CUFI Leader John Hagee confirms Christian Zionism is anti-Semitic

Evangelical pastor John Hagee, the leader of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the US’ largest pro-Israel organization and the most powerful group in the Christian Zionist movement, has adamantly insisted that Christian Zionism is anti-Semitic.

WorldNetDaily (WND), a far-right website published an article in March 2015 about the “Blood Moon Prophecy,” an end-of-times theory that lunar eclipses are a sign that the world is on the brink of destruction and that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is near. The lengthy piece is about Hagee’s film Four Blood Moons, which endorses the eschatological theory. Toward the end of the article, WND quotes a spokesperson for Hagee:

“WND falsely claimed that Hagee does not believe that Jews need Jesus to be saved. In fact, Hagee never made such a claim and years ago directly denied assertions that he holds a dual-covenant theology,” he wrote. “In addition, while WND acknowledges that Hagee rewrote sections of ‘In Defense of Israel’ to clarify his relevant position, WND failed to note that the associated video promotion was also changed to accurately reflect his theology.”

Translated: WND claimed that Hagee believed the Jewish people could be saved by God without abandoning Judaism and converting to Christianity. Apocalyptic Christian Zionist John Hagee censured the publication for spreading a lie and defensively clarified that he does indeed believe that the Jewish people are going to burn in Hell for all of eternity unless they abandon Judaism and convert to Christianity.

In short, Hagee firmly insisted that Christian Zionism is anti-Semitic, and that the reason CUFI so obsessively and blindly defends Israel is not because they care about Jews (who, in their mind, will face eternal damnation unless they renounce their religion and become Christians) but rather because they genuinely believe the world is on the verge of total annihilation and the Bible supposedly tells them they must do so.

Christian Zionism

Christian Zionism is the belief that God gave the Jewish people the land of Israel in historic Palestine. Christian Zionists hold that this is part of a biblical prophecy, and is a necessary prerequisite before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the ensuing Day of Judgment.

This is not a view shared by all Christians, yet is very common among Evangelicals and conservative Protestants. In recent years, it has gained prominence in the US, particularly in the Bible Belt. A late 2013 Pew Research study found 82% of white evangelical Christians in the US believed God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people, while only 40% of US Jews believed the same.

John Hagee is the leader of CUFI, the most powerful Christian Zionist organization in the US, and likely in the entire world.

Some Jewish and Zionist organizations have criticized Hagee and the Christian Zionist movement. Eric Yoffie, former president of the Union for Reform Judaism, publicly proclaimed that, vis-à-vis “Israeli-Palestinian politics, John Hagee and the CUFI are extremists.” Yoffie “called for Reform congregations to not participate in CUFI’s events and to continue to call for public condemnation of inflammatory and bigoted statements from Christian Zionist leadership.”

Many Jewish and Zionist organizations, however, see Hagee and CUFI as important allies. At the CUFI 2013 Summit, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations—a coalition of 51 US Jewish groups, including some of the most prominent—voiced support of biblical Christian Zionist prophecies. “The prophets were not prophets of doom but prophets of hope; you just have to read it right,” he told them. “Here’s my advice: Don’t bet against the Jews. And the ‘Jewish lobby’ is a myth, but it’s our job to make it a legend.”

Israel itself has been more than happy to support CUFI. Ron Dermer, Israeli Ambassador to the US, spoke glowingly of the organization at its 2014 summit. Prime Minister Netanyahu has also enthusiastically supported the group, and has spoken at several of their annual summits.

Hagee’s History of Extreme Views

Hagee, who thinks we are the last generation of humans, is no stranger to controversy. In late 2014, he claimed that Ebola (along with the civil rights protests in Ferguson and elsewhere) was God’s way of “punishing” America, because Obama was trying to “divide” Israel.

The pastor has even gone so far as to essentially defend Adolf Hitler.  In a 2005 sermon, Hagee asserted that God sent Hitler as a “hunter,” in order to “hunt them [Jews] from every mountain and from every hill and out of the holes of the rocks … to get them to come back to the land of Israel.”

Once again, these are the views of the leader of, in CUFI’s own words, “the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States with over two million members and one of the leading Christian grassroots movements in the world.”

The Washington Post indicates that CUFI “can boast that it has members from every congressional district in America.” Foreign Policy included John Hagee in its list of the 50 Republicans with the most influence on foreign policy. The evangelical Christian Zionist was a much sought-after figure by the Republican Party in the 2008 presidential election. He ended up endorsing John McCain.

WND’s founder and CEO Joseph Farah responded positively to Hagee’s firm insistence on his Christianity-rooted anti-Semitism. “I’m happy to hear that Hagee no longer subscribes to those anti-biblical positions,” he said. “But we never asserted what Hagee believes, only what he said on videotape. I’m gratified he has repudiated all of that. It’s time for him to clean up another mess.”

