On 2 March, an American combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing that the United States war against Iran was part of “God’s plan” and that US President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”
According to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a watchdog group that has received at least 110 complaints about this from 40 units in 30 different locations, officers described receiving similar briefings from commanders in every branch of the United States military.
One complainant wrote to the MRFF that their 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 [Biblical] Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”
The revelation of the promotion of extremist Christian beliefs in the US military by commanders provoked some members of the US Congress on 6 March to request an investigation by the Department of Defense.
How this will proceed remains to be seen, but the complaints reported by the MRFF demonstrate the impact of US Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth’s ideological beliefs on the military, where increasing Christian extremism is becoming a pervasive feature of the Trump administration.
The allegations of encroaching religious extremism inside the military, the Congress members said in a statement, are part of a broader political climate in which Hegseth and senior civilian officials have publicly framed Middle East policy in explicitly religious terms.
A former host on the right-wing Fox TV channel and a US National Guard officer known for his Christian nationalist rhetoric, Hegseth said the US is fighting “crazy regimes like Iran, hell-bent on prophetic Islamic delusions”, which “cannot have nuclear weapons”.
This reference to the Islamic Republic of Iran is ironic given the prophetic war rhetoric coming out of US military commanders invoking Trump’s supposed anointment by Jesus.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the US, condemned the Pentagon’s use of dangerous anti-Muslim “holy war rhetoric” to justify bombing Iran, “which risks turning this illegal and deadly war into a religious war.”
Hegseth believes that the US was founded on Judeo-Christian values and has published books expressing extreme views on Muslims in which he has invoked the mediaeval Crusades.
He is also famous for his extreme right-wing tattoos, including a battle-cry phrase from the mediaeval Crusades, the Arabic word kafir for infidel, and a large cross across his chest symbolising the mediaeval Kingdom of Jerusalem.
His monthly Christian worship series in the Pentagon since last summer was decried by critics, who said it underscored the erosion of the separation of church and state in the US. In recent weeks, Hegseth has invited a pastor known for his advocacy of the idea that the US should adopt Christian theocracy and adhere to a biblical interpretation of society.
In an interview with the UK newspaper The Guardian, Mikey Weinstein, the MRFF’s president, said that “anytime Israel or the US is involved in the Middle East, we get this stuff about Christian nationalists who’ve taken over our government, and certainly our US military.”
He suggested the reports indicate an increase in Christian extremism in the US military, noting that the complainants “report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders” who perceive a “‘biblically-sanctioned’ war that is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian ‘end times’.”
The rhetoric appears to be in line with official Israeli discourse about its wars in the region. Shortly after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked the biblical narrative of Amalek, the name of a people, to frame the conflict as a battle against evil, comparing the Iranian regime to an ancient biblical foe that Israel was commanded to destroy.
As the Trump administration struggles to present a consistent rhetoric to justify its decision to go to war against Iran at Israel’s behest, the current religious framing is an important precedent in American history.
Officials from across the administration have been outspoken about their Christian Zionist framing of US policy and the war on Iran.
“This is a religious war,” key Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who advises Trump on defence and national security, proclaimed this week. “Who wins it at the end of the day? Do radical Islamists who want to kill all the Jews because God told them to?” he asked reporters.
“This is a big deal… what we’re facing right now is a decision that will set the future of the Middle East for a thousand years.”
The pro-war senator has travelled several times to Israel to build the case for war on Iran, where he has met with intelligence sources who told him “things our own government won’t tell me.”
Graham also met with Netanyahu to coach him on how to persuade Trump to make the decision for war on Iran. According to The Wall Street Journal, Graham said that the Israeli premier shared intelligence information that finally convinced Trump to take action.
While evangelical organisations advocating Christian Zionism have always had significant influence in Republican politics, Trump’s second presidency has intensified the US-Israel alignment through direct military cooperation against Iran, expanded regional deployments, seen stronger evangelical influence in policymaking, and increasingly religious or civilisational framing of the conflict.
Many influential supporters of the administration view Israel through a biblical framework, believing it has a divinely ordained role in history and that defending it aligns with religious duty. These beliefs overlap with the political influence of white evangelical voters, a key Republican constituency.
In the lead-up to the war, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian former Arkansas governor and Southern Baptist minister, said that Israel would be “justified in taking over” a vast stretch of the Middle East on Biblical grounds.
In the interview with US commentator Tucker Carlson, Huckabee was asked whether Israel had a right to an area which the host said was, according to the Bible, “essentially the entire Middle East”.
Huckabee said, “it would be fine if it took it all.”
Trump’s key policies towards Israel have been influenced by evangelical and Christian Zionist constituencies.
They include his 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, the 2020 Abraham Accords, which evangelical leaders celebrated as strengthening Israel’s regional position and aligning with biblical narratives about Israel’s centrality in the Middle East, and the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Occupied Golan Heights in 2019.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 12 March, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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