The Bible commands us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem
(Psalm 122:6) to speak out for Zion’s sake (Isaiah 62:1), to
be watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:6) and to
bless the Jewish people (Genesis 12:3).
These and so many other verses of the Bible have one
overriding message – as Christians we have a Biblical
obligation to defend Israel and the Jewish people in their
time of need. And Pastor John Hagee intends to make sure the
Body of Christ knows about it.
With every passing day, the threats to Israel and the Jewish
people are growing. Iran’s President has called for Israel
to be “wiped off the map” -- and he is rapidly acquiring the
nuclear technology to carry out this threat. The terrorist
group Hamas – also committed to destroying Israel -- won the
Palestinian elections taking control of the government and
its armed security forces.
In February 2006, Pastor John Hagee decided the time had
come to create a national grassroots movement focused on the
support of Israel. He called upon Christian leaders from
across America to join him in launching this new initiative.
Over 400 Christian leaders – each with his own mega church,
television ministry or publishing company – answered the
call. Christians United For Israel was born.
Pastor Hagee, founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone
Church in San Antonio, Texas, has built a ministry on
straightforward Bible teaching and preaching, and unwavering
support for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. He
is also the president and CEO of John Hagee Ministries,
founder and national chairman of Christians United For
Israel.
The Voice magazine caught up with Pastor Hagee to discuss
Israel, Iran and other issues the Body of Christ should be
praying and taking action on.
THE VOICE: Why are you so passionate about
conditions in Israel? What stirred you to found CUFI?
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: What motivated me to found Christians
United For Israel on February 6, 2006, was that I felt that
the survival of Israel was at stake. Israel is seriously
threatened by the rogue, terrorist state Iran and its
President Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad has said, “We will wipe
Israel off the map.” He said again, “God willing – that God
being Allah – I see a future without Zionism or the United
States.” It's very clear that Ahmadinejad has declared war
on both Israel and the United States of America, that we as
Christians have a Bible position to be defenders of Israel
and to support the Jewish people. Israel is the only nation
on the face of this earth created by the sovereign act of
God.
The specific Bible positions are in Genesis 12: 3, “We are
commanded to bless the Jewish people.” God is saying to
Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, “I will bless
those that bless you and curse those who curse you” and that
principle has been maintained from Genesis 12:3 until this
very day. The illustration can be taken of the two pharaohs
in Egypt. The Pharaoh that blessed Joseph, Egypt prospered
beyond measure. Joseph helped deliver them from famine and
extermination. They built the pyramids and they became the
wealthiest society on the face of the earth. That Pharaoh
became the richest man in the world because technically and
legally, it all belonged to him.
Then the Bible says, “There rose a Pharaoh that knew not
Joseph” and that Pharaoh persecuted the Jewish people. And
to that Pharaoh God sent 10 plagues, the last of which was
the death of the firstborn. When the picture closes, the
cattle are dead in the field, the grain is destroyed, the
army is floating face down, drowned in the Red Sea, it was a
nation impoverished, without leaders, without defense and a
nation from that day until this one that has been weak, sick
and deceased because of their treatment of the Jewish
people.
And secondly, Christians are commanded to pray for the peace
of Jerusalem, “I will prosper those that love you” (Psalms
122: 6). Thirdly, Christians are commanded to speak out for
Israel. In Isaiah 62: 1 it says, “For Zion’s sake, I will
not keep silent and for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not remain
quiet.” That is a command for Christians to speak out in
defense of Israel and the Jewish people. And then, fourthly,
Paul writes in Romans 15:27, “For if the Gentiles have
benefited from their spiritual things,” their spiritual
things meaning the Jews, “the Gentiles are indebted to the
Jewish people to share their material things.”
That is a verse that very clearly says that we as Christians
should give of our financial resources to help the state of
Israel and the Jewish people. Now what are the Jewish things
that we have benefited from? First, every word in the Bible
was written by Jewish hands. The Jewish people gave to us
the Word of God. The Jewish people gave to us Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. The Jewish people gave us every prophet in the
Old Testament. The Jewish people gave us Mary, Joseph and
Jesus. The Jewish people gave us the 12 disciples. They gave
to us the Apostle Paul. For that reason Jesus said in John
4:22, “Salvation is of the Jews.” What does that mean? That
means that if you take away the Jewish contribution to
Christianity, there would be no Christianity. That means
that Judaism does not need Christianity to explain its
existence but Christianity cannot explain its existence
without Judaism.
THE VOICE: I am not quite sure why so many
Christians do not hold that view of our responsibility.
