This week’s newsletter may feel a little different - that’s because it is. While I usually focus on topics like physical health, longevity, and resilience, this week I’ve felt impressed to turn the attention to something just as vital to our well-being: how unresolved conflict—whether internal, relational, or geopolitical—can become a silent but destructive force in our lives — and our world.

Religious beliefs, inherited worldviews, and collective narratives shape how we see others, how we vote, how we manage stress and even how that stress influences our sleep quality and internal peace and relationships. With rising global tensions and talk of war dominating headlines, I’ve been reflecting on how theological ideas—particularly those about how we view a Higher Power, God, religion and spiritual practice—so heavily influence our lives - especially for many of us in America.

So though this may seem like I’ve gone off the rails, I don’t really think this is a departure from wellness, but an expansion of it. Because peace starts from within, and if we can’t resolve conflict in our own hearts, homes, or communities, it’s no surprise when nations fail to resolve theirs. How many of us have found ourselves in a moment of emotional volatility and our strained relationships escalate to yelling and fighting and desperate measures?

The piece that follows is called Prophecy or Policy: Does Christian Prophecy Shape U.S. Foreign Policy?—and I invite you to read it not just politically, but soulfully. Thanks for joining me in the journey of life, I’d love to hear if you like it, hate it or have thoughts about it.

-Jared

P.S. - If anything you read in my weekly newsletter resonates with you, please do me a huge favor and forward it to someone you care about so they can join this weekly newsletter fam.

Prophecy or Policy: Does Christian Prophecy Shape U.S. Foreign Policy?

In the last few months and particularly in the last two weeks--headlines have been dominated by Israel and conflict in the Middle East. There are many opinions as to why American politics in recent decades has increasingly been involved in supporting and defending Israel.  For some, it’s the U.S. wanting a presence in the Middle East because of its thirst for oil; for others, the perceived need for the United States to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons that they will use to attack America.  Some benignly hope that the U.S. might help to stabilize an historically unstable region of the world.  All of these have merit, supporters, and media space.  Yet I would like to propose a different idea:  American politics is obsessed with supporting Israel because of that attachment many Americans have to apocalyptic prophecy. 

Could it be that America’s foreign policy is influenced by Christians who believe that the nation of Israel plays a pivotal role in biblical prophecy and the end of the world—and that a zealous effort to protect Israel will help usher in the return of the Messiah and a 1,000-year period of peace on earth? That seems far-fetched to many secular observers, (a NY Times Article from a few years ago posits this idea) but if you’ll stay with me for the next few minutes, I think I can illustrate why this belief may be fueling  much of America’s foreign policy. 

As you’ll see in what follows, this stance is not based on the entirety of both Hebrew and Greek Scripture (Old Testament and New Testament), but rather from the culmination of 16th to 19th-century teachings of Jesuit scholars and American John Nelson Darby who introduced a theological framework called Dispensationalism. This framework separates God’s plans for the Christian Church and for ethnic Israel (Jews). 

Darby’s views, initially disregarded by most believers, went on to heavily influence American Evangelicalism and beyond, introducing the novel idea of a secret rapture: that the church would be taken away before a time of tribulation, and that Israel, as a nation, would be restored so that all promises would be fulfilled to literal Israel—not spiritual Israel. This was a novel theological departure: Christian theologians had never taught of a secret rapture in the 18 centuries before Darby, and the vast majority understood the promises to Israel in a more spiritual or metaphorical sense—applying them to all who follow the Messiah, not just a single nation or ethnicity.

My hypothesis is that a misunderstanding of Scripture may be leading America to repeat the recurring tragedy of the Old World--that religion, in this case, a particular manifestation of Protestant Christianity may once again overreach into the realm of domestic politics and foreign policy more than at any moment in U.S. history. John describes this frightening prospect in that most apocalyptic book of the New Testament—Revelation—as “a woman sitting on a scarlet beast.”  The result may well be national ruin for America. 

Tracing the Story of Israel

The story of Israel in the Bible begins with Abraham, whose descendants became the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim peoples (54.5% of the global population today). The Hebrew Scriptures speak of God promising Abraham that through his lineage, he would be a father of many nations and that those nations would be blessed. Through the generations of Isaac, Jacob (later renamed Israel), and their descendants (including Ishmael/Esau), we follow a complex and often tension-filled story—a tension that still echoes in the geopolitical realities of the Middle East today.

