On December 17, 2025, the Rev. Franklin Graham preached at a Christmas service in the Pentagon. In his sermon, he told members of the military and Department of Defense employees that the Christian God is a God of love, but also a God of hate who sometimes commands us to destroy his enemies.
Graham lifted up the story in I Samuel 15 in which God is depicted as commanding Saul to defeat and slaughter the Amalekites, “men, women, infant, nursing child, oxen, sheep, camel, and donkey.” Because Saul disobeys God, sparing the Amalekite king and the best of the livestock, Samuel tells Saul that God has rejected him as king of Israel. Oh, and Merry Christmas!
Eight days later, on Christmas Day itself, President Trump ordered military strikes on Islamic State bases in northern Nigeria, citing alleged ISIS attacks on Nigerian Christians as a justification. As Trump wrote on Truth Social that evening, “I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing …. MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”
It did not take long for MAGA supporters to chime in. Laura Loomer, the influential (if controversial) far-right presidential advisor, posted on X: “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than by avenging the death of Christians through the justified mass killing of Islamic terrorists. You’ve got to love it! Death to all Islamic terrorists! Thank you.” And Congressman Randy Fine (R-FL) referred to the strikes as “an amazing Christmas present.”
As a historian of medieval Christianity, I can’t help but think of the Vindicta Salvatoris (“The Revenge of the Savior”), an eighth-century Frankish take on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. Virulently anti-Jewish, it envisions the destruction as collective punishment of the Jewish people for the crucifixion of Jesus. It was influential throughout medieval Europe, and it helped to set the stage for the massacres of Jewish communities in the Rhineland at the outset of the First Crusade in 1096. In the 15th century, it was incorporated into a popular French mystery play, La vengeance de Nostre Seigneur. Of course, that long medieval antisemitic tradition culminated in the nightmare of the Holocaust.
It is tragically ironic that Loomer and Fine, both Jews who often call out instances of supposed antisemitism, invoke a trope with such deep roots in that poisoned soil. But it is deeply disturbing to see those who claim to represent the Christian faith in the halls of political power do so as well. Graham’s sermon insists that God hates sinners, and that he has a long and exact memory of our sins. Christ’s atoning death, Graham says, frees believers from their sins; but what about those who don’t believe? Might God still call on his anointed king to execute his righteous wrath on the infidels? Graham doesn’t say so explicitly, but he leaves the inference hanging in the frosty Christmas air at the Pentagon.
Graham was invited to preach by Pete Hegseth, our Christian Nationalist Secretary of War who sports Crusader tattoos (Deus Vult!) and disdains the laws of warfare that protect civilians and regulate military engagement. Warriors under his watch will not be limited by such fussy human rules; they fight in the name of a manly God who calls us, his chosen righteous ones, to slay the wicked at the king’s command.
God help us!
17 Responses
Lord, have mercy!
And what about the unrepentant king? Why should we presume that he is doing the Lord’s work?
I Samuel 15 is a disturbing and challenging passage. But setting it up as a binary option (“If Samuel is right, Saul must be wrong, and vice versa”) is not a good interpretive strategy, in my view. Saul, after all, does in fact slaughter the Amalekite men, women, and children, saving only his peer, King Agag; similarly, he saves only the best livestock, destroying what was “despised and worthless.” He was acting in his own self-interest, not (so to speak) on the advice of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
This should be alarming to all Christ-followers! Thanks for your leadership, David.
A few observations:
1. Nationalist evangelicals control “Christian media” and dictate how The Bible must be read. “Jesus loves me (not you) this I know. For the Bible tells me so.”
2. Because his name is Graham, little discernment will be exercised and this violence will be digested/promoted as “truth.”
3. This is what happens when literalists try to create/maintain a systematic theology by cherry-picking some texts and ignoring others. Very convenient!
4. Who gets to declare the motivation of God? Divine Nationalism was a narrative in Bible times, but most prophets, most of the time, condemned violence, vengeance, and the cursing of foreigners aka “enemies.”
