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319 of 415 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Warning to the World?, February 10, 2006
This review is from: Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World (Paperback)
John Hagee says he wrote this book April of 2005. It would be seen as prophetic if he would have released it then, but since he did not, we will either have to disbelieve him or take his word for it. The truth is much of this book is a rehash of Dawn Over Jerusalem that Hagee wrote back in 1998. The only fresh stuff here is that Iran is currently a nuclear problem for the United States and Israel. The reason I gave this book three stars is because Hagee states his purpose is to make everybody aware of how important the Iranian escalating conflict is to the world. Hagee does this, but any newspaper in the Western World could have done the same. His second point was to inform us of the countdown in the Middle East as all being a part of God's plan for the Jews. I think that Hagee's interpretation of Scripture is skewed, but nevertheless, he does lay out clearly his interpretation of those scripture. Hagee says over and over again that "Anti-Semitism is sin and as sin it damns the soul." This is a major point that he wishes to get across and because of its repetitive nature Hagee does accomplish his goal.
Hagee opens by speaking about Iran and the current crises that the U. S. and Israel as well as other parts of Western Civilization and the world face. He even gives a map of Iran and where at least eight of the nuclear development facilities are. He tells of privileged conversations that he has had with former Prime Ministers of Israel and other sources that he does not name both in Washington and in Israel. The first part of the book is interesting in the same way that the newspaper stories are interesting. Hagee then begins to speculate about what kinds of nuclear attacks are going to happen in the USA. He predicts, unashamedly that America is going to have a nuclear bomb set off in not just one but several major cities in the United States at the same time.
After this Hagee speaks about Islam and how militant the religion, or at least the radical fundamentalist element of the Islam religion really is. Hagee is not far off base here. He then goes his own history lesson from the Hagee point of view about the history of the nation of Israel. It is not so much that the facts of history that he gives are inaccurate, but he has a particular bias on the facts. For example, he says that Christians forsook the Jews during the Roman siege. If they did it is because Jesus himself told them to leave the city, as well as Jewish Christians and all Jews for that matter. Jesus warned and predicted the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. The city was under the judgment of God. Hagee may have the historical story correct, but he puts a negative spin toward the "Christians" that left and went to Pella. He does give a history of Jewish people being wrongly persecuted, but at the same time he fails to mention how the Jews persecuted the Christians in history. Let me say that he is correct however, so called Christians were wrong at many junctures in history for their persecution of Jews. Another twisted concept is the story of Began and the bombing of the King David Hotel. Hagee says this was not a terrorist act. I guess it all depends on which side of the act that you are on. The Al Quada faction responsible for 911 probably sees that as an act of war, but everyone else defines it as terrorism. Hagee wants to present Israel as pristine and pure for all to support, but this is dishonest. When Israel of old tells her own story they include all of their failures in the story. They never paint a puritanical picture of themselves, but would tell the truth about their own sins and the sins of their kings. They did not make excuses or conveniently leave things out. I would hope that Hagee would reevaluate his approach to this, but he seems to think that brash arrogance is more convincing than the full truth.
Several times Hagee speaks of Anti-Semitism and how that it is sin. He is right, but does he not know (I am sure he does) that the Arabs are descendents of Shem as well and the term applies to them as well? Hatred against Jews or Arabs is wrong, not just hatred against Jews.
In the third section of this book Hagee gives his version (of which he claims scriptural support) of the future. He bases most of his end time events scenario on Ezekiel 37-39, Jeremiah, and portions of Daniel. He maintains that the Bible teaches that Russia will form an evil alliance with the Arab nations and march on Israel and that God will step in and send an earthquake, cause the armies to panic and turn on one another and rain down fire and brimstone upon the invading armies in order to demonstrate to the nations that He is God and that He loves Israel. He consults some older Hebrew Scholars to get the fact that Rosh in Ezekiel really means Russia and Meshech means Moscow and blanketly says that this is attested by virtually all scholars. He is right if you consider all Scholars to be Hal Lindsey, John Walvoord, and whoever else has graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary. The fact is that such an interpretation is scarce among scholars. If it were so prevalent he would not have to go back to the 1800's to find a lexicon to support his (really Hal Lindsey's) theory. It seems to me that for someone who is suppose to take the Bible literally, he does an awful lot of not taking it literally when it comes to the weaponry described as bows and arrows. Hagee sees nuclear rockets and such. This is not the only place that he takes literal interpretation not so seriously.
Hagee takes several chapters to discuss Romans 9-11 in order to prove that the Jews are the elect and chosen of God. He says that this portion of Romans is God's position paper on the nation of Israel and that it is what he calls the magnificent codicil. In other words it is a stand-alone document that does not need Romans 1-8 and 12-16. I do not have time or room to take this on here. Let me just say here that there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Pastor Hagee takes a two people of God approach and he does so emphatically. In perhaps his bizarrist (and that is saying a lot) interpretation of scripture for someone who says that scripture should be taken literally, Hagee interprets God's promise to Abraham saying that the stars of the heavens which Abraham was to count was the Church and the sands of the Sea shore are the Jewish people on earth. This is a remarkable stretch of exegeses that has no New Testament support whatsoever.
Perhaps most damaging in Hagee's theology is his belief that the Jews have a different covenant and that the proclamation of the gospel is not powerful enough to open their eyes to who Jesus is and be saved. This is where Hagee is at his most heretical.
