An improbable feud has recently broken out between Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, which only further proves that Trump is not intimidated to take on anyone who disagrees with him, including the spiritual leader of a billion-and-a half people and someone known as the “Vicar of Christ.” At least you’ve got to admire his chutzpah. The pope launched the first volley, launching a thinly-veiled criticism of Trump’s -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. And currently, the president is attempting, so far unsuccessfully, to mediate a ceasefire between Russia and the Ukraine, while at the same time trying to negotiate a peace between the Iranian intifada and the rest of the civilized world. And if that’s not enough for someone who’s almost eighty-years-old, he just flew off to China in hopes of discouraging Xi Jinping from invading Taiwan. And shortly after returning, he ordered U.S. forces to take out Abu-Bilal Al-Minuki, a top ISIS terrorist and someone primarily responsible for the wholesale slaughter of over 7000 Christians in Nigeria. That’s a lot of peacemaking.

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 30,000-pound bunker-busting bomb.” Indeed, he doth text like Jehu.

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 steamrolled 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 Iran to go nuclear? Would he install Marco Rubio to replace him? Best not to suggest it to him. It seems reasonable not to want a bunch of blood-rabid ayatolliahs to have the ability to vaporize the world, 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?

The pope 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. And 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.

Some would say, and I know this because I’ve heard them say it, that I’m just cheerleading for Team Trump. I would cheer for anyone God raises up to do his bidding, including the highly flawed Orange man. It’s God who “puts up one and takes down another.” If you’re waiting for the perfect leader, you’ll have to wait for the Rapture. It’s not the first time God has chosen to fight Evil with marred individuals, men like Jephthah and Samson, men with egos massive enough to withstand the earthly powers of hell. You might say, “that’s Old Testament-type warfare; our warfare is not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers.” True, but if you pay attention, you can catch a glimpse of an earthly demonstration of it playing out on the evening news, and more recently still since October 7.

We’re called to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” So, what should we pray? Primarily, that Jews would turn to Christ. But also that they would have peace and protection from their surrounding enemies who are practicing ethnic cleansing against them. And who are those enemies but their ancient foes, repurposed Philistines. And how would we know who those enemies were if we weren’t paying attention to what was happening in the Middle East? And is it such a stretch to believe that our prayers for Israel’s peace and security are being answered through this current conflict?

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. 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 can take the tragedy of war and use it to do some of His best work.