By P.L. Wardino
A significant source disseminating massive disinformation on Israel is the pro-Israel Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), which bills itself as America’s most watched faith channel. The largest evangelical television network in the world is a mouthpiece for pro-Israel propagandists. If you are a hotel guest in the US, chances are one of the channels available to watch in your room is TBN.
While the non-profit has downsized since its 1973 founding, it still has a substantial global reach: it broadcasts to 178 countries in 17 languages, including 100 million American households, via 784 broadcast cable and satellite affiliates, 30 global networks, and digital platforms. TBN has seven international offices, publishes books and newsletters and features videos on demand.
TBN Promotes Antithesis of Christ’s Teachings
TBN has played a key role in promoting “Christian” Zionism, Israel-US wars and militarism in the Middle East, and the doomsday prophecy racket. It promotes the end times prophecy that red heifers must be sacrificed and a Third Temple must be built in Israel so the anti-Christ can be revealed and Jesus Christ can return.
It’s valuable to be aware that the Zionism it promotes is considered the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ and was largely injected into American culture by way of the Scofield Reference Bible, a deeply questionable volume whose enabler seems to have been Samuel Untermeyer, a New York attorney.
Evolution of TBN’s Influence
TBN began humbly as a standalone TV station by founders Paul Crouch and his wife Jan who partnered with the notoriously corrupt and disgraced televangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker. The two couples later had a falling out. Donations to the “Christian” Zionist broadcasting empire funded the Crouches’ lavish lifestyles, as reported in the May 5, 2012 issue of The New York Times, including 30 mansions and houses, private jets, high end vehicles, jewelry, facelifts and Jan’s outrageous wigs.
As the Crouches grew older, the couple turned the family business over to their children Matt and Laurie Crouch. After years of vacancy, the lavish TBN headquarters building in Costa Mesa, California was recently torn down.
TBN has played an important role in convincing evangelical “Christian” Zionists to endorse the neocon wars. Paul Crouch believed the U.S. invasion of Iraq was an opportunity to launch a battle between good and evil in the Middle East. In reality, the war was started on the false pretext that the country had WMDs promoted by Israel partisans embedded in the US government.
Crouch visited Iraq and distributed satellite television equipment to enable locals to receive evangelical programming in Arabic. Matt joined his father to pose proudly in front of Saddam Hussein’s former military parade grounds.
In 1980 the Crouches presented Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin with a scroll of support signed by one million TBN partners. Three years earlier Greater Israel advocate Begin had led the IDF’s invasion of Lebanon.
Did the couple and their followers know Begin was the father of Israeli terrorism as documented in many sources including the books “The Zionist Connection: What Price Peace?” by Dr. Alfred Lilienthal and “Theft of a Nation” by Christian biblical scholar William W. Baker? Were the Crouches and TBN followers aware that Begin organized the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946 that killed 93 British officers and the massacre of 107 Palestinian Arabs in the village of Deir Yassin?
Israel’s Genocide Visible to World
Anyone curious to learn about today’s events can watch and listen all over the internet to videos, photos, podcasts and interviews with Israeli military, backed by the US, committing genocide of Palestinian children, women and men in Gaza. Truth seekers can witness the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure to clear the way for “Project Sunrise,” Trump, Kushner and Witkoff’s $112 billion plan to build a resort destination on the blood-soaked grounds of Gaza.
The world now sees Israel replicating this destruction in southern Lebanon and people all over the world are aware Israel pushed Trump into starting the disastrous war with Iran. TBN is giving its listeners/viewers the unchristian Israeli perspective on these military operations.
The genocide in Gaza and southern Lebanon and Israel’s role in starting the war with Iran are widely reported by many independent news media including Judge Napolitano’s Judging Freedom, The Ron Paul Liberty Report, The Young Turks, The Jimmy Dore Show, The Last American Vagabond, Redacted, OAN, The Tucker Carlson Network and Antiwar.com, just to name a few. Even The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are publishing some truth on this ungodly militarism.