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: They don't know that much about the
Bible. When I travel across the country and speak to
pastors, they are taking notes furiously because those are
dots they just have not connected.
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THE VOICE: What are your views on the Iranian
president? I know you’ve called him the “Hitler of the
Middle East.”
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: Former Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin
Netanyahu sat in my office four years ago and told me that
the Russians were in Iran helping the Iranians put together
long range missile systems that would give the Iranians the
capability to hit London, Jerusalem and the Eastern seaboard
of the United States. He also told me that the Russians were
helping the Iranians with their nuclear program and were far
ahead of the schedule that was being predicted by Western
Intelligence sources. He stated that when he gave this
information to the American Intelligence community, they did
not believe it until he produced photographic evidence that
it was indeed the fact.
So the message is very clear. Number 1, the Iranians are
preparing nuclear weapons to attack Israel, there is no
doubt about their intent. Once they have these nuclear
weapons they are going to share them according to the words
of the President of Iran, Ahmadinejad. They are going to
share them with other terrorist organizations to attack the
enemies of Islam. Well, that would certainly be considered
America because they call us the Great Satan.
The game plan is to bring nuclear suitcase bombs across the
Mexican border to seven American cities and to have those
nuclear suitcase bombs blow up in seven American cities
simultaneously. Those nuclear suitcase bombs have the
capacity of killing a million people or more and if you have
seven American cities with a million or more dead people,
you will have an American Hiroshima.
THE VOICE: Yes and what’s so disturbing is
that we don't read about these things in the mainstream
media.
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: Let me address that. Why is there an
absolute refusal by the liberal media not to cover the
obvious Islamic terrorism that's happening in the world and
especially in America and Israel? The answer is that if you
admit there is problem you have to come up with a solution
to the problem and the liberals and Congress find they get a
lot more political mileage out of attacking George Bush for
going to Iraq because in their minds and ideology, there is
no problem. But George Bush sees the problem and he
recognizes that if we do not destroy the foundations of
terrorism on their ground, those terrorists will bring their
terrorism to the United States of America and our children
will be fighting a war in the streets of this nation for 50
years for the survival of America.
THE VOICE: I’ve heard it said that what
threatens Israel eventually becomes a threat to America. Do
you agree with that statement?
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: It is absolutely true. I believe from a
Biblical position that America’s security is tied to
Israel’s security and I believe that because of the story of
Esther. In ancient Persia, which is modern day Iran, there
was a threat by Haman to murder the Jews. There is a threat
today by Iranians to murder the Jews. God had placed in a
very specific and strategic position, Queen Esther, to
defend her people. Her uncle Mordecai says in the 4th
Chapter of Esther, “If you remain completely silent at this
time, God will raise up another deliverer for Israel but you
and your father’s house will perish.”
I believe that God has placed the Evangelical Christians of
America in a critical position in the United States and that
if we stand up and defend Israel, God will stand up and
defend us from the terrorists who are already here, who want
to destroy us. But if we do not support Israel, I believe
the same judgment that came to Egypt will come to us and we
will see one major calamity after another come to this
country.
THE VOICE: The scene is certainly set; it's
just a matter of how we respond at this point!
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PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: Exactly so. God is waiting to see if the
Church will slumber through Israel’s day of danger or if we
will awaken the sleeping giant and support Israel and the
Jewish people aggressively.
THE VOICE: Do you feel that there is a great
awakening to the Body of Christ?
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: In February of 2006, I called 400 of the
foremost evangelical leaders in America to Cornerstone
Church in San Antonio, Texas, where I am the pastor, and I
laid out the Bible case for Christians defending Israel
right now in a public and aggressive manner. One hundred
percent of the people there said, “Let’s do it.” I tried to
do exactly the same thing in 1982 and it failed miserably.
THE VOICE: Wow, that's telling!
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: So what we did is we organized our
people and in five months we went to Washington with 3,600
spiritual leaders. Those 3,600 spiritual leaders represented
millions people. They were from every state, every
congressional district and obviously from every senatorial
district. We went to see our congressmen and our senators
face to face and to give them common talking points that
every senator and congressman heard from these 3,600 leaders
and it sent a shockwave through Capitol Hill. From that time
until this, I can tell you that the evangelicals of America
are rallying to the cause of Israel like something I have
never seen in all of my life. There is an explosive
enthusiasm to be supportive of the Jewish people and the
state of Israel. It can only be described as a supernatural
sovereign move of God.
