Israel and Jerusalem 

As I pointed out in the first part of my articles on Israel and Jerusalem, the Evangelical TV preacher’s heads have been exploding with excitement over recent new events coming out of Israel. All is quiet for now other than a random explosive balloon once in a while launched by Hamas. Just think about how that must feel living in a place where all is quiet except for a balloon at any time that may explode over your house top setting it on fire.

Of all the TV evangelical preachers, John Hagee is my favorite to keep up with on the topic of Israel. The guy just does not run out of material and can think up more ways to preach around the Bible without actually preaching the truth of the Bible better than anyone I have ever listened to. His entire schtick is the topic of Israel and how we as Christians are going to be judged on how we treat the Jews. The man is obsessed with the modern nation of Israel and views the nation has above all others and claims the people of Israel are the apple of God’s eye. Around 2008 John Hagee wrote a book entitled “In Defense Of Israel”.  Listen to the clip I linked below and ask yourself what part of the gospel of Christ did he get this from;

This promotion video raised a real stink for his ministry for a while and Hagee spent a lot of time having this clip removed from the internet, but as we all know, once it’s on the net it will never go away. He was getting people removed for copywrite violations and threatening lawsuits and causing all kinds of bad blood, but the clip will never go away. And as long as he is credited and it’s use is for education and critique it’s not considered copyright violation. And that’s why it’s being used. I want people who haven’t seen it to listen to what he says. He says Jesus didn’t come to be Messiah, and never presented himself to the Jewish people as a whole as Messiah. You really have to have the biblical discernment of a hubcap to be a student of the bible for 60 years as he claims and say that Jesus didn’t present himself as Messiah and actually refused to be the Messiah.

After much blowback and concern for losing support, Hagee did have the promotional video removed from TV and attempts to remove all YouTube evidence that this video ever existed. Also he revised his book to state what he “really” meant. His revision is still just as antichrist as his first edition. For example he says in Acts 1 when the Apostles asked Jesus if He would now restore the kingdom to Israel, that was proof Jesus wasn’t yet the Messiah and the Messiah will establish an earthly kingdom. But we know Jesus told the Apostles it was not for them to know the times and for them to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came on them and then they would preach Him to all the world. And we see in Acts 2: 36 Jesus is indeed the Messiah sitting on His throne. But John Hagee says Jesus will come back to be the Messiah, Lord and Christ, and sit on a throne in Jerusalem. Did Jesus have to ascend to have the authority to be Lord and Messiah? Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 28:18? Jesus said; “All authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.” That was before the ascension and He gave the Apostles their mission. Go and make disciples of All nations, baptizing them by the authority of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Peter confessed Jesus was the Messiah in Matthew 16:16 before He was raised from the dead. The Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, Jesus said to her in verse 26 He was the Messiah she knew would come. There’s just no biblical defense of John Hagee’s claims no matter how bad he wants to relieve the 1st century Jews of their guilt for rejecting Jesus. Hagee yet claims the Jews could not have rejected the Messiah since He wasn’t offered. Again, that’s simply heretical and requires the biblical discernment of a lug nut, a phrase I've heard Justin Peters use. 1 John 4;3 says anyone who denies Jesus the Christ came in the flesh is antichrist. With the Apostle John giving us the description of what antichrist is, I can’t think of a better shining example of an antichrist spirit than John Hagee or a better example of antichrist doctrine than John Hagee’s book, “In Defense Of Israel”.

Why do I care about what John Hagee preaches? Well, look at the number of subscribers he has just on YouTube. His ministry in San Antonio Texas has maybe 25k members. His ministry is aired all over the world on more than one network. He even has his own network which is Roku and Firestick for those of us who don’t use satellite or cable. Millions follow him and did not blink an eye when he came out with that heretical book. Which is not his only “masterpiece”.

Here is another video below of Hagee’s I want to critique. It was posted on June 13th 2021 titled “Battle For Jerusalem”.  This is part one video of a series he has planned.

