Nutcase preacher John Hagee wants war with Iran and he wants is NOW

TV Evangelist John Hagee Wants War With Iran, and He Wants It Now!
by Bill Barnwell
by Bill Barnwell


DIGG THIS

If anyone still thinks that the radical end-times "prophecy" movement
is not a threat to peace and stability, think again. At the popular
level, in terms of the TV preachers and the hot-selling prophecy
books, the dispensational pre-trib stuff still reigns supreme. Most
conservative-leaning Evangelical churches in America today are heavily
influenced by popular dispensational theology to some extent. Even
churches and pastors that don’t teach pretribulationalism still are
influenced by dispensationalism to varying degrees.

The most dangerous element of this prophetic paradigm, however, is its
doom-and-gloom view of the world. And in most cases, those who have a
fascination with the end of the world have a particular fascination
with war and militarism as well. More problematic, it assumes that
their wars of choice are not just their own foreign policy preferences
or personal opinions. Rather they are ordained by God. In 2003, more
than a few pastors and influential Christian figures basically said
that opposing the Iraq war was opposing God’s end-time plan. According
to Evangelical end-times enthusiasts, if you opposed the Iraq war, you
didn’t just hate your country and the troops, now you were opposing
God and the Bible as well.

An even bigger obsession for dispensationalists has always been
Israel. For the average dispensationalist, modern-day secular Israel
is going to be the focal point in the end-times. Therefore, if the
Bible really does teach in Daniel 9:27 that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is
going to be torn down for a rebuilt Jewish Temple, why should any of
us seek to prevent it? Sure, it very well might ignite a regional war
and even ignite tensions around the world, but it's all part of God’s
prophetic plan. Not to worry though, things might not get really ugly
until after the "rapture," so the Christians today who are cheering
for events that would bring about World War III won’t have to worry
about it anyway. Unless of course, they are wrong about the whole
thing.

Enter the Rev. John Hagee. Hagee is the pastor of Cornerstone Church
in San Antonio Texas, where he has 18,000 followers right in his own
congregation. He also has a global television ministry and has sold
scores of prophecy books over the years. John Hagee is perhaps the
most powerful and influential Christian Zionist figure in America.
Hagee has a long history making strange predictions about world events
that are almost always wrong. His books in the late 90’s trumped up
Y2K hysteria to ridiculous levels. He inaccurately predicted that the
assassination of Yitzhak Rabin was the "Beginning of the End" in the
book of the same name. In every book he writes, he is constantly
warning of catastrophe in various forms right around the corner.
According to one of his fans, he supposedly just preached a sermon
predicting that 2007 would be a "significant" year in Bible prophecy
and that his prophecy claims can be "mathematically" backed up by the
Biblical text.

Given Hagee’s prior success rate in making predictions, don’t be
shocked if 2007 doesn’t shape up to be all that "significant" after
all. As with all popular prophecy teachers, they are immune from
making inaccurate predictions and false prophecies. Their followers
simply forget or forgive them. Maybe they’ll even claim that God
changed His mind. Most don’t even pay attention though and don’t even
realize their superstars are constantly revising their predictions and
end-times charts.

However, Hagee is not just another goofy eccentric on TBN. He has
political clout and regularly meets with influential national
politicians. If you’ve ever watched him on TV, he clearly basks in
this fact and drops little hints about his discussions with people in
governmental authority and other positions of power. For years Hagee
has hosted "A Night to Honor" Israel and is founder and chairman of
Christians United for Israel. Their goals span beyond supporting
Israel, but also implementing a one-sided and radical approach to the
Arab-Israeli problems in the Middle East. There is no nuance to their
policy prescriptions and ironically (or perhaps not so ironically) the
agenda of Hagee and his group would actually make matters much worse
in the Middle East.

And he has more than a few fans out there. He has not been afraid to
remind his church and television audience, repeatedly over the years,
that there are "millions in America and around the world watching this
program right now." Whatever the number really is, what is clear is
that Hagee is reaching many people and has a networking system that
spans into the rich and powerful, some of whom are making national
foreign policy decisions.

If left up to Hagee, there would be a military strike against Iran
today. Since last summer, Hagee has been practically foaming at the
mouth for a new war with Iran. Why? Because he thinks it is the rest
of the world’s job to fight Israel’s wars and because he thinks such a
showdown is a piece of the puzzle in regards to Bible prophecy. To
Hagee, there is no middle ground on this issue. God told Abraham he
would "bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you" (Gen.
12:3). That means if YOU aren’t on board with wars that might be in
Israel’s interest, but not in the United States’, then YOU will be
cursed by God. At least according to Hagee.

To see just how bellicose, belligerent, and militaristic Hagee has
come, just watch his speech at the AIPAC Washington conference. Behind
his thundering prose and love for the Jewish people is a militaristic
and even fanatical mindset that is hoping and praying for the world to
fall apart. After all, Jesus can’t come back unless it does, but all
is well since Christians before the "rapture" will escape the worst of
it.

