For a Different Kind of Apocalypse—From LA to Tehran

As an Iranian American Christian from Los Angeles, I watch with alarm as a fringe religious prophecy creeps into the highest levels of American policy. What may sound like a spiritual metaphor—biblical End Times, Armageddon, divine vengeance—is now inspiring large-scale political decisions, putting lives at risk from LA to Gaza to Tehran.

After Hamas killed over a thousand Israelis and took hundreds captive on October 7, 2023, Israel has dropped the equivalent of several nuclear bombs on the Gaza Strip’s mass incarcerated Palestinian refugee enclave—with the U.S. supplying about 68% of Israel’s foreign-origin weaponry in this war. Amnesty International describes Israel’s response to October 7 as a genocide—killings “with the specific intent of destroying Palestinians in Gaza.”

In April 2024 in LA, masked vigilantes attacked UCLA’s nonviolent pro-Palestinian encampment for three hours with wood, metal, and fireworks before LAPD intervened. At the beginning of this year, Angelenos were devastated by the Eaton and Palisades Fires—worsened by global warming—taking dozens of lives, destroying thousands of homes, and creating eerie orange skies above Los Angeles.

The thought of my U.S. taxpayer dollars funding bombing campaigns of my ancestral homeland that could eventually become nuclear, threatening the beautiful ancient city of Isfahan that I visited in my childhood, is unbearable.

Now, the world is in the throes of President Donald Trump’s chaotic second term. Shortly after his inauguration, he once again withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accords—while LA was ablaze. More recently, as Angelenos have protested the federal government’s inhumane mass deportation campaign, which has lately targeted Iranian nationals, the Trump administration majorly escalated by sending in thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

On June 13, while the U.S. and Iran were in the middle of diplomatic negotiations around reinstating Obama-era restraints on Iran’s nuclear energy program, Israel under Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu, still waging a genocide on Gaza and facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court as of November 2024, began a large-scale attack on Iran. This represented the most significant attack on Iran since the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988—culminating in the killings of at least 600 Iranians, including many civilians and children. In response, Iran attacked Israel with retaliatory strikes that killed dozens of Israelis.

In a televised address on Sunday, June 22, President Trump reported that the United States military under his command bombed three sites in Iran housing the country’s nuclear energy program, including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, entering the U.S. into Israel’s offensive attack. He even at one point raised the possibility of a U.S. nuclear strike on Iran in the future. On Monday, June 23, Iran retaliated against the U.S. by launching limited missile strikes directed at an American military base in Qatar, with no casualties. Later that day on social media, Trump announced a cease-fire deal between Israel and Iran. Though both nations continued to exchange fire shortly after the cease-fire went into effect, Israel and Iran are now experiencing a fragile peace. Trump and Netanyahu have purportedly agreed to end the war in Gaza within two weeks of the U.S. strikes on Iran, and the U.S. and Iran are expected to talk during the week of June 30.

This conflict has deeply impacted Angelenos, including my own family. LA is home to the largest Iranian diaspora globally, known as “Tehrangeles.” As an Iranian American, I don’t see Iran as a geopolitical adversary; it’s home to my loved ones and heritage. Israel concentrated many of its airstrikes in Tehran—the most populous city in Western Asia—including airstrikes in my own cousin’s neighborhood. The escalation of this conflict, including Trump’s call on Iranians in Tehran to “evacuate immediately,” forced my cousin and disabled U.S. citizen grandmother to flee Tehran to Northern Iran. It was a strange feeling when I last spoke to my grandmother before her internet went out, hearing her say in Farsi, “Ma ra zadan”—“They hit us.” The thought of my U.S. taxpayer dollars funding bombing campaigns of my ancestral homeland that could eventually become nuclear, threatening the beautiful ancient city of Isfahan that I visited in my childhood, is unbearable. After all, Iran is filled with rich world history—including the most widely accepted site of the tomb of Prophet Daniel of the Bible, who I am named after.

How did we get to this escalating polycrisis of destruction? In part, because white Christian nationalist leaders have embraced a belief in the End Times—an extremist theology that now holds wide political sway according to religion scholar Bradley Onishi. Texas megachurch pastor, founder of influential political lobbying organization Christians United for Israel, and Trump adviser John Hagee preaches that warfare between Israel, Palestine, and Iran is part of a biblically predicted Battle of Armageddon, in which the U.S. must militarily support Israel to be reunited with God in the Rapture. He cites Ezekiel 38 and 39, an Old Testament prophecy that says a restored Israel in the End Times will be attacked by a nation called Gog, supported by Persia (modern-day Iran). In retaliation, a vengeful God of Israel would decimate Gog and Persia through brute force “to cleanse the land.” In Hagee’s words, Iran is “already in the hit list in Ezekiel 38.” This prophecy also talks of climate destruction during this violent vision of the End Times, including “torrents of rain, hailstones, and burning sulfur.” These ideas are no longer confined to pulpits—they are shaping real-world policy. Even former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that God sent Trump to save Israel from Iran.

If we must turn to apocalyptic scripture to understand the future, then why don’t we skip ahead to Revelation 21: the creation of a “new heaven and a new Earth,” including a “new Jerusalem,” where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Los Angeles and our world are enduring too much grief to bear. Instead of pushing us close to the brink of Armageddon through military escalations at home and abroad animated by religious fundamentalism, U.S. policymakers must find the courage to lead us toward world peace through diplomacy and climate repair. That means reinstating the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran of zero weaponization, as opposed to an unrealistic goal of zero enrichment. It means pushing for an immediate, permanent cease-fire between the U.S., Israel, Palestine, and Iran, and it means reentering the U.S. into the Paris climate accords.

My faith teaches redemption, not vengeance. As God promises in the Bible, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”