John Hagee Tries To Explain His Hitler Comments
He falls short, as far as I’m concerned. Using his long-time friend, Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, of San Antonio’s Rodfei Sholom Orthodox synagogue for cover, Hagee made this statement:
“…what has been disappointing has been to see my life’s work – the great passion of my life – mischaracterized and attacked. I have dedicated my life to combating anti-Semitism and supporting the State of Israel. In taking a stand for Israel I have received death threats from anti-Semites and neo-Nazis, and I’ve had the windows of my car blown out beneath the windows of the rooms in which my children slept. To hear people who know nothing about me or my life’s work claim that I somehow excuse the Holocaust is simply heartbreaking.
Let me be clear — to assert that I in any way condone the Holocaust or that monster Adolf Hitler is the worst of lies. I have always condemned the horrors of the Holocaust in the strongest of terms. But even more importantly, my abhorrence of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism has never stopped with mere words.
I have devoted most of my adult life to ensuring that there will never be a second Holocaust. I have worked tirelessly to eliminate the sin of anti-Semitism from the Christian world and to ensure the survival of the State of Israel.I have traveled the country teaching Christians to love the Jewish people and stand with Israel. Our ministry has given over $30 million for humanitarian causes in Israel. I founded Christians United for Israel to bring together all pro-Israel Christians into a movement that can support Israel during these very challenging times.
…our search for an explanation for evil must never be confused with an effort to excuse it.
What is more important than how we answer the question of where was God during the Holocaust is what we as men and women do here on earth to make sure that there will never be another Holocaust. We must give meaning to the words “Never Again” through our actions. It is to this effort – this effort to fight anti-Semitism and to support Israel – that I now return. Thank you.”
While Hagee has consistantly professed his love of Israel, he still believes that the Bible prophesied that the Jews would be driven there by “hunters” and that one hunters was Hitler. Of course he loves Israel, because the Bible says that on the last day of the world (and Hagee is an end-times preacher) the Jews in Israel will all accept Jesus. Hagee may love Israel because of what the Bible says, but Jews are seen as eventual converts. That is the theology of Hagee. Hagee writes in Jerusalem Countdown that Jews will survive the Battle of Armegeddon in order to have ”the opportunity to receive Messiah, who is a rabbi known to the world as Jesus of Nazareth.”
And Scheinberg appears to agree with Hagee’s comments about Hitler:
When Jews in Germany allowed their devotion to erode and didn’t observe the Torah fully, God allowed Hitler to commit genocide and then bring about the state of Israel as a remedy, Sheinberg believes.
“It’s not that (Jews) caused it but that the way we act in the world – if we cease to be a light to the nations, there’s greater evil in the world,” he said. “That’s taught in seminary and yeshiva and that’s for a philosophy class when one could contemplate such things. It’s not for headlines in the newspaper.”
Scheinberg further defended Hagee theologically:
“Pastor interpreted a Biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities,” Scheinberg said. “Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God’s plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian.”
Rabbi Eric Yoffie of the Union for Reform Judaism, agrees that Hagee, in spite of being in sync with Joe Liberman, is not the kind of friend Jews need.
“Christian Zionists, and especially Christians United for Israel, do not offer unconditional support for the Jewish state. They offer support for a particular religious vision, particular Israeli leaders, and particular political factions, all of which reflect their own prophecy-driven view of the Middle East,” Yoffie said in an April speech, calling Hagee and his group “extremists.”
Hagee and other end time nuts are only interested in Israel because it is important to their rapture plan.
A more disingenuous bunch would be hard to find.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I’ve been watching Hagee and his like minded associates for years. Around here, all you have to do is turn on Sunday morning TV or radio to get an earful of their end-times BS.
I always wondered why some of those in the Jewish-American and Israeli communities took his “support” as genuine support. If the Jews don’t eventually see things Hagee’s way and convert, it’s not like they’re supposed to part as friends and go their separate ways living happily ever after. Things are supposed to get pretty ugly after that “offer the Jews can’t refuse”.
I tried to point this odd relationship out to a Evangelical once and get an explanation. I was, surprisingly, called an anti-semite for my “thought-crime”. I learned my lesson and while I’m probably a better genuine friend of the Jewish state than any bible-thumper, I don’t say much anymore. But I’m glad to see this is finally getting some honest air time. It could only get better to see the attention on CNN or NBC. Or, even FOX.
We’re living in strange times.
May 24th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I couldn’t have said it any better Anonymouse. Hagee is no friend of Israel or the Jews. He’s simply exploiting them in order to push his end of the world crap. He wants the world to end. He looks forward to it.
