The U.S. and Israel have launched one of the most significant military operations in a generation to permanently eliminate Iran’s nuclear terror ambitions. Here’s what Christians need to understand about Operation Epic Fury.
This article is a lightly edited transcript of the “Here’s the Point” podcast by Ryan Helfenbein, executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center.
Early Saturday morning, February 28, American news outlets began reporting that the United States military in a joint operation with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had hit hundreds of targets across Iran as a part of Operation Epic Fury — a sweeping military campaign spanning at least nine Iranian cities and targeting leadership compounds, government ministries, ballistic missile production sites, nuclear-related facilities, and naval assets.
It was early announced that the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei was dead.
President Trump announced the strikes in a TruthSocial post, concluding with a direct message to the Iranian people: “The hour of your freedom is at hand.” Many thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in major cities across the United States and in Iran celebrating Trump’s decision to attack the Iranian government.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth described U.S. military actions plainly, saying: “The Iranian regime had their chance, yet refused to make a deal — and now they are suffering the consequences.”
Hegseth called it the “most lethal, most complex, and most-precision aerial operation in history.” Four American service members have so far been killed in action. Iran has launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes against Israel and neighboring nations, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and eight others, and has received a backlash of criticism as a result of their actions.
The Iranian government had been urged by the Trump administration to negotiate and to cease their ambition of a nuclear weapon. At no point did the Trump administration see any goodwill effort on the part of the Iranian government to take part in negotiations, and so this conflict that started on June 22, 2025, was inevitable.
So how should Christians think about this? Three points.
First, the death of Khamenei should not surprise us, because Iran was never negotiating in good faith.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is not merely a geopolitical adversary. It is a theocratic regime animated by an Islamic eschatological vision — a worldview driven by Islamic prophecy that demands the fulfilment of a global Islamic caliphate. This is not mere political rhetoric from Tehran; it is the animating doctrine of the Islamic Revolution since 1979.
Khamenei and the clerical establishment did not pursue nuclear weapons because they feared American aggression nor because they were suddenly fearful of Donald Trump. They pursued nuclear weapons because their ideology, their theology, told them they needed ultimate power to fulfill their Islamic mission.
This is why no amount of diplomacy, no signed agreements, no amount of cash money, and no temporary moratorium was ever going to end Iran’s nuclear ambitions. You cannot negotiate away a 6th century warring ideology that is Islam. When a regime believes it is carrying out the will of Allah in preparation for the return of the Hidden Imam, it will not stop because of diplomatic pressure or international approval ratings — especially from Western nations, which are the sworn enemy of Islam.
Christians who understand their Bible understand this better than most. We know what it looks like when a worldview is not merely political but spiritually driven — and we know that spiritual battles require more than superficial diplomatic resolutions and papered peace plans.
Second, the failures of appeasement paved the road to this moment.
Let’s be honest about the history. The neoconservative approach of the early 2000s, whatever its intentions, was built on a flawed premise: that America could build Western-style democracies in the heart of the Islamic world. We tried nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan. It cost thousands in American lives and trillions in American dollars. It has so far produced very little in sustained peace or stability. That is not to lay the blame entirely on President Bush, but it was built on a flawed view of the Arab and Persian cultures.
During Barack Obama’s administration and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — otherwise known as the Iran Nuclear Deal — it was sold to the American people as a pathway to peace. It was only a delayed agreement with a temporary moratorium on certain Iranian nuclear activities, with key restrictions set to expire beginning in 2025. Obama paid Iran’s regime $150 billion in released assets as part of the deal, funds that flowed directly to Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Meanwhile, enforcement was lax and oversight verification was severely lacking. The Obama administration soothed the conscience of an unsuspecting American media that fawned over Obama with no critical appraisal of the efficacy of these peace talks. Even while Iran continued uranium enrichment and advanced its missile capabilities behind the scenes, the American media was silent and praised Obama for his diplomacy.
But the Iran Nuclear Deal was never designed to end Iran’s nuclear ambitions; it was designed to delay them and hand the problem to a future administration. Trump 45 put a moratorium on the deal and then Biden picked up where Obama left off when he took over in 2021. The United States pursued re-entry into a deal that had already demonstrated its own lack of political realism.
The nuclear moratorium expired in 2025. Iran then accelerated its goals. And the world arrived at the precipice of a nuclear-armed Islamic regime. The policy of appeasement did not buy peace, not even temporarily. It only bought time and more technology for Iran with American cash and the covering of the Democratic establishment.
Third, Trump is a policy realist — and that distinction matters enormously.
Secretary Hegseth said it with clarity at Monday’s Pentagon briefing: “This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both — our generation knows better, and so does this President.” He added: “No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise. We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or American lives.”
After six years of President Trump, it is clear that he is not a neoconservative. He has no interest in transforming Iran into a Western democracy by American blood or American treasure. Trump is also not an appeaser. He believes in peace through overwhelming strength, something Reagan exercised against Russia during the last decade of the Cold War.
Trump has no interest in signing agreements that kick the can down the road for the next administration. He is a policy realist. And according to his stated goals, Operation Epic Fury seeks to ensure that Iran doesn’t acquire a nuclear weapon, that the United States destroys Iran’s missile arsenal and production sites, that we degrade Iran’s proxy terror networks and annihilate the Iranian navy.
This, along with operations in Venezuela, has a clear message for Beijing and Iran’s involvement in supplying energy exports to China. Iran has been a critical source for both Russia and China in the heart of the Middle East. This could fundamentally change that and put further pressure on Russia and China in their ambitions as BRICS nations [an intergovernmental organization started by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to challenge the West’s political and economic influence and which has since expanded its membership rolls to include Iran and other Middle Eastern countries).
The world is watching to see whether America has the resolve to finish what it has started.
And now is the time for Christians to pray.
Pray for our military service members and their families. Pray for wisdom for our President, our Secretary of War, and our military commanders. Pray for the Iranian people — who have suffered under the totalitarian Islamic regime for nearly 50 years.
The hour of reckoning for a very wicked government in Iran is at hand. We must also recognize the justice in ensuring that a wicked government never has the capability of projecting terror across the world again. For far too long Iran was able to do so without any answer or response from America. That has ended.
We will be covering more on the history of Iran and how we got to this moment in upcoming videos. Be sure you catch every episode by subscribing to “Here’s the Point.”
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