I add these clips so I can’t be accused of “out of context” misrepresentation without any references. That could happen anyway, but we can all at least listen for ourselves from Hagee himself than make up our own minds. First of all pay attention to his facial expressions and finger pointing and authoritative voice. He knows when to speak calmly, when to whisper, when to gradually get louder and louder and when to scream as if he’s giving commands until he reaches his crescendo. It’s all for effect, and he’s very good at it especially in his ability to have control over his congregation. He tells them when to rise, when they may be seated, and during the sermon tells them when to “Repeat after me” when he believes he has said something profound, but usually a goofy meaningless cliché. I’m going to go through a few intervals from this clip that caused my ears to point the most. But there are many places that are as easy to hear as fingernails on a chalkboard. I encourage anyone and everyone who listens to this clip, get your bible and check every claim whether from Hagee or me in my critique.

Here goes nothing. At minute 2:15 Hagee claims God entered a blood covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob over the land in Israel that would be theirs forever. Well, No the covenant Hagee is talking about was with Abraham in chapter 15. The sign of the covenant was for the descendants, which was circumcision. On in to chapter 17 verse 4 God said to Abraham “As for Me behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations”. Notice, the covenant is with Abraham and God’s promise is for him to be a father of “Many Nations”. The promises and covenant with Abraham is not only about Israel, it will eventually be for ALL nations. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham and tells him on into chapter 27 that kings will descend from him, and then in verse 8 God says He gives the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants for an everlasting covenant and in verse 9 tells him “You shall keep my covenant you and your descendants”.  And  it goes on God telling Abraham to circumcise all the males as a sign between God and Abraham and any males not circumcised would be cast out of the people because the covenant is broke with those who do not have the sign. The point is, Hagee wants it to sound as if God placed no conditions on the descendants of Abraham and he alludes to the children of Israel being the only descendants of Abraham who God would bless and multiply.

Hagee goes on to talk about “that covenant” was made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and how they are a covenant people and called Jacob my “First born son”. Yes, and even though Jacob tricked Isaac out of Esau’s first born blessing, the covenant to Abraham was kept. Never the less at minute 5:10 Hagee claims the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is as good today as it was then. Well, if he’s talking about how through Abraham’s seed all nations would be blessed, Yes it is good today. But Hagee is talking about the promised land of Canaan and not about Christ. For whatever reason, John Hagee only sees the two promises to Abraham, to become a great nation and the land. He stops there and even there forgets Ismael was also blessed and promised to be the father of twelve princes and a great nation and have land, but Christ was to come though Isaac and not Ishmael. The story of the promises to covenants with Isaac and Esau is much more than a land. All of it is pointing to Christ. Look at Galatians 4:22-26.

“For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.”

Notice how the Jerusalem John Hagee wants us to place our focus on is the one in bondage, while the one in Christ which is of the promise and is our mother and is free! How can a Christian who has decades of study under his belt not see this? Galatians 4 plainly shows the old covenant of a land promise to Israel is Not as good today as it was when it was made to Abraham. The promise that is still good today as it was then is Christ and He is a blessing to all nations forever. The promises are not to a city made with hands to a people who deny Christ who do not live by faith in Christ!

What did the people of Jerusalem say to Pilate when he washed his hands of the matter? Matthew 27:25 “Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.”  What does Jesus say to some of these same people in John 8:24? “Unless you believe I am He, you will die in your sins”.

What about Romans 11:1 that is used so often by people like Hagee to claim the Jews are still the chosen people? It says; “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!” John Hagee stops there when he references this verse. But here’s the other half; “For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”

If remaining a Jew of the flesh under the law was the guarantee to be chosen of God, Paul would have remained under the law and not converted. But again, Hagee has the discernment of a lug nut. Paul had already stated in Romans 1:16 that the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation, to the Jew first and to the Gentiles. Paul wrote in Romans 2:28-29 that the Jew is one inwardly and not of the flesh. How does Hagee miss that? And again, the books of Ephesians and Galatians reminds us, all spiritual blessings are in Christ and Jerusalem from above is our mother and is free and not of the law John Hagee wants to keep the Jews under.

At minute 15:45 Hagee claims Jerusalem is the path to prosperity. And once again claims we are commanded in Psalm 122:6 to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that this is the cornucopia of God’s blessings. Again, Hagee SURELY doesn’t know of Ephesians 1:3 where God has out all of these blessings to those in His son. Hagee says at minute 17:25 when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem you release God’s favor on you, your family and your nation. Again I would say “lug nut” discernment.