TBN’s Pro-Zionist and Pro-Israeli Militaristic Programming
Some of TBN’s programming emphasizes understanding the Old Testament, Jews, Israel and Zionism rather than teaching about the New Covenant and converting souls to Jesus Christ. TBN shows include “Israel Under Fire” and “Boots on the Ground” which shares pro-IDF tactical maneuvers and key events from “the frontlines of Israel’s military operations.”
The Israeli government reportedly donated more than $300,000 to create a show on TBN. “According to a separate Israeli government procurement document…the payment was made to Shar-El Media and Productions, the official representative of TBN in Israel, to produce and broadcast a television program called ‘Insights: Israel and the Middle East.’ The show, historically, has done several episodes dedicated to highlighting Israel’s military, artificial intelligence, and drone industries.
Other TBN programming includes “The Hanukkah Special with Erick Stakelbeck,” “Jewish Voice with Jonathan Bernis” and five October 7, 2023 specials portraying the so-called “heroism” of the IDF. This is particularly problematic when one considers the many Israeli military attacks on Christians and Christian churches on top of their brutality toward Palestinian children, women and men. It is also inappropriate given that Israeli media have reported it was the IDF that killed many of those on October 7. and
- Israel’s still killing Israeli hostages with the Hannibal directive – but now in Gaza itself
- Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
- How Israel killed hundreds of its own people on October 7
The host of TBN’s “The Rosenberg Report,” Joel C. Rosenberg, a dual US-Israeli citizen and self-described evangelical (others have characterized him as a Messianic Jew), reports extensively on and fully supports the militarism of the IDF (he reposted Netanyahu’s claim it is “the most moral army in the world”) on his X account.
Rosenberg has also been critical of Tucker Carlson’s opposition to US funding the genocide in Gaza, bombing southern Lebanon and starting the war with Iran. Carlson supports foreign policy in the interests of the US rather than any foreign country including Israel. He has criticized the US for allowing AIPAC and the Zionist lobby to dictate US foreign policy to favor Israeli interests at the expense of American lives and resources. Carlson has also praised Israel’s sense of strong identity and immigration policies that prioritize ethnic cohesion as an example for the US to follow.
Rosenberg states Jesus was a Jew. Jesus was actually a Galilean from Galilee and He can more accurately be described as an Israelite or Hebrew. Judaism, especially Rabbinic Judaism, developed after Jesus’ time during the Talmudic period. This is verified by archeological findings, religious studies and the books “A History of Judaism” by Martin Goodman, Jacob Neusner’s “Rabbi Akiva’s Messiah” and Shay J.D. Cohen’s “From Maccabees to Mishnah.”
Consistent with its emphasis on the Old Testament, TBN aired the movie “Moses” on its cable channel and streaming services on its TBN+ application. Rabbi Jason Sobel’s “Jesus in the Passover” was a TBN feature and his “Breaking Sunday School” program discusses the connection between Zionism and end times using Israeli flags and a model of the Third Temple as backdrops.
The TBN Israel channel is on YouTube and presents each episode as a fundraiser. The channel’s host Mati Shoshani has been described by podcaster David Cohen as a fellow Jewish follower of Yeshua (Jesus). While views are mixed, overall many scholars in mainstream Christian denominations such as Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Presbyterians and Lutherans believe Messianic Judaism undermines the core tenets of Christianity, the New Covenant’s transformative fulfillment of the Old, and the exclusivity of salvation through Jesus Christ alone.
TBN Israel coverage of the genocide in and physical obliteration of Gaza is framed as the IDF simply targeting the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah while it ignores, justifies or fails to report civilian killing, up to 70,000 now in Gaza. A typical comment of channel followers purporting to be Christians is “Get her done!” i.e. bomb Iran and overthrow its government.
TBN is also attempting to convince viewers that antisemitism is the worst it has been since the Holocaust in the words of US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on his show, despite the fact that, in the words of Israeli author Israel Shahak, in the last 40 years [now 64 years] “the number of non-Jews killed by Jews is by far greater than the number of the Jews killed by non-Jews.”
Huckabee claims Palestinian is a “made-up term from 1962 and Arafat” despite the fact that the word Palestine is a historical fact dating back to 5th Century BCE. Its ancient origins can be traced to its Arabic usage, Ottoman and British records, pre-1948 identity, and UN recognition. Huckabee famously admitted in his interview with Carlson it would be fine if Israel stole all the land it wanted from Arab nations as part of its Greater Israel agenda.
