Combined United States and Israel attacks against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, will soon be a week old.
As the conflict carries on, Bible prophecy is on the minds of many.
Jack Hibbs, senior and founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, spoke earlier this week with Tony Perkins on Washington Watch. He referenced Jeremiah 49:29-34, which says God will bring judgment on Elam.
Though Elam and Persia were distinct regions and peoples, both were located in ancient Iran. Over time, especially during the rise of the Achaemenid Empire, Elam was absorbed into the broader Persian domain. By the time of the Babylonian exile, Susa — Elam’s capital — became a major administrative center of the Persian Empire.
“Remember, Iran is Persia, which the origin of Persia was Elam,” Hibbs says. “By the way, that prophecy — a lot of people want to debate it, but that prophecy says that these things will happen in the latter days.”
Hibbs gives a simple explanation of the passage.
“I'm going to deal with Elam, and I'm going to break their bow — their bow, so they cannot launch anything anymore — I will destroy their king and his descendants, and all those of Elam who have been driven to the four corners of the earth, I will bring back into their land in the last days at the latter times,” Hibbs paraphrases.
Some have questioned Jeremiah 49:38. The verse states that God will set His throne in Elam and that He will destroy the kings and princes.
Therefore, does that mean Elam, or Iran, will come under the dominion of God?
“First of all, we all know this: that He will set up his throne in Zion. The throne of the Lord is Zion. That's without a debate. But I believe that when it says Elam, that He'll set up His throne, that He is declaring — because remember, he is countering the fact that there's a king and there's his descendants. They're going to be destroyed — ‘I will set up my authority,’” Hibbs answers.
He does not believe that the Lord will set up a physical throne in modern-day Iran but that Elam will come under the authority of the Lord. This could be biblical prophecy being fulfilled, Hibbs says, with the doors beginning to open in Elam/Persia/Iran and people calling on the name of the Lord.
Hibbs points out more modern factors that could illustrate this.
Iran’s COVID Bible explosion
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “told us that the CIA monitored the largest download of private information during COVID, and it was in Iran, and it was the Bible … Bible sermons, Bible apps, all of these things,” Hibbs said. “This is the fruit of it now. The fruit of all of that Bible download is possibly the salvation of those of Persia.”
He says that Christians should pray for the 93 million people who live there to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus. He also says that he is rooting for righteousness more than he is for victory.
“If it's on a mass scale, we are watching, perhaps, this establishment of His authority. And how does He do that? We should ask as believers, how does God establish his authority in the earth?” says Hibbs.
He points to rulers such as Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and Darius and how God can use any earthly government to which he grants authority.
“He uses nations to set up his authority, and he uses nations to judge other nations. And he could be using, right now, Israel and America to judge the sin of Iran, or at least the Islamic leadership,” informs Hibbs.
The Scriptures makes it clear, he reminds, that God establishes kings and that he removes them. However, Christians should be mindful that there is more to this than meets the physical eye.
“Only the believer has the proper worldview on this. We may boast in our chariots and our horses, so to speak, but as a nation that is founded upon Judeo-Christian worldview values, that means we appreciate the spiritual realm more,” states Hibbs.
He cites the 10th chapter of Daniel in which the prophet was praying to the Lord for understanding. An angel appeared and said that he was detained for 21 days in delivering God’s answer because he was held up in battle with the prince of Persia.
“I mean, that seems absolutely crazy to the average individual, but in the spiritual realm, when we pray, demonic forces are undone. They get confused. When we pray, calling upon the Lord for his will to be done, God sends spiritual arrows and confusion into the camp of the enemy,” explains Hibbs.
Pray for all nations involved
While he is grateful for Trump’s leadership and the military, he says that the U.S. should tread with humility. The officials in Washington and the president have the authority to fire missiles and issue commands, but they most likely, he states, do not understand that they need prayer.
He instructs that Christians should be praying now like Daniel, breaking up demonic forces and effecting change with the authority given to believers.
“The president is handling what we see in the physical realm, but we have a responsibility in the spiritual realm to go before even what this administration is doing in the natural, and that's the authority and the power we have to go before the throne of God and plead for His hand to be upon this nation, upon the people of Iran, upon the people of Israel, and the greater Middle East,” Hibbs says.