Fast-forward to the first century AD. Jesus of Nazareth, central to Christianity--believed to be the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament; respected as a prophet in Islam; and known as a historical person in modern Judaism is described in the New Testament as interacting critically with many of the leaders of the religious establishment of Israel in his day. His message emphasized themes of justice, mercy, and inclusion, often challenging existing systems Jesus described as becoming ritualistic or exclusionary. 

As one author describes the falling out between Jesus and the nation of Israel--“the Promised One of Israel…. was in tears, not of ordinary grief, but of intense, irrepressible agony…”

Biblical passages such as Matthew 23:37-38 reflect these sentiments: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.”

And in the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures in the book of Isaiah 5:1-7 we read- 

1 

Let me sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.

2 

He dug it and cleared it of stones,
    and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
    and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded wild grapes.

3 

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.

4 

What more was there to do for my vineyard,
    that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield wild grapes?

5 

And now I will tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
    and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trampled down.

6 

I will make it a waste;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.

7 

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
    are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
    but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
    but behold, an outcry!

Jesus would expound and elaborate on this same parable with no less severity in Matthew 21:33-43.

He describes that the husbandman is said to have sent many to his vineyard but they are repeatedly mistreated and rejected. Finally, the owner sends his son whom the tenants kill, seeking to seize control. Jesus warns that this act of ultimate rejection will lead to judgment: the vineyard will be taken from them and given to others who will produce its fruit. 

He caps the parable with a reference to Psalm 118, declaring that the stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. In doing so, He signals a profound shift—God’s covenant is moving beyond national or ethnic boundaries to those who receive the Son and bear spiritual fruit.

Matthew 21:43,45 wraps up this discourse and says--“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.” 

But these arguably harsh statements were not a rejection of a people. Rather, they marked a transition from what was an exclusive nation-based covenant to one that was open to all people through faith in the God who preceded any national covenant.

This is further echoed in Luke’s writings in Acts 10 where Peter is directed in vision to eat unclean, non-kosher animals. The lesson Peter draws from his vision is that he is to call no person or people group “unclean” but is to now consider all people--including Gentiles--as invited to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven. The apostle Paul in Romans goes on to answer what some may be asking--“Has God rejected His people? By no means!” 

Paul echoes this enlargement of the faithful in Galatians 3:28-29: “There is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” 

Imagine a world where all the children of Abraham could believe that God loves them all and wants them all to coexist in peace and show love to one another. 

One People of Faith

The New Testament presents a vision where the promises made to Abraham are fulfilled in a multi-ethnic, global community of believers. Paul writes in Romans 9 that “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel” and “it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” 

This was groundbreaking heresy for first-century Judaism that would get you canceled or cast out--that being part of God’s family comes through faith, not ethnicity. Some of that risk exists even today: I feel some of that writing this article. 

In the 16th century, the world was in the midst of a moment eerily similar to today.  Militant Islam and equally-militant Christianity were in deep conflict. But just as today, Christianity was at another crucial crossroads, and divergent theological interpretations abounded.. Martin Luther had just sent shockwaves through Europe and the world, calling to account the injustices of “the church”—heralding the birth of what history has called the Protestant Reformation. 

In response to the Protestant Reformation—which had identified the papacy as the antichrist of Bible prophecy—Jesuit Francisco Ribera (1537–1591) developed a futurist interpretation of the book of Revelation. His work, written in the late 16th century, proposed that the antichrist was not the Roman Church but rather a single individual who would arise in the future, rebuild a literal temple in Jerusalem, and persecute believers during a brief period of tribulation. This shifted prophetic focus away from Rome and toward an end-times scenario still to come.

Later, Jesuit priest Manuel Lacunza (1731–1801), writing under the pseudonym “Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra,” expanded on this futurist model. His book, The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty, argued that Jesus would return in two stages—first to secretly rapture the church and later to establish a millennial kingdom on earth. Lacunza’s ideas were especially influential in certain Protestant circles after his work was translated into English by Edward Irving in the early 19th century.

