Idolatry and bad theology of the most dangerous type
According to Diana Butler Bass on Twitter, “Trump’s evangelical advisors — those who will be praying with him at his rally [on 1/3/20] — mostly believe the Bible predicts a war between Iran and Israel before Jesus returns to rapture them in advance of the end of the world.” In a March 2019 Christian Broadcasting Network interview, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked if Trump is a modern-day Esther sent to save Jewish people from the Iranian menace. He responded: “That’s possible.”
I fear this recent reckless action of the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was fueled by this idolatry and bad theology of the most dangerous type. It is also, quite ironically, the kind of marriage between the church and earthly powers against which the book of Revelation was written as a warning. The idea that God is bringing about peace by way of war between modern nation-states couldn’t be more wrong, as I argue in a Christian Citizen piece from 2018:
By this view, to bring about the return of Christ and an everlasting peace, it is first necessary that violence, war and conquest take place. God is supposedly going to bring about an end that is different than the means…
“The Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1). That passage…is part of what Jesus read in the Nazareth synagogue and said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). In other words, this work, the inauguration of this kingdom of peace and justice, began anew with Christ. “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt. 3:2). God is birthing a “new creation” and is “reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:17, 19)…
Therefore, as God’s reign comes and is born again among us, the ends and the means are the same. The reign of God is not a future reality for which we wait while God does something different for now. The Kingdom is ‘at hand.’ God is not bringing about peace by way of war. Peace is both the end and the means. We get to peace by way of peace. Peacemaking is God’s work now.
The idea that “war is peace” could not be more Orwellian, and could not be less biblical.
