The prophets of annihilation’: Inside the movement that sees genocide as god's will

When we picture the faces of the Gaza genocide, the obvious villains come to mind: Benjamin Netanyahu issuing the orders, Joe Biden supplying the bombs, and Keir Starmer and the European political class offering cover. Their complicity is undeniable, their names already etched into the annals of infamy.

But a genocide is never the work of a few powerful men. It requires a theological engine—an army of believers convinced they are witnessing God’s will.

In the Gaza genocide, this role is played by Christian Zionism, a powerful and apocalyptic political movement that sees the annihilation of Palestinians not as a tragedy, but as a necessary fulfilment of biblical prophecy.

For its followers, the suffering in Gaza is merely a prelude to an apocalyptic fantasy, a script they believe is written in scripture.

“It’s not the Christianity of a Catholic or an Orthodox or a traditional Christian. It’s a heretical belief,” says Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos, a nun who has lived in the Holy Land since the 1990s. She explains the core tenet driving the movement: the idea of the rapture.

“It is a cruel bargain they have going with Israel because they think they are going to be swooped up into heaven, there will be a thousand-year kingdom, and then there’ll be the end of the world… It was condemned as a heresy in 381 because there is no thousand-year millennium to come. We are in that time period now.”

John Nelson Darby around 1870. His teachings on the ‘rapture’ and Christian Zionism shaped modern evangelical views of Israel.

This heresy is not ancient; it is a modern political invention. Christian Zionism was born in the 19th century from the teachings of an Anglo-Irish preacher named John Nelson Darby. He created a new theological system called Dispensationalism, which claimed that God had separate plans for Jews and Christians.

Central to this was the idea that before Jesus could return, Jews had to gather in Palestine, rebuild their temple and face a final, bloody cataclysm—Armageddon.

This once-fringe belief was carried into mainstream American life through the Scofield Reference Bible in the early 20th century. What began as a marginal theory soon became a political programme for millions.

From prophecy to the bench

This ideology is not confined to fringe churches; it has reached the highest echelons of international law, where it directly subverts the pursuit of justice.

At the helm of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—the very body tasked with adjudicating South Africa’s genocide case against Israel—sits Judge Julia Sebutinde of Uganda. Her public statements reveal a worldview where judicial duty is secondary to religious prophecy.

“The Lord is counting on me to stand on the side of Israel,” she has stated, framing her role not in legal terms, but as a divine mandate.

This religious bias manifested directly in her legal rulings. On January 26, 2024, when the ICJ issued provisional measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza, Sebutinde was the lone dissenting voice on nearly every count, voting against ordering Israel to prevent incitement to genocide and to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid.

In her dissenting opinion, she relied heavily on pro-Israel talking points, with one study finding that “no less than 32% of Sebutinde’s dissenting opinion has been directly lifted from publications by notorious apologists for Israel.”

“I have a very strong conviction that we are in the End Times… I am humbled that God has allowed me to be part of the last days.”

Sebutinde’s own words and actions reveal a judge whose decisions are guided not by international law, but by an apocalyptic faith that demands she stand with Israel, regardless of the evidence.

The American political engine

While Sebutinde illustrates how theology can distort law, the true political power of Christian Zionism lies in the United States. There it has become a cornerstone of right-wing politics.

To consolidate his power, Donald Trump harnessed his relationship with the most extreme Christian Zionist organisations, leveraging his messianic reputation among evangelicals who view him as a leader chosen by God to accelerate prophecy.

Trump, joined by Mike Pence and Netanyahu to sign a proclamation formally recognising the annexation of the Golan Heights in 2019. Photo: Shealah Craighead/Public Domain

This fusion of policy and prophecy was key in defining his presidency. In 2018, his administration moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognised Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights, and single-handedly declared that settlements in the West Bank did not violate international law—a reversal of decades of US policy. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the theological underpinnings explicit, stating simply: “The Lord is at work here.”

Today this apocalyptic vision remains the core of the MAGA power structure, shared by key Trump allies like Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marko Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

However, a fissure is emerging. An isolationist faction, personified by figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, is beginning to question unconditional support for Israel.