Like Hagee, Farah resolutely maintains that Christian Zionism is, in its very essence, an anti-Semitic ideology, as, in his view, it is an “anti-biblical position” to claim that Jews are not automatically damned to eternal suffering in a lake of fire merely by virtue of their being Jewish.

h/t Max Blumenthal for discovering this article

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Does Hagee know that believing in an afterlife is not a condition of the Jewish religion? The Zionist jewish leadership take Hagee’s cash and support, laughing behind his back all the way at him and his foolish and often impoverished fundy nut jobs.

The general Christian belief is that salvation comes from faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom God’s love is shown to the world. The liberal turn is to think that God will find other ways to save those who have sought to encounter his love in other fashions, the conservative turn to insist that there is no salvation ‘outside’.
The conservative ‘dispensationalist’ tradition, of fairly recent origin but I think inherited by Hagee from JN Darby, gives a special role to Jewish people, who have a special assignment to vindicate the ancient prophecies: they do not for now see that these prophecies point to Jesus, but they (or very many of them) will be allowed a blinding revelation of the truth at the very last moment when they have done the special, political work in the Holy Land that no one else can do. While engaged on that mission they are not really ‘outside’ Jesus’ dispensations. There is thus no obligation on Christians to press for Jews to become Christians here and now.
There is no parallel Christian mission for non-Christians of any other stripe. Those Jewish people who refuse to take part in their mission will of course share the fate of all non-saved humanity.
Some Jewish leaders (like Yoffie, cited here) will not want to accept any mission on grounds that will seem to them absurd and vulgar. Others, like Hoenlein, will throughly welcome the idea that the prophets of old were as it were founders of Zionism and Zionist hopes.
Whether all this – egging on Jewish people to do drastic things on the strength of religious teachings and interpretations that most Jewish people (and most Christians) do not accept and then threatening them with punishment if they will not comply – amounts to anti-Semitism depends on definitions. It would not exactly reflect ‘prejudice against Jews’.
In general I don’t think that Christian ‘dispensationalist’ Zionism is just another form of anti-Semitism or of colonialism or of racism. It’s too peculiar and by itself.

“Hagee asserted that God sent Hitler as a “hunter,” in order to “hunt them [Jews] from every mountain and from every hill and out of the holes of the rocks … to get them to come back to the land of Israel.”

Hagee, point of order!!.

Israel was not created until 1948.Hitler was long dead.I guess Netanyahu has taken over that task.

BTW, I am a Catholic ( non practicing ) and was taught that we are the chosen people and “anyone ” who is not one of us on “the last day”, will go (or is that can go) to hell.No last minute conversions .You had your chance to convert but you screwed up .Tough luck.One thing that bothers me is , I will have to be in the company of all of Israel,s leaders .I guess I had better get religion , again.

i guess i am not that concerned about the claim that Jews are automatically damned to eternal suffering in a lake of fire merely by virtue of their being Jewish. after all, this is the same religious ideology that believes in original sin. essentially, isn’t every human being who is not baptized and has not accepted christ also subject to the same fate as the jews (i fit in this category also)? so why the focus on racism, anti semitism or jews? if it’s an equal opportunity offender, across the board damnation of everyone based on religious beliefs unlike theirs, how is that racist per se? maybe i am just confused. i don’t know the ins and outs of the bible.

Hagee firmly insisted that Christian Zionism is anti-Semitic, and that the reason CUFI so obsessively and blindly defends Israel is not because they care about Jews (who, in their mind, will face eternal damnation unless they renounce their religion and become Christians) but rather because they genuinely believe the world is on the verge of total annihilation and the Bible supposedly tells them they must do so. – See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/03/confirms-christian-semitic#sthash.drLKRaub.dpuf

if the reason CUFI obsessively and blindly defends Israel is because they genuinely believe the world is on the verge of total annihilation and the Bible supposedly tells them they must do so., then how is that anti semitic? not caring about jews is not anti semitic. there’s a big leap between not caring and hating someone or some people.

granted, i think hagee is an anti semite, for other reasons mentioned in this article. and i don’t like him, for reasons i’ve articulated in this 2013 article: ‘You live or die based on your support of Israel’ — Christian Zionists are no nightflowers!

– See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2013/02/christian-zionists-nightflowers#sthash.rsh30ePj.dpuf

but i don’t see how believing the rapture will come and burn everyone to a crisp if they don’t believe in christ is anti semitic, per se.

Christian Zionism is incredibly moronic and ironically, very un-Christian, but I don’t understand how its anti Jewish to believe that Jews need Christ to be saved. I don’t personally believe that Jews need Christ, as I’m no longer a Christian.

But if a religion says that all must go through Christ to be saved, its a matter of doctrine, not bigotry. Now can bigotry arise from that? Sure, but this constant application of the label of “anti Semitic” to anything remotely negative about certain Jews or Judaism is tired and ridiculous.