Is Islam One of God’s Rods of Judgment on America? :: By Brandon Holthaus

God will Judge a Nation Through the Forces It Refuses to Confront

America is not ancient Israel, and the Church must never pretend that every promise or judgment from God given to Israel can be transferred mechanically to the United States. Yet the Bible repeatedly reveals a principle that applies to every nation: God rules over history, nations are accountable to Him, and He can use one nation or group to discipline another.

That pattern should make Americans tremble. I believe the expanding influence of Islam, Islamist intimidation, jihadist violence, and the West’s fear of confronting them may be among the instruments God is using to expose and judge America and the West in general. Scripture does not say, “Islam will judge America,” and it does not name the United States in an end-times timetable. But Scripture gives us a pattern, and current events give us reasons to ask whether that pattern is repeating.

This is not a declaration that every Muslim is violent. Millions of nominal Muslims are not devout adherents to the Koran and Hadith, and they are not personally violent. But that does not eliminate the serious questions we must ask.

Too many nominal Muslims remain publicly silent after Islamic terrorist attacks such as Oct. 7 or 9/11. For the last 25 years, we also hear no denunciations of Sharia law, even though Sharia is incompatible with Western constitutional democracy. Under traditional Sharia, there is no genuine freedom of speech, no equal freedom of religion, no rights for women, and legalized discrimination against non-Muslims.

We also do not hear nominal Muslims publicly denounce Islam’s historic goal of establishing a global caliphate, its claim of Islamic supremacy over every area of life, or the doctrine of dhimmitude. Under dhimmitude, non-Muslims—especially Jews and Christians—are treated as legally inferior and required to pay the jizya tax.

Dhimmitude is the subordinate legal status that Sharia assigns to non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, meaning “protected people,” may be permitted to practice their religion under an Islamic regime, but only while accepting discriminatory and humiliating restrictions intended to make them “feel themselves subdued,” as stated in Sura 9:29.

This denial of equal rights and human dignity remains part of traditional Sharia. It is also part of the legal and political structure that global jihadists are attempting to restore throughout the Islamic world and ultimately seek to impose far beyond it.

We are continually gaslit by our media, academia, and politicians into believing that most Muslims oppose Islamic terrorism. But for the last 25 years, I have not seen any convincing evidence that this opposition is consistent or universal. In many cases, terrorism is strongly condemned when Muslims are its victims. Yet, attacks such as September 11 and October 7 are excused, justified, celebrated, or redefined as “resistance” when the victims are Americans or Jews.

Jihad is the Arabic word for “struggle,” and Islamic apologists frequently emphasize its nonviolent meanings. However, history and today show the opposite. Armed jihad is firmly embedded in Islam, jurisprudence, and history. No historic school of Islamic jurisprudence erased armed jihad from Islamic doctrine. Violent jihad has been a recurring feature of Islamic expansion from its earliest centuries to the present. And yet, I never hear nominal Muslims denounce jihad.

Something is seriously wrong when nominal Muslims refuse to speak against these doctrines and atrocities. In my view, persistent silence in the face of such evil becomes tacit approval. If someone truly rejects Islamic terrorism, Jihad, Sharia supremacy, dhimmitude, and the goal of a worldwide caliphate, then that rejection should be stated openly and unmistakably.

The issue is not hatred of Muslims. The issue is whether Americans, Europeans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and the West possess enough courage to tell the truth about Islam, Sharia supremacy, jihad, dhimmitude, the jizya tax, and the global caliphate before silence and cowardice make honest confrontation impossible.

We can oppose evil without hating the people that Christ commands us to reach with the gospel. But I’m not talking about individuals and the Gospel. I’m discussing a political ideology based on hate and lies that’s bent on destroying the civilization it occupies. Islam is not compatible with the West at all! So, the danger addressed here is Islam, which is a political ideology wrapped in the veneer of a religion vying for supremacy over all religions and governments. The danger is its stated desire to establish Shariah Law, Islamic supremacy, and a global caliphate through Jihad or hijra (immigration), and the cowardice of governments, institutions, politicians, pastors, and churches that refuse to name the threat, confront it, resist it, and jettison it out of the West

The Biblical Pattern of Nations Used as Instruments

The pattern begins with Assyria. The northern kingdom of Israel persisted in idolatry, injustice, and rebellion until Assyria conquered Samaria and carried the people away. Second Kings 17 explains the spiritual cause of the catastrophe. Isaiah 10 goes further, calling Assyria the “rod of My anger.” Assyria did not worship the God of Israel, and its rulers acted from pride and conquest. Yet God used that empire to accomplish judgment and then judged Assyria for its arrogance and cruelty.

