Something along the following lines is being quoted by a number of sources:
A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer. From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night (https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a70590863/jesus-trump-military-iran-war/).
So here we go… again! The news interpreting the Bible… and in the course of it the Bible takes a hammering. Putting my cards on the table: Armageddon does not exist – there is no such place. There is no such mountain and to make it into the ‘plains of Megiddo’ rather stretches biblical interpretation, and then where does it appear: in the Apocalypse which uses (wait for it) apocalyptic language!
Worse though is ‘anointed by Jesus… to cause Armageddon’. As if. And check out Islamic eschatology – Jesus is coming back, Armageddon-type warfare, but Jesus at the head of the Islamic forces. All of it madness.
Eschatology; Israel and the need for more land to be what was promised. What if (as I believe) there is almost nothing predicted about the future… that the land promises are radically re-shaped in the New Testament… that Revelation is the critique of all time concerning Imperial power that is shown to be in total contrast to the kenotic activity of heaven… what then should we do? What then should we look to consider is anointed of God? What if Scripture encourages any consideration of ‘end-times’ to be responded to with a response of dedication to commitment to first principles of ‘let your kingdom come’?
I hope we can move away from the madness.