The United States is preparing evacuation plans for up to six hundred thousand Americans in Israel in the event of a full-scale ground war in the region. In addition, there are as many as six hundred Americans still trapped in Gaza.

Meanwhile, we are seeing reports today that two dozen American military personnel were wounded last week in a series of drone attacks on American bases in Syria and Iraq. US officials have learned that Iranian-backed militia groups are planning to ramp up attacks against US forces in the Middle East as Iran seeks to capitalize on regional backlash to America’s support for Israel. There are “red lights flashing everywhere,” one official said. Another added, “We see a prospect for much more significant escalation against US forces and personnel in the near term.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the United Nations Security Council yesterday, “If Iran or its proxies attack US personnel anywhere, make no mistake. We will defend our people, we will defend our security—swiftly and decisively.” As our military heightens surveillance operations in the region, it is also sending an aircraft carrier, air defense systems, and additional F-16 fighter jets to defend American troops.

Where is this leading?

“The world is mustering for war”

Robert Clark is a British military veteran with postgraduate degrees in defense studies and Arabic. He served in operational tours in the Middle East and Afghanistan and is currently director of defense and security at the think tank Civitas. His sobering recent article for the Telegraph is titled “The US stands on the brink of global war with the Middle East and Asia.”

He writes: “The world is mustering for war. Conflict is already raging in Europe, with Russian and Ukrainian forces locked in offensive and counteroffensive. The aftermath of the Hamas terror attack upon Israel could now see the Middle East ignited.”

Clark points to drone and missile attacks on American forces by Iran’s proxies in Iraq and Syria. He adds that three cruise missiles launched by Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen were potentially targeting Israel before they were shot down by a US warship. If successful, such an attack could have led to Israeli retaliation against Iran, potentially triggering a direct war—and US involvement.

Meanwhile, Clark writes, “Washington is engaged in frantically regearing its own military to face the threat posed by an increasingly belligerent Chinese communist regime, intent on reunification with Taiwan by force if necessary.” (Read more in “Why does China want to invade Taiwan?“) Between the war in Europe and our increasing involvement in the Middle East, “Beijing may see this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

And Clark notes that Iran could “decide to further provoke the US in its attempts to assert regional dominance, attempting to drive the Americans to disengage and leave Israel to stand on its own.” In short, he warns, “Within months, the US could be directly involved in two devastating wars on two continents [while] bankrolling a third in Ukraine.”

The ultimate answer to all human conflict

One way I am praying for God to redeem the escalating crises of our day is by using them to expose our need for help beyond human capacity.

Our astounding technological advances in recent years have made our world not safer but more dangerous. Our growing secularism has directed our innate passion for transcendent causes into partisan tribalism. Our rejection of objective truth has rendered many Americans unable to recognize and condemn even gross immorality such as the atrocities committed by Hamas’s terrorists against innocent Israelis.

These facts remind us that the ultimate answer to all human conflict lies not in human agency but in divine transformation.

This is why we each need Jesus: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19a). And it is why believers need to share the gospel: “and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (v. 19b). With this result: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God” (v. 20).

Our message is clear and simple: “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (v. 21).

This is why Paul said of his fellow Jews, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1). And it is why apostolic Christians paid such a high price to reach the larger Roman world so that “the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe” (Acts 15:7) They were willing to give their lives so the world could say, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

“The whole offer which Christianity makes”

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis described our need for personal intimacy with God: “There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made.” He explained: “If you want to get warm, you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.”

He added: “They are not a sort of prize which God could, if he chose, just hand out to anyone.” Rather, “They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you; if you are not, you will remain dry.”

Then Lewis asked: “Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?”

And he noted, “The whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have his way, come to share in the life of Christ. . . . Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”

Will you “let God have his way” with your life?

Will you help those you know “share in the life of Christ” today?

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Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of a founding Hamas leader. In response to the October 7 atrocities, he told a reporter: “I was born at the heart of Hamas leadership . . . and I know them very well. They don’t care for the Palestinian people. They do not regard the human life.”

