After weeks of a massive U.S. military buildup in the Middle East, and after several rounds of failed negotiations with the Islamist Iranian regime to abandon their nuclear weapons program, Americans woke up on Saturday, February 28 to learn that their country and Israel had begun a joint war against Iran.

President Trump delivered a message in the middle of the night outlining the justification and purpose for attacking Iran, which centers around eliminating the regime’s ability to construct nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

The first day of the war had the stunning result of killing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayotollah Ali Khamenei and 50 high-level leaders through an airstrike as the regime gathered to meet in the capital city of Tehran.

In just one week, the U.S. and Israel have systematically degraded Iran’s military leadership and infrastructure, even as Iran has launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel and American naval ships, military bases, and other U.S. interests in the region. There have been six American casualties so far.

While many Americans support the demolishing of Iran’s capability to follow through on its long-time objective of “Death to America, Death to Israel,” others, including almost all on the political left and many on the political right, are against this war for a variety of reasons, asserting:

• The U.S. is fighting another war for Israel
• There is little strategic interest for America in Iran halfway across the world
• This is illegal without a Congressional declaration of war
• Trump promised to not get us into wars and we have bigger problems at home
• There is no way to bomb our way to peace in the Middle East

From a biblical standpoint, this is not just another war between nations at odds with each other. This is a war between two of the nations—Israel and Iran (historically called Persia)—who are explicitly referenced in Scripture to face off in the lead up to the return of Jesus Christ to earth.

This weekend on The Christian Worldview, we will discuss the significance and ramifications of this war and why Christians should be paying very close attention.