Messianic Theology is now Israeli State Policy
For decades, the Western gaze has mapped onto Israel the familiar contours of a modern liberal democracy—a tech-savvy, secular state navigating the rough neighborhood of the Middle East with a pragmatic eye on security and strategic depth. But to listen to the rhetoric echoing out of Jerusalem this spring is to realize that this secular model is obsolete. On March 12, 2026, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before the nation and spoke not of buffer zones or GDP, but of a metaphysical “place of rest and heritage” and the arrival of the “Days of the Messiah.”
The message was clear: the Israeli state is no longer merely a refuge for a people; it has become, in the eyes of its leaders, an instrument of divine prophecy. For the secular economies of the West, which rely on materialist explanations like oil, land, and power to understand the world, this theological pivot is almost impossible to parse. Yet, without integrating these messianic undercurrents into our model of the nation, we are effectively flying blind.
The roots of this shift go back further than many realize. Footage from 1990 captures a younger Netanyahu meeting Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who urged the politician to “do something to hasten” the arrival of the Messiah. Netanyahu’s response? That he was already working on it. Thirty five years later, Netanyahu’s recent actions in Iran may be judged against this very promise.
In the context of messianic theology which Netenyahu believes, the intensifying conflict with Iran takes on a dimension far removed from geopolitical calculus. It is viewed by many religious-Zionist hardliners as the prophesied War of Gog and Magog, a cataclysmic, pre-Messianic battle described in the Book of Ezekiel. In this theological framework, Iran — or ancient Persia — and its proxies are identified as the coalition of nations destined to fight Israel before the final redemption. In this context, a war with Iran is not a disaster to be avoided through deterrence or diplomacy; it is a divinely mandated, unavoidable “apocalyptic clash” required to clear the board for the Messianic age. When Netanyahu invokes “the days of the Messiah” one week into a war which many analysts believe could spiral into a large conflict, we should be paying much closer attention to these beliefs and what they really mean. Like it or not, these ideas may explain the willingness of certain figures in the Israeli cabinet to escalate tensions with Tehran despite intense international pressure to de-escalate.
Willing things into existence
A cornerstone of this messianic political vision is the full realization of Eretz Yisrael HaShlema, the Whole Land of Israel. While the term is most commonly understood to delineate the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the most extreme religious interpretations push this boundary to extend “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.” Whereas some scholars interpret the “river of Egypt” as the Wadi al-Arish in the Sinai, extremist interpretations identify it as the Nile. This maximalist map, stunning in its scope, would annex parts of contemporary Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Turkey.
This ideas have slowly moved from the fringes of the settler movement to the mahogany tables of the cabinet room. In August 2025, Netanyahu explicitly endorsed the vision of “Greater Israel” as a spiritual responsibility, signaling a move toward a territorial maximalism that stretches far beyond Israel’s current borders. This isn’t a small policy change; Israel’s current trajectory is a rejection of the current state in favor of a biblical one.
In 2023, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich delivered a speech in Paris from a podium featuring a map that included the entire Kingdom of Jordan. In 2025, Smotrich, who now oversees the “Settlement Administration,” openly touted a principle of “maximum land, minimum population” to finalize the annexation of the West Bank.
That these ideas are theological rather than pragmatic was confirmed by Smotrich himself in 2024. Responding to a question on Israeli borders, Smotrich replied “It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus,"
The Gulf states, whose sovereign territories fall directly within these prophesied borders have reacted with horror to the mainstreaming of religious prophetical ideas of “Greater Israel”. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, backed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), issued unprecedented joint condemnations after Israeli and US officials openly embraced the “Greater Israel” map.
The Third Temple and the Red Heifer
For “pro-active messianics,” the eschatological imperative to build the Third Temple is central to ushering in the messianic age, and the existing Al-Aqsa Mosque/Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount is viewed as the primary impediment. Groups, like the Temple Institute, have detailed blueprints and ritual items prepared, believing the destruction of the current Islamic holy sites to be a necessary, immediate step. Considering that the Al-Aqsa mosque is revered as the third holiest site in Islam, its prophetic destruction is an act that virtually all analysts agree would trigger a catastrophic, regional holy war.
And yet, plans, actions, and policies are in place to carve this reality into existence. The Temple Institute, has even received hundreds of thousands of dollars in Israeli government funding. It has already manufactured over 90 ritual items, including a golden menorah and priestly garments for their planned ritual transformation of the Mosque.
