“…Much of the current strain of Christian Zionism seen in contemporary evangelical churches comes from a similar belief in the United States’ and Israel’s dual role in jump-starting the Biblical End Times, usually involving a battle against Iran. Christian Zionists got an important seat at the political table in the first Trump administration in the form of Vice President Mike Pence. In 2018, when Pence visited Israel in his official capacity, he vowed to alter or cancel the Iran deal, promised that the US Embassy would open in Jerusalem earlier than planned, and vowed to protect Israel’s holy sites. “For messianic Jews and Evangelicals, like Pence, the speech was a confirmation that momentous days are here again, with sounds of rapture and signs of the Messiah,” noted an editorial in Haaretz after the visit.
That kind of biblical talk waned in the intervening years, but the war with Iran has clearly revived it, even though evangelical influence in the Trump II administration is significantly weaker than in the first. That the MRFF is now reporting complaints from more than forty different American military units across at least thirty installations indicates that this strange marriage of statecraft and scripture has also moved into the Pentagon. Meanwhile, Senator John Cornyn (announced as “one of Israel’s greatest friends”) attended an alarmist sermon by dispensationalist TV preacher John Hagee, and founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), in San Antonio, which was ominously titled: “End of Days: Operation Epic Fury.”…”