The Wall Street Journal had an impressive front page story in today’s edition titled: “Holy War: A Texas Preacher Leads Campaign to Let Israel Fight.” It tells the story of John Hagee, a popular dispensational preacher and best-selling author in San Antonio, Texas, who has become the America’s most outspoken and influential voice for Christian Zionism. Hagee is leading pro-Israel gatherings these days that are putting a great deal of pressure on the White House and other sympathetic congressional leaders to stay out of any peacemaking deals in the Middle East. Hagee believes that Israel has God’s complete support in this conflict and that these present events are likely to lead to Armageddon so we should steer clear of interfering with what God is about to do in Israel in these last days.

I have no quarrel with those Christians who believe ethnic Israel, and even the modern state of Israel, has a major part to play in biblical prophecy, though I disagree with about 98% of what they think the Bibel actually says about these matters. I do have a huge problem with John Hagee and the host of evangelicals like him who seem intent on helping America advance war in the Middle East for the cause of Christ. Hagee’s political philosophy, if indeed he even has one, is plainly rooted in a strange blend of prophecy and popular religion, not in the divine law or in Christian ethics. Hagee’s recent best-seller, Jerusalem Countdown, sees a coming nuclear showdown with Iran.

I sure hope that when the president takes the support of people like John Hagee, which he does in public, that he privately rejects their foolish counsel. I shudder to think what might happen to delicate and sensitive international foreign policy if we began to build it on this kind of theology. I support the existence and defense of the state of Israel but evangelicals like John Hagee actually make the task for providing a strong argument for this position more difficult. If you don’t believe me read the article for yourself. It is far more troubling than I imagined when I began to read the story this morning. No wonder the media thinks evangelicals are a dangerous group of people.

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Comments

  1. Fred Carpenter July 28, 2006 at 8:53 am

    Amen John

  2. Kenneth L. Stewart February 10, 2007 at 2:45 pm

    No where do you provide any support for your views other than this is what I believe. To me this is pure trashing of a Christian man’s belief in God. A letter of hate with deception. I don’t know
    why or for what purpose you felt a need to present such comments or what your motive might be, but I do know the bible is the only true measure which tell us
    that God only is to Judge his creations.
    On the other hand I know, because I have listened weekly to his preaching for more than 20 years that everything that Pastor Hagee says concerning the Jewish people and their Nation, Israel is rooted in and taken from the bible. Also I know that may things that people say about him are not base on what he actual said, but instead on their own perceived needs to appear more righteous and even superior.

  3. Eric March 30, 2007 at 4:25 pm

    We need to focus on love. I need to stress that We do not know whatsoever, what will happen tomorrow– we cannot predict Armageddon from the mere pages of ONE religious text. We do not know “God’s” full word. We do not know his intentions, we do not know his plans. What we do know, now, is that there is little to no love on this Earth. We focus on the bad, we’re all waiting for some “Armageddon” and it is reshaping how we view the world. People like John Hagee who preach about who gets to go to heaven, who is going to perish in hell– are the problem. Influencing the political realm, where preachers have no place, to try and get a war started because of something they interpreted from their own biased perspective, is preposterous. We need to focus on Love, now. Not our hazy interpretations of what the bible said. Plus, this guy is a televangelist, he isn’t about spreading any words of god. He is just as the news is, he gives issues that push people toward fear, pushing up his ratings. It is not beneficial to rally around something as negative as an Armageddon. We need to preach love. We need to share our love with others, not persecute on the basis of some foggy religious prophecy.

  4. Some guy off youtube March 30, 2007 at 4:29 pm

    John Hagee is an outrageously ignorant man who has absolutely no knowledge of Islam whatsoever. He misquotes the Qur’an and Hadith, misinterprets the meanings of the Qur’an and Hadith and has arrived at a conclusion about Islam that is so incorrect that it is shocking. He shows an astonishing inability to deliberately misconstrue even the basic principles of Islam A scholar the least that person should understand is the basics of his subject.This man is misleading everyone that listens to him.

  5. stumpy May 4, 2007 at 10:32 am

    I can’t believe you bastion of baby booming vipers, you all are still rooted in your arrogance that the United States has some major influence in current unfolding bible events, we are along for the ride, and Hagee is only preaching what has already been written, he has nailed it right on.
    You think the U.S. can fix anything?, of course not.
    Supporting Israel is the only thing that has allowed the grace the U.S. has received, and the grace is running out.
    Will this garce run out because we will no longer support Israel? or will it run out because we were A-holes to the world (a basic translation of your views), once again a photo finish answer, one of many that the world will not answer honestly, until it’s shoved in the world’s face with Jesus’ return.

  6. John H. Armstrong May 4, 2007 at 10:45 am

    Well Stumpy you truly told us who you were and why you believe what you do. I doubt many Christians will find this vision of life in Christ very appealing at all. I do not. It has nothing to do with what we read in the Gospels of the New Testament and everything to do with you own private interpretation. Pretty sad really. I would not think most of us could find much Christian fellowship if this spirit prevailed for long.

  7. stumpy May 4, 2007 at 1:58 pm

    I realize the earlier comments come across a little strong, to a pulic view of Christianity as all inclusive, yes, it’s all inclusive potentially, and up to the individual.
    Why does the popular puplic perception of our Lord reflect some flower power perception of all inclusividity?
    One is babtized by the Holy Spirit, or by Fire. I prefer the Spirit, and yes Water also but isn’t that really a confirmation of the Spirit?
    Where does Christianity take a stand, if it can’t take a stand on issues of our Lord’s capitol city Jerusalem?, and that includes it’s people. I appreciate your open forum.

  8. John H. Armstrong May 4, 2007 at 5:40 pm

    Stumpy,
    Your spirit is more inviting in this response. Thank you. I welcome a forum but not a mud fight. You are more than welcome to disagree and to tell us why.
    While I agree that God has a future for ethnic Israel (Romans 9-11) I do not, like many orthodox Christians, embrace the dispensational aspects of John Hagee’s thought. He may be a wonderful man, I do not know. But he is not a careful and wise theologian at all. He is a passionate, best-selling, TV preacher who injects his opinions about Israel into the public square and that is what many of us are not pleased with.
    The Bible warrants our support of the Jews, and thus opposes anti-Semitism (a form of vile racism) and even anti-Judaism. What is in debate here is whether or not the biblical prophetic interpretations of the sort that John Hagee holds to should influence the nation’s outlook on the present social and political issues in the secular nation of Israel.

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