Judah later followed a similar road. Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and carried many into exile. Jeremiah 25 even calls Nebuchadnezzar God’s “servant” in the limited sense that the pagan king would execute a divine sentence. Habakkuk struggled with the same mystery: how could a holy God use a nation more wicked than Judah? The answer was not that Babylon was righteous. God is holy, just, and in control. Judah would be held accountable for its sin, and Babylon would face judgment for its own. God would use Babylon to judge Judah, but neither nation would escape His justice.

The sequence continued. Isaiah 13 announced that the Medes would be stirred against Babylon. Daniel 5 described Babylon’s kingdom as divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Daniel 8 identified the ram as Media and Persia and the male goat as Greece. Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 forecasted that Rome would conquer the Hellenistic kingdoms as the iron power and the fourth beast. Empires rose, served purposes larger than themselves, and fell when their appointed season ended.

The lesson is sobering. God’s use of an empire never meant His approval of its religion, morals, or methods. An instrument of judgment may itself stand under judgment. The question for America and the West is therefore not whether Islamist ideology is righteous. It is not. It is Satanic. It is characterized by John as being labeled “antichrist” since it denies the Son being God. “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22) The question is whether God may allow a hostile ideology to gain ground because a proud and unrepentant nation has surrendered the Biblical convictions that once gave it strength.

The First Sign Is Moral Surrender

Romans 1 describes judgment as God giving people over to the desires they have chosen. That form of judgment is already visible when a society celebrates what Scripture calls sin, punishes moral dissent, and exports its rebellion as cultural enlightenment.

From a biblical perspective, America and the West have become a global promoter of murdering babies through abortion, euthanasia, sexually immoral ideology (LGBT++, fornication, adultery, pedophilia, sex trafficking, rape, molestation, and transgenderism), radical identity politics, Marxism, Communism, Globalism, intersectionality, WOKE-ism, DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), purposeful racial agitation, and a radical feminism that treats the created distinctions between men and women as obstacles to liberation.

The central problem is not that every person associated with these movements has identical motives. The problem is that institutions increasingly demand moral agreement with ideas that contradict biblical creation, marriage, family, personal responsibility, and truth.

A nation that cannot define a woman, defend the innocence of children, or tolerate the public expression of historic Christian morality has already lost more than a political argument. It’s lost the culture. It has surrendered its moral immune system. Once truth becomes negotiable, the culture has little defense against any confident ideology willing to fill the vacuum.

The Second Sign Is the Spread of Antisemitism and Dividing Israel’s Land

Antisemitism now appears across ideological lines. It is found in jihadist and Islamic propaganda, podcasters, college campuses, in conspiracy movements, in street demonstrations, and in corners of the political Right and Left. Federal cases involving threats against Jewish people and public officials show that this hatred is not merely rhetorical. America’s failure to confront it consistently is spiritually dangerous and civically reckless. ^[1]

Some versions of “America First” require discernment. A government has a duty to protect its citizens and avoid foolish wars. That is prudence. But prudence can become a cover for isolationism, and “national interest” can become an excuse to treat Israel as just another ally, interchangeable with Denmark or Sweden, rather than a strategic ally in the Middle East.

That is why J.D. Vance’s remark that “we cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the State of Israel” troubles me. The United States has not been subservient to Israel in its foreign policy. Such rhetoric is unwarranted, and it panders to the anti-Jewish and anti-Israel voices on the right.

Support for Israel does not require approving every decision made by an Israeli government. It does require rejecting the lie that terrorism becomes noble when its victims are Jews. It also requires recognizing propaganda. For example, a prominent Gaza photographer acknowledged that he withheld footage showing Israeli captives being beaten because publication could harm the attackers, while also describing a Hamas-linked effort to shape media narratives. That admission deserves scrutiny because an information war can transform aggressors into victims and victims into criminals. ^[2]

Military scholar John Spencer has argued, based on repeated visits to Gaza, that Israel’s warnings, evacuation measures, humanitarian pauses, and other civilian-harm precautions are evidence against the accusation that Israel intends to destroy Gaza’s population. Israel did not commit genocide; that is the word the liars in this world want to keep repeating. His conclusion exposes how often the most inflammatory charge is repeated as settled fact while contrary evidence is ignored. ^[3]

In fact, according to the CIA World Factbook, it shows “a population in Gaza over the past three years of: 2022: 1,997,328; 2023: 2,098,389; and 2024: 2,141,643. This indicates a growth rate in Gaza over the past year of 2.06%, which is more than double the US growth rate during the same period, at only 0.98%.” ^[4]

America’s failure to confront raging antisemitism is itself a way of treating Israel lightly. The Hebrew phrase for “treating Israel lightly” in Genesis 12:3 uses the word qalal (קָלַל), specifically in its intensive Piel form (l’kalel). While often translated simply as “curse,” this form of the root qalal means to treat with contempt, disdain, or make light of. Therefore, the verse promises that God will curse those who treat Abraham’s descendants with contempt, even if they do not explicitly utter a curse or physically do anything to Israel or a Jewish person.

