Franklin Graham, President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and Samaritan’s Purse, urged Christians to pray for Israel and rightly discern the intense conflict between the Jewish State and the Iranian regime.
Graham underscored to Fox News Digital that the battle with Iran did not begin with the commencement of Israel’s ‘Operation Rising Lion,’ emphasizing that the Jewish State “has been forced into” taking decisive military action.
“They were attacked by Hamas, which was controlled by Iran,” Graham noted. “They’ve been attacked in the north by Hezbollah, which is controlled by Iran. And Iran has been using the Houthis to fire missiles almost every day toward Israel. And they are controlled by Iran. So Israel has had no choice but to defend itself.”
Israel has been defending itself against the terror proxies of Iran for decades. After the barbaric Hamas attack on October 7th, 2023, Israel has expanded its defensive efforts, working to eliminate the Iran-controlled terrorist groups targeting the world’s one and only Jewish State.
While Israel has been tremendously effective in crippling Iran’s proxies, Tehran’s ambitions to obtain a nuclear weapon represented an even greater threat with the potential to annihilate the Jewish State.
“Iran has said that the Jewish people should be erased from the face of the earth,” Graham explained. “If they get an atomic weapon, that’s exactly what they will do.”
On June 13th, Israel began ‘Operation Rising Lion,’ striking Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missile capabilities, senior IRGC commanders, nuclear scientists, and other critical military targets.
“Right now, there are many Israelis that are under threat,” Graham cautioned, describing the hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles and UAVs launched toward Israel’s civilian population since the beginning of the operation.
“The Bible is very clear that we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” he implored, quoting Psalm 122:6. “That’s what I’m doing… That is something that all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and trust him [should be doing]; we should be praying for the peace of Jerusalem.”
“God chose the Jews out of all the nations of the world. Of all the people groups, He chose the Jewish people,” Graham stated, highlighting the intense hatred the regime in Iran has for God’s chosen people and the open goal of the Ayatollahs to eradicate them.
While there have been opportunities for temporary peace since the start of the war in 2023, Israeli leaders have emphasized that the Jewish State cannot return to a “pre-October 7th” reality where Israelis live under constant threat awaiting the next attack.
Graham stated that his prayer is not simply for peace in the Middle East, stressing the necessity that Israel would first be “successful in defeating its enemies.”
Writing on social media, the evangelist further encouraged believers to pray that God would use the war to bring individuals in Israel and Iran to a saving knowledge of the Gospel: “My prayer is that the eyes of all who live in these countries will be opened to the truth of God’s Word.”
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