A nuclear holocaust is near…
And no one seems willing to stop it.
Except for Israel…
And President Trump.
So Israel is taking action.
David is taking on Goliath.
Here are 10 things about war between Israel and Iran that every American should know:
- Israel is taking action to stop a nuclear nightmare.
President Trump gave Iran a 60-day time limit – starting on April 12, 2025 – to agree to negotiate an end to their efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.[1]
Or face possible military consequences. .
Iran refused to negotiate.
The deadline ended on June 11th.
So Israel began strategic military attacks against Iranian nuclear facilities on June 12th.
Why?
Because Israel’s survival is at stake.
If Iran develops a nuclear weapon, either Iran itself will use it to destroy Israel, or Iran will give their weapon to one of its terrorist proxies who will use it against Israel.
And they both would also use it against the U.S. – the “Great Satan” – or against other non-Shiite Arab nations.
Israel has such a small land mass that one nuclear detonation could wipe out most of the country.
- Why Netanyahu named Israel’s attack on Iran “Operation Rising Lion.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu called Israel’s attack campaign “Operation Rising Lion” to send a message to the people of Iran.
For 400 years before the radical Islamic regime took over the country in 1979, Iran’s national flag was a lion with a rising sun on stripes of green, white, and red.[2]
The Islamic regime replaced the lion with a representation of Allah and the words “Alahu Akbar” along the edges of the green and red stripes.
The phrase “Rising Lion” probably is meant to be an encouragement to the people of Iran in two ways:
- to let them know that Israel is not at war with them, but only with their radical and tyrannical government
- to let them know that they can rise up and free themselves from the fanatical theocracy they’ve been living under for 46 years.
There is another hidden message in the name “Operation Rising Lion.”
In Numbers 23 in the Old Testament, King Balak of Moab tried to bribe the prophet Balam from Syria to curse the nation of Israel as they were on their way from Egypt to the land God had promised to give them.
Instead, God told Balam to bless Israel.
In Numbers 23:24, Balam said, “Behold! The people will arise like a lion cub and raise itself like a lion.”[3]
- Modern Iran is a fanatical Islamic theocracy.
The leaders of the Iranian government are fanatical in their Islamic religious beliefs, and irrational in their behavior.
They are not rational in their desire to develop a nuclear weapon.
They are not rational in negotiation.
No sane government would develop a nuclear weapon for the purpose of killing as many people at one time as possible.
But the fanatical Islamic regime ruled by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not sane.
They don’t want a nuclear weapon to deter an enemy from attacking them.
They want a nuclear weapon for offensive purposes, not defensive.
They believe that their duty is to kill all infidels – unbelievers – if they are not willing to convert to Islam.
Their goal is to create a worldwide Caliphate.
Iran is a police state, controlled by a very strict interpretation of Sharia law derived from the Quran and Sunnah – the teachings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.
Women in particular have very few freedoms in Iran – especially married women.
The Global Gender Gap Report, published in 2017 by the World Economic Forum, ranked Iran number 140 out of 144 countries for gender equality.[4]
In September 2022, the morality police in Tehran arrested Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman for wearing her hijab improperly.
She was so severely beaten in public that she died in the hospital from a brain hemorrhage.[5]
4. The Real Driver of War: Apocalyptic Theology
You can’t understand Iran without understanding its religion.
Iran is not a normal country.
It’s a Shiite theocracy driven by an end-times theology.
They believe in the coming of the Mahdi—their messiah figure.
But here’s the shocking part…
They believe the Mahdi won’t return until Israel is destroyed.
Iran’s leaders believe their religious duty is to wipe Israel off the map to usher in the end of the world for their Messiah…Mahdi
That’s not political.
That’s not national self interest.
That’s theological warfare.
Incidentally, it all started with Ali Shariati who was a Iranian western educated Marxist and scholar. He divided the world into the oppressed and the oppressors form of today’s critical race theory.
Iran was the oppressed Israel, the US and western civilization the oppressors.
Iran is the #1 terrorist state in the world – and is the #1 sponsor of terrorism worldwide.
Billions of dollars in economic aid that has been given to the Iranian government has been used to support terrorism rather than to improve the economy and the lives of Iranian citizens.
The Iranian Islamic regime trains, funds, supports and provides weapons and safe havens for:
- Hamas in Gaza
- Hezbollah in Lebanon
- Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
These proxy militia groups spread terrorism throughout the Middle East and the world on behalf of Iran and its own Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
All of these groups seek the complete destruction of the nation of Israel and the annihilation of Zionist Jews – those Jews who believe they have a God-given right to occupy the land they call Palestine.[6]
6. Modern Iran hates America and Israel.
Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has called America the “Great Satan.”
Israel is referred to as the “Little Satan.”
