Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1312 ｜ Prophecy Fulfilled？ Iran Strikes & the End Times

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00:00:30.960 Does the conflict in Iran tell us anything

00:00:33.520 about when Jesus is coming back?

00:00:35.680 Also, is war ever justified from a Christian perspective?

00:00:39.520 We are exploring all of this and much more

00:00:41.760 on today's episode of Relatable.

00:00:53.120 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.

00:00:54.560 Happy Wednesday.

00:00:55.840 Hope everyone has had a wonderful week so far.

00:00:58.160 As promised, we are going to get into so much today,

00:01:01.280 not just a summary of what's going on in our geopolitics,

00:01:04.320 but also how we look at this from a biblical perspective,

00:01:07.680 an eschatological perspective,

00:01:09.840 so our view of the end times,

00:01:12.240 and also how should Christians think about war?

00:01:15.440 Surprise, surprise, I disagree with the Pope.

00:01:18.160 But first, I do want to talk about just generally what's going on and why this matters,

00:01:23.840 why everything that has occurred over the past few days has occurred.

00:01:28.640 First, I just want to remind you, if you love this podcast, please leave us a five-star review.

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00:02:06.160 incredible. So go to sharethearrows.com. Get your tickets today. Bring your mom,

00:02:10.720 your friends, all the Christian women in your life. That's sharethearrows.com.

00:02:15.120 All right, let's get into it. So Operation Epic Fury. That is the operation that was launched

00:02:24.160 by the United States against Iran. So let's back up a little bit,

00:02:27.440 talk about the why. So the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei,

00:02:33.600 was killed on Saturday, February 28th, after ruling for almost 37 years, along with several

00:02:39.440 other top regime officials. Americans woke up that morning to learn that the U.S. and Israel had

00:02:45.120 launched what Trump is calling Operation Epic Fury. So this was this massive wave of airstrikes on Iran

00:02:52.080 after Tehran refused to dismantle its nuclear program despite weeks of negotiations. So diplomacy

00:02:59.120 was attempted for a very long time, even predating Donald Trump. And Trump's position,

00:03:04.800 the administration's position, is that those negotiations simply did not work. Iran then,

00:03:09.920 after Operation Epic Fury, then launched missiles toward Israel in retaliation and promised a, quote,

00:03:16.800 crushing response. Very sadly, at least six U.S. service members have been killed in the Iranian

00:03:23.120 attacks. That's according to CBS News. Trump said that Iran's leaders have spent 47 years. This is

00:03:29.360 kind of his justification for it or his rationale behind all of this. They've spent almost 50 years

00:03:34.560 calling for death to America. We see those videos circulating in the Middle East, death to America,

00:03:40.240 death to Israel, death to Christians, death to the Jews. And he says, because of this hatred that has

00:03:45.920 just been fomenting and has amounted in a very real threat to the United States and our allies,

00:03:52.160 because they've waged these violent campaigns, he is now casting these strikes as a response to

00:03:58.400 that very real threat. He also, in a series of videos, urged the Iranian people to shelter during

00:04:04.560 the bombing and then to rise up to overthrow the government. Here's that one.

00:04:10.240 When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably

00:04:17.040 your only chance for generations. I'll be honest. I have no idea what that means or what that looks

00:04:23.720 like or how the Iranian people are set to go about that. Maybe there is a plan in place. I'm sure that

00:04:29.900 there is more detailed knowledge in the Trump administration and among those who have some

00:04:36.240 kind of oppositional leadership in Iran or oppositional influence in Iran for how that's going

00:04:41.340 to happen. I don't know. But he said that he gave Iran roughly 10 to 15 days from February 19th to

00:04:47.840 accept the nuclear deal warning that, quote, really bad things would follow if it did not. I just kind

00:04:53.860 of love that about Trump, that he says things like really bad things and everyone knows what he's

00:04:58.740 talking about, that it's going to be deadly. Trump says that he expects the operation to last between

00:05:04.320 four to five weeks. And so if nothing else, no matter where you stand on all of this, and I'll

00:05:09.840 get to my particular perspective in just a second, no matter where you stand on it, like, let's be

00:05:14.780 praying. Let's be praying for our troops. I do not take it for granted that we were all able to go to

00:05:19.520 church this weekend, go to brunch, spend time with our families, go to birthday parties, sit in the

00:05:24.600 backyard and enjoy the nice weather while our troops are fighting this war and are lodging this

00:05:30.800 attack. Whether or not you agree with the motivations behind this attack, these are brave men and women

00:05:37.100 putting their lives on the line for the United States, and we need to be praying for them and also

00:05:42.480 just grateful to the Lord that we live in this country. It doesn't just happen like this where we

00:05:47.780 can remain safe and we can remain at peace and we can mostly go about our lives while this violence

00:05:54.680 is occurring. So why is this violence occurring? And I'm not just talking about why in the last few

00:06:00.620 months or since Trump took office, but let's go all the way back 47 years to 1979 when these Islamic

00:06:08.280 radicals actually overthrew the Shah and then took power and then has unleashed just an authoritarian nightmare

00:06:16.640 over the past five or so decades. So let me pause first before we get into that, tell you about our

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00:07:26.900 So let's rewind. 1979, Islamic radicals overthrew the Shah. Now, this form of government was friendly to the U.S.,

00:07:34.000 ran a secular government. If you look back at some of the pictures, maybe we'll put some up if we can

00:07:38.540 find some of Iran during the 60s and 70s. It looks extremely modern. It looks a lot like the United

00:07:44.100 States. But revolutionaries stormed the U.S. embassy, held American diplomats in captivity for 444 days.

