Waging War to Fulfill Ancient Prophecy?

A few days ago, I wrote a post summarizing in a few paragraphs Luther's "theology of war," so to speak. You can read it here. In essence, Luther was neither a principled pacifist nor an uncritical advocate of war. Instead, he had a nuanced approach to this topic that was grounded in God's law nature, which is the law of love: Legitimate, or just, wars must be defensive. And they must be prudent.

This simply means that war may only be waged to defend the lives and possessions of one's people--not to conquer other lands or other people, not to spread the Christian faith or some political ideology, not to change the government of some other country, not to carry out the whims of some megalomaniac leader. But even defensive wars must be engaged in prudently, that is, reluctantly, after overlooking many events that imprudent people would have taken as "good enough" reasons to shed blood, at the right time, using proportionate means, after weighing costs and benefits, without creating an even greater injustice.

Not all people at Luther's time shared this restrained, rational, prudent approach to war. Neither do all people today share Luther's approach to war. One school of thought that disagrees with Luther on war and that has again gained prominence in March 2026, that is, while Israel and the U.S. are waging war against Iran. This school of thought is Christian Zionism.

What Is Christian Zionism and Why Does It Matter

Simply put, it is a political theology that teaches that the modern state of Israel, established in 1948, is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy--going back at least to Genesis 12, God's call of Abram, later Abraham. It furthermore teaches that God, in those ancient prophecies to Abraham, has given the nation state of Israel a permanent title to the land from the Nile to the Euphrates (see Gen. 15:18)--never mind the people who currently live there. It also teaches that the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948 is a sign that the end of the world is close at hand. It finally teaches that, because the modern state of Israel was willed by God, Christians MUST stand with the modern state of Israel to be blessed by God (Gen. 12:3), no matter what.

When talking about Christian Zionism, it's important to remember that not all Jews are Zionists in the sense of supporting the idea that there must be a more or less exclusively Jewish state in the Middle East. In fact, students of the history of Jewish Zionism have pointed out that Christian Zionism--specifically, as it emerged among 19th century Protestants in Great Britain and the U.S.--predates and inspired the political Zionist project that emerged among Jewish leaders at the end of the 19th century, essentially as a type of ethnic nationalism as it was prevalent in central and eastern Europe (including Germany and Russia) at the time. According to one estimate, there are twice as many Christian Zionists in the U.S. alone than there are Jews in the whole world.

Why should we care about this? There are at least two reasons to pay attention here. First, Christian Zionism is a false theology that proclaims the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham in the nation state of Israel, not in Christ. Luther has much to say about this because the bible has much to say about this. So, I'll discuss this critical point further below.

Second, and equally critical, this false theology has profound real-life implications for a lot of people around the world--especially in the Near East--because leading representatives of the federal government are advocating Christian Zionism. For instance, in a viral interview with Tucker Carlson, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas cited Gen. 12:1-3 to say that Christians are commanded to support the modern nation of Israel.

In another viral interview with Tucker Carlson, the current U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, stated that the modern nation of Israel is located on the "land that God gave through Abraham to a people that he chose." Huckabee even stated that "it would be fine if they took it all," meaning the entire land promised to Abraham in Gen. 15:18, although he later qualified this statement as "hyperbolic." But then further qualifying this hyperbole, Huckabee stated: "Now, if they end up getting attacked by all these places and they win that war and they take that land, then okay, that, that's a whole another discussion."

Moreover, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in his 2020 book, American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, stated (pp. 286-287) that God "stands with the people of Israel against their enemies and blesses those who bless Israel (Genesis 12:1-3). . . . American should stand with Israel because we honor God and love freedom." He added, offering his characteristic blend of religion, politics, and capitalism: "For us as American Crusaders, Israel embodies the soul of our American Crusade--the 'why' to our 'what.' Faith, family, freedom, and free enterprise; if you love those, learn to love the state of Israel. And then find an arena in which to fight for her."