TBN is not only propagandizing Christians to support Zionism but the mission of TBN channel Nejat (“Salvation”) is to convert “unsuspecting” – TBN’s word – Muslims to Christianity, presumably “Christian” Zionism, while predicting “the coming fall of Islam” in Iran. One of the most fanatical Zionist pastors featured on TBN over the years – and there has been a lot of competition – is John Hagee.
TBN Preaches Prosperity Gospel
TBN features many pastors such as Joel Osteen who preach the “prosperity gospel” which promises followers that if they donate money to TBN, financial riches will come to them. Through the decades TBN became embroiled in multiple financial and sex scandals that were exposed in this 2025 documentary. Esquire published its own report in 2025 disclosing the sexual abuse and financial scandals involving the Crouches and TBN. TBN presented its own sanitized version of its history in a four part series.
In 2023 TBN brought in $327 million in revenues including about $193 million in donations and pledges, $74 million in TV broadcasting rights and licensing fees, $28 million from online streaming services, book and product sales, program services, investments and royalties. Its assets in 2024 totaled over $206 million.
At least one clergyman – Rick Wiles, senior Pastor of Flowing Streams Church in Florida and founder of TruNews – left TBN and abandoned the Zionist cause.
In 1995, Wiles was hired as Marketing Director and proceeded to reposition the network brand inside the cable industry. Wiles played an important role in negotiating early contracts to launch TBN on DirectTV, DISH, and the former Prime Star DBS systems. Three years later Wiles resigned. Today Wiles is an outspoken anti-Zionist pastor who exposed the truth about the Scofield Bible in 2018.
Wiles attended an annual reunion of veterans of the unprovoked and deliberate Israeli attack on the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967 that killed 34 and wounded 174 American servicemen. The US government covered up the brutal torpedo, napalm and gun fire attack in an attempt to sink the ship and justify the US siding with Israel in its Six Day War against Egypt. Survivors were told to keep quiet or face imprisonment or even death. Wiles produced a four part series featuring interviews with survivors. Israel denied the brutal attack was deliberate and worked to cover up the fact the attack was intentional.
Wiles challenged TBN on its teachings on X in 2023. “God ended the Old Covenant 2,000+ years ago. Jesus took the kingdom from the Jews and gave it to the Church (Matthew 21:43). Jesus led the Roman army to Jerusalem in 70 AD to fulfill His prophecy to destroy the temple (Mark 3:2). Join us in the New Covenant! It’s awesome!”
Support for Israel’s Wars and “Christian” Zionism in Decline
Today a growing list of pastors note “Christian” Zionism is in decline and support of these wars and Zionism among the young, especially Generation Z, is very low. Pastor Chuck Baldwin who founded the non-denominational, non-501©(3) Liberty Fellowship in Montana has been an outspoken critic of “Christian” Zionism. In an exclusive interview he told If Americans Knew that TBN has always been a Zionist propaganda mouthpiece and part of a much larger network of “Christian” Zionists in the US.
“With its international audience, it has been very influential in promoting the Christian Zionist agenda for a long time,” he said. “Christian Zionism came from the Scofield Bible in 1909 and has been the predominant eschatological juggernaut after all these decades but these churchgoers have been lied to by their pastors.
“Since the genocide in Gaza and many crimes against humanity by the US government – Trump and both political parties in Congress in particular – a lot of people, especially younger generations, see Christian Zionism is a faulty doctrine,” Pastor Baldwin asserted. “These Eastern Europeans posing as Jews in Palestine are not God’s chosen people.” Nationwide polls confirm declining support for Israel, he noted, especially in individuals under 40 years old. For the aged 25 and younger, support for Israel is in single digits or non-existent. “It is inevitable the Zionist state will collapse, maybe sooner rather than later, if they continue their war in Iran,” he said. “And Christian Zionism as an eschatological interpretation of prophecy is collapsing as well.”
P.L. Wardino is a freelance researcher and writer based near Washington DC.
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