I am the National Chairman of Christians United for Israel
and we have a National Executive Board. We have 14 Regional
Directors. A Regional Director is someone who has the
responsibility for four to five states. Then we have State
Directors. We have City Directors. The infrastructure for
Christians United For Israel is from Maine to California and
it has come together with lightening speed and with great
quality.
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THE VOICE: On the one hand, there seems to be
considerable apathy in the Church. On the other hand, you’ve
drummed up considerable support for CUFI in just more than a
year. How have you done this?
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: Now, here is kind of how it evolved. I
started doing a Night to Honor Israel in San Antonio in 1981
when the Israelis bombed the nuclear reactor in Iraq in
1981. The national media was extremely critical toward
Israel and I felt that Israel had done the world a favor.
They had taken nuclear weapons out of the hands of the
madman, Saddam Hussein. I determined to have a citywide
Night to Honor Israel in which all the Christians would meet
downtown and celebrate the Jewish contribution to
Christianity and the Jewish contribution to the world and I
only intended to do it one night.
When the Jewish Federation agreed to have the event, we had
a press conference and they put the news on the front page
of the newspaper because never in the history of our city
had Christians ever done anything to honor the Jewish
people. Within an hour of that newspaper hitting the streets
we started getting death threats at the church, “We are
going to shoot you, preacher, Black Friday.” Then when we
got to the night of the event. The building was packed. We
had a wonderful, magnificent event. I was standing up at
stage left while Rabbi Arnold Schinberg was giving the
benediction. Security came to me and said, “Pastor Hagee,
this building is supposed to blow up in three minutes.” So
fortunately Rabbi prayed briefly and I told the people the
threat on the building. The Christians instantly saturated
the place with their absence. I mean, some of them moved so
quickly they could have been on the Olympic track team.
The Jewish people just kept right on talking as if I had
said, “Hot dogs are available in the lobby for those of you
that would like to stay until the end of the meeting.” Then
I told my wife on the way home, “If these anti-Semites think
they can threaten us into silence they are mistaken. I am
going to continue doing the Night to Honor Israel until they
get used to it.” Well, I have just continued and continued.
I have continued for now 26 years and I have been on
national television now for 30 years. I have taught and
re-taught and taught again the responsibility of Christians
to be supportive of Israel and the Jewish people without a
hidden agenda of any kind. After years and years and years
of television, the media juggernaut, hammering away at
replacement theology and complacency, we have finally turned
the corner and there is a new breed of evangelical on the
streets today that is ready and eager to support Israel and
the Jewish people.
THE VOICE: I can only imagine that how
satisfied you must be seeing the fruit from those labors and
seeing God’s will rise and be done. Thank God! What about
other issues impacting our nation, like secular humanism and
homosexuality? How can the believer help establish Kingdom
culture in this nation?
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: I think the greatest thing Christians
could do to establish Kingdom culture and to confront our
generation is to be absolutely obedient to the Word of God.
The problem with some Christians in America who like to
target homosexuals for their super spiritual wrath is that
they themselves are so blatantly disobedient to the basics
of the Word of God that their words fall on deaf ears.
Whenever the divorce rate in the church, according to Barna,
is the same as it is in secular society, I think it would be
well for the Church to examine its own self. It's time for
the Church to be the Church. Obviously the Bible teaches
that homosexuality is wrong but so is lying, so is adultery,
so is fornication and pornography, with which the Church in
America is saturated. The message is: There needs to be a
revival of righteousness in the Church of the United States
of America and America then will become a greater society
when the Church becomes what Jesus Christ died to make it.
THE VOICE: So how do we get there, what are
the challenges that are facing the Body of Christ today, how
do we overcome them to get to this place where we need to
be?
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: Well, the revival of righteousness will
come with the revival of preaching the Word of God. We have
a crisis in America’s pulpits where limp-wristed preachers
are presenting a cotton candy Gospel that doesn’t have
enough spiritual impact to force anyone to confront their
ungodly behavior. Some preachers are denying that the Bible
is the Word of God, they deny the inherency of the Bible,
they deny the virgin birth, and they deny miracles. When you
take the foundations of Christianity and destroy them, the
Bible says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do?” The Church becomes a religious country club
when the Gospel is not preached and it needs to be preached
with such anointing that it convicts and causes people to
confront the wrongdoing in their own life. That's the hope
of America. If the Church does not correct itself, it can
never correct society.
THE VOICE: Well put. Is there anything else
you would like to say, any other message you’d like to send?
PASTOR JOHN HAGEE: Well, for every one of your
readers that would like to find out how they can be involved
with Christians United for Israel, go online to www.cufi.org
and become an active part of the move of God that's
happening in America.
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