Netanyahu: “Jesus Christ Has No Advantage Over Genghis Khan

Three weeks ago, Israel and the U.S. jointly entered into a war of choice by attacking unprovoked Iran. With this war escalating, this week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended their aggression against Iran by calling the Iranian ruling regime, a group of Shia Islamist clerics who govern a theocracy, “barbarians.” He then said, “In this world it’s not enough to be moral, it’s not enough to be just, it’s not enough to be right.” Providing an example, he then quoted American historian and philosopher Will Durant as saying, “Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan.” It is only a nonbeliever in Jesus who could say such a thing.

Netanyahu Says Only the Strong Survive

Netanyahu then added, “Because if you are strong enough, powerful enough, ruthless enough, evil will overcome good. Aggression will overcome moderation. The democracies being led by the United States have to reassert their will to defend themselves.”

Netanyahu was then highly criticized for stating Durant’s quotation. The next day, he responded to this criticism by explaining himself. But it did not suffice for many. He was saying it is the strong who will survive. Maybe in this life, but what about the next?

The apostle Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth, “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, … so that no one might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1.26-29).

Is Pete Hegseth a Warmonger?

I think Netanyahu was partly correct and partly incorrect. He was correct that democracies must defend themselves. That is, all nations need to have a military defense with which to thwart unprovoked attacks from other nations or other entities. But I do not approve of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth getting President Donald Trump to change the name of our Department of Defense to Department of War. To me, it reflects on the character of Hegseth who I think he is a warmonger.

Pete Hegseth is a professing Christian involved in organizing Bible studies at the Pentagon and telling our armed forces that the world is undergoing Armageddon in preparation for the second coming of Christ. Wrong! He doesn’t know what Armageddon is. But then, most Christians don’t. The word Armageddon appears once in the Bible, in Revelation 16.16, and that is what Hegseth refers to. (See my post on March 7, “The U.S. Military Is Being Ill-Taught Iran War Is Armageddon.”)

Being a Christian is not only about saying you believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, as Hegseth says of himself; it’s also about following Jesus to some degree. Jesus said a lot about this. He said, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish” (John 10.27-28).

What Jesus Said About Judgment Day

In Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, one of his beatitudes is, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5.9 NRSV). So, I have doubts about Hegseth being a real Christian because of being such a warmonger. He has been glorying in public statements about his decisions to blow up so many alleged drug traffic boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing well over a hundred people. Yet our laws have required interdiction, arrest, and judicial reckoning of illegal narco boat people, not summarily executing them like that without furnishing proof of their drug trafficking. I think Pete Hegseth should be put in jail for doing that. But then, he does it under the authority of President Donald Trump, who likely directed Hegseth to do so.

Jesus said of the future judgment day, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers'” (Matthew 7.21-23 NRSV).

This Life Is Not All, For there Will Be a Hereafter

So, there will be a judgment day. Wise King Solomon wrote of judgment day, “Fear God and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12.13-14). After that, some will enter into the consummated kingdom of God on earth, and some will not.

This judgment day will be immediately preceded by what Christians call “the second coming of (Jesus) Christ.” Jesus spoke about this at his hearing before the Sanhedrin, when he was condemned and then crucified. The High Priest Caiaphas had said to him, “‘I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you, From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power [=God] and coming on the clouds of heaven'” (Matthew 26.63-64). This will be the second coming of Christ.

Jesus had spoken of it to his disciples earlier that week by saying of that day, quoting the prophet Joel, “The sun will darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man [=Jesus] will appear in heaven, then the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory” (Matthew 24.29-30). This is the scene that Jesus meant when he answered Caiaphas’s question. Those living on earth will see Jesus coming in bright clouds against a backdrop of darkness. And those like Caiaphas, who will be dead and their souls will reside in Sheol/Hades, as the Old Testament abundantly teaches, will be awakened at the heavenly blowing of a great trumpet that will wake the dead. Then those souls in Sheol, such as Caiaphas, will also see the Son of Man coming in power and great glory.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Will Durant and Benjamin Netanyahu will be proved wrong by saying, “Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan.” For, Genghis Khan, perhaps the greatest warmonger this world has ever seen, will then be judged and go to hell, whereas Jesus will reign as worldwide king over the kingdom of God on earth, “a kingdom that shall never be destroyed” but “shall stand forever” (Daniel 2.44).