Customer Reviews

Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(41)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Pastor Hagee tells Americans that they must unconditionally support Israel or America will face dire consequences. Central to his argument is that the Jews are God's chosen people and that there exists an ancient covenant between God and Israel. Such a covenant no doubt existed but Christ made a new covenant with His followers. [Matthew 26:28]. We Christians celebrate this covenant in the Lord's Supper and it is this covenant and the New Testament that Christians should be focused on. The Gospel tells us to love our neighbors and to work for peace. It does not tell us to engage in war-mongering or agitate to bring about the Second Coming. Mr Hagee warns us of four kings from the South, North, East and West which he identifies, respectively, with the Arab states, Russia, China and the European Union (EU). He goes so far as to call the head of the EU the Antichrist and false messiah to Israel. That covers just about every country that could ever pose a present or future threat to America in its quest for world hegemony. Is it plausible to assume that a global military empire such as the United States and its ally Israel are the only good and righteous countries left on planet earth? Pastor Hagee and his followers would be shocked to read a very contrary view given in John Peter Allemand's book "A Poetical Offering" in which the author offers his own prophetic insights. He claims that the Babylon described in the Book of Revelation is none other than America's greatest city and the world's financial capital, New York, and that the man with the number 666 is a prominent, living German-Jewish immigrant and resident of that city. How does that square with the notion promoted by the Christian right that Americans and Israelis are uniquely blessed people favored by the Almighty? They may be surprised to know that His divine justice does not stop at America's borders.

I first learned of this book by watching an interview with Pastor Hagee. This book is on the forefront of the political debate with Iran.

The Chapters of the book start with a discussion on where the situation with Iran is today. The next chapter discusses the history of how we got into this situation. The next chapter deals with what the future holds and concludes with a Christian perspective on the situation.

Hagee's writing style is clear and consise. The book is compelling and chilling. It is a page turner. I couldn't put it down. This book is not about preaching the bible, it is about the realities that Western Civilization faces with the Islamic Radicals in Iran and their quest for Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction.

With Iran's leader telling the world that Israel should be "wiped from the map" and his denials about the holocaust, we can see how his pursuit of Nuclear Weapons is a threat to Israel and to the United States of America.

Hagee points out that Iran must be prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons. He provides detailed information obtained from Israeli Officials that suggests Iran will have the Nuclear Weapons by October 2006. The book tells us that Israel will not allow Iran to threaten its' existence and will take military action.

The book then talks about the response of the Arab Nations and how that ties into the bible regarding Revelations.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about the growing Radical Islamic threat the world faces from Iran.

....because I disagree with some of the Pastor's Theology; however, I've never read a book (except the Holy Bible) with which I agreed totally. The book has some excellent material in it showing Old Testament prophecy coming to fruition now. I look at this book as "a word to the wise." In defense of Pastor Hagee, he has his interpretation of the Bible and each of these reviewers have their own. He isn't totally correct in my opinion, nor are the reviewers totally correct (and I include myself) - only one was perfect. I am amused that some reviews give indication to the contrary. I think it despicable that some reviewers are not only critical but nasty with their comments and titles bestowed on this servant of the Lord. When you say you wouldn't want to be in his shoes on judgment day you just judged him yourself and that's God's job alone. Knowing what I know today, I'd buy the book again and just agree to disagree on some points in the book.

Forget even finishing it, the book is unreadable. It offends any sort of historian that might ask for sources to be cited, assertions proven, or a logical proposal offered. I won't even bother reviewing it against theology, where I am admittedly out of my depth and happily so if this is representative of what constitutes theological work. I managed to get through three chapters before I dismissed this book as garbage. It's a work of fiction, and it's bad fiction at that. Followers of this kind of thinking are the real fifth column threat to America.

-C

Jerusalem Countdown is Hagee's jeremiad against Iran. We (the US and Israel) need to "take down" Iran before Iran "takes down" the US and Israel. Hagee is serving up baloney, plain and simple.

For the sake of argument, let's assume the Iranian government is every bit as evil as Hagee contends. Hagee's casus belli against the Iranians is that they are working to get a nuclear weapon. What Hagee conveniently omits from Jerusalem Countdown's 270 pages is that Israel already has 200-300 nuclear weapons, as well as multiple ways to deliver them, including submarines purchased from Germany. Iranians may have used "suicide waves" against Iraq, and they may use "suicide bombers" against Israel and others, but I have yet to see a government intent upon its own "regimicide".

Hagee not only omits the fact that Israel is the regional nuclear powerhouse, but also that the Israelis have biological and chemical weapons capability. Any act of massive aggression (e.g. a full scale attack) upon Israel by its hostile neighbors would unleash a rash of plagues not seen in the region since Pharaoh and Moses squared off.

And what of Pakistan - our "ally?" Pakistan is already a nuclear power, and Gen Musharraf's hold on power is none too secure. What happens if Pakistan is taken over by a virulently anti-US regime? Do we go after their nukes, and mix it up with their population of 170 million?