This created a televised confrontation between Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz, a staunch Trump ally and beneficiary of almost $2 million from pro-Israel lobbies.

Having framed the genocide as “a battle between civilisation and barbarism,” Cruz explained his unconditional support with a simple biblical threat: “As a Christian… I was taught from the Bible: those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed.”

When pressed by Carlson on whether this biblical support was for the modern, “government of Israel,” Cruz had no answer.

He couldn’t answer because the entire belief system depends on a critical conflation: the Israel of scripture and the nuclear-armed apartheid state established in 1948 that is committing genocide today must be treated as one and the same.

This allows believers to interpret the politics of the present as the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, justifying any crime against humanity as a sacred duty.

The architect of armageddon

To understand how this belief system translates into millions of votes and dollars, one must look to figures like Pastor John Hagee.

Through his roles as a televangelist and founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), he mobilises a massive grassroots base that provides the theological and political cover for genocide.

Pastor John Hagee on television. Photo: Judy Baxter/Flickr © CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

While AIPAC lobbies the powerful in Washington, Hagee’s CUFI is a grassroots juggernaut that pressures elected officials from the ground up, making support for Israel a non-negotiable issue for any politician seeking the evangelical vote.

CUFI’s influence is also a financial pipeline entrenching apartheid. The organisation has funnelled over $100 million to Israeli causes, much of it directly into the construction of illegal settlements. This is money raised under the banner of religion but used to dispossess Palestinian families.

Hagee himself has never hidden his desire for a violent, final resolution, once drawing a chilling parallel: “America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to guarantee total victory, why can’t Israel win total victory?”

He rejects any possibility of a political solution or Palestinian self-determination, framing it as a violation of divine will. In a separate address, he reinforced this stance:

“God Almighty created the state of Israel, and he gave it to the Jewish people forever and forever. The Bible has a one-state solution: Israel today, Israel tomorrow and Israel forever.”

Hagee presents himself as a devoted friend of the Jewish people, but this supposed friendship is predicated on a deeply antisemitic theology that instrumentalises them for an apocalyptic endgame.

This worldview led him to declare in a sermon that “God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land.”

At its core, Christian Zionist eschatology is inherently antisemitic. It casts Jews not as a people with their own enduring faith, but as props in a Christian drama. In the end, they face a stark choice: conversion to Christianity or annihilation in the fires of Armageddon.

The Israeli state, however, does not care about the source of its support, so long as the money and loyalty flow—even when that loyalty is wrapped in the same eliminationist hatred that has hounded Jews for centuries.

Confronting the death cult

Christian Zionism offers more than just political cover for the state of Israel; it provides a divine justification for ethnic cleansing.

It transforms the brutal reality of occupation and genocide into a celebrated milestone on the path to the Second Coming. It is an ideology that dehumanises Palestinians into biblical extras and reduces the Jewish people to instruments for a Christian prophecy.

The story, however, does not have to end here. A counter-current is forming, a voice of conscience from within the faith community itself.

As Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos observed, “It’s slowly growing, an awareness by other Christians in America. Just like many Jews are protesting and saying ‘not in our name,’ there has to be much more done by the Christians in America, because these Christian Zionists are speaking in our name.”

For the millions of Christians who profess a faith built on mercy, love for one’s neighbour, and justice for the oppressed, this genocide presents a profound moral crisis.

The silence from too many mainstream churches has been deafening, creating a vacuum filled by the apocalyptic cheers of Hagee, Cruz and their followers. This is a moment of reckoning. For Christians to stand by while their faith is weaponised to sanctify the slaughter of children is to become complicit in the heresy itself.

The call from figures like Mother Agapia is a desperately urgent plea to reclaim Christianity from those who have twisted it into a death cult.

Resisting the annihilation of the Palestinian people requires not only a political and humanitarian response, but a spiritual one: a definitive, unambiguous rejection of the prophets of annihilation who dare to speak in God’s name.