Book Excerpt - Pastor Hagee and Christians United for Israel Push for Armageddon

[struggle4progress]

This article is excerpted from God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters (Sausalito, CA: PoliPoint Press, 2008)

... Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee’s manifesto for war with Iran, provides a peculiar mix of biblical prophecy, purported inside information from Israeli government officials, and a mixed-up, pared-down lesson in nuclear physics. “I wrote this book in April 2005, and when people read it, they will think I wrote it late last night after the Fox News report,” Hagee has said, without a trace of irony. “It’s that close to where we are and beyond.” But the particulars of Iran’s nuclear program do not seem to interest Hagee. In many of his television and radio appearances in early 2006, he glossed over the obstacles faced by Tehran in creating a viable nuclear weapon, arguing that “once you have enriched uranium, the genie is out of the bottle.” In March 2006 he claimed that within a month, “Iran will have the nuclear — the enriched uranium to make the — have the nuclear capability to make a bomb, a suitcase bomb, a missile head, or anything they want to do with it.” So when the Iranian president announced the following month that Tehran had enriched uranium (although not enough to make a bomb), Hagee claimed — despite prevailing scientific opinion to the contrary — that the Iranians “now have enriched uranium that will lead to the production of nuclear suitcase bombs designed to destroy American cities with one blast. These nuclear weapons will also be used against Israel.” To fully emphasize the need for war, Hagee added, “the question is not if there will be a military preemptive strike against Iran. . . . The question is when.” To prime his followers for such a possibility, Hagee has argued that Iran’s development of nuclear weapons must be stopped to protect America and Israel from a nuclear attack. He has also warned of a supposed Iranian-led plan to simultaneously explode nuclear suitcase bombs in seven American cities, or to use an electromagnetic pulse device to create “an American Hiroshima” ...

Hagee seems to delight in a coming confrontation. He argues that a strike against Iran will cause Arab nations to unite under Russia’s leadership, as outlined in chapters 38 and 39 of the book of Ezekiel, leading to an “inferno will explode across the Middle East, plunging the world toward Armageddon.” During Hagee’s appearance on Benny Hinn’s program, Hinn, who frequently predicts the end is imminent, enthused, “We are living in the last days. These are the most exciting days in church history.” The master of signs and wonders then went on to add, “We are facing now most dangerous moment for America.” At one point, Hinn clapped his hands in delight and shouted, “Yes! Glory!” and then urged his viewers to donate money faster because he is running out of time to preach the gospel ...

In Hagee’s telling, Israel has no choice but to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, with or without America’s help. The strike will provoke Russia — which wants Persian Gulf oil — to lead an army of Arab nations against Israel. Then God will wipe out all but one-sixth of the Russian-led army, as the world watches “with shock and awe,” he says, lending either a divine quality to the Bush administration phrase or a Bush-like quality to God’s wrath ...

To fill the power vacuum left by God’s decimation of the Russian army, the Antichrist—identified by Hagee as the head of the European Union—will rule “a one-world government, a one-world currency and a one-world religion” for three and a half years. (He adds that “one need only be a casual observer of current events to see that all three of these things are coming into reality.”) The “demonic world leader” will then be confronted by a false prophet, identified by Hagee as China, at Armageddon, the Mount of Megiddo in Israel. As they prepare for the final battle, Jesus will return on a white horse and cast both villains— and presumably any nonbelievers— into a “lake of fire burning with brimstone,” thus marking the beginning of his millennial reign ...

http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v23n2/pastor_hagee_christians_united.html

[Gman]

1. Hagee did entirely too much acid when he was young

[izquierdista]

3. Is that how he lost his neck?

[jwirr]

2. That is what many rw churches believe even if they do not shout it

out loud like Haggie. What has always angered me is that traditional churches like mine and the catholic church did not stand up when this group started taking over so they could further their goals. People better learn that the End is God's work and not some damned false prophet preacher's work.

[AntiFascist]

4. Talk about drinking koolaid laced with poison....

why don't they just give Iran the nuclear technology and show them how to use it? ...oh, wait...

[uberllama42]

5. "Prevailing scientific opinion to the contrary"

That is perhaps the most trenchant thing you can say about Hagee and his ilk.

Also, I would like to know what exactly Ezekiel supposedly says about Russia. It's a really hard case to make that it says anything about Russia, since that country did not exist until centuries after that book was written. Whatever prophecy is supposedly there would have to be pretty explicit to remove all reasonable doubt that it refers to Russia. Never mind that Russia has its own oil and is not particularly interested in Iran's oil. If they want control of Iran it is more likely because they want control of Bushehr or another port on the Persian Gulf. But hey, once you're on a roll, why let facts get in your way?