The conflict in West Asia has entered its seventh day, and with it has come a striking and deeply unsettling dimension — religious and apocalyptic language being used to frame and motivate the war effort on both sides.
According to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), US and Israeli officers have been invoking the Book of Revelation in military briefings, framing the war on Iran as a “divine battle” destined to bring about the biblical end of times. An unnamed non-commissioned commander wrote to the MRFF describing a war briefing that included citations from the Book of Revelation and references to the return of Jesus Christ. The Foundation says it has received over 110 similar complaints from troops across the US armed forces. Most alarmingly, the complainant alleges that the commander told officers that President Donald Trump had been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn his own biblical parallels, comparing Iran to the Amalekites — the ancient enemy from the Torah long regarded in Jewish tradition as the embodiment of pure evil. “We read in this week’s Torah portion, ‘Remember what Amalek did to you.’ We remember – and we act,” Netanyahu said.
On the American side, the rhetoric from senior officials has been similarly charged. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Iran as being run by a “lunatic, religious fanatic regime” that cannot be permitted to possess nuclear weapons. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth went further, saying, “Crazy regimes like Iran, hell-bent on prophetic Islamic delusions, cannot have nuclear weapons” — an apparent reference to Shia eschatology, in which the rise of religious leaders is tied to the approach of the end of times and the return of the Mahdi, the hidden twelfth Imam, who is believed to usher in an era of justice.
A video shows a group of pastors praying over President Donald Trump in the Oval Office pic.twitter.com/ACG6Pzs002
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 6, 2026
At the center of these colliding theological worldviews stands one of the most contested pieces of land on earth: the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque currently stand. For Muslims, it is the third-holiest site in the world and the place where, according to Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. For orthodox Jews, it is the intended site of the Third Temple of Solomon — the reconstruction of which has been a yearning throughout nearly 1,900 years of exile. Some orthodox Jewish factions believe the mosque must be removed before the Third Temple can rise, though others hold that the Temple cannot be built until the Messiah arrives. Orthodox Muslims, for their part, regard the entire compound — known as Haram al-Sharif — as sacred and inviolable. Any move to alter or desecrate it would almost certainly ignite a direct and catastrophic confrontation between the Islamic world and the Jewish world. Few issues in modern history carry as much explosive potential.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth talking in 2018 about the 'miracle' of reconstructing the 3rd Temple of Solomon, the place where the Antichrist will be worshiped according to our Orthodox Christian faith. pic.twitter.com/SkWcBHHSk6
— Orthodox Christian (@orthodox_33ad) March 3, 2026
Iran, a Shia theocratic state, has long pursued religious autonomy in the region. Certain hardline factions within its leadership hold that regional upheaval and the defeat of their enemies are necessary preconditions for the return of the Mahdi. Taken together, the rhetoric driving this war reaches far beyond geopolitics — it draws on competing apocalyptic traditions from multiple faiths and gestures toward something far more dangerous: a civilisational, and perhaps theological, reckoning.