Under the Abrahamic Covenant, God declared, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3). When individuals or nations excuse antisemitism, demonize the Jewish people, reward their enemies, or abandon Israel in its time of need, they place themselves against God’s covenant purposes. Treating Israel lightly is not a minor political miscalculation; it brings divine accountability and ultimately a curse upon both the individual and the nation.

Gaza International Control and the Land of Israel

The development arrangement for Gaza raises another prophetic concern. In 2026, plans moved forward for the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a technocratic body intended to manage civilian affairs during a transition. A Board of Peace chaired by President Donald Trump was assigned broad oversight of reconstruction and implementation. Hamas announced the dissolution of its governing bodies, but questions surrounding disarmament, security, sovereignty, and the durability of the transfer remained unresolved. ^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Gaza has not simply entered a settled, uncontested new order. The arrangement is transitional and contested. My concern is theological: Under the direction of Trump, international authorities are once again positioning themselves to determine the future of land God covenanted to Israel. I believe any process that pressures Israel to surrender security, fragments its territory, or rewards terrorism risks placing participating nations on dangerous ground.

Scripture does not authorize careless date-setting, and it does not permit us to force every diplomatic committee into a prophetic verse. Yet Joel 3 links divine judgment with the dividing of God’s land, while Zechariah 12 warns about the nations’ fixation on Jerusalem. At minimum, Christians should recognize that decisions about Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem are not morally weightless bargaining chips.

Dividing the land is not merely a political decision; it violates God’s covenantal grant to Israel. God promised the land to Abraham and his physical descendants in Genesis 12:7; 13:14–17; 15:18–21; and 17:7–8. Deuteronomy 30:1–10 guarantees Israel’s eventual restoration to that land. Joel 3:1–3 warns that God will judge the nations because they scattered His people and “divided up My land.” Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem are not ordinary international real estate. They belong to the land God covenanted to Israel, and nations like America that divide it place themselves in opposition to His revealed purposes. This also brings on the Abrahamic covenant’s cursing aspect to America and any individual that divides the land of Israel.

The Third Sign Is a Silent and Compromised Church

The greatest crisis is not in Washington, Hollywood, the university, or the newsroom. It is in the pulpit. Too many churches have traded biblical clarity for institutional comfort. 98% of the churches avoid prophecy for their own ridiculous reasons. Some avoid sexual ethics because it affects attendance. 70-80% of churches teach replacement theology, so they won’t mention Israel. Some will denounce every fashionable Western sin like non-inclusion, non-diversity, reparations, and white privilege but become strangely quiet when Jews are threatened, or Muslims persecute Christians in Nigeria.

Most of the organized church behaves as though its first duty is to remain respectable and not offend anyone. They want to be nicer than God, as Peter tried when he questioned the Lord about offending the Pharisees (Matthew 15:12). A church that fears accusations from man more than it fears God will never prepare a nation for hardship. They become a doormat for Islam. Judgment begins at the house of God, and the vomiting Messiah promised to the Laodicean church and Laodicean believers is coming because they have failed to call for repentance, courage, and holiness. They have abandoned the teaching of the whole counsel of Scripture.

The Warning of Europe

Europe offers a warning to America: mass migration of Islamic people without successful assimilation, combined with Islamist intimidation and official timidity, can fracture a country’s confidence and public order.

In September 2026, a French court jailed a father for six months after he threatened to decapitate his nine-year-old son’s teacher. The teacher had disciplined the boy for disruptive behavior. The threat carried special terror in a country where teachers Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard were murdered in Islamist attacks. The case illustrates how the language of jihadist terror can be used to intimidate ordinary teachers and silence institutions. ^[9]

Europol’s annual terrorism reporting continues to track jihadist as well as other extremist threats across the European Union. European culture is being “destroyed” by an Islamic culture. Repeated attacks, failed assimilation, rape gangs, antisemitic violence, parallel social pressures, and fear of giving offense have produced a genuine civilizational strain on the verge of collapse or civil war. America should learn from that record before the same pressures become entrenched here. ^[10]

Could Islamist Pressure Be One Instrument of Judgment?