He explained: “Hamas is not a national movement. Hamas is a religious movement with a goal to establish an Islamic state.” In his view, “Hamas does not serve the Palestinian people. Hamas serves Iran. . . . They are using Palestinian people as a human shield.”

Why, then, are so many “pro-Palestinian” advocates in the West supporting them? Why is such support likely to escalate as Israel escalates its response to Hamas’s atrocities?

A swastika alongside the Israeli flag

Yesterday, journalists were shown horrific footage from Hamas’s October 7 massacre, including scenes of murder, decapitation, and torture. Some of the two hundred in attendance burst into tears as they viewed the images. While Hamas released two more hostages yesterday, it is holding more than two hundred, one of them a seventeen-year-old girl in a wheelchair. Israel has found Hamas files with instructions for making a cyanide-based weapon.

Nonetheless, world opinion is inexorably turning against Israel and the Jewish people, blaming them for the atrocities committed against them.

A United Nations official likened Israel’s response to Nazi actions in the Holocaust. A doctor in the UK posted a picture of a swastika alongside the Israeli flag on her official Instagram page. Organizations funded by the European Union praised Hamas terrorists for acting with “courage and sacrifice.”

This while antisemitism continues to rise in Canada, Germany, across Europe, and in America, where Jews are rushing to buy guns to protect themselves. A rally supporting Israel planned for downtown Chicago had to be relocated after threats from a pro-Hamas group were reported.

A Wall Street Journal opinion writer noted that this pattern is tragically not unusual: “The worst demonization of the Jewish state has typically followed the worst atrocities against it.” He explains this pattern with an insight I found very valuable: “This behavior is an example of cognitive-dissonance reduction, the process by which people reconcile new information that contradicts their firmly held priors. The result is an ostensibly coherent system of thought.”

In other words, to continue supporting those who attack Israel, advocates must find ways to dehumanize and demonize the Jewish people and blame them for their sufferings. We can expect this to escalate as the war escalates.

The irony behind anti-Israel bigotry

What is the reasoning behind what one writer calls the “sickening” anti-Israel bias by so many in the West?

First, Israel is accused of being “colonizers” by those who claim that they stole their land from its rightful Palestinian owners. However, the Palestinians are descended from Arab Muslims who invaded the area in the seventh century, displacing many of the Jews and Christians who had been there for centuries. They were in turn displaced by the Crusaders, who were displaced by Egyptian Muslims, who were displaced by Ottoman Turks. And the Jews under Joshua conquered the land from the Canaanites, whose genealogical descendants now reside in Lebanon.

If the “colonizers” are supposed to return the land to its original owners, to whom should it be returned?

Second, Israel is seen by many critics through the prism of “critical theory.” In this view, they are the majority oppressors of the minority oppressed. However, Jews in Israel comprise less than half the population of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, and the global Jewish population comprises 0.2 percent of the global population.

We should also note the ironic fact that many of Israel’s military enemies are the ideological enemies of their ideological supporters. Islamic jihadists subjugate women and persecute LGBTQ people, while Israel empowers women and welcomes people of all genders and sexual orientations.

Nonetheless, the ideological bigotry Israel is facing has enormous implications for the future of the Jewish people.

“Judgments that are true and make for peace”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, visited Israel after the October 7 invasion, where he met with families of hostages. He recalled his own family’s horrific experiences during the Holocaust and said, “If we don’t prevent the threat from Hamas from occurring, it’ll happen again, and again, and again.”

I am writing today to explain the rising hatred against Israel so we can use our personal and cultural influence to defend the Jewish people from their ideological enemies in our society. This is vital for the Palestinian people as well: as Mosab Hassan Yousef noted, Hamas uses them as “human shields” in its quest to eradicate the Jews. Support for Hamas only endangers their Palestinian victims in Gaza and elsewhere.

As we speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), let’s remember that this is a spiritual conflict with “the father of lies” (John 8:44). Then let’s ask God’s Spirit to empower us (Ephesians 5:18) to “speak the truth to one another” and thus “render in [our] gates judgments that are true and make for peace” (Zechariah 8:16).