00:07:51.680 They then installed the Ayatollah Khomeini. And this is the Khomeini that just died, his predecessor.

00:07:59.160 So in the Shah's place and then enacted an Islamic theocracy. And Iran became this hostile actor on

00:08:06.420 the world stage, sponsoring terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. And at the end of last year,

00:08:12.020 the Iranian economy tanked. You probably remember all of those protests that erupted all over

00:08:18.520 Iran's 31 provinces. The government reacted with violent crackdowns, rolling internet blackouts. I mean,

00:08:25.580 people were just being slaughtered in the street. Thousands, some sources actually say tens of

00:08:30.740 thousands of Iranian citizens have been killed for protesting. More than 42,000 have been arrested.

00:08:38.080 And so a lot of unrest, a very weak Iran, the people being brave enough to rise up and say,

00:08:44.420 I don't want this theocracy anymore. I don't want this authoritarianism. A lot of people don't know,

00:08:49.960 but a large percentage of people in Iran are Christian, are secular. There are Iranian Jews

00:08:55.940 as well. Not everyone. I don't even think it's a vast majority of people in Iran are actually

00:09:02.220 Muslim. And so the ideology that is represented in this authoritarian regime or was represented is

00:09:09.400 not represented among the people. And of course, that kind of division leads to even more unrest.

00:09:15.600 And so the debate's being had right now, and it's a very good debate, and that is, is Operation Epic

00:09:21.660 Theory, this intervention by the United States and Israel, is it actually justified? And even beyond

00:09:28.740 that, is it a smart idea? So let's look at the pro-Iran strikes position first. So this position goes

00:09:36.520 something like this. Iran has been a longtime enemy of the United States. It has been run by the

00:09:41.340 Islamic Republic who openly chant death to America. We've heard Trump say that. The strikes eliminated

00:09:47.160 Iran's nuclear capabilities and bolstered the ongoing Iranian revolution to overthrow the current

00:09:53.260 tyrannical regime. Congressman Rick Crawford was briefed on the attack before it took place,

00:09:58.460 and he claims that Trump did not commit an act of war since the U.S. has essentially been at war

00:10:03.340 with Iran since 1979. Here's that too.

00:10:06.560 I would argue that, you know, the notion of starting war with Iran, I don't think that

00:10:12.000 people realize we've been at war with Iran since 1979. So President Trump is not starting a war,

00:10:17.940 he's finishing one.

00:10:19.320 On News Nation, there's a journalist, Batya Anghar Sargon. I've been on her show before. She is very

00:10:25.300 smart, very sweet. She explained that President Trump's strikes on Iran form part of a broader strategy to

00:10:31.300 weaken China by cutting off its access to about 20 percent of its discounted oil supply from Iran

00:10:36.420 and Venezuela. I have heard Victor Davis-Hanton make a similar argument about weakening China.

00:10:41.940 Here is shot three.

00:10:43.300 The president, Iran is not just Iran. We have this sort of new access of evil of Iran, China, Russia,

00:10:52.140 Venezuela. And what the president seems to be doing, to me anyway, is isolating them from each other and

00:10:59.240 then sort of picking them off one by one, forcing them into a more conciliatory posture vis-a-vis the

00:11:06.840 United States. And honestly, what could be more America first than that?

00:11:11.080 Yeah, that's interesting. If you remember the conversation I had with Justin Haskins a few

00:11:15.560 weeks ago, he talked about the threat of BRICS. That is a new axis of evil or new alliance that

00:11:22.220 includes Russia, that includes China, that included Iran, that really wanted to lead the way in creating

00:11:30.020 their own world order that is in direct opposition to the world order that was represented by the

00:11:35.760 progressives like Obama and like Biden, but also in opposition to the Trumpian worldview and the

00:11:43.940 Trumpian view of geopolitics is that we have to be America first. America has to be leading the world.

00:11:50.340 And so go back, listen to that episode with Justin Haskins. He breaks it all down in Why It Matters.

00:11:55.360 Really interesting context. And then Iranian opposition leader and son of the deposed Shah,

00:12:02.180 Reza Pahlavi, gave Trump really high praise for what just happened. Stop four.

00:12:06.880 What is your message to President Trump?

00:12:09.780 My message to President Trump is that I'm here to echo and join millions of my compatriots inside and

00:12:16.720 outside of Iran to thank him for having done and having the courage to do what is not easy,

00:12:22.880 but intervene. And he will go down in the annals of Iranian history as the most celebrated foreign

00:12:29.300 leader that changed the ballgame and changed the world as a result.

00:12:32.780 Okay. So not only did Iran source sponsor encourage lots of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East,

00:12:42.120 possibly one day toward America, but also they were part of an alliance with our other enemies,

00:12:48.080 very powerful enemies like China and like Russia. So the thinking goes that launching this attack

00:12:54.440 against Iran, defeating them as an enemy once and for all, not only can cut off the head of the

00:13:00.720 snake of terrorism, but it can also weaken our other enemies. So that's the thought on that side

00:13:07.740 of things. And then, of course, there are a lot of people who are against these strikes. You have

00:13:12.000 the progressives who are against these strikes. You've got people like Rashida Tlaib. She says both

00:13:17.420 the U.S. and genocidal Israel doesn't care about the laws. Such interesting grammar. This is who they

00:13:25.820 are. Many people are pointing out that a sitting congresswoman, a United States citizen, who is

00:13:31.720 representing American citizens in her position as a congresswoman, is saying they in reference to the

00:13:38.440 United States. Whether or not you like the United States, you are still a part of the United States.

