THE HAGEE CONTROVERSY

One never wins a popularity contest by naming names even though it is biblical to do so. I wonder how the sheep are to avoid some wolves if names aren't used, but this one pains me.

I have appreciated the ministry of Pastor John Hagee. His books have been well written with good substance. He is a powerful preacher. And, he is an ardent friend of Israel, also known as a Christian Zionist. He heads what is known as "Christians United for Israel."

But can you ever be too much of a Christian Zionist to the point where you become an enemy of the Jews due to theology?

Pastor Hagee has been on record for holding to the theology known as "Dual Covenant." That is, in part, the belief that the Jews don't really need Jesus to be saved because they are God's chosen people. While they are, indeed, God's chosen people, there is no other way of salvation than through the shed blood of the Lamb of God--the Messiah Jesus. The Bible is so clear on this it isn't even debatable...except to John Hagee.

Pastor Hagee has at times renounced his "Dual Covenant" theology and then seems to return to it.

He has a new book out titled In Defense of Israel. I have been in ministry over 25 years and much of it has been Israel and/or Jewish-related. I have seen people and ministries "love the Jews to death." They deny them the gospel, emphasize humanitarian work, and even speak in churches suggesting that it is not wise to evangelize Jews.

But in Hagee's new book he almost goes beyond all of that. In the book he states, (1) The Jewish people as a whole did not reject Jesus as Messiah; (2) Jesus did not come to earth to be the Messiah; (3) Jesus refused by word and deed to claim to be the Messiah; (4) How can the Jews be blamed for rejecting what was never offered them? He further states there was a "Calvary conspiracy" between Rome, the High Priest, and Herod. The conspiracy was to execute Jesus as an insurrectionist who was too dangerous to be allowed to live.

The clip of this can be heard here. If your dial-up connection will not allow you to see this, then find a DSL computer and watch it before you blast me out of the saddle.

To claim that Jesus never openly proclaimed Himself to be the Messiah is nonsense. He did it both privately (John 4) and publicly (Matthew 23:10).

As the head of Moriel Ministries, Jacob Prasch says, "He [Hagee] is a doctrinally confused man who is misleading others and such an irresponsible book does more to harm the cause of opposing the error of Replacement Theology and of enlightening the church about the prophetic purposes of God for Israel and the Jews than it does to assist it. I am sad that a good friend of Israel with what I believe is a sincere love for the Jews has frankly made himself look like a theological charlatan in the eyes of any serious conservative Evangelical scholar."

But when the love of any ethnic group becomes so strong that we dare not offend them and we thus twist Scripture, we have hit a real bump in the road! Serious deception has entered in. I know of a few other pro-Israel organizations whose delegates actually fill church pulpits and tell congregations not to evangelize the Jews for varying reasons.

My own father came from an Orthodox Jewish home but someone dared to tell him the "gospel truth" many years ago. Had they not done that, since he passed away in 2001, he could be in eternal flames now. Someone had to risk "offending" him and tell him the truth: He needed Jesus as his Messiah. They had to risk and preach the solid gospel to him. Thankfully, he thus died a believer.

Messianic scholar Dr. Michael Brown says this about Pastor Hagee: "In the clarifying statements (that Pastor Hagee has made) he explained that Jesus came to be the suffering Messiah but not the reigning Messiah. But this statement introduces another nuance to the error, since nowhere in the New Testament is such a distinction made."

Brown also says, "Jesus is proclaimed as the Messiah of Israel, period, and because He is the Messiah of Israel, He is the Savior of the world."

How does a good and sincere man stray so seriously? Perhaps because we are in rampant days of deception. But in Hagee's case, I feel he so wants to please the Jews that he has compromised to the point of utter blasphemy to say that "Jesus did not come to earth to be the Messiah." There was no "Calvary conspiracy." It was God's plan of the ages that Jesus be the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!

I believe Pastor John Hagee sincerely loves God but in this instance, he is sincerely wrong. It would be good if all reading this would pray for Hagee, that he would denounce this aberrant theology he now seems to embrace. We need his voice on behalf of Israel today, but not with the message as it stands now.

LIVE RADIO THIS WEEKEND: Nonie Darwish pays a return visit to "Understanding the Times." We air in several cities available here and we also podcast. We air live out of AM980 KKMS, Minneapolis/St. Paul Saturday, 9 to 11 AM CST with a rebroadcast Sunday, 12 to 2 PM. You can always listen live at their Web site.

Dr. Paul Benware also is on hand to talk about the Judgment Seat of Christ which he calls "the believer's pay day." All programming goes up on our radio archives on Monday. We have three years of radio programming at that link.

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