The red heifer is a critical component of this plan, referencing the biblical commandment (Numbers 19) to use the ashes of a completely unblemished, sacrificed red cow to create the “water of purification” required to ritually cleanse the priests and the site before the Temple service and animal sacrifices (at what is currently the Al-Aqsa mosque) can resume. In September 2022, five red heifers were bought from the United States…. These animals are currently being monitored at a site in Shiloh, and the Jerusalem municipality has even sponsored “rehearsals” for ritual sacrifices right in front of the Mosque.
The heifers were located, funded, and shipped by Texas-based Evangelical Christians. These “Christian Zionists” have their own messianic vision that dovetails into their own prophecies of the apocalypse. According to “Dispensational Premillennialism”, for the Second Coming of Christ to occur, the world must pass through the “Tribulation,” a period culminating in the Battle of Armageddon.
This prophesied apocalyptic war, often mapped onto modern foes like Iran or Russia invading Israel, is foretold to push the Jewish state to the brink of total annihilation. For Christian Zionists, a catastrophic regional war isn’t a diplomatic failure to be avoided, it’s the necessary, bloody climax that forces Christ to descend and establish his kingdom on Earth.
Given these are such extreme views, what are we rto make of these very same people at the biblical ‘pray in’ for Trump, the commander in chief of the very military now embroiled in that exact war. Much as in Israel, the extreme fringe has found its way into the executive branch, and it’s trying to usher in biblical apocalyptic prophecies.
Just like the Zionists in Israel, The Al-Aqsa Mosque plays a central role in the Christian Zionist vision of the apocalypse. According to their interpretation of the books of Daniel and Revelation, as well as the Gospel of Matthew, the Antichrist will eventually reveal his true, evil nature by walking into the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, stopping the daily animal sacrifices, and declaring himself God. This event is called the “Abomination of Desolation.“ The logic is simple: the antichrist must walk into the jewish temple, which is currently occupied by the Al-Aqsa mosque, and to re-establish the Temple on the Temple Mount requires the removal of Al-Aqsa mosque.
Whilst these apocalyptic beliefs have made their way into ”pray ins” at the executive branch, they have been openly espoused by the actual Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. In a 2018 speech in Jerusalem, Hegseth said “there’s no reason why the miracle of the reestablishment of the Temple on the Temple Mount is not possible.” Two years later, Hegseth wrote a book called “American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free” in which he argued for a new biblical crusade against Islam.
How did we miss this?
The signs that fringe religious cults were gaining executive power have been visible for a long time. While Western diplomats focus on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or the risk of regional escalation with Iran, the actors on the ground are often playing a different game entirely. Since the start of the conflict in October 2023, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has stormed the Al-Aqsa compound 13 times, declaring that the site is now under Jewish “ownership.” In Gaza, soldiers have been documented wearing patches of the “Greater Israel” map, signaling that the war is being understood internally as a campaign of purification.
During the Gaza war we heard from Netanyahu statements that invoked genocidal commandments from the holy texts. In late 2023, Netanyahu explicitly urged the military to “Remember what Amalek has done to you,” referencing the biblical nation that is the eternal enemy of the Jewish people. In the Book of Samuel, God commands King Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites, sparing no one. “totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys”. By mapping the Palestinians or Hamas onto Amalek, the conflict was elevated from a secular counter-insurgency into a divine commandment of eradication. Politicians in secular Western countries said nothing.
The disconnect between Israel’s actions and Western expectations stems from a refusal to take these religious beliefs seriously. We treat them as “strange” or “bizarre,” but for the people steering the Israeli state, they are the only reality that matters. The “Sovereignty Road” being built in the West Bank and the legalizing of dozens of illegal outposts are the actions of a state which believes its on a mission from God. A mission to usher in the messianic age.
As each day passes, the world moves closer to what could be a devastating and prolonged conflict, something Trump told his base he’d never do. As of this morning, it looks like boots on the ground look likely. What then are we to make of marines hearing from their superiors that this is the Battle for Armageddon, as foretold in extreme interpretations of the Bible?
