-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: March 26, 2007 9:57:10 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: TV Evangelist John Hagee Wants War With Iran, and He
Wants It Now!
"In order for [evangelical] Christians to escape physical
death, two-thirds of the Jews in Israel must perish, soon. This is
the grim trade-off in prophecy that fundamentalists seldom discuss
publicly, yet it's the only real motivation for the movement's
support of Israel. That is why they believe Israel must be
defended at all costs by the West. If Israel were relegated to the
sidelines, the Rapture would be delayed (again), indefinitely.
Fundamentalism thrives on belief in an imminent Rapture, not a
postponed Rapture.
"So, every time you hear, 'Jesus is returning soon,' you should
mentally add, 'as soon as two-thirds of the Jews of Israel are
[exterminated]'." Fundamentalists really DO believe they will not
die physically, but to fulfill the prophecy of their own survival,
they must help bring about an 'inevitable' holocaust for Jews."
--conservative Gary North (slightly paraphrased for clarity)
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From: "Jim S" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: March 26, 2007 1:21:29 AM PDT
Subject: TV Evangelist John Hagee Wants War With Iran, and He Wants
It Now!
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http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnwell/barnwell73.html
*TV Evangelist John Hagee Wants War With Iran, and He Wants It Now!*
by Bill Barnwell
March 22, 2007
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
http://billbarnwell.blogspot.com/2007/01/why-are-
dispensationalists-obsessed.html
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. March 22, 2007
http://www.jhm.org/
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.
http://www.rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=296845
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
http://www.cufi.org/
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 A.I.P.A.C. Washington
conference. Behind his thundering prose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDRxmqOn7x4
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
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/north7.html
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. http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnwell/barnwell71.html
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.
~~~
[Bill Barnwell [ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] is a pastor and writer from
Michigan. He holds both a Master of Ministry degree and a Master
of Arts in Theological Studies degree from Bethel College in
Mishawaka, Indiana. Visit his blog:
http://www.billbarnwell.blogspot.com/ ]
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