle East was part of a “divine plan” to bring about the battle of Armageddon and the return of Jesus Christ. President Donald Trump hosted a score of influential evangelical leaders in the Oval Office to lay hands upon him. This supposedly ancient prophecy, however, is of distinctly American origins and only about 200 years old, having arguably little relevance to the teachings of Jesus or modern warfare.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a watchdog focused on inappropriate proselytization in the military, collected hundreds of reports from troops of commanders telling American soldiers that Trump’s new war was part of God’s plan for the end of days, as detailed in the Book of Revelation.

“President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” a commander said, according to one foundation report.

Commanders and commentators may reference ancient texts, such as the Book of Ezekiel, which prophesied a war against the biblical kingdom of Israel, or the Book of Revelation. However, the apocalyptic beliefs surrounding these books are far more recent.

Daniel Hummel is a historian, the director of the Lumen Center for the study of Christianity and Culture and the author of “The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle Over the End Times Shaped A Nation.” Hummel said in an interview with Salon that the ideas driving this religious view of the war........

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