I read an article yesterday about Vice-President Mike Pence meeting with Pastor John Hagee at a gathering of his Christians United for Israel this week, and the majority of outlets writing about their meeting (including the site I've linked) are doing so with the intent of 'alerting the public to what this nutjob believes'.
What he believes, however, is all Biblical. And therein is the issue I want to address.
Hagee has a rather bad reputation in American culture - we are reminded that John McCain had to distance himself from the pastor during his 2008 campaign for President. I didn't recall this detail, but the linked article describes one of the most "offensive" beliefs of his being the one about Hitler being a "hunter of Jews", sent by God to "herd" Jews to re-congregate and repopulate Israel.
I have no idea if that was God's intent or not. What I can say with fair confidence, however, is that the evidence does somewhat support that possibility. The result of Hitler's atrocities did include the movement of a huge number of Jews to the Holy Land, where three years after the war, Biblical prophecy was fulfilled and the nation of Israel was (re) born in a single day: May 14, 1948.
What I don't see in Hagee's writing, but I do believe in my studies of the end times (eschatology), is that the murder of one-fourth of the Hebrew population of the planet - six of the 24 million Jews on Earth - fulfilled the fourth seal of Revelation 6:7-8 →
7When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
As with all prophecies (and everything else) in Scripture, we have to relate everything we read to its audience: Israel. A fourth of their population, not "ours". That's why reading about the invasion from the "north" means north of Israel, "south" means south of Israel, and so forth.
Did Hitler plan to fulfill Biblical prophecy? Of course not; that's not how it works. Do I think that Hitler had the potential to be Satan's "anti-Christ" if Jesus had been moved to return then? Possible, however unlikely. And do I think that God would use even such a heinous madman as Hitler to move His timeline forward? He used Pharaoh to move the Hebrews out of Egypt; why not?
So, back on topic: why is Hagee such a culturally repugnant figure? He's too "upfront" about what the Bible says. I'm not saying that what he's professing is wrong (although I don't know anything else about what he believes than what these articles say), but you can't feed the deep stuff to a public unprepared for anything more than what Paul calls "spiritual milk" in 1st Corinthians 3:1-3 →
1But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
Why would it be a problem to be fed "solid food" - the deep and difficult teachings of the Christ - before you're ready for it? "You are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh....there is jealousy and strife among you." Remember that Paul said in that same letter to Corinth, 1st Cor 1:18,
18For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
If you understand what John said in Revelation, you understand what John Hagee means when he refers to the Catholic Church as "the great whore", because the revelation of Jesus Christ told John that the anti-Christ would arise from the church of Rome; once you understand why John could not write "Rome" and used the code word "Babylon" (which God decreed would never be rebuilt) on its "seven hills" (what other city famously has seven hills?), the allusion is inescapable.
But if you are not saved, of course - if you are one of the "perishing" un-believers, to come out and slam the 1.2 billion member Catholic Church, which you wouldn't have any way of understanding is any different from any of the protestant churches which broke away from the church Satan so adeptly corrupted in the Dark Ages, what other reaction would you have?
So, be careful what you say to non-believers. There's nothing in the Bible that you can share that's wrong to share, but just as you don't start a child with Tolstoy to read, you don't start a non-Believer with the last half of John chapter 6 - This bread is My Flesh, this wine is My Blood. That sounds insane, unless you understand the context and His meaning. Read John 6 now, if you're a believer. Christ lost a lot of followers that day, but not the Apostles. WHY? They were experienced with Jesus' teaching. They understood what He meant. They were consuming solid food, spiritually, unlike all of the easily-discouraged acolytes, who could barely tolerate the spiritual milk.
HAVING SAID THAT...
At least some of what Hagee says is demonstrably wrong, and has no Biblical backing.
Nothing Barack Obama did as president caused the Ebola virus. The only possible connection any of those might actually have would be American policies in the Middle East, and even then, I hate to say it, there's not much that America has done or can do that will affect God's plans for Israel or His People. Anything that God does to America is brought on by us, not one leader. And we have only ourselves to blame for whatever abandoning of our nation God might have done.
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