00:13:44.840 You don't always have to agree with the United States government, but it sounds very traitorous

00:13:51.640 to use this kind of othering language for the country that you represent. I'm not saying that

00:13:58.100 it's traitorous to disagree with what Trump did. I'm saying that it's traitorous to see the United

00:14:03.060 States as anything other than the country that has given you incredible power, incredible influence,

00:14:08.680 incredible opportunity. And you can use that platform to serve your constituents, or you can use it

00:14:15.460 to try to demonize the country that has given you so much. And we also see from the very radical side

00:14:23.640 of things, unfortunately, violence already erupting in the United States, seemingly in retaliation

00:14:29.420 to America's strikes against Iran. So there was a mass shooting in downtown Austin, Texas over the

00:14:36.420 weekend, Sunday morning, left three people dead, 14 others wounded. I saw this terrible footage of this

00:14:44.140 woman in a bar trying to resuscitate this person that was just laying there clearly dead. I mean,

00:14:50.000 absolutely traumatic, gut-wrenching scene. Law enforcement sources said that the shooter,

00:14:57.120 he wore this sweatshirt that read, Property of Allah, and an undershirt that was displaying an Iranian flag

00:15:05.960 during the attack. And this Iranian flag was the representation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

00:15:13.540 Authorities later found an Iranian flag in his car, photos of regime leaders in the attacker's apartment,

00:15:21.020 items that raised concerns about potential ideological motives. They're always going to hedge there.

00:15:26.720 I think it's probably pretty clear to those of us who have eyes and ears and common sense

00:15:30.220 what the motivations were. He was a naturalized citizen originally from Senegal, 53 years old. He's got

00:15:37.280 all kinds of sketchy things in his background. This person should not have been in our country in the

00:15:44.100 first place. There is a whole other conversation that we can and should be having about legal immigration

00:15:49.760 and our vetting process and how putting America first means that we have to curb immigration from

00:15:58.120 these Islamic countries, from these third world countries. It's not only a conversation about illegal

00:16:02.720 immigration, but also legal immigration. We'll have to save the rest of that conversation for another

00:16:07.060 day. So there's a truly radical part of this that opposes any kind of opposition to Iran. But then

00:16:14.780 there's also the more mainstream kind of progressive view of geopolitics in general that's represented by

00:16:22.120 people like Biden and especially people like Obama. The Obama-era democratic approach to curb

00:16:29.240 Iran's ambitions was the Iran nuclear deal, which was very, very different than what Trump just did.

00:16:35.540 And it's really important to understand just the difference in worldview, the difference in the

00:16:39.900 thought about America's position and responsibility in the world between Democrats and Republicans and

00:16:45.480 between Trump and Obama. So we'll get to that in just a second. Let me pause, tell you about our next

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00:17:46.880 Right now, Legacy Box is giving you 50% off with my link. That's LegacyBox.com slash Allie for that

00:17:54.100 discount. LegacyBox.com slash Allie. Okay, so you've probably heard people talk about the pallets of

00:18:05.340 cash that were sent by Obama to Iran. That is literal. There were pallets of cash that were sent to

00:18:11.680 them saying, hey, we're going to help you out. Please just don't make a nuclear bomb. And we're just going to

00:18:17.380 trust you that you're not going to use any of this money to make the nuclear bomb. Here's Satin.

00:18:23.820 It is true that if Iran lives up to its commitments, it will gain access to roughly $56 billion of its own

00:18:30.820 money. Our best analysts expect the bulk of this revenue to go into spending that improves the economy

00:18:38.900 benefits the lives of the Iranian people. Okay, so the money did not benefit the economy.

00:18:45.540 It did not benefit the lives of the Iranian people. Surprise, surprise, the Islamic regime in Iran

00:18:52.100 did not use that money to better the lives of Iranian citizens. In fact, it does seem like those billions

00:19:00.320 of dollars were used to fund terrorism and to possibly kill Americans. But that's kind of that

00:19:06.580 appeasement apology strategy that Obama put in place that was totally disastrous. And that is

00:19:11.860 completely juxtaposed to the strategy that this current administration has. So those are kind of

00:19:17.360 the progressive perspectives on this. I mean, you're going to have a side always of the progressive

00:19:21.720 wing that really just doesn't like America. Okay. And they actually feel guilty about American strength.

00:19:27.800 And they actually feel that putting America first is somehow bigoted and arrogant and wrong.