Unfortunately for the Jewish people, they still await another massive
holocaust, according to many dispensationalists. Anyone interested in
this subject should read our own Gary North’s column, The Unannounced
Reason Behind American Fundamentalism's Support for the State of
Israel. An excerpt:

Nothing can or will be done by Christians to save Israel’s Jews from
this disaster, for all of the Christians will have been removed from
this world three and a half years prior to the beginning of this 42-
month period of tribulation. (The total period of seven years is
interpreted as the fulfillment of the seventieth week of Daniel [Dan.
9:27].)

In order for most of today’s Christians to escape physical death, two-
thirds of the Jews in Israel must perish, soon. This is the grim
prophetic trade-off that fundamentalists rarely discuss publicly, but
which is the central motivation in the movement’s support for Israel.
It should be clear why they believe that Israel must be defended at
all costs by the West. If Israel were militarily removed from history
prior to the Rapture, then the strongest case for Christians’ imminent
escape from death would have to be abandoned. This would mean the
indefinite delay of the Rapture. The fundamentalist movement thrives
on the doctrine of the imminent Rapture, not the indefinitely
postponed Rapture.

Every time you hear the phrase, "Jesus is coming back soon," you
should mentally add, "and two-thirds of the Jews of Israel will be
dead in ‘soon plus 84 months.’" Fundamentalists really do believe that
they probably will not die physically, but to secure this faith
prophetically, they must defend the doctrine of an inevitable
holocaust.

This specific motivation for the support of Israel is never preached
from any fundamentalist pulpit. The faithful hear sermons – many, many
sermons – on the pretribulation Rapture. On other occasions, they hear
sermons on the Great Tribulation. But they do not hear the two themes
put together: "We can avoid death, but only because two-thirds of the
Jews of Israel will inevitably die in a future holocaust. America must
therefore support the nation of Israel in order to keep the Israelis
alive until after the Rapture." Fundamentalist ministers expect their
congregations to put two and two together on their own. It would be
politically incorrect to add up these figures in public.

Again, however, one can’t make too big a fuss about this, since "Bible
prophecy" demands this carnage. It’s "God’s will" for the world to
fall apart, for tensions to further inflame between Jews and Arabs,
for the United States to lead the charge in a pre-emptive strike on
Iran, to rebuild a third Jewish Temple after tearing down the Islamic
mosque, etc. All you have to do to prove this is cut passages like
Genesis 12, Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, Ezekiel 36 and 37, and
Daniel 9:24–27 out of context (along with the entire book of
Revelation), make up some handy-dandy prophecy charts, and confidently
present it to Biblically illiterate Christians who don’t know any
better.

While there are many doctrinal disputes amongst Christians, there are
none that have as much practical significance as this one. I strongly
disagree with those who deny the Trinity, but those who deny the deity
of Christ are not clamoring for war, bombs, and destruction. Likewise,
Christians disagree vehemently over issues like eternal security or
the proper mode of baptism, but thankfully we’ve grown up and stopped
killing each other over those issues in the last couple hundred
years.

When it comes to questionable or inaccurate beliefs about the end-
times, however, they are shaping many people’s foreign policy and
worldviews for the worse. It is causing many to hold troubling
escapist views towards the world. I know this because I am constantly
told by other Christians that "we are not in the business of fixing up
the world, we are just in the business of saving souls until the
rapture!" It is in part because of faulty eschatology that Evangelical
Christians, more than any other demographic group in America,
supported the ill-advised invasion of Iraq in 2003. And it is faulty
eschatology that is causing this same group of people to believe the
militaristic agenda behind Rev. Hagee’s bombastic oratory. After all,
it’s all been ordained, so how can we oppose it?

But maybe, just maybe, their preciously held beliefs about future
prophecy are way off. Maybe they are dead wrong in their views and
maybe all the wars, destruction and carnage they think are inevitable
aren’t necessarily mandated by God. Maybe the Bible is teaching
exactly the opposite regarding these matters than what they teach.

Alas, no matter how many false predictions these guys make, or how
many damaging theological and political beliefs they espouse, people
continue to follow their dangerous teachings. It’s time for both
Christian and non-Christian alike to call this crowd out on their bad
theology, false prophecies, and deadly worldview.

Hopefully Hagee is right that 2007 is going to be a significant year
in Bible prophecy. It would be significant indeed if Biblical
scholars, pastors and laymen finally and at long last rescued the
doctrine of eschatology from the doom and destruction crowd of
militaristic pretribulationists. Here’s hoping that with each passing
year the theology of Hagee and his ilk is exposed for how Biblically
inaccurate and destructive it really is.

March 22, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnwell/barnwell73.html

.

Quantcast