For me, Hagee has missed the message of Jesus in the Gospels all together. Jesus condemns the Jewish establishment of his day (Hagee would agree with this statement with limitations to Caiphas and the Herodians only) and the Temple and predicted there coming destruction. Jesus reconstitutes Israel in himself, in other words Jesus message is repent and believe the gospel or give up your way of being Israel and come trust me for mine (see N T Wright). Jesus redefines Israel, not as a Gentile Church replacing Israel, but by being the true Son (Hagee rightly points out that Israel is called the true son of God), or the New Israel himself. Jesus is the New Israel and appoints twelve apostles and tells them that they will be the new judges over the twelve tribes of Israel. He is not only Israel but also He, himself replaces the Temple as well. Jesus said "Destroy this Temple and I will build it again in three days." He spoke concerning his body that would be raised from the grave after three days. Hagee does not see that Jesus fulfills in himself the promises made to Abraham and David. This is the point of the opening of Matthew and the genealogies that are there given. Anyone interested in further discussion send me an email at darrengjohnson38@yahoo.com.
I realize that by criticizing John Hagee I am opening myself up to people not liking my review. People generally judge something like this on the basis of whether you were kind to their favorite preacher and not was the book review really helpful. There are some good things in this book,the historical chart at the end being one. Hagee also wakes us for the necessity to pray for a hurting part of the world that we would rather forget about and hope that it just goes away. I am not sure if there will be an attack like Hagee predicts and even if I were sure I am not sure what good it would do to know. We cannot live in fear. We must hold to the hand of the one who holds our future in His. Jesus the Messiah is the answer. I only wish Hagee would say this more.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
an insight into the mind of a Christian Zionist, August 2, 2008
This review is from: Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World (Paperback)
Just as most Americans look at Islamic radicals and ask "Why do they hate us?", Jews look at Christian Zionists and ask "Why do they love us?" Some believe that the only reason for Christian support of Israel and Jews is that Jews play a crucial role in the "End Times" theology of some Protestants. And to be sure, this is one of Hagee's motives: he asserts that shortly before the Second Coming, "144,000 Jewish people [will] have a supernatural revelation of the identity of Jesus Christ as Messiah." [What happens to the rest? Hagee is a bit fuzzy on this point.]
But contrary to liberal myth, End Times theology is not, repeat not, the only motive for Hagee's philo-Semitism. To oversimplify a bit, Hagee interprets the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) to mean that Divine love for the Jewish people is boundless, and that as a result God favors Gentiles who favors Jews, and punishes Gentiles who harm Jews and/or seek to dispossess them from all or part of the land of Israel.
Although we Jews are temporarily "blinded" (according to Hagee) to Jesus's status as Messiah, Hagee interprets Romans 11 to mean that this is a necessary part of the Divine plan.
Since I don't share Hagee's religious assumptions, I express no opinion as to the correctness of his interpretations; I leave that task to people far more familiar with the Christian Bible than I.
Nevertheless, I do give this book only 3 stars, partially because I don't quite understand its organization: the first few chapters of the book [which discuss Islamic extremism] seems to me to be only marginally relevant to his defense of Jews. From the standpoint of 2008, the first half of the book seems hysterical. He claims that Iranian entry into the nuclear club is imminent- yet Iran still has no nuclear weapons. He suggests that the U.S is chock-full of sleeper cells and that al-Qaeda already has nuclear weapons- yet nothing resembling a major terrorist attack has happened in almost seven years. He claims that Islam is inherently intolerant- yet fails to explain why, during the Middle Ages, the Ottoman Empire was less anti-Semitic than much of Christian Europe.
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31 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Questionable Theology, February 12, 2006
This review is from: Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World (Paperback)
Although I enjoyed reading certain parts of this book, the fact that John Hagee seems to be struggling with God's work of election - God's choice of people to be saved, and stating that the 'non-believing in Jesus' Jews are still considered to be holy (page 183) at this time of history, forced me to rate this book with only 1 star.
On page 192, he states "the doctrine of divine election applies to nations and not to individuals. A remnant of the Jewish people has been divinely elected, and when the Gentile era ends, 'all Israel will be saved'."
However, my Bible reveals that God elects individuals and not nations. Although the nation of Israel has rejected Jesus, thousands of individual Jews have come to faith in Him (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 6:1) and many more after those times.
Hagee's interpretation of the "remnant" is also questionable. Some, but not all of the branches of Israel were removed. God always preserved a believing remnant.
God did not choose this remnant (small part) because of race, culture, etc. but solely because of His grace. Human effort (Thora) and God's grace are mutually exclusive ways to salvation (Acts, Galatians, Titus).
The fact that "all Thorah Jews on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur attend the synagogue where the liturgy calls for Jews to pray that their sins would be forgiven and their names written in the Book of Life" (Hagee-page 129), doesn't take away the Bible truth that God doesn't forgive sins without Jesus' blood sacrifice on Calvary's Cross and faith in Him as Israel's Messiah, our Saviour and Lord.
The nation's blindness does not extend to every individual Jew. Most of the Jews were blinded because of their hardened hearts, just as what is happening to non-Jews.
But thank God, Israel's blindness is not irriversible. God intends to use His offer of salvation to the Gentiles to draw the nation back to Himself.
It is also clear that the balance of Israel will be regrafted in, but only through the cross and by faith in Jesus as their Messiah. And you can't blame God for the fact that most Jewish people reject and are still rejecting Jesus.
Israel's fall is temporary. In the future, Israel will repent of unbelief and will embrace the Messiah (Zech.12:10). In the terms of Paul's analogy, God will at that time gladly graft the (believing) Jewish people back into the olive tree of His covenant blessings because it was theirs originally - unlike the wild branches (the Gentiles).
"All Israel", all the elect Jewish people alive at the end of the age, not the believing remnant of Jews within the church - since the remnant has already embraced the truth of the gospel.
In the end, God will judge the apostate church, just as surely as He will judge apostate Israel. Salvation is ever and always by faith alone.
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