“Praying for Armageddon,” a 2023 documentary, investigates how Christian Zionists, convinced by literal interpretations of biblical prophecy, threaten U.S. democracy and peace in the Middle East.
Anyone who saw the investigative documentary Praying for Armageddon at the 2024 Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival in October might have predicted Donald Trump would win the November election and expand U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza and now Lebanon, which has killed at least 44,000 Palestinians and 3,000 Lebanese. (An article in the Lancet Medical Journal said the death toll in Gaza, including indirect deaths like starvation or disease, may be up to 186,000.)
Praying for Armageddon, a 2023 Norwegian documentary, follows investigative reporter Lee Fang of The Intercept as he explores how American policy is heavily influenced by the Christian evangelical right, which supports Zionism as a way to bring the second coming of Christ.
Early in the film, former evangelical preacher Frank Schaeffer explains: “The bedrock of support for the state of Israel is there because American evangelicals think it will bring Jesus back quicker. And without the bedrock evangelical voter no Republican anywhere in America, for any office, gets elected.”
Schaeffer describes himself as “a prince of evangelical royalty” who at 18 years old addressed crowds of 20,000. The son of famous, fundamentalist American missionary Francis Schaeffer, the founder of the pro-life movement, Frank Schaeffer is now considered a heretic and estranged “from huge chunks” of his family because he left his father’s ministry.
“If the evangelical movement had not morphed into the religious right, you would not have a situation that would put Donald Trump in power,” he continued. “The big numbers who were there on Jan. 6 protesting him not getting elected were evangelicals. For them, when Trump lost the election, somehow this couldn’t be right because they had interpreted him being president for another four years as God’s will.”
Two Wisconsin clergy knowledgeable about Christian Zionism and the Bible’s Book of Revelation, Reverends Dennis Jacobsen, a founding member of MICAH (Milwaukee Inner-city Churches Allied for Hope) and a longtime Lutheran pastor, and Darren Utley, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Racine, discussed the lessons from Praying for Armageddon and their own concerns for the future of America and the world. They also responded this week to questions from the Wisconsin Muslim Journal.
Here are highlights from the film and insights from the experts.
Screenshot from NBC News
Faith leaders prayed over President Donald Trump four years ago during the launch of his Evangelicals for Trump coalition.
Dangers of the modern evangelical movement
In Praying for Armageddon, Schaeffer explains: “Today the modern evangelical is preparing for an actual holy war, armed, training militia groups, plenty of ammunition. They are going to cost what you call sane, ordinary America very heavily.”
It will also cost the Palestinians, Fang’s documentary points out.
Fang interviewed evangelical members of Congress and the leader of a Bible study for members of Congress. He also visited a service conducted by John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, which has 10 million members and the ears of Republican politicians. In the process, Fang showed the heavy influence of today’s Christian Zionists on the White House and Congress. It was Christian Zionists who lobbied for President Trump’s 2019 shifting of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Fang also shows how Israeli occupation authorities have been systematically displacing Palestinians with the aid of U.S. funding from settler organizations that operate as charities and are tax-exempt.
As a 2023 review in Variety says about the documentary, “This deep dive into power and policy unveils how politicians driven by faith embrace Israel as the key to their prophetic vision for the end of days, at any cost, ultimately escalating the spirals of violence in the Middle East.”
Rev. Dennis Jacobsen of MICAH spoke outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee against white nationalism.
“If that’s Christianity, count me out,” commented Rev. Jacobsen at the talkback. “It is lethally dangerous. In 2006, John Hagee launched the inaugural event of Christians United for Israel in Washington D.C. George W. Bush sent in greetings. Four U.S. senators and the Israeli ambassador were there.
“Hagee called for a pre-emptive strike by the U.S. and Israel on Iran because that would help to bring on the rapture, the tribulation and the return of Christ. So, this stuff is very serious.”
In a post-election email to WMJ, Jacobsen wrote, “The victory of Trump delighted Netanyahu. Under the influence of Christian Zionists, Trump as president moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and was a strong and reliable ally of Israel. He will continue to be so.”
“Mike Pompeo Is a Christian Zionist who could have a major role in the Trump administration,” Rev. Utley said in comments emailed to WMJ. “Another concern is that Zionism overlaps with bipartisan interest in maintaining a strong Israeli presence in West Asia.”
Rev. Jacobsen said he also thinks “it is likely that the Trump administration will include Christian Zionists. They are certainly present in Congress.”
