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An Hebraic Response to John Hagee's Book, “In Defense of Israel”

Shma-Israel recognises that individuals desiring to have relationship with Elohim express their devotion in ways that are distinct from our Hebraic pathway. Yet, we don't always summon the prophetic office to chastise every little discrepancy we encounter. Although we differ immensely over dogma concerning Sunday worship, pagan holidays, and a plethora of smaller subjects, we have nonetheless respected the ministry and potential for good of Christian preachers such as John Hagee. However, in his latest book, "In Defense of Israel", John Hagee has without a doubt crossed over a line. (Documentary Video explains what John Hagee says)

THE BOOK

There is so much to say about this book, and some is actually good. In the first part of the book, author John Hagee’s support of the nation of Israel, and his defence of Israel and the Jewish people from their critics throughout history are most laudable. So, too, we agree with his denial of replacement theology (although our definition of Am Israel, the people of Israel, differs from his). But, in another section of the book, he crosses over into the Verbotenland of doctrine, candidly and boldly proclaiming that Yeshua (Jesus) “refused by his words or actions to claim to be the Messiah to the Jews” (Hagee, In Defense of Israel, p. 136). But we shall not devote much time and space here to the worthy objective that has been undertaken by other ministries competent to present to the world the error of Hagee’s claim.

In his promotional video, John Hagee asserts that “Jesus did not come to earth to BE the Messiah”. This of course raises many questions, such as, why then does the Greek term Χριστος (Christos, or Christ, meaning Messiah) appear in the New Testament 529 times? Shall we think that the New Testament authors, who knew Jesus personally, did not realise that he was actually NOT the Messiah? However, we shall leave this question to others to debate.

Hagee also states that this revelation will “shake Christian theology” (see the "In Defense of Israel" promotional video). How can there be “Christian” anything if there is no Christ? But we shall leave even this question to others.

THE SIGN

What we want to talk about is the SIGN that Yeshua gave to confirm that he was the Messiah. Hagee states, “Jesus refused to give a sign. He only compared himself to the prophet Jonah...” (In Defense of Israel, p. 138, emphasis added) By his own words, Yeshua proclaimed that there would be one sign given, the sign of the prophet Yonah. “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40) There are some that would interpret this as being fulfilled solely by the fact that Yeshua rose again from the grave. Perhaps that is because the traditional interpretation of the gospel accounts maintains that he was crucified on Friday and rose on Sunday, and we all know that there are not three days and three nights between Friday and Sunday. However, Yeshua’s words require the literal fulfilment of the three days and three nights.

So, is John Hagee right? Was Yeshua not the Messiah of Israel? Did he fail to fulfil the one and only sign that he said would be given? If confronted by critics on this very point, would you be able to answer it?

A TESTIMONY

Many months prior to the publication of Hagee’s book, it was impressed upon us to conduct an exhaustive investigation of the gospel accounts concerning the last week of Yeshua’s ministry on earth. This is a matter that had resided in the periphery of our thoughts for years, but suddenly was moved into the forefront with a tremendous fervour. We reasoned that the seeming inconsistencies of these accounts ought to be explained by a proper understanding of the events from the Hebraic context in which they took place. This examination spanned the disciplines of history, science, astronomy, culture, and linguistics, in addition to the Tanach (Hebrew scriptures) and Talmud. The result was a stirring representation of the timeline of events which aligns with all the facts of the gospel accounts and verifies that Yeshua did, indeed fulfil the sign of the prophet Yonah perfectly.