John Nelson Darby encountered these teachings and, though not a Catholic, adopted and systematized aspects of Ribera and Lacunza’s futurism into what became known as Dispensationalism. Central to Darby’s framework was the belief in a pre-tribulation rapture, a literal future antichrist, a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, and the restoration of national Israel as key prophetic events—all of which conveniently diverted attention away from historical interpretations that identified the papacy as the antichrist, the position held by nearly all major Protestant reformers. In this way, Dispensationalism can be understood, at least in part, as a counter-Reformation idea repackaged and absorbed into Protestant theology, radically reshaping modern evangelical views on Israel, the antichrist, prophecy, and end-time events.

Dispensational theology ultimately gained massive influence in American Protestantism. Books like the Scofield Reference Bible, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” and the “Left Behind” series shaped how millions understood prophecy—including the belief that the re-establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948 was a direct fulfillment of biblical promises.

Darby taught that biblical history was divided into eras or “dispensations’ and that:

·       God has two separate plans: one for Israel, one for the Church.

·       The Church age is a “parenthesis” in God’s plan for Israel.

·       God will resume working with ethnic Jews in the “end times”.

·       The Church will be secretly raptured before a seven-year tribulation. 

·       The temple will be rebuilt in literal Jerusalem; the Messiah will come and there will be a period of 1000 years of peace on the earth. 

Once understood as the driving theology of those without significant political power, these ideas seem to be significantly influencing American foreign policy today, often tying political loyalty to spiritual conviction. 

Organizations like Christians United for Israel (CUFI) led by Pastor John Hagee, actively lobby U.S. lawmakers to maintain and increase support for Israel based on religious convictions. CUFI claims more than 10 million members and has significant influence in Congress. CUFI has been a vocal proponent of U.S. embassy relocation to Jerusalem and increased foreign aid to Israel.[1]

Note these statements from current leaders in Congress:

Speaker of the House--Mike Johnson (R‑LA)--“God is going to bless the nation that blesses Israel…our biblical admonition”

Senator Paul Broun (R‑GA)--“It’s absolutely imperative that we support Israel…because of a promise God made to Abraham.”

Or how about Ted Cruz (R-TX) from his interview with Tucker Carlson just this past week. Cruz emphasized that Scripture calls on Christians to back Israel, citing passages like “those who bless Israel will be blessed.” He stated unequivocally: “Biblically we’re commanded to support Israel.”

Reputable polling of evangelicals highlights this point: 

Lifeway found that 80% of evangelical Christians believed the creation of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy leading to Christ’s return, and more than 50% said prophecy was a main reason they supported Israel.

Pew Research Center found that 60–63% of white evangelical Protestants agreed that the establishment of Israel fulfills biblical prophecy about Jesus’s second coming—compared to roughly 36% of the broader U.S. population.

Here’s a finding that made my jaw drop: More white evangelicals than American Jews say God gave Israel to the Jewish people.

Many church leaders and government officials in America interpret Genesis 12:3 (“I will bless those who bless you”) as applying directly to the modern nation-state. Though that statement is made to a man - Abram - who would become Abraham - the father of many nations. If you want to test the waters on the idea of if you are “with us or against us,” just ask how most pastors or even elected officials publicly voice their opinion on this issue in America. I dare say it's as much of a lightning rod issue as abortion. 

We could also point to the fact that the U.S. sends more than $3.8 billion per year ($38 billion total) in military aid to Israel under a 10-year memorandum of understanding signed in 2016—often with bipartisan evangelical support as a moral and prophetic imperative.

• This aid is frequently justified by evangelical legislators and lobbyists as “supporting God’s chosen people,” not just a strategic alliance. This deal was negotiated by the Obama administration, making it the largest such aid package in U.S. history to any nation.[2]

• Israel has received more U.S. foreign assistance than any other country in the world. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports that Israel has received more than $150 billion in direct aid, not including indirect benefits. When adjusted for inflation, that’s more than  $300 billion.[3]

• The U.S. vetoes U.N. resolutions critical of Israel more than any other issue. From 1972 to 2023, the U.S. has used its U.N. Security Council veto power more than 45 times to block resolutions critical of Israel—more than for any other geopolitical issue. The U.S. frequently stands alone or nearly alone in opposing global consensus on Israel’s settlement policies, Gaza blockades, or military actions, often at diplomatic cost.[4]

Another overlooked but pivotal figure in this story is William Eugene Blackstone, a Chicago-based businessman-turned-evangelist. In 1891, Blackstone drafted the “Blackstone Memorial,” a petition urging President Benjamin Harrison to help establish a homeland for Jews in Palestine. Signed by dozens of prominent Americans, including the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and the editors of major newspapers, the memorial argued that restoring Jews to their ancient land was a biblical imperative and a matter of global justice. 