Billy Graham was right: “Because truth is unpopular does not mean that it should not be proclaimed.” The more people reject it, the more they need it.

And let’s continue to pray for a spiritual awakening in the Middle East that would transform hatred into love and end millennia of conflict. Abraham Lincoln asked, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

How will you “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6) and then help answer your prayer today?

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There was finally some good news in the war in Israel when Hamas released two US citizens it was holding hostage. However, the conflict is threatening to escalate as Israel engages terrorists in Gaza, clashes with Hezbollah in northern Israel, and responds to threats in Syria and the West Bank.

There have been multiple attacks on US forces as well; the US defense secretary announced over the weekend that American forces are increasing their presence in the area to “bolster regional deterrence efforts.”

As you follow the news, if you’re feeling anxious and even overwhelmed these days, you’re not alone.

Five threats that could fuse into one

Former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus is warning that there is a very real chance the Middle East conflict could escalate significantly. What’s more, the battle between Hamas and Israel is dividing world opinion, pitting nations against nations in ominous ways.

According to former US Defense Secretary Bob Gates, America is facing the most crises since World War II ended seventy-eight years ago. None can be solved; all could spiral into something much worse:

1. The war in the Middle East
2. China and Russia’s growing military and economic collaboration
3. A malicious Iran
4. The unhinged leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un
5. A massive spread of doctored or wholly fake videos to manipulate world news and opinion.

US officials are especially worried that all five threats could fuse into one. The State Department recently issued a rare “Worldwide Caution,” warning US travelers abroad of “increased tensions in various locations around the world” that raise “the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent actions against US citizens and interests.” This at a time when the US House is without a speaker, a government shutdown may be looming, and another toxic presidential campaign with rising domestic unrest is on the horizon.

“I will not refuse to do something I can do”

Helen Keller was stricken deaf and blind after contracting a high fever at nineteen months of age. Nonetheless, she went on to graduate from college cum laude and later became the first woman to be awarded an honorary doctorate from Harvard University. She wrote numerous books, became a tireless advocate for those with disabilities, met with twelve US presidents, and was awarded the highest American honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

She explained her life’s passion this way: “I am only one, but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do.”

One practical way to respond to the rising anxiety and fear of our day is to adopt her motto. Like those who rebuilt the gates of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 3, we each have a kingdom assignment, a thing we can uniquely do to serve God and others. Using our influence to share God’s love and grace is not only vital to our personal well-being—it is absolutely crucial for our broken world and every lost person we know.

Pastor and author Paul Powell once invited readers to imagine a graph of human progress with regard to technology, economics, standard of living, and so on. Such a graph would be easy to draw and largely positive. Then he asked them to graph moral progress.

That would be a different story, as Hamas’s recent brutality makes clear.

“The heart of the problem”

Max Lucado observed:

For all our medical and scientific advancements, for all our breakthroughs in technology and medicine, do we not battle the same inclinations as did our Bronze Age ancestors? Women are still objectified: almost one in three women worldwide is a victim of physical and/or sexual violence. How is it that the twentieth century was the most murderous in history? Wars and genocides took more than two hundred million victims in one hundred years.

According to Jesus, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander” (Matthew 15:19 NIV). The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.

Here’s the good news: God can “give you a new heart” (Ezekiel 36:26). When we turn to him by faith, he promises to “put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (v. 27).

Imagine a world in which every person truly made Christ their Lord and thus experienced such godly transformation. Crime and war would end as we follow the leading of the Prince of Peace who calls us to mutual love (John 13:34–35). Lust and adultery would be replaced with love and fidelity (cf. Matthew 22:39). Lies would cease as we speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

We would still struggle with temptation, of course, but when Christ is our Lord and his Spirit empowers and controls us (Ephesians 5:18), there is no temptation we cannot defeat in his strength (1 Corinthians 10:13).

This is why Oswald Chambers’ assertion is so vital for our souls and our broken world: “There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill his purpose through your life. One individual life may be of priceless value to God’s purposes, and yours may be that life.”

Will God “fulfill his purpose through your life” today?

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