The leader of the most prominent Christian Zionist group – and one of the loudest voices for attacking Iran – John Hagee and his Christians United for Israel (CUFI) effectively serve as the world’s End Times lobbyist. A man with political allies and clout, he uses the heft of his sizable voting bloc and CUFI’s 1 million plus membership to act, on a moment’s notice, in what he deems to be Zion’s sake. Unfortunately his idea of what’s good for Israel stands to be very much against the country’s best long-term interests.
Author of many books, one can take Hagee’s true measure in his screed, Jerusalem Countdown: A Prelude to War, a book that goes full force in promoting a US led pre-emptive war against Iran. Hagee bases his “foreign policy” on cherry-picked Bible verses that he claims set out the necessary conditions that will bring on the End-Times battle of Armageddon and the return of Jesus. Topmost in Hagee-land is the precondition that the final battle will begin in Iran.
Scuttling any hope for genuine peace talks, Hagee also argues that, according to the Bible, Israel must never agree to any land exchange nor to share any part of the city of Jerusalem, both issues for which he, CUFI and his voting bloc readily and regularly go to the mat. In addition, he embellishes his Middle East warmongering with hateful, Islamophobic sermons, attacking Muslims and Islam.
While attesting a great love for the Jews, far too many statements that stink of a base anti-Semitism have crossed the not-so-good pastor’s lips:
1. Regarding World War II and Hitler, Hagee explains that God put Hitler on earth so as to force unwilling Jews to emigrate to Israel:
“God then sent the hunters. The hunter is one who pursues his target with force and fear. No one could see the horror of the Holocaust coming, but the force and fear of Hitler’s Nazis drove the Jewish people back to the only home God ever intended for the Jews to have — Israel. I stand amazed at the accuracy of God’s Word and its relevance for our time.”
2. Further reason that God brought the Holocaust onto the Jews: “It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day … How utterly repulsive, insulting, and heartbreaking to God for His chosen people to credit idols with bringing blessings He had showered upon the chosen people. Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of anti-Semitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come … it rises from the judgment of God upon his rebellious chosen people.”
3. Harkening back to the old blood libel, Hagee directly links the Jews to the murder of Christ On Terry Gross’s Fresh Air, he told her that, at the time of the Second Coming, Jews will finally drop their refusal to accept Christ when they see “him whom they have pierced,” pierced referring biblically to Christ’s crucifixion wounds.
4. On the Final Battle: “ The Islamic Arabs are using the Roadmap to Peace to get all of the land of Israel they can get. And when Israel finally says, ‘Enough!’ you’re going to see the beginning of the implementation of Ezekiel’s war in 38:39. The critical point is the church is raptured before this war begins. I am telling you that makes this message one of the most thrilling prophetic messages you’ve ever heard in your life.”
5. Only those Jews who have received Jesus will be saved (it happens to come out to the biblically foreordained 44,000 or 12,000 from each of the 12 Hebrew Tribes).
“God promises that by his sovereign grace a ‘remnant’ would be saved by the grace of God, a group of survivors who have the opportunity to receive Messiah, who is a rabbi known to the world as Jesus Christ.”
6. Hagee can’t help but join in on the generic conspiracy theory mentions of the international bankers and financiers, the Federal Reserve System, and the Rothschilds, he is adding antisemitism to the generic Freemason/Illuminati conspiracy theory.
With thanks to www.jewsonfirst.org
