Like many of you, recent statements by President Donald Trump trouble me. In a well-documented boast, he exclaimed, “Tell you what, if there wasn’t me, there would be no Israel right now.”
It’s clear that God has used the president to aid and defend Israel. I believe that’s why the Lord kept him safe from the assassins’ bullets in 2024. But his claim of responsibility for Israel’s survival not only assigns undue credit to himself, but it also displays ignorance of Bible prophecy.
Let’s first tackle the matter of Israel’s place in the end times. Trump’s spiritual advisor, Paula White, adheres to a belief whereby the church brings in the golden age of the millennium. This teaching regards Israel’s 1948 reemergence as a nation as a fluke of history; as such, Israel is no different than any other country in the world. The Bible, however, reveals a much different picture of the future where Jesus, not the church, rules for a thousand years over the nations. Scripture also reveals the prominent place of Israel in His worldwide kingdom.
Although God has used Trump to advance His sovereign agenda in regard to Israel, He remains in total control of all that happens to the nation between now and the end of the Tribulation period. His purposes do not rest with any human ruler. Not only that, not even the antichrist with his brief acquisition of great power will be able to stop God’s purposes for the Jewish people.
The president’s usurping of glory due to the Lord is another matter. Trump doesn’t understand his role as God’s instrument in supporting Israel. Babe Ruth used a bat in hitting home runs that led to his great acclaim in the history of baseball, yet no one credits his bat with his ability to hit the ball so far.
A similar shortsightedness lies behind Trump’s insistence that ceasefires will lead to peace in the region. His failure to recognize Israel’s uniqueness in Bible prophecy blinds him to both the spiritual forces behind the Middle East wars and the demonic nature of Islam. It’s most definitely not a “religion of peace” but rather a political ideology that honors lying and killing as the means to further its quest for world domination.
As I wrote in last week’s Nearing Midnight, what we see today is a replay of what happened during the days of Queen Esther and Mordecai. Satan is the driving force behind Iran’s determination to destroy Israel, which will continue unabated until the end of the Gog and Magog war, when the Lord destroys the Persian forces and brings judgment to the nation. After that, the devil will continue his deadly campaign against the Jewish people until the end of the seven-year Tribulation.
Because the battle is primarily spiritual, ceasefires will only prolong the wars rather than bring any lengthy cessation of conflict in the region. This awareness led to my frustration with President Trump when he demanded that Israel not retaliate in response to Iran’s missile attack last weekend. His message conveyed an equivalence with Israel and Iran that ignores the entire history of the conflict as well as the Word of God. His apparent trust in Iran’s leaders to make a deal and stick to it is totally unwarranted.
I do not know what will happen in the coming days, weeks, and months in the war between Israel and Iran. But with history as our guide, we know that Iran will not give up on its desire to acquire nuclear weapons nor its desire to destroy Israel. With Scripture as our guide, we know the Persian state’s desire to inflict as much terror as possible on the Jewish state will not end until the Lord destroys it.
What I do know is that all we are seeing today, including President Trump’s belief that he can bring lasting peace to the region with a deal that will somehow allow him to declare victory over Iran, is bringing us closer to the time when we will meet Jesus in the air. Both the headlines we read and all the things hidden from our sight are furthering the Lord’s agenda for Israel’s future.
God will continue to use human rulers to serve His purposes, but make no mistake, He will finish His purposes for the Jewish people and Jerusalem, as He decreed in Daniel 9:24: “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.”
How do we know the Lord didn’t accomplish all these things in the past? The key event in the seventieth week has never happened in all of history since He spoke these words. As a result, we can be very certain of this: Just as the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem played a key role in the fulfillment of the initial aspects of His promise, so they will do so in the inauguration of Jesus’ kingdom in which He will bless the world with a reign of righteousness that will never end.
It’s so easy to become dismayed at the daily flow of news regarding the Middle East conflict- well, at least for me it is. Bible prophecy, however, calms my heart as it reminds me that God is ultimately in control. It’s totally impossible for any ruler (even the future antichrist), peace deal favoring Iran at Israel’s expense, or future war to deter His plan to bless Israel with a gloriously restored kingdom, during which time we will reign with our Savior.