5. Apparently Christ came only to teach us how to die ( with privilege and the sinner’s prayer on our lips) while the bulk of his teaching on justice, forgiveness and love-for-neighbor-discipleship can be not just ignored, but mocked and defied!
6. There must be anarchy at play within The Trinity. God the Father is the mean God and Jesus the Son is the nice guy!
7. Don’t get me started on the brutality of ICE and the false immigration crisis. America First???
I am a peacemaker, an absolute forgiver, and a committed reconciler, but how do we balance unity with this distortion of Christianity? Lots to do!
“Happy” New Year.
Agreed
Regarding #2, one of the Graham grandkids is also focused on working for the kingdom of God, but in a very different way than his Uncle Franklin. Boz Tchividjian has worked with Diane Langberg (https://reformedjournal.com/2025/10/22/when-the-church-wounds/) to make the church a safer place by advocating for survivors of abuse within the church. Franklin might have the name, but Boz is actually preaching the gospel.
https://www.netgrace.org/news/a-letter-from-boz-tchividjian
It sickens me beyond belief to have had leaders boast about doing this on Christmas day or any other day, using religion to bolster their evil deeds. May God have mercy on us all for the stains of blood on our national story.
Thanks for this, David. God, help us indeed.
Boom.
There it is.
Thanks, David.
Thanks Dave. I appreciate you very much!
Not everything that is biblical is Christlike.
Thank you, David.
Thank you, David. It’s hard to fathom the glee with which political and religious leaders celebrate the death of terrorists, as if their deaths were wonderful Christmas presents. Even if we had only the Old Testament to live by, and thought God was calling his people to slay (at least some) of the wicked, there should be no joy over the matter. As the Lord said in Ezekiel 33:11, “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” That would be a good message for the Pentagon. And Christians should know even better than that, for the coming of Jesus transforms us into those who show love and mercy toward our enemies. Indeed, there is horrendous persecution of Christians in northern Nigeria, but I’m skeptical that Trump’s violent actions move that country toward peace. They seem more designed to distract US citizens from the Epstein files and other negative events.
To David T. Great stuff!
To David L. My former pastor at CLC in Holland, Mi… Love your response! Miss you brother!
I can’t help but think the Franklin Apple has fallen far afield from the Billy Tree.
One of the many disturbing parts of this is assuming that the US is carrying out the will of God.
First of all, kudos to Dr. Timmer for taking on issues of Christian Nationalism, a real issue in the church and society. Thoughtful Christians need to tackle this thorny problem. This blog unfortunately falls short on a number of fronts.
Most of the thoughts attributed to Franklin Graham are simply untrue. Feel free to find the ‘sermon’ online as I did – it’s a short 15 minute view. He may be a Christian Nationalist, but you wouldn’t know it from his talk at this service which sounds fairly orthodox to me. And if this current political administration is tempted to wipe out ‘the infidels’ (which one assumes from the story might be Islamists), they failed to show this when they wouldn’t let the Israelis take out the Iranian leadership, who are likely the most hated and feared Islamists in the world today.
Reformed Christians today to the heavy lifting intellectually for western Christendom, in my opinion. We need to be careful arbiters of truth if we want to be taken seriously. I look forward to reading more on this site and more from Dr. Timmer.
Thank you for the encouragement. I listened to the entire sermon as well, and I believe I can defend the accuracy of my summary. Graham did say that God is also a God of hate, and that God may call on his people to destroy the objects of his hate. He did say that God has a long memory, noting the 400 years intervening between Amalek’s attack on Israel and Saul’s punitive expedition. And he said all of this in the context of a sermon delivered to United States military personnel, obviously assuming that his hearers could apply that message to their mission. If the Trump administration stayed the hand of the Israelis against Iran, it was certainly not because of the theology expressed in Graham’s sermon.
Here is the link to the service. Graham’s sermon begins at around 18:00. Decide for yourselves. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4101693860045395