Blackstone was deeply influenced by Darby’s dispensational theology and believed that supporting Jewish return to Palestine was essential to God’s prophetic plan. Some historians even describe the Blackstone Memorial as a kind of proto-Balfour Declaration, anticipating similar language and motivation more than two decades earlier. His activism laid the groundwork for the eventual alliance between Christian Zionists and political Zionists—a partnership that continues to shape U.S. foreign policy to this day.[5]

Most have forgotten that for nearly 1900 years since the first century AD — Israel did not exist as nation or home as it did in 970 B.C under the prosperous reign of King David. This remained true until the founding of the modern state of Israel, which some say finds its roots in the Balfour Declaration. This document issued by the British government in November 1917 during World War I expressed support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, then an Ottoman territory with a predominantly Arab population.  

Drafted through negotiations between British officials and Zionist leaders, the declaration (in a letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lionel Walter, 2nd Lord Rothschild) marked the first endorsement of Zionism by a major political power, though its language was supposed to be “intentionally vague.” 

While some argue this was to garner Jewish support for the Allied war effort and may have been designed to bring the United States into World War I, it sparked long-lasting controversy, became central to what is known as the British Mandate for Palestine, and is widely regarded as a foundational moment in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and even the current Israel-Iran conflict.

There was a convergence of ideas on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries: in Europe, that Israel needed a “national home,” and in the United States that Israel was not the church as had long been taught, but was instead a literal nation soon to resurrect in its ancestral home. It was as if the New Testament and all the biblical passages above were forgotten or ignored.

The decade-long tragedy we today know as the Holocaust, in which more than six million Jews were killed by the Nazi regime and millions more displaced, deepened and strengthened the belief that the nations of the world had a moral imperative to create a permanent homeland for those so brutally dispossessed in so many places.  This fundamental human response to the horror of the Holocaust gave additional impetus to the belief that U.S. foreign policy should always align with the national interest of the Jewish state that emerged barely three years after the close of World War II,

Alternative Views Among Christians

It’s worth noting that not all Christians hold this interpretation. Many theologians from other traditions believe that Jesus fulfills the covenant promises to ancient Israel, and that the Church now includes all who respond to that promise—Jew and Gentile alike. They see one olive tree (Romans 11), not two separate peoples.

According to this understanding, Christians aren’t rejecting ethnic Israel (Jews) but instead are allowing their theology to be framed by the New Testament’s understandings of spiritual identity and divine promise. Why is this so important? Because if all by faith can be heirs of Abraham and members of the family by faith, millions of lives may be saved and international political catastrophes avoided.

America thus wouldn’t have to defend and support one “son” of Abraham with weapons of mass destruction while helping end the lives of the other “children.” The message of the new covenant and of the New Testament is inclusive and expansive — “God is love”—and “love one another” applies universally. 

But if Christianity and its many factions are known for anything, it is often for the buffet of ideas and ideologies put forth. There is a difficult irony in the position of many who embrace the belief that modern Israel is the resurrected nation of biblical prophecy.  While their theology urges them to discard much of the Old Testament as inapplicable to modern believers, they ignore the New Testament teaching on this topic on the identity of Israel and cherry-pick from the Old Testament to move forward an often ferocious foreign policy. This is not some random or esoteric idea: this belief leads to ethnic cleansing, allowing vulnerable populations to starve, and bombing neighboring countries--fellow children of Abraham--all in defense of a theological understanding and a policy whose baseline asserts, “kill them before they kill us.”

Hidden Treasure

I personally find great beauty in much of what Scripture paints in the books of the Torah and find many of these teachings still sacred and beautiful today. Christians of any age would be foolish to denounce the modern-day state of Israel outright and not respect the history of a people group entrusted with the oracles of God.  It must be said with great respect that Judaism has preserved so much of what makes God and Scripture both beautiful and true. 