I believe that God may be permitting Islamist pressure to function as one of the instruments of judgment against a nation that has abandoned truth, exported depravity, tolerated antisemitism, weakened its churches, and grown ashamed of its own civilizational foundations.

That does not mean Islamist movements will ultimately win or escape judgment. Assyria was judged. Babylon was judged. Persia, Greece, and Rome passed from their former glory. God can use a power without endorsing it, and He can overthrow it after its purpose is complete.

Nor am I saying America must vanish from the map. My view is that America may be reduced from superpower to secondary power. Such a decline would remove a major obstacle to the international consolidation that many prophecy students expect before the final global system described in Daniel and Revelation reaches its mature form. Scripture does not name America in that system. But a debt-ridden, divided, morally vacant, strategically retreating America is easier to absorb into global governance than a confident and sovereign superpower.

The same nation that once projected strength may be conquered less by armies landing on its shores than by spiritual emptiness, demographic disorder, elite self-hatred, technological control, economic dependency, and fear of speaking plainly. An invading force does not always arrive in uniform. Sometimes it advances through ideology, intimidation, institutional capture, and leaders’ refusal to defend their own inheritance.

The Christian Response

The answer is not hatred of Muslims. Hatred is a counterfeit of courage and a betrayal of the gospel. The answer is to tell the truth about Islam and its political and civilizational ambitions, enforce one law equally, secure the border, prosecute threats and violence, and protect the freedom to preach, debate, and criticize Islam without fear of a fatwa death sentence or a jihadist attack.

I also support a moratorium on immigration from Islamic countries and regions where applicants cannot be adequately screened for jihadist sympathies, criminal activity, or hostility toward our constitutional government.

In Islamic theology, hijra means migration. Some Islamist movements interpret hijra as part of the broader struggle of jihad, using migration into non-Muslim lands to spread Islam, expand Islamic influence, and establish communities governed increasingly by Islamic beliefs and values. We should not ignore that ideological dimension when shaping immigration and national security policy.

Admission to the United States should never be automatic, and it must be legal. Those seeking legal entry should be required to verify their identities, provide reliable records from their countries of origin, demonstrate no criminal history, and show they are prepared to support themselves and contribute positively to our economy rather than depend on public assistance.

Immigrants should also be willing to learn our language, obey our laws, respect religious liberty, reject political violence, and assimilate into the American constitutional order. Islamic immigrants have proven they cannot do this for the last 25 years.

This may sound harsh, but immigration policies must be judged by their long-term consequences, not merely by their intentions. The experiences of Christians and ordinary citizens in Egypt and Lebanon, where Islamic domination transformed society, along with the serious assimilation problems now confronting parts of Europe, should serve as warnings.

Compassion does not require national suicide. America can treat every person with dignity while refusing entry to those who support Islamic ideology, reject constitutional freedoms due to supporting Shariah Law, or have no intention of becoming part of the American community but instead want to take over the country for the sake of Islam.

The Remnant church must maintain its mission because Laodicea is no longer in the spiritual battle. Remnant Christians should defend Jewish neighbors, stand against antisemitism wherever it appears, support Israel, and evangelize Muslims with conviction and compassion. A Muslim is not beyond the reach of God and the Jewish Messiah, Jesus. Many former Muslims testify that Jesus met them not through contempt but through truth, Scripture, sacrifice, and love.

Finally, Laodicean churches and Laodicean believers must repent before demanding that the country repent. The faithful Philadelphia and Smyrna Remnant are already doing what they can, but we need help sounding the alarm. We pray that many spiritually complacent Christians will awaken before it is too late.

We cannot condemn the culture’s confusion while tolerating pornography, the LGBT and transgender agendas, fornication, adultery, greed, cowardice, biblical illiteracy, and compromise within our own congregations. We cannot ignore Bible prophecy, deny the reality of spiritual warfare, and replace biblical discipleship with seeker-friendly, purpose-driven church-growth models and then wonder why the Church has become powerless and irrelevant.

We cannot ask God to preserve a nation while its churches refuse to obey Him. It simply won’t happen.

A Final Warning

America is quickly running out of time, and no nation has permanent exemption from judgment. The same God who raised empires and brought them down has not retired from history. Our military, economy, technology, and institutions cannot save us from the consequences of moral rebellion.

I offer a warning drawn from a clear pattern. God judged Israel through Assyria. He judged Judah through Babylon. He brought the Medes and Persians against Babylon, Greece against Persia, and Rome after Greece. In my judgment, Islam is now one of the forces God is allowing to hammer a complacent America, and not because Islam is true, but because America has rejected the truth it once knew.

If America refuses that call, its decline may become the opening through which a new global order rises.

Sources and Notes