00:19:33.120 And so they are going to try to signal to everyone else that, hey, we don't think we're better than

00:19:38.900 anyone. We're not trying to be in charge. We're just trying to make people happy. So that is a

00:19:44.080 particular perspective of just like this guilt about Western civilization that I think people like

00:19:48.940 Obama and even Rashida Tlaib represent. But then you've got the conservative side of things

00:19:53.560 who are concerned about how this actually benefits Americans. They want a tangible,

00:19:59.620 clear argument from the administration about how Operation Epic Fury is going to improve the lives

00:20:06.360 of Americans or really keep us safe. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh has been very critical of

00:20:12.180 this for the past few days. He posted this on X. So far, we've heard that although we killed the

00:20:17.680 whole Iranian regime, this was not a regime change war. And although we obliterated their nuclear program,

00:20:23.480 we had to do this because of their nuclear program. And although Iran was not planning any attacks

00:20:29.240 on the U.S., they also might have been, depending on who you ask. And although we are not fighting

00:20:34.580 this war to free the Iranian people, they are now free or might be, depending on who seizes power.

00:20:41.280 And we have no idea who that will be. The messaging on this thing is, to put it mildly, confusing.

00:20:48.500 OK, I do just want to say, since Caroline Levitt, the press secretary, responded specifically to Matt

00:20:55.820 Walsh, I do just want to read part of her response to what he's saying. He's saying that the messaging

00:21:00.600 is confusing. And he's also just said, look, I just need someone to make the case to me that this is

00:21:06.140 America first. And I couldn't post the entirety of Caroline's message because it is lengthy. You can

00:21:11.860 read it on X. But let me read part of it to you. On Saturday, she says, President Trump released a

00:21:17.200 statement laying out clear objectives to the American people for this operation. Destroy the

00:21:21.520 Iranian regime's missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. Annihilate the Iranian

00:21:26.220 regime's navy. Ensure the regime's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region

00:21:31.020 or the world to attack our forces. Guarantee that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.

00:21:37.620 Preventing this radical regime and its terrorist leaders from threatening America and our core national

00:21:42.000 security interests is a clear eyed and necessary objective. Killing terrorists, she says, is good

00:21:48.080 for America. While Operation Midnight Hammer did obliterate Iran's major nuclear sites, the regime was

00:21:53.560 fully committed to rebuilding their nuclear program and they refused to make a deal, despite months of

00:21:59.000 extensive talks and good faith efforts by President Trump's top negotiators. Simply put, the terrorist

00:22:03.940 Iranian regime would not say yes to peace. So that was one of Matt Walsh's concerns. That was the press

00:22:10.100 secretary's response to that concern. And then Marco Rubio, critics are saying, is basically admitting

00:22:16.300 here, that's their interpretation, that it was Israel's fault, that Israel kind of forced America's

00:22:22.400 hand. Here's South 5. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would

00:22:26.780 precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after

00:22:31.480 them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher

00:22:36.720 those killed. And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and

00:22:40.260 didn't happen. In response to that, Representative Thomas Massey, who is definitely against the

00:22:46.920 strikes against Iran, he says, the administration amidst Israel dragged us into the Iranian war that's

00:22:51.820 already cost too many American lives and billions of dollars. Before it's over, the price of gas,

00:22:56.280 groceries, and virtually everything else is going to go up. The only winners in America are defense

00:23:01.660 company shareholders. Okay. So those are the various perspectives on Operation Epic Fury and America's

00:23:09.520 intervention in the Middle East. And so let me give you my thoughts. As a person who considers myself

00:23:17.180 just a normal mom, who lives in America, who loves America, who cares very much about American interests and

00:23:23.040 cares very much about the country that we pass down to our kids and grandkids, not a foreign policy

00:23:30.220 expert, not someone who knows everything about geopolitics, someone who pays attention as much

00:23:35.320 as I can, who learns as much as I can, but just want to give a really honest, easy perspective for

00:23:41.560 you to understand that I'm sure is represented by a lot of your opinions out there too. So very basic

00:23:45.960 number one, I don't like war. I would prefer there be no war. I really don't like it. It's costly both in

00:23:52.680 life, first and foremost, and in treasure. Number two, on an earthly level, I care about American

00:23:58.060 interests first. American safety, American stability, American prosperity. God has made

00:24:03.100 me in his perfect providence an American. I am tasked with seeking the well-being of the place

00:24:09.040 that he has put me. I don't want to fight wars on behalf of other nations whose well-being has nothing

00:24:14.360 to do with my nation's well-being. The next thing, however, I understand that sometimes the well-being

00:24:21.080 of other nations does affect the well-being of my nation. I understand that even if there has not been

00:24:26.840 an Iranian-sponsored terrorist attack on my soil recently, that their actions in funding and

00:24:32.580 supporting terrorism abroad could have an effect on me, on my children, and my future grandchildren,

00:24:37.980 my country. But then, however, again, I don't know how far you take that justification of dropping

00:24:44.300 bombs as a form of preemptive protection. Someone could probably make a case for that kind of action

00:24:51.160 against any country at any time. So last, I would say that I'm in between the stances of America has

00:24:59.020 the responsibility to police the world and fight against evil everywhere, and the other position,

00:25:05.020 which is that we should be completely isolationist, never engaging in conflict until someone else attacks

00:25:09.420 us directly within our borders. I'm not an isolationist, nor am I a war hawk. I hope to be a realist,

00:25:16.220 seeing that sometimes fighting the enemy with violence is necessary, and then sometimes it's

00:25:21.460 not. The truth is, though, that I don't know right now enough about geopolitics and foreign policy to

00:25:27.280 be able to tell you with complete confidence when that is, when that violence is necessary and when

00:25:34.100 it's not. One position, however, that I do not represent and that I do really want to respond to

00:25:40.340 because I think it is attempting one to believe in as a Christian is one of total pacifism.

