I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."- Genesis 12: 3 (ESV)
Sometimes you just have to say the truth as bluntly as you can. It is time for John Hagee to shut up. His history reveals him to be a false teacher. He embraces dual covenant theology which says the Jewish people do not need Christ to be saved. He has turned siding with Israel into an idol. He founded a political organization and wrapped Christ around it, yet pretends he is not worshipping Israel. As the years have gone on though it seems that Hagee is simply losing it. Recently he has preached that people who do not like to say Merry Christmas should leave the country. He preached that atheists should leave the country. You know - the people he is supposed to preach the Gospel to. Then he started in with his blood moon nonsense, trying to scare believers into thinking he has figured out some hidden codes in the Bible and in the heavens. All it really does however is take our eyes off of Jesus. But Hagee, who has written a book on the four blood moons, has money to make.
The reason he is dealing with four blood moons is that there is an upcoming tetrad, which is to say four lunar eclipses within a two year period. We are in the middle of this tetrad now. What makes this tetrad unique according to Hagee is that they all fall on Jewish Feast days. He claims that the last three times this has happened has resulted in significant events for the nation of Israel. In 1493-1494 there was the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In 1949-1950 the event was the reestablishment of the nation of Israel. In 1967-1968 the alleged event was the Six Day war. There are several problems here. First of all, these connections were actually all posited by a man named Mark Blitz in 2008. Blitz however was a believer in the Hebrew Roots movement, which is not exactly a pro-Christian sect. Moreover however, his dates do not even line up correctly. The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, not 1493-1494. Furthermore, Israel was established in 1948, not 1949-1950. So the blood moons do not seem to be acting as a pre-cursor, harbinger, or warning of any kind in those two instances. If you're thinking that maybe they follow some significance in Israel you can forget that too because the Six-Day war occurred during the tetrad in 1967-1968. Is God confused? Does He not know when He wants these prophetic blood moons to occur? Or is it just that lunar eclipses sometimes happen on the feasts of Israel and hucksters like Blitz and Hagee simply tried to find anything that happened around those times that they could associate with the tetrad. After all, a tetrad is a two year period. Oh and for the Jonathan Cahn followers, it does not matter that it is a "Shemitah" year either. Stop taking your eyes off of Christ.
John Hagee has made it no secret that he is of all things, a republican first. We know this because in the last election he stated that Mitt Romney had the values this country needed. The problem of course is that Mitt Romney belongs to a Satanic cult known as Mormonism. He was not a casual Mormon either. He was a direct descendent of one of the twelve founding apostles of Mormonism and tithes 25% of his wealth to the Mormon Church. I do not say this as a defense of the current president but as a backdrop to understand why this week John Hagee has once again dropped off the planet and is claiming that the Ebola virus outbreak could be judgment from God because President Obama is trying to divide the nation of Israel. Hagee, who heads Cornerstone Church, also said that threats from Islamic radicals and ongoing unrest in Ferguson, Missouri are all part of God's judgment on the United States in response to Obama's policies. John, if you are going to insist on leaving reality and the Bible behind then it is time for you to quietly go away.
Where do we start? First of all, it is time for preachers to stop blaming every national disaster on judgment from God. The truth is we cannot possibly know. Hagee has already blamed Hurricane Katrina on God's wrath because of the sin in New Orleans, so irrational sin mongering is nothing new to him. The flaws in this logic are so profound though. Was God making an example of New Orleans? What about other areas? What about right home in Texas where Hagee is from? Is he saying that New Orleans was more sinful than Texas? Seriously? Is God sending natural disasters based upon level of sin? Frequency of sin? Types of sin? This is all unbiblical nonsense.
And what of Ebola? So God is severely punishing Liberia because of the sins of President Obama? We have all of three confirmed cases here in the US and you call that judgment? Why didn't God start it here in America? Why not in the White House of you think it is all the fault of the President? I guess John Hagee forgets the Scriptures that teach us that God selects all leaders; even the ones we might not like. None are righteous - not even one. I guess Hagee's Bible doesn't have Romans 3. He is not righteous. Romney was not righteous. Neither was Clinton, either Bush, McCain, myself, or any other human being. Not only that but is John Hagee seriously saying that if we would stop "trying to divide Israel" that God will stop the Ebola virus? That God will not pass judgment upon America for all of our other sins? Hagee used the Prophet Joel to try and biblically hold up his argument:
I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, - Joel 3: 2 (ESV)
Let's first deal with the political lunacy. Israel is not a helpless country here. If there is any division, it will be with the full consent of the leadership of Israel. That is not what Joel is prophesying here. The truth is that the Bible says we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The verse that men like Hagee always abuse is the key verse today. The earth is blessed through Abraham because Christ would come through his lineage and Christ is salvation for everyone. This verse does not mean that every whim the leadership of Israel wants should be done. That is not "blessing" Israel. I am not sure what Old Testament Hagee reads but mine shows Israel out of the will and favor of God 75% of the time. Why is it then that John Hagee automatically assumes what they are doing is righteous? When Israel went to war Lebanon in 2006 and were destroying Christian villages - whose side was God on? It is time to go back to our weapons beloved and they are not the carnal and political ones wielded by the likes of John Hagee.
Let us also deal with the spiritual lunacy. God most certainly is going to judge the people in America, including John Hagee, myself and anyone else. Those found outside the Lambs Book of Life will go to eternal punishment - not those who sided this way or that in a political fight. Our salvation is based on the finished work of the cross not who we sided with in one political struggle or another. That judgment is coming and there is nothing and no president that will stop it. That does not mean that every time there is a disaster that God is up in the heavens picking us off one by one. What kind of a God is Hagee preaching here? Stop it already.
Our job is to preach the Gospel. Not read the tea leaves. Not engage in the astrology of blood moons or the numerology of the Harbinger. There is a world that is lost and despite what John Hagee thinks, God loves them all. He loves the Palestinian. He loves the Arab. He loves the atheist you tell to "leave your country." He loves the person you hate because he will not celebrate the fake birth of Christ in December with you. He loves the people who died in Hurricane Katrina and the victims of Ebola. It is beyond evil to use tragedies such as hurricanes and viral outbreaks to further your political agenda. It is only worse though to do so claiming it to be a Christian endeavor. So keep your silly blood moons and bogus prophecies that do not even add up in carnal terms. Just walk away John. Walk away before the next mudslide happens and you blame it on some foreign policy action you think you understand but you don't. Walk away before you tell everyone the next tropical storm is God delivering His wrath upon the sinful country of Bermuda. If you are not going to preach the actual Gospel to atheists and the anti Merry Christmas crowd...just go away.
Rev. Anthony.