Indeed, President Trump, in December 2017, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and--on the 70th anniversary of Israel's independence in May 2018--officially opened the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. In a statement in Oshkosh, WI, he noted: "We moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem. That is for the Evangelicals. . . . The Evangelicals are more excited about that than Jewish people."

Indeed, then Vice President Mike Pence's announcement that President Trump would do so was greeted by loud applause at a July 2017 event of Christians United for Israel , a leading Christian Zionist organization led by John Hagee, a megachurch pastor in Texas. And Hagee recently tied the current war against Iran to the end-times biblical prophecy of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38-39.

Palestinian Christian theologians (one of them a Lutheran pastor at Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem) have taken note of Huckabee's interview with Carlson and produced a "response video" that is worth watching because they--unlike Huckabee, the Baptist minister from Arkansas--emphasized the biblical connection between Abraham and (faith in) Christ that animated Luther and that stands in sharp contrast to harnessing Abraham for nationalist projects. And, importantly, they also pointed out that they as Palestinians have no (postive) place in Christian Zionism.

My own experience with Christian Zionism goes back to the 1994 World Day of Prayer (WDP), although I did not know the concept of Christian Zionism at the time. For those who do not know this event, WDP is organized ecumenically each year by Christian women from a different country under a different theme. The prayer service these women put together is held on the first Friday of March.

For the WDP in 1994--when I was still living in Germany and attending seminary at Heidelberg University--Christian women from Palestine had prepared the liturgy and the accompanying study materials under the title, Go, See, and Act. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this caused some controversy in Germany and in other places, including the U.S.

Part of the problem was that many in the West did not even know that there are Christians living in Palestine, that not all Palestinians are Muslims. Some of these Palestinian Christians are members of the Orthodox Church, which essentially has been there since the time of Christ and the apostles. Others are Catholics. Others still are members of Anglican, Lutheran, and other Protestant denominations.

Another, bigger part of the problem was that the material these Christians had prepared was critical of Israel's policies and actions that had caused much suffering among the Palestinians. Some well-meaning Germans strongly believed that this criticism of Israel crossed a line, believing that--after Germany had perpetrated the Holocaust 50 years prior--any criticism of Israel was too much. Others cited certain bible passages to assert the continued election of the Jewish people as God's people against this criticism. When we have to choose, so these individuals seemed to suggest, we should choose Israel, not our sisters (and brothers) in Christ.

As a result, this ecumenical event created (or revealed?) tension and division in the church. But it helped me to begin to see the faces and hear the stories of those who, in the mainstream narrative, are regularly portrayed (or rather defaced) as angry masses ready to storm the citadels of Western civilization, order, and culture--with the nation of Israel as its Levantine bridgehead and vanguard.

While Christian Zionism, as described above, may be "too American" to be widely popular in Germany, there is a "liberal" variant of it in Germany (and the U.S.) which has become quite popular in Germany after the Holocaust. This variant affirms that God made two abiding covenants, one with the Jews and the other, through Jesus Christ, with the Gentiles. Of course, when you have a theology that is as experience-driven as this "two covenant" theology, you should not be surprised when it clashes with the theology of those who, like women from Palestine, have experienced Jews and their theology and their power in a very different way than Germans who might recall Jews only as the emaciated victims of antisemitism.

Critiquing Christian Zionism with Luther

As I explain in my book titled God's Masks, Luther was a tireless advocate of the gospel of Jesus Christ--trusting in the crucified Son of God, we have forgiveness, life, and salvation--for all people. The Church consists of all who believe this gospel, Jews and Gentiles. According to Luther, this gospel was first proclaimed after the fall in Genesis 3. As a result, Abraham and the other Old Testament saints were actually believers in the promised Christ. Christ himself taught this in John 8 and elsewhere. Paul taught this as well, especially in Romans 4 and Galatians 3.

