I’ve been receiving a lot of questions and comments about Iran lately. As a Bible prophecy teacher and writer, it comes with the territory.

But some of the questions I’ve received show there is little understanding of Scripture among many Christians today. For that matter, some questions and remarks show a poor understanding of geopolitical events, too.

“This means the antichrist is here.” (No, it doesn’t.)

“I think America will probably get taken out by Iran in this conflict – do you agree?” (No.)

“I didn’t think the War of Gog and Magog was supposed to start this way.” (It doesn’t.)

“Do you think America is going to lose this conflict because she is supporting Israel?” (No, and by the way, your antisemitism is showing.)

It’s obvious the church has done a lousy job of ‘equipping the saints’ (Eph. 4:12). That’s not hard to understand since a 2022 study from the Cultural Research Center shows only 37% of American senior pastors, and only 13% of teaching pastors have a Biblical worldview. Other studies show more than 75% of pastors today don’t teach anything on Bible prophecy.

But I teach a great deal on Bible prophecy along Colorado’s Front Range and into Wyoming, and I’ve faced plenty of illiteracy and hostility from church leaders as a result. Here are some comments I’ve received from this bunch recently:

“Your Bible prophecy series has nothing to do with the Gospel, and so it shouldn’t be taught. Get your priorities straight!!!”

“We believe in a progressive theology where all are welcome and none are judged.”

“Your belief that Bible prophecy is important shows that you are a narrow-minded Zionist and a Jew-lover.”

“You’re probably a dispensationalist who believes in the Rapture and Millennial Kingdom.”

I have many more ‘enlightened’ comments that I’ve received like those. But you get my point. We have a HUGE problem in the church today. Many pulpits are woke and shallow. A lot of pastors today are patting themselves on the back for every step they take towards apostasy.

So – what IS going on in Iran right now?

I suggest you go to Solid Bread Community’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@SolidBreadCommunity. This is my teaching ministry. At this YouTube link is a video of an in-depth lecture I taught this past weekend called “Iran, and the Current Conflict with Israel.” (By the way, please consider subscribing to this YouTube channel, and encourage others to do the same. Thanks.)

For THIS brief article, let me give you some high points of what is taking place in Iran right now:

This conflict in Iran is a further development of what began October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists from Gaza invaded southern Israel and initiated vicious, deranged, and demonically inspired atrocities against 20+ Israeli communities and their residents.

Israel formally declared war in response to these events, and she invoked Article 40A for the first time since the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

In short order, Israel found herself being attacked on multiple fronts, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis from Yemen, and militants from the West Bank (Biblical Judea and Samaria). All these are Iranian proxies – funded and directed by Iran.

The blind hatred the left has towards Israel and the Jews quickly manifested. The libs called for Israel’s ‘restraint,’ and they began to promote lies that were easily disproven every time.

A lot has happened since all that started, but it is reasonable to suggest October 2023 probably kicked off the initial phases of the prophetic Psalm 83 war. That passage portends how Israel will be attacked by multiple proximal adversaries, the modern equivalents of which can be shown to be the very bunch that is waging conflict with Israel now.

Notably, this conflict in Psalm 83 starts with a group called ‘the tents of Edom.’ As my lecture (in the link provided here) exposes, this phrase perfectly describes the itinerant Palestinians SINCE Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 – but not before.

Also, these foes of Israel want the ‘pasturelands of God.’ Israel today – but again, not before 1948 – is known as a major agricultural powerhouse. Her verdancy and crop production is renowned, and 76% of Israel’s agricultural products are exported to the EU. Efforts are made by various folks to insist Psalm 83 was fulfilled in the ancient past, but the text – and details of our present times – suggest otherwise.

Now, we’re watching Iran get absolutely decimated. That’s an understatement. This present conflict, now roughly two weeks’ duration, is effectively the second stage of the ’12-day war’ in June 2025. Again, I believe we are seeing Bible prophecy being fulfilled in ‘real time,’ and the key passage for this is found in Jeremiah 49:34-39. ‘Elam’ in this passage, BTW, refers to the western side of Iran.

I don’t have space in this article to get into all the details of this prophecy (you can gain all that by listening to my lecture at the link above), but here are a few things to consider. According to this passage in Jeremiah, Iran will suffer the following:

‘The bow’ (the launching systems), and ‘mainstay of their might’ (their military resources), will be ‘broken.’ DONE. And that continues with bone-breaking effect.

Her ‘king and officials will be destroyed.’ DONE. That happened in the first hour of the conflict, and more of Iran’s leadership continues to be systematically destroyed. The most precarious job in the world right now is being a leader within the radical Islamic government in Iran.

‘The four winds’ will come against Iran. HAPPENING NOW. This means multiple adversaries will come against Iran. Right now, it’s primarily the US and Israel, but others are jumping in as we speak. Several Mideast nations, too, are stating they’re going to lend their support against Iran.

Iran will be ‘shattered before her foes,’ and ‘disaster will come upon’ her. DONE. And this utter domination of Iran, and the pounding of her military and infrastructure continues to be a beatdown the world has probably never seen before. You could practically fly a WW1 Sopwith Camel over Iran right now and emerge unscathed.

I’ll stop there. I have much more to say about all this – – AND I DO! But again, you’ll need to listen to the video I specified at the link above. If you do that, you’ll learn that this entire conflict is going to expand, new ‘wrinkles’ will develop, and Israel is likely to yet take some grievous hits. Some could be very painful. The total timeline is unknown.

But the Bible makes the case that Israel will emerge from it all victorious. All her proximal foes will be soundly defeated, and Israel will gain much territory. That comes with the rules of war.

The Bible clearly shows that Israel will be weakened, spent, and exhausted from all this. But she will also experience a relative ‘serenity’ and peace that she’s not known before this point.