Most of the Christian world has rejected or ignored the Old Testament and many of the teachings from the Torah, i.e. replacing the fourth commandment meant to remember the seventh-day Sabbath as a memorial of creation, celebrating instead the first day of the week in supposed recognition of the resurrection of Jesus.  History is clear, however, that the roots of Sunday sacredness are in the pagan day of worshipping the sun enacted by Emperor Constantine. 

Look as well at the beautiful, sustainable dietary guidelines that today we call Kosher and that we know prolong life. Most of the Christian world asserts that the apostle Peter was talking about a license to eat anything with a heartbeat in his vision in Acts 10, though the following chapters clearly delineate that all people are invited to the kingdom of heaven and no person is to be called “unclean.” 

A majority of American Protestants replace the biblical emphasis on the antichrist and Babylon as geo-political players and posit only a future application to a figure who will arrive in the state of Israel to meet his predicted fate. 

There are so many glorious teachings from the Torah and Israel’s history that Christianity has forgotten or ignored. Faith in the carpenter from Nazareth has become a religion of picking and choosing in which some can read the same Hebrew and Greek scriptures as other Christians and yet come away with entirely different perspectives. 

This would be only a regrettable theological challenge if it didn’t have massive—and even destructive—geo-political consequences.  An ill-considered and unwise commitment to a specific belief that centuries of Christian faith would have labeled “heresy” has resulted and is unfolding in decades of human tragedy, conflict, refugees and nearly perpetual conflict.  

Why This Matters

Why dive into this? Because our beliefs shape our behavior and policies, and our policies shape lives in the U.S. and around the world. Misinformation, or the habit of picking and choosing theology can unintentionally contribute to ongoing conflict and destruction and death. Taking time to reflect on these deeper stories may not be as trendy as writing about sleep hacks or VO2 max tips (which I love to do), but it might help us approach these issues with more empathy, curiosity, and clarity--and ultimately save lives.

In an age of noise and war, the most revolutionary thing we can do is to pause, ask deeper questions, and refuse to blindly accept what we were handed or taught without first understanding its roots.

Thank you for letting me explore this with you. If you’re a praying person, pray for those in leadership positions who may hold these beliefs and feel compelled by God to go to war to uphold them. If you’re not a praying person, I hope that now you can make more sense of what may be driving U.S. foreign policy. 

I want to end by honoring those who choose courage over cowardice, who stand as witnesses, not servants of war, who carry compassion rather than fuel the flames of hate, who kneel at the cross of empathy while others bow to the flag of empire—not because they love their country less, but because they dare to love their neighbor more.

---

I’d love to hear your thoughts. 👋

I write this newsletter each week because I feel my best when my body, mind and soul are all healthy. I want the same for you. If you feel like you’ve seen something valuable here, please do me a favor and forward this newsletter to a friend or let me know what you think by replying or texting me - (310) 879-8441

I think happy couples make the world go round. I also believe men can do more to lead and love in their lives. In light of that, I have found the following four books to be the 4 books every man should read and every woman should want their man to read.

• Good Energy - What makes for a Healthy Body and Mind?

• The Masculine in Relationship - How to Win the Trust, Lust and Devotion of a Strong Woman

• The Man’s Guide to Women - The Science of Happy Relationships

• The Desire of Ages - Leadership in a World of Cowards

Here are a few other links to things that have changed my life:

Whoop - Track your HRV and REM Sleep

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Here are a few topics I think you’ll love if you haven’t checked them out before:

How to Breathe for Better Health

How to Supercharge Your Sleep

The Power of the Sauna

-Jared

P.S. - This newsletter does not provide medical advice. The content, such as graphics, images, text, and all other materials, is provided for reference and educational purposes only. The content is not meant to be complete or exhaustive or to be applicable to any specific individual's medical condition.

References 

1. Christians United for Israel. https://cufi.org

2. U.S. State Department – Memorandum of Understanding on U.S.–Israel military aid (2016)

3. Congressional Research Service, 2023 Report – “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel”

4. United Nations Voting Records; Middle East Monitor analysis

5. Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Harvard University Press, 1992); Timothy P. Weber, On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend (Baker Academic, 2004).