00:25:49.700 And so I want to respond to that in just a second and explain why we should believe in principle

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00:27:08.340 I saw this post from Pope Leo and he said this, he said, I am following with deep concern what is

00:27:14.840 happening in the Middle East and in Iran during this tumultuous time. Stability and peace are not

00:27:19.920 achieved through mutual threats, nor through the use of weapons, which sow destruction, suffering,

00:27:24.560 and death, but only through reasonable, sincere, and responsible dialogue. I think a lot of

00:27:30.120 Christians probably feel this way, share this perspective. This is closer to an Obama era

00:27:34.920 perspective, and I could completely see why someone would think that this is exclusively the Christian

00:27:41.080 stance. But let me tell you my response to that. The truth is, is that stability and peace are sometimes

00:27:47.440 accomplished through the use of weapons. Sometimes evil does have to be fought, fought against by using

00:27:53.660 force. For example, Christians in the Crusades have a bad rap, but people forget the brutal threat they

00:27:59.200 were facing from Muslims. The Christian soldiers at the time saw their self-sacrifice in battle as service

00:28:05.100 to God and as agape love, not only to God, but also to the women and children that they were tasked with

00:28:12.040 protecting by waging war against the barbarians who were raping and enslaving their people. And then if you

00:28:18.540 think about it on a smaller, more modern scale, like if an armed thief was breaking into your home,

00:28:24.820 the way to make peace in that moment is either to threaten to kill him so he runs away or to actually

00:28:31.340 kill him. Not sincere dialogue. The options in that scenario are either that the evildoer dies or that

00:28:38.840 you, your wife, and your kids die. The idea that Pope Leo is asserting here that peace is only one

00:28:45.500 through dialogue just so deeply misunderstands human nature and the fundamental differences in worldview

00:28:51.800 that exist between Christians and non-Christians and the Western nations and non-Western nations. This is a

00:28:57.660 very like John Lennon's imagined type mentality that the Pope has, extremely rudimentary

00:29:04.660 understanding, in my opinion, of theology and just how the world works, human nature. It is very unhelpful

00:29:12.040 to say things in times like this. And I would actually say harmful. And I just want to say to

00:29:18.220 my beloved Catholic listeners and friends who I am so thankful for their presence and I'm thankful for

00:29:23.640 how much we share in our views on life. But once you realize that the Pope is just a person, that he

00:29:31.380 doesn't actually have any special wisdom, that he can be, depending on who he is as an individual,

00:29:36.720 prone to repeated errors, you will not feel the responsibility as some do to defend everything

00:29:41.540 he says because he's just, he's wrong here. And the truth is, is that the Pope has more than once

00:29:46.580 asserted himself as nicer than God. Once when he said that you can't be pro-life and pro-death penalty

00:29:51.640 and now asserting that peace through force is not possible. So first, God established the death

00:29:57.780 penalty for murder in Genesis 9-6 for a reason that's still true today, that was not abolished through

00:30:04.320 the cross and was not exclusive to ancient Israel. And that reason is that we are made in God's image.

00:30:09.160 We are so precious that the death penalty is the only just murder or only just punishment for

00:30:14.880 murdering us. So you can oppose the death penalty for a variety of reasons in America today. But to

00:30:20.600 say, as the Pope did, that it's not pro-life is to say that God is not pro-life. And then this second

00:30:26.280 instance, clearly in the Old Testament, war, violence, conquest, killing are demanded at various

00:30:33.240 times by God as a means to preserve his people. So again, you can be against war today or against

00:30:39.120 this particular war for all kinds of fair, reasonable positions or reasons. But to say

00:30:46.040 as a rule that peace can't be made through war is to say that God is not peaceful. The government's

00:30:52.240 responsibility is to bear the sword against the evildoer. And that is established in Romans 13. So

00:30:58.120 I believe Pope Leo in this statement misunderstands Romans 13. I think a lot of people completely ignore

00:31:04.940 Romans 13. And if we look at this passage, it actually helps us understand that war is at times

00:31:12.640 justified and why it is justified. So let's read Romans 13, 4.

00:31:18.540 For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword

00:31:24.080 in vain. He's talking about government rulers. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out

00:31:29.700 God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So this article that I'm about to read from is from R.C. Sproul. He's a

00:31:36.520 reformed theologian. He's a late theologian now. But there's an article from Ligonier Ministries

00:31:41.960 that explains what this verse actually means in relation to war. So God through Paul is stating here

00:31:49.360 that God has given the civil magistrate a weapon to enforce the laws. We call this the power of the

00:31:54.960 sword. It means that rulers have the power under God to back up their decrees with the use of force.

00:32:01.660 Now, they might do the right thing in using that force, or they might use that force the wrong way.

00:32:08.480 But it is not a question biblically about whether the government has that ability or whether they have

00:32:15.280 that responsibility. They do. If you look at war, all Christians, this article goes on to say,

00:32:21.400 are called in a sense to be pacifists and that we are always making peace. We are always pursuing

00:32:26.340 peace. But the use of the sword is a restraining device, according to biblical theology. And it is

00:32:35.020 a legitimate restraining device, but it is supposed to be a means of a last resort in fighting against

00:32:42.120 evil. So there have been these kind of three major theories of war throughout Christian history that

00:32:47.480 have been advocated. And so the first is that position of pacifism that you just heard from

00:32:51.800 the Pope, which basically says that no Christian should ever take up arms for any reason, that peace

00:32:57.640 can only be pursued through dialogue. And then you've got the second position, which basically says,

00:33:03.220 my country, right or wrong, I am always going to defend my government. I am always going to wage

00:33:08.100 violence and fight wars if it accomplishes the thing that I want to accomplish or accomplishes the

00:33:12.980 thing that my government wants it to accomplish. And then there is what's called the just war

00:33:19.140 position. The just war theory is a collection of thoughts that has existed for thousands of years,

00:33:24.720 but was really Christianized by Augustine. And it basically says that sometimes war is justified.

