How Should Christians Respond When Military Leaders Claim War Is “God’s Plan”?

[phkrause]

On Saturday, February 28, the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran. They launched these strikes despite ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program. While questions remain regarding the validity of these attacks, there is a narrative being shaped within the military ranks that makes this even more troubling.

https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/how-should-christians-respond-when-military-leaders-claim-war-is-gods-plan.html?

[Gustave]

War is horrible and I wish it wouldn't happen. That said I think Israel and the US took Iran's leadership seriously when they repeatedly chanted (& funded) "death to America" & "death to Israel". It seems that the Iranians here in the United States are mostly ecstatic about the state of the Iranian Ummah. The Sunni's seem to be praising Allah that He used the arm of Israel and the US to punish Iran's leadership. Recently, we had a "No King's" march here in Seattle where masses of Trans and other Liberals rose their voices against Donnald Trump. Israel just took out a "king" and the Democrat base here in Seattle is red hot mad about it. The Iranian people have been suffering under a brutal dictatorship for nearly 50 years and thousands of LGBT people have been tortured and slaughtered in Iran, women who advocated for women's rights have been killed in Iran just for standing up and pleading for justice. War is horrible and I pray for a peaceful resolution however if Iranian leadership continues with the death to Israel and death to America stuff I fear that we will continue to see more of the same stuff we've been seeing this last week. 

[Kevin H]

War is complicated. We can look at how other people of faith deal with these questions, such as John Zizka of Trocnov and the Chalice, Ulrich Zwingli, World War I Alvin York, pilots, England's Albert Ball and Germany's Oswald Oswald Boelcke and Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron), World War II Hasel, and Desmond Doss. (I hope that on the way to heaven, or soon after getting there we get to listen to a group discussion among these and others who struggled with faith and war.)

As for war in the Middle East, I am worried that we have some subgroups of Jews expecting to be delivered from war by the Messiah, that we have some subgroups of Arabs expecting deliverance from Jesus coming to prepare the world for Mohammad to come, and starting in 1833 John Darby's Dispensationalism has been replacing Jochian of Italy's revival of Historism within Christianity. Dispensationalism has been mixed with Fundamentalism. In the Bible God has offered his people to choose between two paths for spreading the gospel. One was based on the land in the middle of the ancient world, a very complexed piece of land, and the contrast between how the Canaanites tried to deal with living on this property making it very dangerous for the land, despite it being the most important intersection for the trade routes between Europe, Asia, Africa and Arabia, and how the Hebrews would make this safe and have a simple religion, and that the caravans would take stories about these people and their simple faith to the world. Or else they could serve in exile by going to the world and sharing their faith with their neighbors. Fundamentalism is too strict to allow for a choice and says that the texts on the land need to be met, that as Israel gets this land the church will be raptured away so that these texts can be fulfilled to the letter. They are expecting a great war solved by the second coming of Jesus. Eastern religions are too personal to worry about this, and Atheists may not study the Bible. 

It looks like Satan is getting the world ready for a war in the Middle East then he comes from the sky (Revelation 12, the three parts of the ancient cosmos of the sky/heavens, the waters under the earth, the realm of chaos, and the land) and saves the world from destruction. Many Jews will see him as the long awaited Messiah. Many Muslims will see him as Jesus coming to prepare the world for Mahammad, Many Christians will see him as the fulfillment of the Dispensationalist's prophecies of a great war in the Middle East. Many Eastern religions see him as obviously god, and many Atheists, finding him to be indubitably a supernatural and thus seeing is believing. Revelation 13 talks about the final deception as being able to call fire down from heaven, a symbol to Elijah where the proof for the true God is fire coming down from heaven, Mrs. White explains the symbol as the healing of the sick, appear to raise the dead, speak the same words that Jesus spoke when here, bring about a sweet spirit of a sticky sweet version of "love" and spiritual excitement, where churches put away their differences and only unite on points they have in common. While not as direct, she seems to point to the Fundamentalist view of inspiration failing, so they think that the Bible has failed and why depend on this failed book when we have "Jesus" and the prophets and apostles here ready to tell me what to do. But while maybe originally falling for the deception (Daniel 11:35) there will be wise from all these groups: Jews, Muslims, Atheists and all other religions will find that they need to give up something against their conscience to go along with this system. They will feel they are rejecting Jesus/the Messiah in rejecting this being. They will feel they are lost for rejecting him. They will find their strength in the Bible, despite it not fitting the Fundamentalist's picture of what a prophet should be, and a feeling that they are choosing to be lost for holding on to this book instead of accepting the obvious that this supernatural being is Jesus. 

Within Christianity, Judaism and Islam Satan is getting subgroups who are expecting and longing for this war. There are those trying to force this war to force Jesus to come. (We forget that Judas thought he could force Jesus to get the victory and set up the kingdom by bringing the enemy right into Jesus' hand with a pressure to take control or die. and that he saw placing Jesus in a situation to destroy his enemies as God's plan.) 

[Joe Knapp]

Kevin I agree with everything you have said there. 

However, there is another possibility that may be at play. 

I have a friend who is working with American Muslims and occasionally with some American Iranians. They have both told him independently, that Christianity is badly suppressed in the Middle East. If the current governments were to fall, Christianity would flourish in the Middle East. 

Now, I am anti-war. However, as we read our bibles, we see God uses war to remove kingdoms. He uses war to shape events for His purpose. 

We don't know God's purpose in the Middle East, but considering the spiritual changes going on in other places, it is possible that God's hand is in this and that he will shape their future to His purposes. 

[Joe Knapp]

On 3/11/2026 at 10:51 AM, Gustave said:

War is horrible and I pray for a peaceful resolution however if Iranian leadership continues with the death to Israel and death to America stuff I fear that we will continue to see more of the same stuff we've been seeing this last week. 

Gustave, I agree. Let's step back a moment and survey the damage done in the Middle East recently. 

As I watch smuggled videos about Israel, it appears the area above ground is 90% destroyed. Gaza is destroyed, Lebanon is pretty much destroyed. Syria is pretty much destroyed. Iran has been damaged, but it is hard to tell how much. However, things are not over, and I think it is likely to be destroyed like the others.  

In our lifetime, or the last 250 years, we have never seen war and destruction like this in the Middle East. The destruction is almost as complete as Europe in the 1940s.  This is very historic. 

The Middle East will not recover economically for another 20-30 or 40 years, if the pattern of post-war Europe is followed. 

What does this mean? Many people are focusing on the trees and not seeing the forest or the future.