Are US military commanders really talking about Armageddon?

Are U.S. military commanders really telling the soldiers fighting in Iran that President Donald Trump has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”?

In a piece published Monday on Substack, independent journalist Jonathan Larsen claimed the Military Religious Freedom Foundation had received more than 110 complaints from 40 units throughout 30 military installations. According to military.com, those complaints since Saturday have grown to more than 200. One complaint said the commander “had a big grin on his face when he said all of this, which made his message seem even more crazy.”

Over the next two days, the story took off on social media. And eventually, it began being picked up by other outlets such as The Independent, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Newsweek, MSNOW, The New Republic, and The Huffington Post, among many others. BNG also published a version of the story.

So are Trump and Hegseth really trying to hurry up the Rapture so evangelicals can disappear into thin air while everyone else goes through seven years of Tribulation culminating in the Battle of Armageddon and being sent to burn in the lake of fire forever?

“Are Trump and Hegseth really trying to hurry up the Rapture so evangelicals can disappear into thin air?”

While there’s much about this story that makes sense, there are a number of factors that don’t seem to add up. And given that the end of the world is allegedly on the line, it would probably be wise to investigate. But since the Pentagon seems uninterested in doing so, it’s likely up to us to get to the bottom of it — if we can.

Consider the source

While many outlets are now reporting on the story, they’re all citing the same source: Jonathan Larsen’s Substack post that was based on the claims of Mikey Weinstein with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

That raised some red flags for Hemant Mehta, editor of Friendly Atheist.

“If a commander in the military was arguing that this war was part of a religious crusade, why did no other media organization report this story?” Mehta asked in a piece sharing his reservations. “All these calls, all to one organization, and none apparently to any reporters who actually have the power to create change and have the contacts within the military to get more information.”

Mehta also pointed out how none of the reports name any commanders who have allegedly said these things.

Additionally, while many people including Mehta recognize the MRFF has done some important work for religious freedom in the military, Mehta has noticed a pattern of Weinstein releasing similarly worded emails across a variety of stories. He shared five examples of letters allegedly sent to Weinstein and the MRFF that all claim to be a single person representing a much larger number of military personnel who are from a wide variety of backgrounds and are effusive in their praise of MRFF.

“Does everyone in the military have the exact same writing style?” Mehta asked. “That would be unusual, to say the least. There’s nothing wrong with redacting personal information, but every email publicized by MRFF reads more like an internal fundraising email that’s been written by the same person — there’s rarely any personal touch and the grammar is always nearly perfect. That’s not an accusation, just an observation.”

Another concern Mehta has is that MRFF received more than $750,000 in donations in 2024, with Weinstein as the only paid employee making about half that. “With that kind of money, though, there should be even more responsibility in making sure the stories that are shared are detailed and verified and thorough enough to undergo scrutiny,” Mehta said.

Ultimately, if this story were to turn out to be false, a lot of people with legitimate concerns about Hegseth’s Christian nationalist takeover of the U.S. military could end up having their concerns dismissed because they jumped on a story that confirmed their opposition to Hegseth without verifying the facts.

The ‘God of War’ and the ‘War Department’

So what exactly are the verifiable facts here? At the least, Hegseth is creating a culture where commanders citing the end times as a motive for warfare would be possible.

Concerns about Hegseth began immediately after Trump first nominated him. Photos spread online of Hegseth’s tattoos that promote Christian crusades. One tattoo is the Latin phrase “Deus Vult,” which means “God wills it” and is popular among white nationalist groups.

After he was confirmed, Hegseth began posting propaganda videos on social media that paired images of the military with Hegseth saying the Lord’s Prayer.

Hegseth has been leading monthly worship services at the Pentagon. As we discussed in Episode 103 of “Highest Power: Church + State,” Brian Kaylor of Word & Way has been tracking these services in his Government Worship Watch.

One notable moment in these services was when Franklin Graham defined God as a God of war and hate. According to USA Today, “Jennifer Hegseth, Pete Hegseth’s wife, dubbed Graham and other Samaritan’s Purse leaders at the service ‘the special forces of Jesus.’”

Hegseth also plays into this image of God, stating the purpose of the Pentagon worship services is “to simply center as a department and remember who we serve.” He even told those present, “Don’t forget to bow your head in the middle of the day when you’re making big decisions.”

During one meeting, he specifically addressed commanders by praying, “A Commander’s Prayer,” and then released a video on social media of him reciting the Commander’s Prayer. “It’s a simple yet meaningful prayer for wisdom for commanders and leaders,” Hegseth told the officers in a September address at Quantico.

When the U.S. military kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Hegseth said he shared Psalm 144 with those who were involved with the mission. Hegseth admitted he told them, “‘Hey, this is the psalm I’m going to be praying leading up to this, that I will be praying the day of, the night of over our warriors as they execute this incredible mission.”

And don’t forget, Hegseth has fired generals and other military personnel whom he thinks are “woke.”

“Don’t forget, Hegseth has fired generals and other military personnel whom he thinks are ‘woke.'”

So is it surprising that there would be reports of commanders telling their subordinates God wills the war they’re fighting, that God is guiding their decisions in real time, or that they’re serving God’s plan for the world as they fight? Not at all.

