Our ‘Judeo-Christian’ Holy War

The War in Iran has already claimed the lives of six U.S. service members and over 1,000 Iranians, including at least 180 children. And why? That’s one question the Trump administration can’t quite answer.

The closest thing we’ve gotten to an answer came from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. On March 2, Rubio told the media: “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

The next day, when the same reporter quoted Rubio’s statement back to him, the Secretary of State accused her of lying. He then insisted that Israel played no role in America’s decision to attack Iran: “I told you this had to happen anyway. The President made a decision... The decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program.”

This, too, caught many by surprise. In June of 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Iran’s nuclear weapons program had been “obliterated” during a series of Israeli airstrikes. At the time, Rubio concurred, saying that Iran’s nuclear program suffered “complete and total obliteration.”

Apparently, the nuclear program that Iran spent thirty years building was rebuilt in just eight months.

Of course, few Americans believe the Trump administration’s official narrative (to the extent that one exists). They understand that the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran has nothing to do with national security or even geopolitics. Rather, it has to do with religion.

The War in Iran is a Judeo-Christian holy war.

Dispensationalism, Zionism, and ‘Judeo-Christianity’

As I pointed out in a recent column, Christ and St. Paul taught that Christianity is the continuation of the “Old Testament religion.” Rabbinic Judaism, meanwhile, grew out of the Pharisee movement. Rabbinic Jews do not follow the faith of ancient Israel as they do not worship Yahweh, i.e., Christ (cf. John 8:58). Christians, not Rabbinic Jews, are the true sons of Abraham (cf. Galatians 3:29). Hence, the true Israel is the Church, and the Church is the true Israel (cf. Galatians 6:16).

This belief was held by all Christians—Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant—until the 20th century. Then, American Protestants began to embrace a series of Judaizing heresies. Many came to believe that the Rabbinic Jews were also protected by a separate covenant with God. This “dual covenant theology” is an important part of dispensationalism.

Then, in 1949, the modern State of Israel was established. Many American Protestants viewed this as a key step towards the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. These Protestants came to believe that Christians have a religious duty to protect and support the State of Israel. This view came to be known as Christian Zionism.

Dispensationalism and Christian Zionism were integral to the development of what’s known as Judeo-Christianity. Judeo-Christianity goes beyond Zionism. It holds that Christians have no identity—religious, political, or cultural—apart from Rabbinic Jews. Hence, those who refer to Western civilization as “Judeo-Christian civilization.”

Our ‘Judeo-Christian’ Foreign Policy

Judeo-Christianity is the dominant worldview among Christians who identify with the Republican Party. That has been true for decades now. However, in the last few months, it has become apparent that a religious commitment to Zionism is the basis of U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump.

The War on Iran is a case-in-point. As we said, the Trump administration has not been able to explain to the American people how attacking Iran was in our national interest. However, they have been quite clear about what they perceive to be the war’s spiritual or metaphysical significance.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the Iran War’s architects, recently said: “This is a religious war”—one that “will set the course for the future of the Mideast for a thousand years.” (This is a clear reference to Millennialism, another aspect of Dispensationalist theology.)

Sen. Kevin Cramer told reporters that we attacked Iran because we have a “biblical responsibility to Israel.”

Late last month, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said that he would support Israeli efforts to expand its borders on biblical grounds. Tucker Carlson asked if the Bible entitles Israel to occupy “basically the entire Middle East.” “I’m not sure it would go that far,” Huckabee replied, “but it would be a big piece of land.”

Former Governor Michelle Bachmann, a leading Republican, put it even more explicitly:

God ordained these two men [i.e., Trump and Netanyahu] to be the leaders of those nations [i.e., the U.S. and Israel] at this exact time for this exact purpose. We’ve all been given an opportunity to bless Israel. If we bless Israel like I believe President Trump is doing now, then we will be blessed. I truly believe America is going to be blessed from this effort. Likewise, if we turn our back on Israel and curse them, then we’re cursed as a nation. And the Bible bears that out. There’s only one criterion upon which nations are judged. That’s how nations treat Zion.

