Can We Call the War with Iran "God's Divine Plan"?
A Christian Response to Prophecy Panic and Political Religion
“"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."”— Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV
The story is easy to dismiss. Some versions circulating online are breathless, bundled with unverified allegations, stitched together with editorial interpretation until the whole thing reads like outrage bait. I get it.
But before you scroll past, stop.
Because underneath the noise, something is happening that should make every Bible-believing Christian sit up straight. Reuters is reporting that prominent evangelical voices are framing the Iran war as a spiritual battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. John Hagee preached a sermon titled "God's Coming Operation Epic Fury" and declared, "Prophetically, we're right on cue." Over 200 service members filed complaints reporting that commanders told troops this war is "all part of God's divine plan." Members of Congress asked the DOD Inspector General whether "military commanders or other officers have made statements to subordinates asserting that U.S. military operations against Iran are part of a religious prophecy, divine plan, or apocalyptic religious event."
This is not a moment for smug denial. If commanders really told troops this war was foretold in the Book of Revelation, that is not Christian fidelity. That is spiritual malpractice.
And it requires a response from inside the church. Not from outside.
Don't Answer a Caricature with Another Caricature
Online summaries have a way of bundling verified reporting, unconfirmed allegations, and editorial interpretation into a single outrage package. That's not how honest people handle evidence.
So let's be precise.
Reuters highlighted Robert Jeffress and Jackson Lahmeyer specifically. Jeffress described the war as "a spiritual war between good and evil, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan." Lahmeyer told his congregation that wars are battles between good and evil and Iran was no exception. Those are their own words, on the record, to reporters.
John Hagee, in a March 1, 2026 sermon, declared the war "prophetically on cue" and prayed that "God Almighty is brought onto the battlefield and the enemies of Zion...can be destroyed before our eyes." That's a direct quote from his own pulpit.
Greg Laurie is more complicated. On social media, he posted a video saying, "As far as I can see the next event on the prophetic calendar would be the rapture." But in a CBN interview, he hedged. "Is this moment the fulfillment of specific end times prophecy? Yes and no." He added, "While what we are seeing today is not the full fulfillment of that prophecy, it is certainly a foreshadowing." That's a mixed posture. He's exciting the prophecy audience on one platform and qualifying on another. I'll let the reader sit with that.
The anonymous military complaints reported through MRFF are more inflammatory but less verifiable. One NCO reported that a commander "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." These are serious allegations not independently confirmed outside of MRFF. I take them seriously. I also handle them carefully. A man who insists on "probability, not certainty" in eschatology has to insist on the same rigor when evaluating claims about his opponents.
What IS verified, from multiple independent sources, is already damning enough.
Christians Are Not Free to Declare God's Sanction Where God Has Not Spoken
Here is the theological heart of the problem.
The Third Commandment is about more than profanity. It forbids attaching God’s name and authority to what is false, empty, or unauthorized. When a pastor or a commander declares, "This war is God's plan," that person is claiming prophetic authority. They are speaking for God.
I need to make an important distinction here. I am not arguing that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased, or that God no longer burdens, warns, prompts, or speaks to His people as He wills. I am arguing something simpler and stricter: no modern claim of prophecy carries the authority of Scripture, and no pastor, politician, or commander has the right to take an impression, interpretation, or private conviction and bind other people to it as though it were the revealed Word of God.
"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." Deuteronomy 29:29
God has a secret counsel. You are not in it. I am not in it. No pastor is. No political adviser is. What God has chosen to reveal, He has revealed in Scripture. What He has not revealed, no human being may claim. Full stop.
"Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar." Proverbs 30:5-6
Adding human claims to God's Word is itself condemned in God's Word.
And then there is Jeremiah, where God addresses the prophets who speak from their own imagination and call it divine revelation.
"Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD...But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people.'" Jeremiah 23:16, 22
Political judgment is one thing. Prophetic certainty is another. The first may be debated. The second is a grave sin when falsely claimed.
Ezekiel Is Not a Newspaper Decoder Ring
I have studied Ezekiel 38 and 39. I've traced the geopolitical threads. Turkey's role, Iran's role, the broader Middle Eastern dynamics. I hold a mid-tribulation rapture position. I'm writing a tribulation novel. I take prophetic Scripture seriously.
And that is exactly how I know that treating Ezekiel like a cable-news chyron is not serious study. It's not study at all.
The leap from "Ezekiel mentions Persia" to "therefore this specific war is prophetically on cue" skips almost everything responsible exegesis requires. Genre matters. Historical context matters. Ancient Persia and the modern Islamic Republic of Iran are not interchangeable, any more than the Roman Empire and modern Italy are interchangeable. You can see connections. You can identify patterns. But you cannot collapse thousands of years into a one-to-one decoder and call it Bible study.
My framework has always been "probability, not certainty." Could current events in the Middle East connect to prophetic Scripture? Possibly. Is this war definitely the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38? No one alive can say that with honesty. My motto is simple. We're not in the end times, but we can see them from here.
That's the posture of watchfulness. Not panic. Not certainty. Not selling tickets to Armageddon from the pulpit.
Christ told us to watch. He did not tell us to manufacture certainty and sell it from the pulpit.
The Military Is Not the Church
If everything above were just a matter of bad preaching, it would be serious enough. But what takes this from a theological problem to an institutional crisis is the military angle.