In fact, it would almost be surprising if reports like this didn’t come out, given how the officers who remain are the ones Hegseth believes are going to be loyal to him.

But what is unclear is how Hegseth’s blurring of lines between the actions of the “God of War” and the actions of the “War Department” play into Hegseth’s view of the end times.

Hegseth’s End Times theology

While there are a variety of evangelical End Times theologies, many of them center on the relationships between the United States, Israel and Islam. Their theology ultimately goes back to the Hebrew Bible, where those who bless Israel are blessed and those who curse Israel are cursed. So according to the script, the United States must support Israel to be blessed. And those who curse Israel are primarily considered to be Islamic nations.

Evangelicals believe one day Jesus will return to reign over the earth from Jerusalem. And many believe part of that includes rebuilding the temple on the Temple Mount, which would undoubtedly cause World War III given the sacred nature of the site to both Jews and Muslims.

But according to The Times of Israel, Hegseth gave a speech in 2018 at the Arutz Sheva conference and suggested, “There’s no reason why the miracle of the re-establishment of the temple on the Temple Mount is not possible.” He went on to say, “I don’t know how it would happen. You don’t know how it would happen, but I know that it could happen.”

“There’s no reason why the miracle of the re-establishment of the temple on the Temple Mount is not possible.”

Hegseth also referred to the area by the names used in Bible times, calling them “Judea and Samaria.” He also rejected the idea of a two-state solution, which means something would have to happen to the Muslims for this vision of one state controlling the Temple Mount and rebuilding the temple to play out.

In his book American Crusade, Hegseth devotes an entire chapter to promoting an American crusade against “Islamism,” which he identifies as “the most dangerous ‘ism.’”

“America is not at war with Islam, but we are always at war with Islamists,” Hegseth writes. “Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, the Taliban, Iran, and the likes are the latest manifestations of an Islamist movement that has no plans to ‘coexist.’ They seek land, they seek power, they seek demographic and political advantages, and they actively seek the military means — especially nuclear weapons — to bring the West to its knees.”

For Hegseth, the issue is not simply that Iran wants to have nuclear weapons or even bring the West to its knees, but that the Islamic nations have a vision for the end of the world, an Armageddon in mind. He writes, “Leftists are sedated — and distracted — by their grab bag of ‘isms,’ while Islamism takes advantage of this sedation to implement their version of end-times theology.”

All the theological framework for U.S. commanders to use the war on Iran to hasten the end times is there. One significant, unresolved matter, however, is that Pete Hegseth follows Doug Wilson, who doesn’t hold to the modern dispensationalist view of the End Times that hopes for the rapture of evangelicals and a looming Armageddon being just around the corner. To the contrary, in a recent debate with Mike Bird on the “Premier Unbelievable?” podcast, Wilson acknowledged that “getting from here to there, getting from where we are now to my ideal state of things” will more likely happen “500 years from now.”

In other words, Wilson and his followers like Hegseth are just getting started with the theocratic vision they have for the U.S. and the world. But also, because the end is so far off, according to them, it seems unlikely that Hegseth himself would think he could bring about Armageddon before the midterms.

There needs to be an investigation

Given how Hegseth has blurred the lines between a “God of War” and the “War Department,” has infused his theology into the mission of the Pentagon, has trained his remnant of loyal commanders to follow his theology in their warfare, has called for a one-state solution in Israel, and has promoted an American crusade against “Islamism” that includes a war against Iran, there needs to be an investigation into the allegations that U.S. commanders are telling their soldiers Trump has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”

But according to Newsweek, when they asked the Pentagon to comment on the report, “The Pentagon referred Newsweek to Hegseth’s remarks to reporters on Monday alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine.”

In other words, they didn’t deny the report, but they’re uninterested in investigating it.

Hemant Mehta’s questions about Jonathan Larsen’s MMRF report are fair. We can’t simply jump on unverified claims from one source and state them as fact without asking any questions. Neither can we have all this evidence we do have dismissed because we shared a piece we can’t verify. Mehta has taken a lot of heat for suggesting this. But the consequences are too serious to dismiss his call for corroboration.

That said, at some point, somebody with some real power has to start investigating these Christian nationalists who are blurring lines and co-opting the U.S. military to fight their spiritual warfare campaigns. Remember that Southern Baptists make up between 30% and 40% of Protestant chaplains in the U.S. military today, and then remember the dominant theology of the Southern Baptist Convention.

What Larsen has reported is entirely plausible. But what Mehta has suggested is entirely reasonable. It is possible that both men are right.

As Mehta suggested, members of the military need to start reaching out to those who have the power to tell their stories and do something about it. Until then, journalists should probably begin studying up on their theology, reading Hegseth’s old books, and paying attention to what they may have assumed to be fringe because in Hegseth’s Christendom, there is no separation of church and state.

 

Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a Master of Arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.

 

Related articles:

US military personnel object to Armageddon talk

Dispensationalism is going to get us all killed | Analysis by David Bumgardner

The Iran bombing is a religion story for all but one person | Analysis by Mark Wingfield

The end-times theology driving US intervention in Iran | Analysis by Josh Olds