Religion

Will John Hagee’s Views on Israel Lead America to War?

“I am a student of world history,” John “Blood Moons” Hagee says, “and you can wrap up world history in 25 words or less and here it is: the nations that blessed Israel prospered and the nations that cursed Israel were destroyed by the hand of God. . . . If America turns its back on Israel, God will turn his back on America.” (A more accurate way of saying it would be “If America turns its back on God, God will turn His back on America.”) He then mentions Babylon and Rome as examples.

But there’s a problem since the Roman Empire collapsed in 453, nearly 385 years after Rome destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70, an event Jesus predicted would happen (Matt. 24:1-34).

If Hagee had been alive around AD 67, he most likely would have said, “If Rome turns its back on Israel, God will turn His back on Rome.” More than three centuries after the fact is hardly a causal relationship. There were many factors that contributed to Rome’s collapse.

Babylon fell soon after Israel was taken into captivity, in fact, while the captives were still under Babylonian rule: “That same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two” (Dan. 5:30-31). God had predicted the fall of Babylon by the Medes (Isa. 13).

Hagee argues that “even the British Empire has been ‘reduced to one tiny island because, since Edward the First [1239-1307], they have been and remain an anti-Semitic nation.’” Edward I lived more than 700 years ago. London is one of the world’s greatest financial centers.

The British Empire has been reduced because many nations in its orbit detested British rule. It had nothing to do with Israel.

It was England that helped in the re-establishment of Israel beginning in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration. “It was a letter from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfourto Baron Rothschild . . . , a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.”

“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

Hagee is not the only person to perpetuate this theological myth. According to Laurie Cardoza-Moore, the “Genesis Curse” “has played out through time from the extinct Philistines to the destruction of Nazi Germany.”

Read more: “Does the Bible Teach Blood Moon Theology?

What the Nazis did to the Jews was horrific and deserved a swift and total judgment. But while the Nazis were judged, the German nation did not go the way of Babylon, Greece, or Rome. In fact, Germany is one of the most prosperous nations in the world today. The Nazis were judged because they violated God’s law regarding murder, a law that applies to all nations no matter who is being murdered.

john hagee

Two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. Japan didn’t do what the Nazis did. So how does Japan fit into the “Genesis Curse”? Why was the island nation judged? It had nothing to do with Israel. (Hagee might claim that Japan was judged because it attacked the United States and the United States was a friend of Israel.) But if an argument like this is valid, then whey didn’t God just protect the Jews?

What about China during the Mao era where from 49 to 78 million Chinese people died? Why did this take place when we know that China gave sanctuary to Jews?

“Dr. Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Republic of China, held admirations for the Jewish people and Zionism, and saw parallels between the persecution of Jews and the domination of China by the Western powers. He stated, ‘Though their country was destroyed, the Jewish nation has existed to this day… [Zionism] is one of the greatest movements of the present time. All lovers of democracy cannot help but support wholeheartedly and welcome with enthusiasm the movement to restore your wonderful and historic nation, which has contributed so much to the civilization of the world and which rightfully deserve [sic] an honorable place in the family of nations.’

*****

“Shanghai was an important safe-haven for Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, since it was one of the few places in the world where one didn’t need a visa.”

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“In general, in the period of 1845 to 1945 more than 40,000 Jews came to China for business development or for a safe haven.”

When my wife and I were in Shanghai, we visited the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. “The Jews lived a free and peaceful life around the former Ohel Moshe Synagogue. Between the end of the Second World War II and 1960s, many left China and emigrated to all parts of the world one after another. But the life in Shanghai was so memorable, and they considered the city as their second hometown and called themselves ‘Shanghai Jews.’”

John Hagee is an end-time prognosticator in a long line of prophetic speculators whose prior prophecies have proven to be false.

Every nation must be judged by the same standard.

Hagee’s views are dangerous because of his influence among a number of high placed government officials who may believe that going to war is America’s only option as a prerequisite to some skewed end-time philosophy.

Christians United for Israel, a Christian support organization for Israel, has tremendous political and fund raising clout. Hagee’s dogmatic assertions about a fiery cataclysm and long political reach are scaring a lot of people:

“While Hagee has long prophesized about the end times, he ratcheted up his rhetoric this year [2006] with the publication of his book, “Jerusalem Countdown,” in which he argues that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition for Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. In the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the book’s publication, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which, as the Christian version of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he said would cause “a political earthquake.”1

At a July 19, 2006 CUFI event in Washington D.C., Hagee told the audience, “The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West . . . a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation . . . . and [the] Second Coming of Christ.”2

  1. Sarah Posner, “Lobbying for Armageddon” (August 3, 2006). []
  2. Dave Eberhart, “Pastor John Hagee’s D.C. Meeting Worries Jews” (May 17, 2007). []
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