You have to watch the news story to get the "kookiness" of the whole event, you could still read th article attached: Here is a summary, not in my own hand, but from Ben Witherington's Blog:
The Peacemaker as the Anti-Christ?
Below you will find a link to a brief video made by a Jewish young man named Mr. Max Blumenthal. He decided to visit the recent CUFI (Christians United for Israel) meeting led by Rev. Hagee and his friends. There are many things that are chilling about this video but here are my top five:
1) the Anti-Christ will be a person who will seek to make peace between the Arabs/Palestinians and the Jews
2) Armaggedon is something to look forward to, when we will have 'the cleansing of the earth'.
3) U.S. support for Israel should be unconditional, regardless of how they treat Palestinian Christians
4) If we want to participate in the second coming of Jesus, then we have to unconditionally support Israel from now until then, regardless of their policies or behaviors, otherwise we miss out on the parousia blessing.
5) It's a Biblical idea to have a pre-emptive strike on Iran before they cause more trouble for Israel.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/rapture-ready-the-unauth_b_57826.htmlOh yes, there was also the tidbit about Hagee's multi-million dollar salary, ranch etc. So much for following the examples of the early church as described in Acts 2-6, who forsook all self-centered self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing behavior.
It seems that Rev. Hagee has given up on the beatitudes of Jesus, which among other things blesses the peacemakers and the poor. Indeed, it seems Rev. Hagee has managed to give up on the sovereignty of God as well since the NT is perfectly clear that 'vengeance is mine, I will repay' says the Lord. The NT is emphatic about Christians leaving issues of final justice in the Middle East and elsewhere in the hands of God, and not taking up weapons to try and exact some poor flawed human vision of justice. No one is worthy to unseal the seals of the wrath of God on human wickedness except Jesus himself, according to the book of Revelation. No One. Not the U. S. , not Israel-- no one. We have no more to do with Armageddon than the Israelites had to do with causing the original plagues on Egypt. Indeed Armageddon is according to Rev. 20-21 the day when Jesus simply calls down fire from heaven on the ungodly. There will be no final battle, simply a word of judgment by the Lord and then the end. And none of the events in the Middle East right now have anything to do with Armageddon. That's all in God's hands, not ours.
What is perhaps most disturbing about this video is not how many Christians have bought this horribly distorted view of the Gospel and the future, and fervently believe it too, but how very clear it is that the mixing together of bad theology with bad politics results in a Devil's brew which makes the Gospel say just the opposite of what it says.
Christians, are called, here and everywhere to be followers of the example of the prince of peace, and to be peacemakers. If they wish to be vocal supporters of any persecuted group, it should be their fellow Christians including Palestinian Christians in the first place and others thereafter.
Even more disturbing is the schitzophrenia of affirming the Gospel of peace for one's personal life and spiritual development, and longing for peace for oneself, whilst support the politics of destruction, bombing, and general mayhem in the Middle East. Jesus said "inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me." Perhaps, you will remember how Saul was confronted on Damascus road about his persecution of Christians. Jesus' words are chilling "Why are you persecuting me?" Well frankly, this is precisely what Jesus is asking Rev. Hagee right now because of his support of the destruction of the homes, families, and lands of Palestinian Christians by means of Israeli policy.
We should all be praying for the peace of Jerusalem, as Jesus himself did. And we should do all we can to support the recent efforts to bring peace between President Abbas and the non-Hamas Palestinians and Israel, so Jews and Christians and Moslems can live in some sort of uneasy peace in the Holy Land until the Lord returns, whenever that may be. It will not be politics at all that sorts things out in the Middle East-- it will only be the return of Christ. Short of that we are called upon to pray for and work for peace in that region.
Since the rapture is not a Biblical doctrine at all but rather something dreamed up by a teenage girl in about 1820 at a revival in Glasgow Scotland and then preached by Darby and Moody neither of whom were ever Bible experts, perhaps we had better pay attention and see what a proper Christian response should be to this crisis, especially for the sake of being a good witness.
The Left Behind Series, 'Kingdom Come' and Joel Rosenberg's 'Epicenter'-- There they were on Glenn Beck on CNN (who appears to be a true believer in Dispensational sensationalism) regaling us once more with there false predictions about the end of the world-- I mean LaHaye, Jenkins, and Rosenberg.
We were told that the rapture is surely coming within the next 25-50 years. Of course we were told this by Scofield a hundred years ago, and Chafer 75 years ago , and Lindsey over 50 years ago, and they were all dead wrong. In fact, in all of church history whenever anyone has predicted the timing of the return of Christ they have all shared one thing in common--- they've all been dead wrong! There's been a 100% failure rate of such false prophecies. There is no reason to think these aren't just more false prophecies. They don't even pause to ask-- Has the the Gospel been preached yet to all the language groups in the world? Well no, there are still about 500 such languages and dialects to go before we get there, and Mark told us that had to happen first in Mk. 13.
Jerry Jenkins on the show at least had the good sense not to engage in this sort of theological weather forecasting in regard to specifics. I wish his partners in crime had been as reticent.
When the expectation of the return of Christ, which is shared by all denominations, degenerates into prognostication and calculation, [despite Mk. 13.32 which tells us that the time and timing of this event is completely unknown, and was even unknown to Jesus himself whilst on earth (and no it does not mean "we can know the general year or decade, just not the day or hour")], then we have ceased to move on faith, and are engaging in human manipulation.
Why do I say this? For the very good reason that when you look at the definition of faith in Heb. 11.1 it says "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction about things not seen" (indeed not visible). But all these supposed signs that LaHaye and company think they can read are all too visible historical events. But there will be no such earthly signs before the return of Christ, only cosmic ones that accompany that return if you read Mk. 13 carefully. Those earthly signs in Mk. 13 preceded the fall of the Temple in A.D. 70. They won't be coming around again, in Mark's view.
So its time to leave behind the Left Behind false prophecy once and for all. Those folks don't even understand either the character or the significance of apocalyptic literature, nor how to interpret it (for more on this see my Jesus the Seer, or my Revelation commentary).