If we continue to view Israel and its Christian supporters in the USA through a purely secular lens, we will remain baffled by its rejection of two-state solutions and its willingness to risk international isolation. To us, the war, chaos and suffering which we may now endure are terrors to be avoided, but for the extremists driving the policy of the Israeli state, they are vital events to ensure their messiah returns. Under their extreme theological framework, these wars are being actively willed into existence. It’s reasonable to assume that the goal of the current administration is the fulfillment of a divine mission.
As Netanyahu’s March 12 address suggested, the state is moving toward a conclusion that is written in scripture, not in international law. Until we include this theology in our model of the region, we are not just failing to understand Israel—we are failing to understand the primary driver of the conflict itself.
You clearly haven't grown up in the Evangelical world like I have. You're making some mistakes because you don't understand well enough how they think. You need some nuance.
As with any group of people, there is a spectrum of beliefs. Just because some might think this war with Iran is part of the End Times, doesn't mean Evangelicals as a whole think we are speeding up the return of Christ by engaging in it. Relatively few Evangelicals would believe our foreign policy should be manipulated towards the goal of hastening Christ's return. Typically, they simply look at current events and think this could well be a sign of the times - as they have for every single war in the past.
Likewise, Israelis have a spectrum of beliefs too. While there are some who do want to expand Israel to have much larger borders, typically, the Greater Israel language simply means expanding in the West bank. Certainly it gets complicated - especially in Israel where their parliamentary system gives outsized influence to the small parties that are more extremist. But Israel is not planning to invade Jordon, Egypt or Saudi Arabia, nor do I think they even consider it. They do want control of the Golan Heights and they would be happy if the Palestinians were moved out of Gaza, but they aren't going to commit genocide to make that happen.
You're overreading some of this. Netanyahu's statement to remember Amalek has to do with Hamas, not the Palestinians. He was telling the military that they need to completely eliminate Hamas. He's said this repeatedly and has explicitly made it their goal. If I was in his position, I'd be using the same language. There are times when a group is so bent on evil (as Oct 7th showed), that the only thing you can do is to completely eliminate them.
Many Evangelicals believe the Jewish temple will be rebuilt. That does not mean that they believe the Al-Aqsa mosque should be destroyed by human hands. They largely are leaving that up to God. Perhaps an Iranian missile will accidently hit it. Or an Earthquake will destroy it. Or the "temple mount" isn't even the site of the original temple. Or the biblical prophecies are misunderstood. But the red heifer could well be a sign. From what I understand, no previous red heifer has ever been accepted as sufficiently pure - until these recent cows.
Here's something interesting. The Ezekiel prophecy of the Gog/Magog war specifically says that it will happen in a time of peace. If the Iranian regime falls, then this could lead to real peace in the region. And that could be what the prophecy is talking about. But who knows? Still, this is how Evangelicals think. They believe the bible. They've been taught to interpret it in certain End Time ways. And so you simply try to connect the dots with what's happening.
Regardless, this war won't go on long. Trump can't have it ruin the economy and his presidency. If he puts troops on the ground, it will be small numbers for a short period of time.
James Lindsay, New Discourses, posted a video that I found informative: "The Israel Question as the Modern Jewish Question". His thesis in this lecture is that the stateless nature of the Jews in the historical past has made them a ready target for the progroms that have swept the western world. The solution that was advanced after WW2, a 2-state nation, was a convenient way to ignore the reality that the Islamic world is a truly messianic theology. Rather than confront the ancient and violent history that is being replayed with modern weapons, the West continues to think that prosperity will eventually soften the hard core of Islam. Good luck with that! Iran used adolescent boys to sweep Iraqi minefields with their tennis shoes and a promise of heaven. Your summary of the attacks on Iran's neighbors was fascinating and very useful. But did it not occur to you that the same thing has been imposed on Israel using proxies for decades? Tens of thousands of missiles have been launched from adjacent countries controlled by Iranian militias, and from Iran itself, with hardly any notice by western powers. Ditto the acts of piracy that characterize the Red Sea and its approaches. How can this be ignored? Is it just the nature of Islam that leads to this? Must the modern world accept this? Some actors within Israel may be approaching this in a messianic way, or so you argue. But the goals of a small faction within Israel is hardly a reason to ignore the larger reality. The theology that controls Iran at present is likely held by a small faction, but they govern using death and fear, and their populace has cowered before the life-threatening policies of their rulers. That is the issue that confronts us.