00:33:31.500 Sometimes violence is justified. If it is for righteous reasons, then it is justified. If it is for

00:33:37.520 unrighteous reasons, then it is unjustified. This article says that based on the Bible,

00:33:42.080 the just war position states that some wars are justified and Christians may and often should

00:33:46.800 bear arms in such circumstances, but that other wars are unjustified and Christians must oppose

00:33:52.440 such wars. Now, what determines the difference? That's the big question that I'm considering and that

00:33:58.600 you are considering. And this article, Ligonier goes on to say, a just war is a defensive war. It is

00:34:05.140 right and proper for the magistrate to call Christians to help defend its borders against aggressors.

00:34:10.200 On the other hand, Christians should oppose wars of aggression because they are nothing more than

00:34:15.660 murder on a grand scale. Now, within that, there are going to be debates about what counts as defense

00:34:22.500 and what counts as aggression. What is a righteous end to a war and what is not a righteous end to a

00:34:28.780 war? And as I said in my earlier commentary, I can't tell you with 100% certainty, certainly in this case,

00:34:36.700 what exactly the clear answer is. But I do want to oppose the idea that war per se or violence per

00:34:44.400 se is always wrong because that's clearly not true. John MacArthur said this, God himself has

00:34:50.480 established that we do not have the right to take a life in an act of murder or in an act of vengeance,

00:34:56.160 but there is a place for just retribution in the form of death. It is also true that not only has

00:35:02.520 God established justice on an individual level through human government, but he has also

00:35:06.820 established war as a means of judgment on a national level. Of course, we see war, God ordained

00:35:13.220 war throughout the Old Testament. And we can see throughout the Psalms that King David was a

00:35:18.620 warrior and that he was praising God for helping him in battle. Psalm 1834, he trains my hands for

00:35:24.180 battle so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. Psalm 144, one, blessed be the Lord, my rock,

00:35:30.320 who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. So I just don't think that we can say

00:35:37.660 that biblically we must always oppose war. We as Christians could have in good faith debates about

00:35:44.060 what is a justified war and what's not, but clearly God uses war, ordains violence sometimes to achieve

00:35:51.760 really good ends and to defend the most vulnerable. Now, something that I want to explore, and it's so

00:35:58.760 deep we won't have as much time as I would like to get into all of the different aspects of this,

00:36:03.360 is what this means for end times prophecy, if at all. There are a variety of perspectives on it,

00:36:11.480 and you're probably seeing a lot on this. So let me just give you a rundown quickly of what the

00:36:16.480 different eschatological perspectives say about Iran and the conflict in the Middle East. Let me pause,

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00:37:31.380 Okay, so the question is, does Iran play a role in the end times prophecy? Does this mean that we

00:37:36.640 are inching closer towards Christ's second coming? Are the current strikes signs that the rapture or that

00:37:44.100 his return is just around the corner? Some people would say yes. Within Christianity, there are

00:37:49.940 several faithful but differing perspectives on these questions. We have talked about these a lot.

00:37:56.220 I did back in the day, probably 2019 is when I did my first end times episode where I go through

00:38:02.420 each perspective, tell you what I think. So go back and listen to that. It's about a 30-minute episode,

00:38:07.700 but very thorough. But then also more recently on episode 1211, Ted versus Tucker on Israel,

00:38:14.480 what the Bible really says. We also go through some of the end times perspectives on that,

00:38:18.460 especially in relation to Israel, because all of these perspectives do differ on Israel's role and

00:38:25.740 the role of the Middle East. So first, dispensationalists. Dispensationalists believe that

00:38:31.880 Scripture and history are divided into seven dispensations, or seven different ways that

00:38:37.640 God has related to man from the beginning. So most evangelicals today are dispensationalists,

00:38:43.300 and they look to Old Testament prophecies and New Testament passages as signs of Jesus's future

00:38:48.620 return. And they're always looking to match up these passages with modern geopolitics to make the

00:38:55.320 case for Jesus's imminent return. They also believe that believers will be raptured before the

00:39:01.620 tribulation. And so if you were raised Baptist, this almost certainly is what you were taught,

00:39:06.560 certainly what I was taught. And a lot of Baptists that I really love and respect certainly believe

00:39:11.200 that, that before the tribulation, that Christians will be raptured and get to go to heaven and be

00:39:16.400 with God. But the third characteristic of dispensationalists is the belief that modern-day

00:39:21.240 geographical Israel is the same Israel as the Bible, and that the Jewish people are still God's

00:39:27.500 chosen people, and that he has a particular plan to fulfill his promises to them. Now,

00:39:31.600 they would still say that that plan is Christ, but that there will be a special chance that Israel,

00:39:38.480 that the Jews have to come to Christ and be saved. Now, dispensationalism has not been around for very

00:39:45.060 long. It was popularized in the 20th century. We could go through the entire history of that.

