Iran War Collage
(Public domain via Wikipedia)
A reader sent a link in Italian which I machine-translated. Here are parts of it:
Evangelical Millennialism as a Driver of American Foreign Policy
6 March 2026
There’s an ideological framework within which the war against Iran isn’t just a strategic choice, but a liturgical act; it’s not geopolitics, but applied eschatology.
Understanding it is the minimum condition for correctly reading what is happening in the Middle East.
The movement known in Italian as Christian Zionism has approximately fifty million members in the United States. It is not a fringe current of American Protestantism: it is one of the most solid electoral bases of the Republican right, and its influence on foreign policy decisions—from the embassy moved to Jerusalem to the scenarios opened up by Operation Epic Fury—is structural, not occasional.
Its roots lie in 19th-century dispensationalism, developed by Irish theologian John Nelson Darby and popularized in the United States through the Scofield Reference Bible, which between 1909 and 1967 shaped generations of American evangelicals with a reading of sacred history as a sequence of divine “dispensations.” The theological core is as simple as it is groundbreaking: the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel is the signal preceding the return of Christ, Armageddon, and the Last Judgment. The State of Israel, in this framework, is not a political entity subject to international law: it is a prophetic fulfillment, a variable independent of any moral or legal considerations.
As Netanyahu himself acknowledged in 1995, the creation of the State of Israel would not have been possible without the unwavering support of the Christian Zionist movement—an admission that serves as a map of real power, more honest than many diplomatic treaties. …
The long-awaited millennium is not the reign of evangelical peace. It is a regime of domination exercised with “rods of iron,” in which the violence of the Last Judgment appears not as a tragedy to be averted but as a desired event, one that will resolve the contradictions of history with the definitive brutality of redemption.
Yes, there are Protestants who espouse such views. Yes, Protestant evangelical views have been a factor in US foreign policy.
However, I do not believe that Donald Trump believes in most of that.
As far as the millennial Kingdom of God, it will be a time of peace. Yet, it will not be as most Protestants envision it.
Protestantism will cease, as will Greco-Roman Catholicism.
Notice a few things about the real millennium:
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16-19)
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. 3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. … 11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. (Isaiah 2:2-4,11)
Thus, it will be a utopian time of peace on earth. Ultimately, this will be forever, with Jesus ruling.
Protestants do not keep the Feast of Tabernacles, most do not believe that they need to keep the law, and believe that learning war is a good thing.
Isaiah was inspired to also write the following:
6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Notice that Isaiah said that Jesus would come and establish a kingdom with a government. While many who profess Christ quote this passage, especially in December each year, they tend to overlook that it is prophesying more than the fact that Jesus would be born. The Bible shows that the Kingdom of God has a government with laws over subjects, and that Jesus will be king over it. Isaiah, Daniel, and others prophesied it.
The laws of God are the way of love (Matthew 22:37-40; John 15:10) and the Kingdom of God will be ruled based upon those laws. Hence the Kingdom of God, despite how many in the world view it, will be based upon love.
While various Protestants have a militaristic world view (e.g. see Iran, Chaos, Donald ‘Trump of God’ “to cause Armageddon”), that is not what the Kingdom of God will all be about.
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
Did The Early Church Teach Millenarianism? Was the millennium (sometimes called chiliasm) taught by early Christians? Who condemned it? Will Jesus literally reign for 1000 years on the earth? Is this time near? Three related sermons are available Let’s Talk About the Earthly Millennium, Millennial Utopia, and The Millennium.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. It is available in over numerous languages at ccog.org. Here are links to four kingdom-related sermons: The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.
Military Service and the Churches of God: Do Real Christians Participate in Carnal Warfare or Encourage Violence? Here are current and historical perspectives on a matter which show the beliefs of the true church on military participation. Is war proper for Christians? A related sermon would be: Christians, Violence, and Military Service.