This echoes certain controversial statements made by Sen. Ted Cruz—another close Trump ally—during a recent interview. “Where does my support for Israel come from?” Cruz asked rhetorically. “Number one, because biblically, we are commanded to support Israel.” Sen. Cruz went on to say, “We are commanded to support Israel and we’re told those who bless Israel will be blessed.”

This kind of rhetoric is not limited to our country’s leaders, either. On March 3, a watchdog group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) reported that it has received over 200 complaints from ordinary service members saying their commanders have used “extremist Christian rhetoric” in regard to the Iran War.

One commander reportedly said that the conflict is “all part of God’s divine plan” before speaking about “Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.” This offer is also alleged to have said that “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”

A Second Purim, a Third Temple

Last week, Fox News’s Trace Gallagher asked Chabad Rabbi Chaim Mentz if the U.S. and Israel would seek regime change in Iran. Mentz immediately connected the Iran War to a Jewish holy day: “There’s definitely going to be regime change. But I have to say: today, 2300 years ago, the entire Iran, negative people, were wiped out. And therefore we give presents. Happy Purim!”

Purim commemorates an event from the Book of Esther, where the Jews killed 75,000 Persians. So, the comparison may seem tenuous. After all, according to Esther, the Jews were defending themselves against Persian aggression. Today, it was the U.S. and Israel who struck the first blow—not Iran.

Nevertheless, the same connection was made by the Israel Defense Force itself. The IDF published a propaganda video to their official X account explicitly casting the Iran War as a modern-day Purim.

Yoram Hazony, the Israeli-American intellectual who organizes the National Conservatism conferences, made a similar point: “Just came back from reading the megila (book of Esther) in synagogue. There’s never been a Purim like this one—not for 2500 years.”

So, the Israelis and their Jewish supporters are also using Holy Scripture to justify the invasion of Iran.

What is more, footage recently emerged of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth urging Israelis to build a Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem:

There’s no reason why the miracle of the re-establishment of the Temple on the Temple Mount is impossible... In light of the support you have in Washington DC, the support you have among patriotic Americans, among Evangelical Christians, among Republicans... Take your action... This is the moment when America will have your back.

Tucker Carlson notes that there is a prominent organization within the IDF dedicated to building a Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Per Carlson’s report, members of this organization claim that the true purpose for Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Iran is to precipitate the construction of the Third Temple. It seems the Trump administration is supportive of this objective.

Christians and Jews Against the ‘Judeo-Christian’ Jihad

A couple of years ago, I had the honor of interviewing a Melkite (Eastern Catholic) bishop from Palestine. He was a little boy when the first Zionist settlers began to arrive from Europe. Prior to this (he told me), Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived together peacefully.

The native Jews of Palestine are known today as the Old Yishuv. They strongly oppose the State of Israel. This is common among traditional Jews. For instance, the Ultra-Orthodox (or Haredim) point out that God Himself is supposed to restore Israel to its former glory; mere mortals can’t take this task upon themselves.

The Old Yishuv agree with this sentiment. Yet they are also deeply critical of the State of Israel’s mistreatment of its non-Jewish citizens and neighbors—their old friends and neighbors, with whom they wish to share the land.

All of this is to say that none of what I’ve written above should be taken as anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish. On the contrary: traditional Christians and traditional Jews have a great deal in common here. Most importantly, we both reject attempts to make the modern State of Israel central to our religious faith and practice.

By the same token, this holy war is being driven by “heretics”: Christians and Jews who have traded in their ancient doctrines for a violent geopolitical ideology. This ideology no more represents Judaism than it does Christianity.

Therefore, traditional Christians and Jews should continue to oppose American-Israeli foreign policy, for the sake of our respective faiths and for the good of all mankind. As the Scriptures say, "Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble” (Psalm 119:165).