Verse 14:8 of the Book of Revelation, the prophetic conclusion of the Christian Bible, features three angels who deliver messages from God to humanity. The second angel says, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She has made all the nations drink the wine of the wrath of her immorality.”
In March, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation received over 200 reports claiming that commanders were briefing about how the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran and Lebanon is sanctioned by God, and that President Trump is tasked with fulfilling the prophecies found in Revelation. More recently, Trump verbally attacked Pope Leo XIV for being critical of the war, calling him a DEI hire and “WEAK on Crime.” Vice President Vance and House Speaker Johnson backed Trump with similar criticisms, alleging that the Pope is stepping out of line. Trump followed his tantrum by posting an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ on Truth Social.
While these events were shocking, I was more amused than surprised. The Christian nationalist movement has been a long-time ally of Trump, often portraying him as a messiah figure. Additionally, many conservative evangelicals believe that the supremacy of Israel over the Middle East is crucial to the prophetic return of Jesus. While this fanatical thinking seems ridiculous, we cannot dismiss Christian nationalism without failing to understand it.
Trump has claimed he is Christ. While this may not be his personal, theological position—most think he does not have one—his egotism has been apparent for his entire public life. Within this framework, his mandate is not just that of the American voter base and the Electoral College, but of God. Obviously, this is blasphemy.
The first verse in Chapter 13 of Revelation, a “beast” is introduced. This chimera-like creature from the sea was given authority by a “dragon,” in which “It was allowed to mouth its haughty and blasphemous words, and it was granted permission to exercise its authority for forty-two months.” Forty-two months is around three and a half years. That is a little under the length of a presidential term. Get where I am going with this?
It seems like the Christian nationalists are carrying a fatal contradiction. On one hand, they want to invoke Revelation to justify the conquest of Iran and other non-compliant powers in the Middle East. On the other hand, the man whom they prop up as the Second Coming better resembles one of the main villains in their own prophecy.
Furthermore, while Secretary of War Hegseth pushes the narrative that America and its imperialist foreign policy initiatives are sanctioned by God, a current events reading of Revelation points us in the opposite direction. In line with 14:8, Chapter 17 describes “Babylon the great, the Infamous Harlot,” who is said to intoxicate the rulers of the world with “the wine of her harlotry.” While this emphasis on Babylon being a sexually immoral woman is strange, the symbolic meaning speaks volumes. She has authority over the Earth and is aligned with the aforementioned beast for a short period of time, but an angel tells John, Revelation’s writer, that, “The ten horns that you saw and the beast will hate the harlot. They will render her desolate and naked; after they devour her flesh, they will burn her up with fire.”
If Revelation really is unfolding now, then Babylon is none other than the United States. The nation with the most military bases—and it is not even close—around the world is the United States. Its economic sway over all other nations is unprecedented. Through the petrodollar, the world’s economies are practically required to invest in the United States’ banking industry if they want energy. This nation is permitted to supersede international law and the sovereignty of other societies on a whim. A pressing and overlooked example is the U.S. embargo on Cuba. After blocking Venezuelan oil shipments—through essentially kidnapping the former president of Venezuela—the United States caused a nationwide blackout in Cuba, which has led to starvation and death for the Cuban people. Hospitals lack the electricity and resources to keep their patients alive, and many are falling into poverty. It is absolutely egregious, yet the Trump administration faces no consequence, which is exactly the level of pure power that Babylon exerts over the world in Revelation.
After the fall of Babylon, due to the betrayal of the beast, there are a series of wars between the forces of the beast and Jesus. It seems that one of these wars may be happening already in the form of the back and forth between the Pope and the President. Pope Leo remarked, “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” While Leo XIV has since said these words were not directly aimed at Trump himself, the message still rings true.
Trump, his cronies and America as a society are constantly performing acts of idolatry, which the Pope is exposing through his outcries. These actors seek to use Christianity to cover up the fact that their true god is the accumulation of wealth and the satisfaction of their bloodlust. When Hegseth prays for “overwhelming violence” in Iran, when we know the victims of American strikes are school children, that cannot viably be a prayer to the Prince of Peace.
I am not a Christian, and I do not wish to fearmonger that the world is ending. However, the dangerous people running our society need to be examined so that we are not blindsided by the idolatrous apocalyptic thinking justifying or motivating these atrocities. Even if Revelation is not literally unfolding, it provides symbols and a traditional account of how political power reckons with its own blatant immorality. Revelation forces us to consider the crumbling of an evil society and the birth of a better one.