There’s something deeply unsettling about watching people who claim to follow Jesus openly celebrate the very things He came to abolish.
They are not quietly tolerating them.
They are not reluctantly accepting them.
Instead, they are celebrating them in broad daylight.
We are now watching the United States, alongside Israel, unleash homicidal violence against Iran all with the usual language of “defense,” “security,” and “peace.”
We’ve heard the script before. It never changes. Only the names and locations do.
And, as usual, there’s a strange alliance at work here. American evangelicals have convinced themselves that the Bible presents a vision of the future that requires bloodshed in the Middle East before Jesus will finally return to the earth. Meanwhile, modern Israelis reject Jesus and his teachings outright preferring to pursue security through force, not through the way of peace. However, like many evangelicals, religious Israelis expect their messiah to come soon.
Different beliefs, of course, but ultimately the same outcome.
In this context, war becomes not just acceptable, but inevitable. Even necessary.
And once war is seen as necessary for God’s redemptive purposes, Jesus and his way of peace becomes optional.
But there’s a deep irony hiding beneath the surface of American Christianity that I’ve been pointing to for some time.
Jesus Christ came to the Jewish people. Not the Romans. Not the Persians. His own people. He stood in their midst and said things no empire has ever said and no government has ever obeyed:
“Love your enemies.”
“Do good to those who hate you.”
“Bless those who curse you.”
“Pray for those who mistreat you.”
And yet today, the modern state that claims continuity with ancient Israel rejects Jesus outright. This is in no way controversial. It’s simply fact.
What is controversial is this:
Christians who claim to follow Jesus are loudly supporting the state that is not only openly hostile to Jesus but that openly does the exact opposite of everything He commanded regarding one’s enemies.
Let it all sink in.
The one nation on earth that openly rejects Jesus is acting in defiance of His teachings.
And the people who claim to follow Jesus are defending it.
If irony is still alive, it’s hanging by a thread.
Even more striking, Muslims honor Jesus as a prophet. They speak His name with reverence. Yet American Christians are far more comfortable aligning themselves with power and violence than with the words of their own Messiah.
Somewhere along the way, we learned to replace “love your enemies” with “eliminate your enemies,” and hardly anyone noticed.
Or worse, they did notice and decided it was justified. (aka “Just War theory”)
We’re told this war is necessary. We’re told these strikes are about creating stability and achieving peace in our time.
But war has a track record. It does not produce peace. It produces graves, trauma, hatred, and the next war. It always has.
You don’t bomb a nation into loving you.
You don’t assassinate your way into moral authority.
You don’t murder schoolchildren during a religious holiday and call it an act of righteousness.
You call it what it is. Homicidal violence and murder.
And homicidal violence stands in direct contradiction to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
This is where the line is drawn, whether people want to admit it or not.
You cannot claim allegiance to Jesus while endorsing the destruction of your enemies.
You can choose one or the other, but you cannot have both.
The early Christians understood this. They would rather die than kill. They believed the cross was not just something Jesus endured, but something they were called to carry.
Today, many who bear His name would rather drop the cross on others than carry it themselves.
This is much more than a political failure. It’s a spiritual one.
And it’s being exposed in real time.
Because when the bombs begin to fall, all of the slogans disappear and the justifications fade.
And what’s left is simple: Are we following Jesus, or are we following empire?
One tells us to love, forgive, and lay down our lives.
The other tells us to fear, justify, and take lives.
You don’t need a theology degree to see the difference.
You just need the courage to admit it.