Hagee does not say; this too, would spoil his plot.

"Jerusalem Countdown" joins the pack of those funny, alarmist books of "prophecy" that always seem to get published when the world is going through tense times. Keen salesmen like John Hagee always know where to point out Satan and when to predict the world's end, remember in the 1980s when the Soviet Union was apparently the trigger for the Second Coming? Hagee and his ilk have found the perfect cash cow in predicting or even demanding war with Iran because these sorts of books always make money, their flock are always desperate to see what their glorious leaders have to say about who this week's boogey man of the apocalypse is. "Jerusalem Countdown" is a collection of various thoughts, mostly anti-Muslim and pro-imperialism, with a rabid devotion to Israel that borders on hysteria. Hagee's basic premise in the book is simple: Muslims hate us because we are Christians and our women wear mini-skirts, so therefore we must back Israel on an apocalyptic war to destroy Iran, conquer a good chunk of Syria and Lebanon and then wait for Jesus to return. Oh, and Russia, because you can't forget them, somehow get involved. The book's treatment of Muslim and Iranian culture is incredibly ignorant, Hagee doesn't even bother to explore modern Middle Eastern history, he goes from Persia in the Biblical times and jumps right into the present day. This is convenient for Hagee considering in 1953 we overthrew Iran's elected government because it nationalized the nation's oil, re-installed the brutal regime of the Shah and then saw the Shah be overthrown by the 1979 Iranian Revolution which gave rise to the regime currently in power. Hagee also skips over Israeli atrocities in the occupied territories, sometimes even endorsing them because apparently Arabs aren't worth squat next to "God's Chosen." "Jerusalem Countdown" gives some flashy predictions and interpretations taken from Biblical prophecy, but a lot of Hagee's conclusions fall flat when compared with basic history, with basic facts of what's been happening in the Middle East. Never is the CIA training of what became Al Qaeda mentioned, or our current backing of brutal regimes in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, both Muslim nations you think would figure in Hagee's end-times scenario. It's a pity the book was published before the NIE report revealed Iran has no nuclear weapons because this is Hagee's prime obsession: Attacking Iran. The man is convinced the U.S. must go on a suicidal, catastrophic mission to bomb Iran back to the stone age. Of course Hagee forgets Pakistan has nukes, or that Israel is also pretty well-stocked when it comes to nuclear weapons. Hagee's predictions are fine and reassuring for the average American conservative, but they fall apart once you take the time to read something other than apocalyptic Christian literature. Hagee of course fully backs the invasion and destruction of Iraq, another example of the frightening vision these groups have for the world. "Jerusalem Countdown" has a short shelf-life, but a very chilling premise only in the doctrines Hagee promotes.

John Hagee is a powerful preacher, but he is not a theologian. This becomes evident as you read Jerusalem Countdown. Basically, the theme of the book is that Iran is preparing nuclear weapons, and that very soon, we will be seeing the invasion of Israel that Ezekiel prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39.

Not only is Hagee wrong in his predictions of Iranian acquisition of nuclear materials (he predicted that it would be known by the fall of 2006), but his facts are wrong in many other places.

For example, he claims that 6000 people died in the September 11th attacks, when we know now that it was closer to 3000. He also overestimates the number of casualities in the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor.

He also equates support for the people of Israel with support for the current secular national government in Israel, not necessarily the same thing.

But Hagee's biggest mistakes are with the Scriptures. He takes Bible passages referring to the destruction of Solomon's temple in 586 BC, and applies them to the destruction of Herod's temple in 70 AD, a common mistake that Bible students make.

But the worst part of the book is Hagee's mishandling of the book of Romans. He claims that Romans 9-11 is a separate tract that doesn't fit at all with the rest of Romans, even though Romans 1-8 has numerous references to God's plan for the Jewish people (see especially Romans 1:16-17, Romans 2:1-32, Romans 3, etc).

Another bad thing about the book is that it is a war-mongering, fear mongering book designed to scare the wits out of people. There is no sense of God's love shown in Christ's death on the cross, no sense of hope, no discussion of the future millennium, no discussion of the final victory of God in the new heaven and the new earth.

The bottom line is that God is sovereign over history and by looking unto Jesus and putting our hope in Him, all things will work together for the good of those who love God (Hebrews 12:2, Romans 8:28).

The best part of this book is when Hagee compares the life of Jesus with the life of Moses, and with the life of Joseph. That part of the book was right on and was very informative.

The rest of the book was right wing Zionism on steroids. I agree that someday, Christ will reign over the earth in Jerusalem for a thousand years, and that the people of Israel will be back in the land.

But I think that the gathering of the Jewish people into Israel is something that we should let God orchestrate (Ezekiel 39:25-29, Jeremiah 31:23, Isaiah 43:5-7, 51:11, etc) rather than to let it be the work of conservative activists.