And that condition partly sets up the subsequent prophetic War of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 and 39. I think it is very likely that the details of this future conflict argue that Gog and Magog is a post-Rapture event.

But that’s another matter for another time….

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Many pastors, teachers, and Christian leaders today have blood on their hands.

I think most of them are unaware of this situation. Some of them sense this dilemma a bit, but they don’t care sufficiently to be or do anything different. Lastly, there remains a remnant group who ARE aware, who DO understand, and they care a GREAT deal.

Let me explain. It’s all about being a ‘watchman.’

In the Bible, watchmen were sentinels. They guarded cities and towns, military camps, and even fields and vineyards. As their position specifies, their job was to keep watch for the interests and welfare of others. It was their duty to be alert and to warn of looming threats.

Several things about being a ‘watchman’ are made clear in the Bible.

FIRST, there’s a larger principle here than just guarding a city. God raised up His prophets as ‘spiritual watchmen.’ God said to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 33:7, “I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.”

Ezekiel’s job was to stay focused and vigilant, to urge God’s people to live faithfully, and to warn them of dangers. As watchmen, God’s prophets warned those who were falling away from the Lord of His judgment. The hearers needed to repent of their choices and evil ways.

SECOND, it was a major responsibility to be a ‘spiritual watchman.’ There was only one right way to do the job. This is clear in the larger passage of Ezekiel 33:2-9.

Ezekiel – and other Old Testament prophets like him – needed to properly ‘hear’ God. They had to be in the right spiritual place themselves to do that, and then they had to faithfully declare God’s word. This was their primary responsibility.

There is no wiggle room here. God’s ‘spiritual watchmen’ could not twist the truth or dilute it. They couldn’t pretend it was something other than what it was. They had to shoot straight.

They couldn’t delay either. It was a time sensitive message, and they needed to be plain with it so folks could heed the warning, respond properly to it, and save themselves. If the people didn’t respond to the message as they needed to, then ‘they would die for their sin’ (vs. 9).

THIRD, Isaiah 56:10 tells us that God’s spiritual watchmen couldn’t be lax, asleep, blind, disobedient, silent, ignorant, or distracted. If they were any of these things, this exposed the people they were responsible for to danger and suffering.

Put another way, strict obedience, faithful declaration, and constant alertness are the only postures for a true watchman.

FOURTH, it’s tough to be a good and responsible spiritual watchman. If that isn’t clear by now, then Hosea 9:8 makes this obvious. It says concerning how a watchman of God is received, “….snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.”

Did you see that? Hosea says it’s a rough journey being a spiritual watchman for God. A faithful watchman is marked by encountering snares and setbacks. He is constantly facing enmity and misunderstanding from those who are ‘in the house of his God’ (you can insert ‘church’ here, or ‘other believers’ to bring the same point closer to home).

Make no mistakes about it. Being a watchman for God is a tough haul. Not only do they have to speak boldly, but they must act timely and declare accurately. To top it all off, they are constantly trapped, opposed, and despised by the people they are trying to warn and teach.

Ah – – – but there’s a MUCH greater problem here! There is one more thing I need to say.

And that is, FIFTH, there is a lot of blood on the hands of many spiritual watchmen today. Coming full circle, Ezekiel 33:6 says, “But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the horn and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away for his wrongdoing; but I will require his blood from the watchman’s hand.”

Let me paraphrase this. If pastors, teachers, and Christian leaders today don’t start ACTING like the spiritual watchmen they need to be, if they don’t start DECLARING a bold message, if they refuse to HEED God’s Word as they need to be doing, if they continue to REMAIN ignorant and silent in the face of mounting threats and developments, and if they refuse to RAISE an urgent, true, and timely alarm – – then God says they have ‘blood on their hands.’

Oh – – – what’s that? You don’t like what I’m saying? Do you think I’m being too harsh and insensitive?

Well, deal with it! It’s God speaking here, not me.

Read and study all these passages for yourself. If you take God’s Word at face value, you’ll see what I’m saying is the truth.  If you’re still not convinced – or perhaps if you don’t WANT to be convinced – then I urge you to read James 3:1 and Hebrews 13:17.

James 3:1 says pastors and teachers are held to a higher standard before God. That’s because their roles carry greater responsibility and influence. They will receive stricter divine judgment as a result because their words and choices affect the spiritual welfare of others.

And Hebrews 13:17 makes it self-evident that the role of spiritual watchman continues today in the form of church leaders. This verse says, “they WATCH over your souls as those who must give an account.”

And that’s why ‘blood is dripping from the hands’ of more pastors, teachers, and Christian leaders today than at most points in church history. It’s because they are failing to do their job by God’s standards at a very critical point in time.

A lot of them shouldn’t be in their roles in the first place since they are not properly qualified or gifted. Most of them refuse to teach the full counsel of God’s Word as they ought to.

Many of them push a ‘social gospel.’ Most of them avoid teaching about sin and hell. Lots of them want to be ‘attractive to the lost.’ Many of them push the ‘good news’ of the Gospel, but not the ‘bad news’ which drives true repentance. Nearly all of them dismiss, dilute, or deride the one-quarter of Scripture that is Bible prophecy. Most of them refuse to literally interpret God’s Word, and a lot of them nurture a bias against Israel.

The problems with our watchmen today are myriad. But it all comes down to this: they aren’t ‘hearing’ God as they should be. Many of them don’t want to. They’re not properly watching and warning as a result – and so those they are responsible for are not responding as they need to be. It’s a grim picture.

Be it so, the role of ‘spiritual watchmen’ is still in effect. That job today is just as hard as it always was. The discipline and burden required now is every bit as significant as it has ever been. The need for faithful watchmen is enormous today.

And so is the consequence of not being a good one.

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