Accordingly, for Luther (as for Christ and Paul before him), the true children of Abraham are those who have the faith of Abraham, who are therefore children of the promise of forgiveness in Christ. They are children of the Spirit, not children of the flesh. God's ancient promises to Abraham--including the promise that he would inherit the world (Rom. 4:13)--are therefore fulfilled in Christ (Abraham's Seed!) for the benefit of those who believe in Christ all over the world.

Because we are Christians by faith in Christ, Christianity does not give any Christian any title to political power and physical possessions. In fact, as I explained in my post on Luther's view of war, being a Christian means to endure patiently all sorts of evil and suffering without fighting back, as laid out by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. As Luther asserted when objecting to the Christian egalitarianism of the peasants in the 1520s, the only law and right of Christians--as Christians--is suffering and the cross in this world, not an equal share in all property. And certainly not political world domination!

Because the only "right" of Christians is suffering and the cross, the outward form of Christ's Church on earth continues Christ's humble earthly life. It is not meant to be a visible reflection of Christ's current glory and almighty power at the right hand of God. As Luther recognized, this sharp contrast is offensive and confusing to fallen reason, even in Christians: Our fallen nature wants to see Christ's eternal and heavenly glory and power reflected in glorious and powerful Christian institutions and nations on earth! Because Christ is the king of creation, our fallen nature believes that we--because we are Christians and therefore on Christ's "team"--should always be winning in this world.

But, when it comes to his Christians and his Church, God has chosen to operate in this world in a humble and hidden way, always turning the wisdom of the world into foolishness by the cross, as Paul explained in 1 Cor. 1:18-25. As Luther noted,

[Christ's kingdom on earth] is to be a kingdom of faith where God rules strangely and in a way humans do not understand and comprehend, namely, by hiding his wisdom, power, and might and by revealing them under their opposite, which all humans call foolishness and weakness, or even nothing at all.

Accordingly, the Christian God--the one true God--"is simultaneously the weakest of all and yet alone the Almighty One."

This is why Luther formulated a fundamentally important rule for interpreting Scripture, especially the Old Testament which often speaks of the spiritual glories, powers, and wars of Christ and his believers in physical ways by stating that these images of physical realities

should be transferred from the flesh to the spirit in which this glory can be seen. For outwardly, things go quite differently. There, the subjects of this King are very miserable, not only as to the members of their bodies but also as to their entire flesh, which is plagued by terrors, sadness, grief, despair, and other torments of the devil.

This foolish spiritual reality of Christendom is, in essence, what Christian Zionism denies. It looks for a physical manifestation of God's awesome power in this world, as if we still lived in Old Testament times. It looks for someone on earth who prosecutes outward military campaigns imbued with some special "spiritual" meaning and power in Christ's name--someone who, at last, provides worldly power and glory to God's people on earth.

Luther, by contrast, categorically rejected the concept of "crusades," i.e., military campaigns waged to advance "Christian" objectives. And Luther sharply disagreed with those who sought to turn the Christian Church into an earthly kingdom--either in its hierarchical form seen in the papacy or in its egalitarian form advanced by the peasants. Indeed, the peasants, led by self-styled "prophets" and new "Gideons" like Thomas Müntzer, sought to right all wrongs and eradicate all evil people on earth--in Christ's name!

As Luther witnessed first hand, this type of confusion of the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the world only leads to chaos, war, and bloodshed that silences the gospel of Christ.

Let's not be fooled. It will be no different today.

Further Reading

Jonathan Graubart, Jewish Self-Determination Beyond Zionism: Lessons from Hannah Arendt and Other Pariahs (Philadelphia: Temple, 2023).

Daniel G. Hummel, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle over the End Times Shaped a Nation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2025).

Yakov Rabkin, Israel in Palestine: Jewish Rejection of Zionism (Atlanta: Aspect Edition, 2025).

Yakov M. Rabkin, What Is Modern Israel? (London: Pluto Press, 2016).

Stephen Sizer, Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon? (Leicester: IVP, 2004).