Are US military commanders really talking about Armageddon?

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on March 6, 2026.

Are U.S. military commanders really telling the soldiers fighting in Iran that President Donald Trump has been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”?

In a piece published Monday on Substack, independent journalist Jonathan Larsen claimed the Military Religious Freedom Foundation had received more than 110 complaints from 40 units throughout 30 military installations. According to military.com, those complaints since Saturday have grown to more than 200. One complaint said the commander “had a big grin on his face when he said all of this, which made his message seem even more crazy.”

Over the next two days, the story took off on social media. And eventually, it began being picked up by other outlets such as The Independent, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Newsweek, MSNOW, The New Republic, and The Huffington Post, among many others. BNG also published a version of the story.

So are Trump and Hegseth really trying to hurry up the Rapture so evangelicals can disappear into thin air while everyone else goes through seven years of Tribulation culminating in the Battle of Armageddon and being sent to burn in the lake of fire forever?

“Are Trump and Hegseth really trying to hurry up the Rapture so evangelicals can disappear into thin air?”

While there’s much about this story that makes sense, there are a number of factors that don’t seem to add up. And given that the end of the world is allegedly on the line, it would probably be wise to investigate. But since the Pentagon seems uninterested in doing so, it’s likely up to us to get to the bottom of it — if we can.

Consider the source

While many outlets are now reporting on the story, they’re all citing the same source: Jonathan Larsen’s Substack post that was based on the claims of Mikey Weinstein with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

That raised some red flags for Hemant Mehta, editor of Friendly Atheist.

“If a commander in the military was arguing that this war was part of a religious crusade, why did no other media organization report this story?” Mehta asked in a piece sharing his reservations. “All these calls, all to one organization, and none apparently to any reporters who actually have the power to create change and have the contacts within the military to get more information.”

Mehta also pointed out how none of the reports name any commanders who have allegedly said these things.

Additionally, while many people including Mehta recognize the MRFF has done some important work for religious freedom in the military, Mehta has noticed a pattern of Weinstein releasing similarly worded emails across a variety of stories. He shared five examples of letters allegedly sent to Weinstein and the MRFF that all claim to be a single person representing a much larger number of military personnel who are from a wide variety of backgrounds and are effusive in their praise of MRFF.

“Does everyone in the military have the exact same writing style?” Mehta asked. “That would be unusual, to say the least. There’s nothing wrong with redacting personal information, but every email publicized by MRFF reads more like an internal fundraising email that’s been written by the same person — there’s rarely any personal touch and the grammar is always nearly perfect. That’s not an accusation, just an observation.”

Another concern Mehta has is that MRFF received more than $750,000 in donations in 2024, with Weinstein as the only paid employee making about half that. “With that kind of money, though, there should be even more responsibility in making sure the stories that are shared are detailed and verified and thorough enough to undergo scrutiny,” Mehta said.

Ultimately, if this story were to turn out to be false, a lot of people with legitimate concerns about Hegseth’s Christian nationalist takeover of the U.S. military could end up having their concerns dismissed because they jumped on a story that confirmed their opposition to Hegseth without verifying the facts.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stands outside the Pentagon during a welcome ceremony for the Japanese defense minister at the Pentagon in Washington, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

The ‘God of War’ and the ‘War Department’

So what exactly are the verifiable facts here? At the least, Hegseth is creating a culture where commanders citing the end times as a motive for warfare would be possible.

Concerns about Hegseth began immediately after Trump first nominated him. Photos spread online of Hegseth’s tattoos that promote Christian crusades. One tattoo is the Latin phrase “Deus Vult,” which means “God wills it” and is popular among white nationalist groups.

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