Once again, military conflict is raging in the Middle East and the Holy Land. American and Israeli armed forces are in harm’s way, fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran. How should Christians react to the news? First, we must pray for the safety of US and Israeli military forces as they confront evil. We should also pray for wisdom for President Trump and other defense officials. Second, we must understand the roots of the conflict and its implications for the future. For example, did you know that Iran’s radical leaders are guided by their anticipation of an Islamic Messiah?

Here’s some history.

The current hostilities began after Iran refused to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. But the real cause of today’s conflict goes all the way back to 1979.

In that year, the Shah of Iran, a longtime ally of the United States, was overthrown by radical Shiite Muslims led by Islamist cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The revolutionaries established the Islamic Republic of Iran, dedicated to destroying Israel and spreading their radical Islamic theology around the world.

During the revolution, Iranian radicals seized the US Embassy in Tehran, taking fifty-two Americans hostage. Iran held those American hostages throughout 1980, frustrating the American people and paralyzing President Jimmy Carter’s administration. Ronald Reagan, campaigning for president, made it clear that Iran would pay a heavy price if the American hostages were not released if he won the election. They were freed on January 20, 1981—the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.

It is important to understand the theology of Iran’s rulers. The radical Shiites who control Iran have a vision of the “end times” that is quite different from our biblical teachings. They are expecting the “12th Imam,” known as the Mahdi,¹ to emerge from a well at the Jamkaran Mosque in Qom, Iran. He will then conduct a genocide, killing all the Christians and Jews in the world.

The Iranian Shiites believe they have a religious obligation to create the conditions in the world that will hasten the arrival of the Mahdi. Shiite radicals believe the flag of Islam will eventually fly all over the world. Some Shiite clerics have even vowed to “raise the flag of Islam over the White House”² itself. The fanaticism of the Islamic Republic became fully apparent during the Iran-Iraq War, when the regime sent waves of its own children to clear Iraqi minefields by being blown up so their army could advance after the children died.³

Since 1979, the Iranian Shiite regime has been a force for terrorism and violence around the world. In 1983, a radical Shiite Islamist suicide bomber, linked to Iran, blew up the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 American military personnel. As the years passed, the Iranian government funded and trained proxy terrorist groups to launch attacks against Israeli and American assets. These groups include Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza—which carried out the horrific slaughter in Israel on October 7, 2023—and the Houthis in Yemen, who have attacked Israel and ships in the Gulf of Aden heading to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. During the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Iranians developed powerful improvised explosive devices (IEDs), known as roadside bombs, which killed and wounded thousands of American soldiers.⁴

In recent decades, it became obvious that the Iranian regime, driven by its Shiite apocalyptic views, was striving to build nuclear weapons, which it would use to destroy the nation of Israel and threaten the United States. During his first term, President Trump warned Iran repeatedly to end its nuclear weapons program or face severe consequences. In January 2020, Trump ordered the US military to eliminate Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, Tehran’s terrorist mastermind, who was plotting imminent attacks against US forces in the Middle East.⁵ Then, President Trump worked for peace in the Middle East by convincing multiple Muslim nations to sign the Abraham Accords with Israel.

In the closing years of President Trump’s first term and in the years that followed, US intelligence concluded that Iran had put a bounty on the heads of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other officials who served in the Trump administration.⁶ There was also evidence that Iran was plotting to assassinate Donald Trump⁷ and that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had entered the country across Joe Biden’s open border for that purpose.⁸ Their reports were credible enough that in the closing weeks of the 2024 presidential election, the Trump campaign used decoy airplanes to transport Donald Trump because of concerns that Iranians might use a surface-to-air missile to take down Trump’s plane.⁹

In 2024, Donald Trump won reelection to a second term. As he promised during the campaign, President Trump immediately put Iran on notice that it would not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. In early 2025, the Trump administration engaged in five rounds of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. As the evidence grew that the ayatollah’s radical regime was getting closer and closer to developing the world’s most dangerous weapons, President Trump ordered B-2 stealth bombers to take out Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The operation stunned the whole world with its precision and remarkable success. But the Iranians continued to develop ballistic missiles and were beginning to rebuild their nuclear weapons program, hidden in deep underground bunkers.