00:39:49.460 And a lot of dispensationalists will have biblical prophetic commentary or commentary about biblical

00:39:56.220 prophecy when wars are in the news, especially when the Middle East is in the news. Pastor Greg

00:40:01.960 Lurie, I've met him. He has a lot of insight. He says, remember modern-day Iran is ancient Persia,

00:40:08.140 the land of Esther, Daniel, and King Cyrus, whom God called his anointed in Isaiah 45. God has worked

00:40:13.280 in that nation before. Iran is not simply a political talking point, but what many, including myself,

00:40:18.620 believe is a land of biblical significance. He interprets Ezekiel 38 through 39 as predicting

00:40:24.620 a coalition, including Persia, so Iran and Magog, likely Russia, attacking Israel, noting current

00:40:31.540 events like Israel's regathering in 1948, along with rising anti-Semitism, kind of as signs. He also

00:40:38.200 emphasizes Russia's alliance with Iran is noteworthy if Magog is Russia, contrasting his dispensational

00:40:45.320 view with other Christian traditions that interpret the prophecy differently. And I also just want to

00:40:51.480 say the fact that Persia is the land of Esther and these biblical figures, that does mean that no

00:40:59.620 matter what your eschatology is, yes, there is biblical significance to it. There is just a debate about

00:41:04.420 how these lands are fulfilling prophecy. Revelation 20 also references Gog and Magog. Revelation 27 through

00:41:12.120 great. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come

00:41:16.740 out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them

00:41:21.520 for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea. And so people believe that Russia and Iran,

00:41:29.560 that alliance attacking Israel and this war that is happening right now, that it could be signaling

00:41:38.040 the imminent coming of Christ. Now, I will also just defend dispensationalists a little bit because

00:41:44.920 sometimes they are accused of only looking to the news to try to decipher, you know, Jesus's second

00:41:52.060 advent. And they would say that they're looking at scripture, that they're not primarily looking at the

00:41:57.480 news, but it is fair to say that they are looking at both, that they are trying to match those things up.

00:42:06.120 But that's not the only perspective of the end times. That's not my perspective of the end times.

00:42:11.440 So there's post-millennial, there's amillennial, and then there's historic pre-millennialist,

00:42:16.280 which is what I am. But that pre, ah, and post all refers to when you believe that a thousand year

00:42:23.140 or millennial reign of Christ will occur. And there's so many vocabulary words that we could break down,

00:42:28.960 go back, listen to those previous episodes if you're curious about that. But post-millennialists

00:42:33.380 believe that it will happen after. So Christ's millennial reign will happen after Christians

00:42:39.580 have established his kingdom here on earth. And so they believe that most of the end time prophecies

00:42:44.520 were fulfilled thousands of years ago, that the tribulation has already occurred,

00:42:48.740 and that we are advancing God's kingdom on earth, that we are establishing it by more and more people

00:42:52.820 coming to Christ before he then comes back once and for all. They tend to reject the idea that

00:42:58.020 modern Israel is spiritually significant. Then you have amillennialists who believe that we are

00:43:03.700 currently living in Christ's thousand year reign, although they don't believe that thousand years

00:43:07.420 is actually literal. They believe that Satan is bound right now so that the gospel can go out

00:43:12.660 and that Satan will be released for a little while in the future for some kind of future deception

00:43:17.560 so that that will occur before Christ returns again once and for all. And then there's

00:43:24.760 historic pre-millennialists, which is what I am. And we believe that the prophecies of the end times

00:43:30.740 have yet to be fulfilled, that there will be a future tribulation that Christians will have to

00:43:35.640 endure if we are alive on earth, then the second coming of Christ and his millennial reign will occur

00:43:41.760 thereafter. I believe that God's people are all of his people through Christ, Jew or Gentile. I don't

00:43:49.680 believe that modern day Israel is God's chosen nation. I think the plan for salvation for everyone

00:43:55.780 is the same, grace through faith in Christ. I support Israel generally because they're an ally in the

00:44:00.600 fight against Islam. I can appreciate and respect so much that I share half my Bible with the Jewish

00:44:06.600 people, that my Savior is Jewish, but I don't have my views on Israel shaped by what I believe about

00:44:14.300 the end times. So because of that, I am just not as interested in looking at biblical prophecy through

00:44:21.180 the lens of geopolitics. There have been wars and rumors of wars for millennia, and ultimately we just

00:44:27.940 don't know when the end will come. And we are all prepared, or we are called to prepare by living

00:44:36.040 faithfully every day, Matthew 24, 36. But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels

00:44:42.040 of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. Matthew 24, 42. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know

00:44:48.540 on what day your Lord is coming. Revelation 16, 15. Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one

00:44:55.280 who stays awake, keeping his garments on that he may not go about and be seen exposed. So those are my

00:45:04.580 thoughts on all of that. And I think we should probably do a more in-depth episode yet again

00:45:11.100 on the end times and why what you believe about your eschatology really matters. All right, we've

00:45:17.360 got a couple more things to say. Let me pause and tell you about our last sponsor for the day,

00:45:21.300 and that is WeHeart Nutrition. I am so thankful for all of my supplements from WeHeart Nutrition. I take

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00:46:00.240 ingredients come in the most bioavailable form so your body is actually absorbing it. Plus,

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00:46:10.260 Go to WeHeartNutrition.com. Use promo code Allie at checkout. You'll save 20% off when you use my

00:46:17.020 code WeHeartNutrition.com. Code Allie. All right. I just wanted to end on some good news. So there was

00:46:27.980 this big Supreme Court decision that was released on Monday, March 2nd. So the Supreme Court has ruled

00:46:34.980 that so-called gender transition policies, some gender transition policies, are unconstitutional.

