by John Bernard, ©2025
(Jun. 17, 2025) — Enter Candace Owen and Tucker Carlson, spinning personal theories about what is happening in the Middle East, this very hour. In as much as it is true that everyone outside the Beltway is looking through Paul’s darkened glass (1 Cor 13:12), both Spiritually and Temporally, there are still markers which we can use to help decipher events and publicized statements, pictures and videos.
First, you must acknowledge that everything made public is glazed with political and ideological subjectiveness. Second, every single public statement has been scrutinized for potential security concerns both domestically and for allies. Third, nearly every released statement contains a subliminal/encoded message to adversaries. Fourth, we probably won’t be able to know with certainty what any of those are; we can guess and theorize but probably not know.
Given the current situation between Israel and Iran, there is a 45-year history to glean in recent history as well as the 13th century genesis of the Twelver Sect to which the theocrats in Iran are fused. Without getting into a deep religious discussion, it is enough to know that the Iranian Regime believes they are the generation commanded to “jump-start” the Qiyamah (end-of-days precursor) and the advent of the Mahdi and return of Isa (Jesus). This event is pre-empted by the destruction of Israel, and the Iranian Regime includes the “Great Satan”/USA in that plan. Their quest for nuclear weaponry has been to this end. Both Democrat and Republican alike, including Trump, Israel and much of the world have been in lockstep in their knowledge of this and their determination to never allow this to happen.
Muddying the waters a bit, Imams within the Twelver Sect share a shadowy reflection of a futurist eschatology with Evangelical Christianity in that they believe a version of Ezekiel 38 where Gog and Magog (most believe modern-day Russia, although George Lamsa/Peshitta Bible translates and renders it as China) come down to aid them in their quest.
My point being this: there are many ideological and presumptive and even political underpinnings feeding the myriad of theories and opinions about what is going on and how to proceed. The only thing I am willing to say with certainty is, if there has been so much agreement between the world’s leaders and even adversarial domestic politicians about the goals of the Regime and that they should never have nuclear capability, that would seem to be a slam-dunk in favor of preventing them from gaining such weaponry in spite of the lack of agreement on any potential eternal consequences.
It is important to note that futurist eschatology indicates that Gog/Russia and/or China are coerced/compelled (hook in the jaw per Eze 38: 1-6) to move south and lead a coalition including Persia/Iran in a land campaign against Israel. Currently, Russia is mired in its war with Ukraine, and China is mired in its trade war with us and suffering its own financial difficulties and their focus on the South China Sea. So, this would not appear to be the time to be watching for any movement south by those two and in fact, they have remained largely silent.
That leaves us with present-day, temporal realities. Whether you agree with Zionism or not, the fact remains that the Nation of Israel does exist and is surrounded by hostiles. In the same way that each of us believes we have a Right to live, Israeli citizens also have a Right to live and to defend against enemies who plan for their destruction. Sometimes the best defense is a good, well-planned offense, which is what we are witnessing these days as Israel methodically strikes Iran’s offensive capability as well as its nuclear weapons program, sites, scientists, IRGC Leadership and stockpiles. This is happening while Trump is still actively seeking to have productive talks (the Olive Branch) with a not-yet-repentant Iranian Islamic Regime.
Do I believe those talks will be productive? Absolutely not. But Trump doesn’t get to act on his gut instinct alone nor to coerce Israel at its own risk. He is walking a tightrope between adversaries with an ancient feud with one of the belligerents having made overt threats against us for decades.
Candace, Tucker and the rest of us need to give Trump the breathing room to navigate this. What we are watching was always inevitable, whether a Democrat or a Republican was in the White House.
Semper Fidelis;
John Bernard