Hagee says Ebola could be God’s judgment on America for rejecting Israeli settlements
Hi Dojo readers,
I came across this video shared on a friend’s Facebook feed today. It’s an interview with Christians United For Israel Founder John Hagee…and it is probably one of the worst examples of terrible “folk-theology” I’ve ever seen.
Judge for yourselves…
I’m sure the Christian medical missionaries from SIM and nurses who have been infected with Ebola while trying to save those who have died from it sure are deserving of such “judgment”, huh?
This type of eschatological fantaticism is nothing new for Hagee. It was only a few years ago that he and CUFI publicly called for America to preemptively bomb Iran with NUCLEAR weapons because he believes they may try and attack Israel…
As I’ve said before here in the Dojo, theology matters…and BAD THEOLOGY really matters! People who follow Hagee’s error are saying that such “judgments” are falling on America because President Obama doesn’t support Netanyahu and the Israeli far-right in their ongoing land-confiscation and settlement enterprise in east Jerusalem and the West Bank…both of which adversely affect Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land.
Let that sink in, readers.
According to John Hagee, God is sending Ebola to America because our leadership doesn’t support a secular political movement that often takes land and resources from a number of Jesus’ followers in the Middle East in order for it to come under the exclusive control of those outside the Body of Christ.
How does that in ANY WAY reflect the message of Israel’s Messiah?
Hagee is not alone, unfortunately. I regularly interact on social media with many people whose committement to a selectively-literal and Futurist reading of Scripture results in such a worldview. If American doesn’t “stand with Israel”, I’m told, we and our secretly-Muslim-President-who-is-probably-the-antichrist will get “what we deserve.” This nationalistic theology is not only intrinsically fear-based and counterproductive in terms of working for genuine peace in the world, it is also Biblically unfounded.
Regardless of one’s view of the politics in the Middle East, or even one’s eschatology (both of which genuine followers of Messiah can disagree on…as my good friend and I did publicly this Spring at my alma mater!), pronouncements like this by Hagee are AT BEST callous and irresponsible.
I don’t know the state of John Hagee’s soul. That is between him and the One to whom he will have to give an account of every careless word spoken (Matthew 12:36; Romans 14:12) while being held to a higher standard (James 3:1)…just as I will. But I believe that words like Hagee’s in the videos above do not serve the Prince of Peace, the God of Israel or the Spirit of Truth. Rather, whether knowingly or not, they serve to forward the agenda of the one who seeks only to kill and destroy (John 10:10).
John Hagee, if you by some miracle end up reading this, I urge you to as strongly as I can to repent of such nationalistic, fear-based, exegetically unsound sensationalism in the name of the Lord we both seek to serve.
Categories: Biblical Theology, Blog, Eschatology, Global, Political/Social issues, Theological issues
Hi,
and thank you! Good to read this… I´m writing from Switzerland, and being often shocked to read what “born-again” American christians find in the Bible concerning the Holy Land and current Israeli politics. THANK YOU for discerning, for emphasizing the need for theology (yes, it is really NOT the opposite of faith, but integral part of it!), for remembering the christians in the oldest churches we have in the world.
I have to admit, I came to your page as a thief… I just wanted to copy an image and use it to illustrate a Bible working sheet.
So I looked around a bit and saw this headline, wondering “what the … is this nonsense” and in reading it, realized that I agree.
So, greetings, and good wishes!
by Vi on Nov 6, 2014 at 4:30 pm