A commander has authority over a service member's career, deployment, daily life. That authority comes from the state, not from God's prophetic council. When a commander tells a 19-year-old that the war they're about to fight is part of God's end-times plan, that is not ministry. That's coercion. And the cross doesn't make it less so.
Christians should be the hardest people in the room to manipulate with apocalyptic rhetoric.
— J. David Wyatt
Over 200 complaints across more than 50 installations. A congressional letter to the DOD Inspector General requesting an investigation. Pete Hegseth leading a Pentagon worship service where he prayed for "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy" and asked God to "let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness." A Bible stamped with "Deus Vult" on the back cover. A Jerusalem cross tattooed on his chest.
I believe service members should be free to practice their faith. Deeply. But a commander's task is to lead and to execute lawful orders. It is not to preach his private eschatology down the chain of command. The chain of command is not the chain of discipleship. And when that line gets erased, real people get spiritually manipulated in a context where they cannot push back.
Mark Tooley, writing in Providence Magazine (a conservative Protestant journal), observed that "arguably the Iran War is America's first post-Christian war, heralded with brutalist rhetoric, not a moral vision." He's right. What we're seeing is not Christian seriousness about war. It's Christian language stripped of Christian substance.
Invoking Christ to Sell War Is a Grave Sin
I am not a pacifist. I believe the state bears the sword, and that authority has a legitimate, God-ordained role. Romans 13 is clear on this.
The sword has a legitimate civil role under God, but it is not the cross and must never be confused with it.
"My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." John 18:36
Jesus said that at His trial. Political power was about to execute Him. And He drew a line that no Christian should ever erase. That does not mean Christ has no authority over nations. It means His kingdom is not advanced by baptizing state violence as gospel work.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." Matthew 5:9
"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere." James 3:17
"If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." Romans 12:18
Yes, government has a role. Yes, that role sometimes includes the use of force. But when Christians start speaking as though war IS revival, as though bombs ARE the work of God's hand ... they've crossed from political support into something that looks a lot more like blasphemy.
The cross is redemptive. The state’s use of force may at times be just, but it cannot save the soul of man.
Paul warned that even if an angel from heaven preached a different gospel, he was to be accursed. That warning should sober us here. The apostles never preached war as good news, and the church must never speak as though the sword of the state can do what only the cross of Christ can do.
A Word to the Secular Critic
If you're a secular reader who has made it this far, I want to say something directly.
You are right to be alarmed. When pastors attach God's name to missiles and commanders preach Armageddon to troops, the alarm is justified.
But if you think what you just read represents "Christianity," you're as wrong as the people I'm writing against.
The voices making headlines do not speak for the whole church. They don't speak for the majority of evangelicals I know and worship beside. Reuters itself framed this as a mobilization strategy among parts of the evangelical world. Parts. Not all.
The answer to bad theology is not secular mockery. The answer is sound doctrine. And the church owes it to you, and to itself, to deliver it.
A Word to My Fellow Christians on the Right
This one is harder for me to write. You're my people. I sit in the same pews. I hold the same Bible. I take the same prophecies seriously.
So hear this as coming from inside the house, not outside.
Love Israel. I do. But loving Israel and treating every Israeli military operation as a prophetic mandate are not the same thing. And opposing Iran's regime, which is oppressive and dangerous, is not the same thing as pretending every missile was foretold in Scripture.
You can support a just response to a real threat without declaring that you've cracked the prophetic code. You can call evil what it is without calling war "revival."
And when your eschatology makes you eager for conflict instead of grieved by it, something has gone badly wrong. Eschatology is meant to produce watchfulness. Sobriety. A readiness to meet the Lord. When your end-times study makes you excited about war instead of urgent about the Gospel, the study has become the problem.
The Hardest People in the Room to Manipulate
Christians should be the hardest people in the room to manipulate with apocalyptic rhetoric. Because we are the ones who are supposed to know our Bibles well enough to spot the difference between a prophet and a propagandist.
Christians should be the hardest people in the room to manipulate. Because we serve a King who told us His kingdom is not of this world, and we should be the first to recognize when someone tries to make it one.
Christians should be the hardest people in the room to manipulate. Because we have been warned, explicitly, in Scripture, about false prophets who speak visions from their own minds and call it the word of the Lord.
Christians should be the hardest people in the room to manipulate. Because the Gospel itself gets buried every time God's name is conscripted for political violence. And we are the ones who will answer for that.
We're not in the tribulation, but we may be able to see it approaching from here. Just as civil engineers place "Sharp Curve Ahead" signs before the danger is in full view, God has given us warning signs in His Word. That calls for watchfulness. Sobriety. Humility before a God whose secret counsel belongs to Him alone. It does not call for pastors who sound like war correspondents and officials who sound like self-appointed prophets.
The church can do better. And if Scripture means what we say it means, we don't have a choice.
Further Study
I’ve hand-selected these resources because they’ve been vital to my own study. Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. This helps anchor the mission of The Twice Found.
Agents of the Apocalypse
by David Jeremiah
Jeremiah unpacks Revelation's key figures—including the Antichrist and False Prophet—with clarity and pastoral insight.
ADD TO YOUR LIBRARY ➔
The End Times in Chronological Order
by Ron Rhodes
A step-by-step guide through prophetic events, helping believers see how today's headlines fit God's timetable.
ADD TO YOUR LIBRARY ➔
About David Wyatt
David Wyatt writes about Biblical truth and its practical application in daily life from his home in central North Carolina. His work focuses on helping Christians understand and live out their faith authentically in today's world.