Someone should ask him if he thinks his good friends, the Jews, will go to heaven if they remain Jews. Or will it be hell? These kinds of preachers are so incredibly arrogant. They can interpert all they like, they know no more than the rest of us do.
Hagee doesn’t speak for God. No one does. No one knows the true mind of God.
May 24th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Hagee is just another Neocon nut job. If we allow morons like this to even speak in public, it becomes dangerous for all of us. This is not a case of him “being exhausted”, “didn’t mean it to sound that way,” or “he was mis-characterized.” We all heard what he said, and by golly, it’s hard to work around those words.
All of these Neocons have jumped on the Tri-Lateral Commission bandwagon, and they all have one agenda: the success of NAFTA and working toward a one-world government, governed under the UN. This is the principal reason I broke away from the Republican Party and the entire notion of these neo-conservatives is just downright, well, batshit insane.
May 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
“He looks forward to it.”
That is the strangest, most worrisome thing about the whole Hagee theology. More worrisome, that the man in the White House is one of them and he has the power and influence to “git ‘r dun”.
For a few more months anyway.
May 24th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
If I could talk to hitler,I would ask him how he got that giant hole in his head ?
May 24th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Scheinberg said:
“Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God’s plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian.”
Hmmm… this kind of makes sense. What exactly is so wrong with saying God punished the Jewish people, if that view is part of your religious belief system? And how is this exploiting Jews? If someone could help me on this it would be much appreciated, because the mainstream US media certainly isn’t explaining.
May 25th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Epiphany: “No one knows the true mind of God” is an arrogant claim in and of itself. How do YOU know that no one knows the true mind of God? Do you have a closer connection to God than the rest of us? Your apparently pluralistic worldview dictates that you *think* no one can know the truth. That’s pure conjecture.
Steve: you say “If we allow morons like this to even speak in public, it becomes dangerous for all of us.” No free speech because you disagree? Ever hear of the First Amendment? And go easy on the one-world-government conspiracy crap, please.
“A” made a good point that ended with… “if that view is part of your religious belief system?” Exactly! It’s amazing sometimes the narrowmindedness of people on the left: who are you all to criticize the theology and religious beliefs of people you disagree with?
And Hagee stated he gave 30 million dollars in aid to Israel…isn’t that notable? And whatever the case, from my understanding, he is decidedly more liberal towards (individual) Jewish salvation than most Christians. This whole thing is a non-issue.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Flap: I just spoke to God and she said we are all nuts!
May 26th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Well, if you told me that the god I believe in was complicit in the mass murder of millions of people just like me I think I’d be pretty offended.
And doubting that someone knows the mind of an omniscient omnipotent immortal being credited with creating the universe isn’t arrogance. It’s healthy skepticism, at the very least.
Charity is always commendable. I’m just wondering where that thirty million came from. Out of the man’s own pocket?
May 26th, 2008 at 10:32 am
The Jew’s accepted a curse for the future Horror’s of WWll when they yelled back to Pilate, “His Blood be upon us and on our children!” This is the reason for their suffering…they brought it on Themselves sorry to say. MATT 27:23-25
May 28th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Your argument is with God and not Hagee if you would only take the time to read the Old Testament which is Holy to both Jew and Gentile alike.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Habakkuk 1
1:1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear ! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save !
1:3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
1:4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
1:5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
1:6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
1:7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
1:8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
1:9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
1:10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.
1:11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.
Jeremiah 33
33:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying,
33:2 Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name;
33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
33:4 For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword;
33:5 They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.
33:6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
33:7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
33:8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.
Jer 24:5 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
Let us not forget
Ge 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
Jeremiah 23
23:1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.
23:2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
23:4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.
23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
23:6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
23:7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
23:8 But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
23:9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.
23:10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
23:11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
23:12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
23:13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
23:14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
23:15 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
23:16 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
23:17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. [sound familiar?]
23:18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?
23:19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
23:20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
23:21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
23:22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
23:23 Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?
Ezek 23
23:25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.
23:26 They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.
23:27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.
23:28 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated:
23:29 And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.
23:30 I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.
See also Deuteronomy 28:64-65 that expressly deals with the diaspora:
28:64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
28:65 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
28:66 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
Isaiah 11:11-12
11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Why is it beyond the pale that God would use AH to bring about the Aliyah? He used Pharaoh to show his power and might Ex 10:1
Ezekiel 6
6:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
6:2 Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
6:3 And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.
6:4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
6:5 And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.
6:6 In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.
6:7 And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
6:8 Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
6:9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
6:10 And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:50 am