In recent years, the Iranian economy has come under enormous pressure from international sanctions and rampant corruption. Mass protests against the Iranian regime have periodically erupted throughout the country. The largest uprising took place just a few months ago in multiple Iranian cities. The Iranian government reacted with brutal repression, killing between 10,000 and 30,000 Iranians.

In February, President Trump instructed US envoys to try again to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear weapons and its ballistic missile programs. The United States also began moving military assets into the Middle East. But the Iranian strategy has always been to use negotiations as a delaying tactic. Recently, there were unconfirmed reports that the Iranians were planning preemptive attacks on US forces in the Middle East.¹⁰ On Saturday, February 28, US and Israeli forces began Operation Epic Fury.

On the first day of the conflict, the Israeli military and US forces took out Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of top regime officials. In response, Iran attacked fourteen countries, including many that were not involved in the military operation.¹¹ They lashed out wildly, attacking civilian airports, hotels, Israeli communities, and Saudi oil facilities.

President Trump has speculated that this military operation could last at least four weeks. Throughout his entire political career, President Trump has made it absolutely clear that he will not allow the United States to get bogged down in a no-win land war comparable to Iraq and Afghanistan. The fear-mongering of another protracted Middle East land war by the media and many politicians is completely unjustified.

As Christians, we know that Iran is prominently mentioned in the Bible. In biblical times, the country was known as Persia. The Book of Esther is about a Persian official who plots to annihilate the Jewish people. Queen Esther exposed the plot against her people and the king stopped it. Today, Jews celebrate Esther and God’s salvation in the Purim holiday, which occurred Monday and Tuesday of this week. Many Christian scholars and evangelical theologians believe that modern Iran will play a major role in God’s conclusion of world history.

God bless our brave men and women in the military who—daily—risk their lives to keep us safe.

1. Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi, “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and the Rising Cult of Mahdism: Missiles and Militias for the Apocalypse,” Middle East Institute, May 3, 2022, https://mei.edu/publication/irans-revolutionary-guard-and-rising-cult-mahdism-missiles-and-militias-apocalypse/.
2. JPOST.COM Staff, “Iran Cleric Vows to ‘Raise Flag of Islam’ on White House to Avenge Israeli Attack,” The Jerusalem Post, February 27, 2015, https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-cleric-vows-to-raise-flag-of-islam-on-white-house-to-avenge-israeli-attack-392445.
3. Yoram Ettinger, “Iran’s Sickening Use of Child Soldiers,” JNS, September 14, 2022, https://www.jns.org/irans-sickening-use-of-child-soldiers/.
4. Alex Horton, “Soleimani’s Legacy: The Gruesome, High‑Tech IEDs That Haunted U.S. Troops in Iraq,” The Washington Post, January 3, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/01/03/soleimanis-legacy-gruesome-high-tech-ieds-that-haunted-us-troops-iraq/.
5. Donald J. Trump, “Remarks by President Trump on the Killing of Qasem Soleimani,” The White House, January 3, 2020, archived at https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings‑statements/remarks‑president‑trump‑killing‑qasem‑soleimani/.
6. Emily Davies, John Hudson, Warren Strobel, Caroline O’Dovan, and Naomi Nix, “Iran Nearly Succeeded in Orchestrating Assassination of Mike Pompeo in Europe in 2022, Book Reveals,” The Washington Post, June 27, 2025, https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/iran-nearly-assassinated-former-trump-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo-in-2022/ar-AA1HB60G.
7. Evan Perez, Zachary Cohen, Natasha Bertrand, Kylie Atwood, and Kristen Holmes, “Exclusive: Secret Service ramped up security after intel of Iranian plot to assassinate Trump; no known connection to shooting,” CNN, July 16, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/16/politics/iran‑plot‑assassinate‑trump‑secret‑service.
8. Department of Homeland Security, “DHS Deports 3 Former Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (a Terrorist Organization) to Iran,” January 27, 2026, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/01/27/dhs-deports-3-former-members-iranian-revolutionary-guard-corps-terrorist.
9. Alex Isenstadt, “Exclusive: Inside Trump’s Iran Fear,” Axios, February 9, 2025, https://www.axios.com/2025/02/09/inside-trump-fear-iran-book
10. Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY), post, X, February 29, 2026, https://x.com/ScottJenningsKY/status/2027850814752997529.
11. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna), post, X, March 1, 2026, https://x.com/RepLuna/status/2028206241223266446.