John Hagee founded Christians United for Israel in 2008. The organization now has more than 10 million members.
When Rep. Mike Johnson was elected Speaker of the House last fall, his first act as Speaker was to pass a pro-Israel resolution. Johnson’s first public appearance outside of Capitol Hill as Speaker of the House was at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas where Johnson said: “We are going to stand like a rock with our friend and our ally, Israel.” I think that solidarity with Israel is going to be prominent in the Trump administration.
Not our Christianity
“Christians United for Israel (CUFI) claims ten million members,” Jacobsen noted. “A Pew Research survey found over 60% of Evangelical Christians see the establishment of the State of Israel as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
About 30-35% (90-100 million people) of the U.S. population are Evangelical Christians. Trump got about 80% of white evangelical votes in 2016 and 2020. Christian Zionism certainly contributed to Trump’s victory in the election.
“I cannot recognize Jesus in any of this, ” Jacobsen said. “Jesus was a liberator, crucified for opposition to the empire. The Beatitudes (a set of moral teachings delivered by Jesus as part of the Sermon on the Mount) and the Sermon on the Mount have nothing to do with this.”
Reverends Utley and Jacobsen agreed Christian Zionists misuse the Book of Revelation to support the modern State of Israel. After becoming a pastor, Rev. Utley spent a year studying the Book of Revelation with renowned theologian and scholar Brian Blount. “I want to point out a few things relevant for us today,” he told the talkback audience at the Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival. “John (author of the Book of Revelation), who was exiled in a penal colony, watching ships go by laden with riches being taken to Rome, writes this book about the Roman empire, its explosiveness, its excesses, its oppression of the people.
Rev. Darren Utley Darren Utley, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Racine
“What He calls out to the people, wherever they may be, who had to perform little allegiances to the empire that indicated they were ok with what was going on. If you did stand up and say, ‘I’m not going to say this prayer to Caesar,’ you could lose your job, your family, be exiled, even put to death.
“John is saying, it is not worth participating in this system that is genocidal, that exploits the people of the world. It is worth standing up and witnessing another way of life. Hopefully this sounds familiar to all of you with what is going on campuses and around the world.
“The (Christian Zionists) in this film never pause to see the beast, the dragon, the evil powers they are talking about. If they did, they would find themselves looking in the mirror. Who is the empire right now? Who is exploiting the people of the world, finding the riches of the world and pulling them back to this country?
“If you want to follow the Book of Revelation and ask how to witness and stand up against an empire, it is not as simple as just voting for this one or that one. It is not just voting for the lesser of two evils. To defeat Christian Zionism means attacking things at the base of American exceptionalism and imperial power.”
To better understand the message of Revelation, Jacobsen recommended two books: Zionism’s Christian Soldiers by Stephen Sizer and Decolonizing Palestine by Palestinian Lutheran theologian and pastor Mitri Raheb of Bethlehem.
A review of Zionism’s Christian Soldiers says Sizer explains how Christian scripture is twisted to support the present-day state of Israel and is a valuable reference tool for those confused and persuaded by the Christian Zionist case.
A review of Decolonizing Palestine says the book argues “convincingly that Palestine must be understood as one of the last anti-colonial struggles in an era regarded as post-colonial; it is also a work that is powerfully convicting of readers like myself who are still beholden, often in ways we don’t recognize, to the propaganda of Christian Zionism.”
What the future holds
Rev. Jacobsen said at the talkback he is seeing “an increasing number of young people walk away from this nonsense and that’s good news.”
Both Reverends Utley and Jacobsen said they did not expect U.S. support of Israel’s military to decrease no matter which party is in power. However, they expect the support to increase under a Trump presidency.
Talkback moderator Rachel Buff, Ph.D., co-chair of Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine and co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace-Milwaukee, reflected on the then upcoming election. “I think neither of them will deliver anything we want. I think Trump will be much worse. I was at a protest much of the morning yesterday at UWM. Kamala was speaking there. I was reflecting on how much more terrifying it would be to do that if Trump gets in power.
“I watch protestors in Russia risk the gulag for going out into the streets. I’m chicken. I’m not sure I could do that and I don’t know if I could tell other people’s kids to do that. With Harris, I’ll be in the streets. I’ll get arrested, but with Trump—you know I was looking into the eyes of a state trooper who had been rushed to UWM because 50 students were protesting. I’m thinking this guy is not going to shoot me today but on another day he really might.”