00:46:42.400 These policies are in effect for thousands of schools nationwide. And these policies hide

00:46:47.580 gender transition from parents. So in Mirabelli versus Bonta, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a Ninth

00:46:57.300 Circuit stay, reinstating a 2023 injunction that blocks California from enforcing secrecy policies

00:47:04.800 on parents statewide. So the unsigned order highlighted California's approach likely violates

00:47:10.840 parents' First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to direct their children's upbringing and their

00:47:15.880 education. While teachers' claims remain on hold, the decision requires schools to notify parents in

00:47:22.120 the certified class, marking a win amid reactions from both supporters celebrating family

00:47:27.060 involvement and critics concerned for student safety. And so one side is saying this is great

00:47:33.900 parental rights. Of course, that's my side. Parents should absolutely know if their child is going by

00:47:39.420 different pronouns or declaring that they are a boy at school. Right now in California, a student can go

00:47:44.540 to school, say that I want to transition to the opposite sex, and the student doesn't have to notify

00:47:49.700 parents. They can socially transition that child. They can also get that child to a particular

00:47:56.720 professional that will help them get the psychiatric care and the different medical treatments that they

00:48:05.620 are seeking in order to look like the opposite sex. There was a woman named Yaley Martinez several years

00:48:11.660 ago. This is what happened to her. She decided that she was going to be the opposite sex, and the teachers

00:48:17.420 and administrators as mandatory reporters actually reported her mom for not being supportive of her

00:48:24.000 gender transition. Yaley was taken out of her mom's custody because her mom was like, this is my

00:48:28.680 daughter. I'm not going to go along with this gender transition. And Yaley was put in a group home. Of

00:48:35.420 course, she became depressed. She became anxious. She went on this path of going on testosterone, trying to be

00:48:41.420 the opposite sex. She was eventually driven so far into loneliness and depression and this feeling of

00:48:47.280 just not being safe and not belonging to anyone that she committed suicide. That's what happens when

00:48:55.980 you remove kids from the homes of parents who simply want what is best for their kids. You see, you've got

00:49:02.000 people framing this as like, oh, it's protection from abuse when the school won't inform the parents of

00:49:08.360 what's really going on. The opposite is true. No one cares about your child the way that you do. No

00:49:14.880 one knows your child the way that you do. The school does not care if your child lives or dies,

00:49:20.180 okay? They really don't. I'm not saying that there aren't good teachers out there, good administrators.

00:49:25.100 There are. But none of these people know and love your child like you do. This is not the role of the

00:49:31.440 state to say, yeah, your child can be the opposite sex and you shouldn't have a say in it. I said in the

00:49:36.480 beginning I read something that had been written that SCOTUS rules that gender transition policies are

00:49:42.100 unconstitutional. That's not really true. This particular policy was ruled unconstitutional just

00:49:48.120 because of the parental rights aspect of it. We've got a long way to go before all of this is completely

00:49:55.620 illegal and stigmatized and criminalized. It actually, you should actually go to prison if you

00:50:02.800 are calling a child by the wrong non-biological pronoun and encouraging them to change sexes.

00:50:11.340 Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the concurring opinion. She said,

00:50:15.780 gender dysphoria is a condition that has an important bearing on a child's mental health,

00:50:19.560 but when a child exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria at school, California's policies conceal

00:50:23.580 that information from parents have facilitated a degree of gender transitioning during school hours.

00:50:27.800 These policies likely violate parents' rights to direct the upbringing and education of their

00:50:32.820 children. Correct when it comes to parental involvement. Wrong when it comes to gender

00:50:37.680 dysphoria. The Supreme Court is not where they need to be in understanding what is actually driving

00:50:42.640 this gender deception among kids. It's not genuine gender dysphoria. Actually, the science could tell

00:50:47.600 you that. That is an extremely rare disorder. That is not really what's going on among young people

00:50:53.360 today. It is pornography. It is propaganda. It is sexual perversion and even sexual abuse that's

00:51:01.780 going on. It has very little to do with gender dysphoria. So we're not yet to the root of all of this

00:51:07.320 and driving this out legally and ideologically, but this absolutely is a win for parents. How evil do

00:51:14.800 you have to be lawmakers in California and Gavin Newsom to allow something like this? Evil, evil,

00:51:20.320 evil, from the pits of hell. And so we are thankful. We are thankful for this decision and reminder why

00:51:27.100 elections matter. Why elections matter. Politics matter. Because policy matters. Because people

00:51:31.760 matter. Politics affects policy. Policy affects people. It affects children. And children matter.

00:51:38.020 All right. That's all we got time for today. We will be back here on Friday.

00:51:50.320 We will be back there on Friday. We will be back. We will be back here on Friday. We will be back here on Friday.

00:52:02.900 We will be back here on Friday. We will be back here on Friday. Thank you for this to the

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 04, 2026

Ep 1312 ｜ Prophecy Fulfilled？ Iran Strikes & the End Times

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