THE PEACEMAKER

An improbable feud has recently broken out between Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, which only further proves that Trump’s not intimidated to take on anyone who disagrees with him, including the spiritual leader of a billion-and-a half people, known as the “Vicar of Christ.” The pope launched the first volley, criticizing Trump for his military actions in Iran. He built his argument around a misinterpretation of Matthew 5, where Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.”

The pope’s understanding of “peacemaker” is someone who would lay down his arms and negotiate peace with his enemy, even if that enemy was determined to vaporize his existence with a nuclear bomb. If Evil wants to decapitate you with a three-foot Zulfiqar blade, should you then offer your other cheek, if you even had one left to offer? Or to put it like the modern-day Philistines, “From the river to the sea,” which is their clever little way of saying they want to herd all the Jews from the Euphrates River and drown them in the Mediterranean Sea. This is not about land; it’s about Ishmael contesting Isaac’s right to exist.

And they’re not in the least embarrassed to say it out loud. It’s an important part of their creed. This is that bothersome little truth many don’t want to talk about for fear of being branded on the wrong side of the cancel culture. This is not bigotry, Islamophobia, prejudice, intolerance, bias, or narrow mindedness. It’s just what jihadists actually do, and they’d feel slighted if you thought any less of them. And don’t get too comfortable, Gentiles: They said that once they finish off the “Saturday people,” they’re coming for the “Sunday people.”

But back to the pope’s beef with Trump. He quoted from Isaiah 1:15, that says, “When you lift up your hands in prayer…I will not listen, for your hands are covered in blood.” First of all, is the pope actually insinuating that Trump prays? I don’t think anyone has ever accused him of that before. Praying to himself, maybe, but not to God. This is not a criticism of what the president is doing in Iran, but as a modern-day Jehu with a bulletproof ego, you can’t expect him to behave with perfect manners.

Unlike the pope, Jesus defined “peacemaker” as someone who’s been reconciled to God, and in turn is involved in helping others make peace with God. Peace with God can only be accomplished by turning to Jesus in repentance and receiving His blood as payment for your sins. But even by the pope’s misinterpretation of this word, Trump would have to be considered a “peacemaker.” In his first fifteen months of his presidency, he has mediated peace between at least five warring nations: Armenia and Azerbaijan, Rwanda and the Congo (though the ceasefire didn’t hold), Cambodia and Thailand, India and Pakistan, Israel and Hamas, and most recently a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, mediated by his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. And currently, the president is attempting, so far unsuccessfully, to mediate a peace agreement between Russia and the Ukraine, while at the same time trying to negotiate a peace between Iran and the rest of the civilized world.

But it’s not a peace based on a laying down of arms, holding hands, and singing camp songs around a bonfire. Evil only understands one thing: power, a larger power than its own. And that power is crushing a morally depraved, demonic regime and liberating the Persian people from almost five decades of totalitarian brutality. Reagan called it, “Peace with strength.” Theodore Roosevelt called it, “speak softly and carry a big stick.”

Trump has his own style: Type loudly in ALL CAPS and carry a lethal stick. Indeed, he doth text like Jehu.

But contrary to the pope’s faulty exegesis, God sometimes does hear the prayers of people whose “hands are covered in blood.” David’s hands were covered in the blood of Goliath, where he famously declared, “Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.” It’s a good thing God answered his prayer or we’d have a completely different story of David and Goliath.

Joshua once wiped out the entire city of Jericho, killing men, women, and children. Why? Because Jericho was a forerunner of October 7. God also heard the prayers of other leaders like Moses, Gideon, Deborah, Samson, Jael, Joab, and Jehoshaphat, all warriors whose prayers God heard. God is no pacifist; he’s also known as “the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

Leo is either extremely naive or just a garden variety Leftist to believe you can negotiate with Evil. Shades of Neville Chamberlain’s meeting with Hitler in Munich, where the prime minister infamously declared, “I believe it is peace for our time.” Six months later, the Nazis poured into Poland. Was Trump calling for regime change at the Vatican when he said he didn’t want a pope who believes it’s okay for a bunch of blood-rabid ayatolliahs to have the ability to vaporize the world? And especially when those “blood-rabid ayatolliahs” already dream of the day where such a catastrophic event will usher in their long-awaited messiah, Ai-Masih, who they believe will then whisk them away to paradise while the rest of us infidels are blasted into a radiated oblivion. Everyone needs a dream, right?

Pope Leo claimed that power should be used to protect the innocent victims. The Persian civilians are the most innocent of victims, the very ones Trump is trying to protect. According to reports from inside Iran, the civilian population wants American bombs to continue, as they are more afraid of the regime than they are of the bombs. According to an Iranian-born surgeon, Dr. Sheila Nazarian, the regime has executed tens of thousands of its own people, and that when women are executed they are first gang raped. Just recently, they publicly hung their own 19-year-old Olympic medal wrestler, Saleh Mohammadi, for protesting against the regime.

For forty-seven years, Iran has been the bully of the Middle East, and obtaining a nuclear weapon would only make them that much more bullier. The last five American presidents, going back to George Bush senior, have warned that Iran must never be allowed to go nuclear. Now, Trump is actually doing something about it. While the usual suspects on the Left and in the media chirp away from the sidelines and root for the opposing team, Iranian-Americans are marching in the streets and praying for their family’s liberation back home.

But there is a silver lining: The underground Iranian church is one of the fastest growing in the world. Jesus said that one of the things that would mark the End Times would be “wars and rumors of war,” and so here we are. Warfare on Earth is often a mirror image of what is happening in the spirit world. And any war that involves fighting for the survival and peace of Israel is a battle that is also playing out in the Heavenlies. Moses declared, “The LORD is a man of war,” and so the Peacemaker Himself uses war to do some of His best work.