I have observed the brewing controversy over "Hagee's Heresy." Unfortunately because Hagee has taken a position vis-à-vis Israel and the Jews that tends toward the "Two Covenant Theology" that posits one religion for Jews (Judaism) and another for Gentiles (Christianity), he is seen in some camps as compromising the fundamental biblical understanding that "there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved" than the name of Jesus. Hagee is wrong in his contention that Jesus did not come to be the Messiah of the Jews. He was the Jewish Messiah and for the Jews before he opened the door to the Gentiles.

I understand the tension of walking a fine line in the relationship with Israel and the Jewish people that maintains inclusion of them in the covenants of God while at the same time maintaining faithfulness to the essential truths about Jesus. I don't think that any gains respect and favor with the Jewish people by denying who he is (a Christian) and what he believes. One can respect the views of the Jewish people and their right to hold such views without compromising the central tenets of our faith: Jesus is Lord of all: "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the father." We are commanded to go into all the world and preach the gospel to "every creature," and, unless I have missed something, that includes the Jewish people. We must never force our faith on them; however, we must sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and be prepared to give an answer to any person who asks of us a reason for the hope that lies within us.

I also have very serious problems with Hagee's eschatology which is essentially a rehash of the Assemblies of God teaching from which he came and follows the lines of the phantasmagorias of the "Left Behind" movement. The secret rapture doctrine and the teaching of the coming and a half of Jesus (he doesn't get all the way down on the first try), is heresy that was hatched in the middle of the nineteenth century by a Roman Catholic priest, appropriated by the Archbishop of Canterbury's librarian, transferred to the Plymouth Brethren community and hence to the Schofield Reference Bible, then the Dake Bible, and to much of evangelical Christianity. Any doctrine that posits the idea that Jesus is coming to rapture the church out to leave the world to the devil and the Jews forces me to be in the position of being "left behind."

I appreciate what Hagee is doing in preaching the gospel and preaching support for Israel. I just think he is doing it in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons (his own eschatological scenario and expectations, much like Martin Luther in the sixteenth century).

I hope this helps.

 

John