All people everywhere who do not follow radical Islam are called unbelievers and infidels.
The Islamic theocracy in Iran especially hates the materialism and the freedoms we enjoy in the U.S.
In November 2024, the DOJ unsealed an indictment charging Farhad Shakeri with plotting to assassinate Donald Trump.[7
7. Iran’s history matters.
Iran was known as Persia until 1935.
Persia rose to prominence in the 6th century BC when King Cyrus conquered Babylon and ended the 70-year Jewish captivity (Isaiah 21:2, 45:1-7; Daniel 5).
The Persian Empire was the setting for the first part of Nehemiah and the book of Esther.
Parthians and Medes and Elamites – from the region of Persia – were present in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost when the early 1st century church began (Acts 2:9).
From 1941 to January 1979, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi ruled Iran.
He adopted pro-western ideas and brought economic development to the nation.
However, he was criticized politically by liberal Muslims who thought his economic reforms didn’t move far enough or quickly enough.
And he suffered religious criticism from conservative Muslims who believed his westernization was contrary to the teachings of Islam.
Government corruption and autocratic rule eventually led to turmoil and riots, which forced Shah Pahlavi to flee the country in January 1979.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini – a Shiite Muslim religious leader living in exile in Paris – returned to Tehran and took control of the country.
8. The Iranian people have had enough of Ayatollah Khamenei.
The Iranian economy is in shambles.
Unemployment is between 9.5% and 10.7%, and the inflation rate is projected to be 43.3% in 2025.
Projected economic growth for 2025 is 0% to 0.3%.
Many of Iran’s 92 million citizens have never experienced the economic and social freedoms that existed in the 1970s.
But they are tired of oppression, of the lack of basic necessities such as water and electricity, and the fanatical religious extremism of the government.
A recent report by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is titled, “No Light, No Water, No Future.”[8]
9. The survival of Israel is worth fighting for.
There are at least two reasons why the survival of Israel is important to America and to the world – and is worth fighting for:
- In Genesis 12:2-3, when God promises Abraham that he will become a great nation, God says, “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.”
- Israel is the first domino in the quest of world domination by radical Islam. If Israel falls and is conquered by Iran, other moderate Arab nations in the Middle East and Africa will be next.
And then Iran will come after us. They will close the Strait of Hormuz to shut off 30% of the world’s oil supply. And they won’t hesitate to use nuclear weapons against our military bases in the middle east and around the world – and even in the U.S.
The moderate and the Sunni Muslim countries in the Middle East are secretly glad that Israel is taking action to stop Iran’s progress in developing a nuclear weapon.
Nobody wants fanatical, irrational, illogical Iran to possess nuclear weapons.
They are crazy enough to use them in their global jihad.
10. There is Christian revival in Iran – and much Christian persecution.
There is an explosive growth of Christian house churches taking place in Iran.
Some are calling the revival a Jesus Revolution.[9]
Estimates of the number of Muslim converts to Christianity range from 1.2 million to over 3 million.[10]
And it’s been reported that 50,000 of the nation’s 70,000 mosques have closed due to lack of attendance.[11]
Many are being converted through dreams of seeing Jesus, or of being told in a dream to go to a certain place and look for a certain person who ends up sharing the gospel with them.
Because traditional Christian churches are banned in Iran – and because Christian persecution by the government is severe – many Christians have fled to Turkey and other countries that are more tolerant toward religious minorities.
In 2024, 96 Christians were sentenced to a combined 263 years in prison compared to 22 believers sentenced to a combined 43.5 years behind bars in 2023.[12]
Action Items:
- Pray for Jerusalem.
- Pray that there will not be any nuclear dirty bombs set off.
- Pray that new government would come out of Iran that would provide people with personal freedom and opportunity.
- Pray for wisdom and protection for President Trump and the members of his cabinet.
- Pray for courage and wisdom for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
- Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
- Pray for protection for Iranian Christians. And pray that more people will convert from Islam to Christianity.
[1] Dylan Malyasov, https://defence-blog.com/trump-gives-iran-60-days-on-nuclear-talks/
[2] Hank Berrien, https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-name-of-israels-strike-on-iran-a-message-to-the-iranian-people
[3] Ibid.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_rights_in_Iran
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/world/middleeast/iran-death-woman-protests.html
[6] www.dni.gov
[7] Jesus Mesa, https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-iran-try-assassinate-donald-trump-2086175
[8] www.ncr-iran.org
[9] Gary Lane, https://cbn.com/news/world/irans-jesus-revolution-mosques-close-1-million-muslims-accept-christ
[10] Talia Wise, https://cbn.com/news/cwn/christian-great-awakening-exploding-iran-visions-dreams-and-miraculously-answered-prayers
[11] Gary Lane, op.cit.
[12] https://articleeighteen.com/news/15501/