An American pastor who has said Hitler was carrying out “God’s will” by chasing the Jews from Europe is coming to Birmingham. MP Richard Burden (Lab Northfield) has tabled questions in the House of Commons asking Theresa May, the Home Secretary, why Pastor John Hagee is being allowed into the country to hold a rally in the city. Rev Hagee, who also described the Roman Catholic Church as “the great whore” and a “false cult system”, will deliver sermons at the city’s Symphony Hall on August 19 and 20.
On his website, the televangelist described the event as a “Rally & Prophecy Seminar”.
In one sermon, Mr Hagee compared Adolf Hitler to a “hunter” sent by God to force Jews to live in Israel. Rev Hagee has also suggested that Hurricane Katrina was God’s retribution for homosexual sin.
In 2008, US presidential hopeful John McCain rejected the backing of the church leader over his view of the holocaust. During a sermon, Rev Hagee said the Nazi leader was carrying out a divine plan to gather Jews into the Holy Land. The Republican candidate described the comments as “crazy and unacceptable”.
Mr Burden said: “It’s hard to understand why Raed Salah is banned from the UK while Pastor Hagee is welcomed despite his repulsive and bigoted views. I also wonder whether Symphony Hall knows what Pastor Hagee will be saying when he uses their premises.”
Rabbi Shlomo Odze, of Birmingham Central Synagogue said Birmingham had a proud identity of religious integration and multiculturalism.“It’s a great quality of the city,” he added. “There can never be any excuse for any sort of rhetoric of either hatred or in this case anti-semitism. It’s worrying that somebody like that could be coming to Birmingham and holding such a very large conference or seminar.“If part of that is going to be rhetoric that is against other religions or other religious groups then that’s wrong.”
The Jewish people fare little better in the predictions of other Christian writers, who provide more graphic and detailed descriptions of the suffering that will take place in Israel during the Tribulation and Battle of Armageddon.
Charles Ryrie, for example predicts this will be, ‘the time of Israel’s greatest bloodbath.’ John Walvoord similarly predicts a holocaust in which at least 750 million people will perish. Tim LaHaye warns that ‘Jacob’s trouble’, prophesied by Jeremiah 30:7, will certainly be far worse than the Spanish Inquisition … or even the Holocaust of Adolf Hitler.’
While confident that Christians will escape Armageddon and witness the events from heaven, Lindsey warns
‘… only a tiny fraction of the world’s population will be left. Only a remnant will have survived. Many of the Jews would have been killed.’In his book, The Final Battle (1995), under the heading ‘It will take a miracle to save Israel - Intelligence Digest,’ Lindsey claims, ‘Israel is in for a very rough time. The Jewish State will be brought to the brink of destruction.’ In a later chapter he clarifies what this will mean:
‘The land of Israel and the surrounding area will certainly be targeted for nuclear attack. Iran and all the Muslim nations around Israel have already been targeted with Israeli nukes … All of Europe, the seat of power of the Antichrist, would surely be a nuclear battlefield, as would the United States ... Zechariah gives an unusual, detailed account of how hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Israel battle zone will die. Their flesh will be consumed from their bones, their eyes from their sockets, and their tongues from their mouths while they stand on their feet (Zechariah 14:12). This is exactly the sort of thing that happens from the intense radiation of a neutron type bomb.’Lindsey claims that for a distance of 200 miles from the Valley of Jezreel near Megiddo across to the Jordan Valley then down to the Dead Sea and on to the Gulf of Aqaba, the entire valley will be filled with the debris of war and the bodies of animals and people, and above all, blood. He writes:
‘I have travelled the entire length of this valley ... It is almost impossible to imagine the valley covered with blood five feet high! Yet that is exactly what God predicts, and He always fulfils His Word. Some have asked, “Wouldn't the blood coagulate and not flow?” Blood exposed to intense radiation doesn't coagulate … Because of the intense radiation, blood will not coagulate. It will literally become a sea of blood five feet deep.’Lindsey’s apocalyptic views are, however, shared by many other authors, including several associated with Jews for Jesus. Reviewing The Late Great Planet Earth their website promises, ‘This book will undoubtedly help you decide where you fit in God's prophetic plan for the ages.’
David Brickner’s own book Future Hope depicts an identical scenario to Lindsey’s. His literalist exegesis similarly creates dissonance between biblical texts and contemporary events, with invading armies using Bronze Age military tactics while deploying 21st Century weaponry.
While encouraging Jews to return to Israel, Brickner is pessimistic about their fate. ‘The good news is, as the prophet said, that Israel will be delivered in the end. The bad news is that deliverance comes at enormous cost and through great conflict.'
Brickner is convinced Jerusalem will be the epicentre of the battle of Armageddon.
‘There is terrible bloodshed as Jerusalem suffers horrible defeat ... half of the people in the city are destroyed or taken into captivity. The destruction and devastation are hard to imagine. The nation of Israel is battered, broken and beaten. She is nearly destroyed ... but it’s not over yet.’In an article entitled, ‘Haman, Hitler, and Now Hussein - Another Holocaust?’ Louis Goldberg, the Scholar in Residence of Jews for Jesus, describes a similarly terrifying scenario awaiting Israel, based on his literal reading of Zechariah 13-14:
‘“So,” you might ask, “with Israel once more on her ancient soil and enjoying freedom she has not known for 2,500 years, how in the world can we talk about another holocaust? How would nations and leaders ever permit such a situation ever to occur again?”’Goldberg answers with a quotation from Zechariah 13 to prove that it will, he calculates, lead to at least 2.5 million Jews dying in Israel alone. He claims the suffering of survivors will be worse than at any other time in their history.
‘What horror! What destruction! How can we even talk about it? It should make every human being weep. With the ovens of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen still warm in the minds of the Holocaust survivors, how can we even begin to imagine another carnage?’Brickner raises the apocalyptic temperature higher by claiming,
‘The sure word of prophecy in the scripture promises that the dawn is nearing … Listen closely as the orchestra begins. Can you hear the themes? The piece they are playing is “The Overture to Armageddon.”’Although Rosen, Brickner and Goldberg are Jewish by birth, their writings, along with those of Hagee, Lindsey and LeHaye, could be easily construed as anti-Semitic for predicting with such certitude another holocaust, which in their own words, will be worse than anything experienced in history.
For more on the historical roots, theological basis and political agenda of Christian Zionism [and the sources quoted above] see Christian Zionism: Roadmap to Armageddon?
For a deconstruction of Christian Zionist theology see Zion's Christian Soldiers: The Bible, Israel and the Church
Both books available from Amazon.
See also
Weird and Wacky Theology 1: Israel and the Church
Weird and Wacky Theology 2: Will the Jewish Temple be Rebuilt?
Weird and Wacky Theology 3: Armageddon out of here
Weird and Wacky Theology 2: Will the Jewish Temple be Rebuilt?
Weird and Wacky Theology 3: Armageddon out of here
