How easy it is to publish things and to make statements that do so much unintended harm. It is so easy to say and believe things without thinking them through that can actually destroy people both physically and spiritually.

Martin Luther the great reformer, the one that we give credit to the protestant movement made such a tragic mistake. Martin believed that Germany was a Christian nation and that the people that were of the Jewish faith should be converted. This view was mostly right; it is God’s will to try and convert the Jewish people to Christ to be saved. He tried to reach many Jews with the Gospel and hit a brick wall of resistance that he didn’t expect to receive. Their constant rejection of the Gospel provoked him to say things that he shouldn’t have said. In one of his letters about the Jews he said that Jews should not be allowed the privilege of living in Germany unless they paid a tax and that they should not be treated the same as the citizens that were Christian. He wished they would leave Germany so as not to infest the Christian community with their beliefs. His statements were more in detail and very cruel to say about anyone. This letter created anti-Semitic problems all over Europe.

When Hitler began to convince the people that they should follow him he used Martin Luther’s writing to support his hatred for the Jews. I suppose we all know the rest of the story considering the holocaust and the extermination of six million Jews along with millions of Christians that didn’t agree with this view. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump. Do I believe that Martin Luther was an evil man that probably went to hell? No, I don’t believe that at all, I just believe that he made a tragic mistake and said things without careful thought as to the results of his statements. I am thankful that Martin Luther led the way for Christian reformation and the Protestant faith, but simultaneously grieved that he was part and parcel to the death of millions of people through error.

John Hagee has followed in Luther’s footsteps of error by leading the Church in a new way that could possibly cost the souls of millions of Jews through his end-time belief. He has good intentions but his belief that the Jews are already saved through the covenant of Moses works hand in hand with the Devil. Do I believe that John Hagee is an evil man? No I don’t but what he is doing is deadly.

I am from Oklahoma and have a son-in-law that worked in Tulsa for a time. He is a programmer and was working for a computer company there. After I had finished my book “He Opened My Understanding” a book devoted to reaching the Jews with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My son-in-law on his job was working with a Christian lady that he thought would be interested in reading it. She was a teacher for Billy Joe Daugherty at Victory Christian Center across from O.R.U. Thinking that she would be interested he took a copy of my book to work with him for her to read. He handed this book to her not realizing the hornet’s nest he was about to stir up. In just a short while she returned with an angry face and in a very indignant way gave him back the book. She said, “I wish that people would leave the Jews alone, they are God’s chosen people and are already saved. Why don't they just leave them alone?”

To be honest my son-in-law was stunned and when he told me I was stunned as well. I had always thought that the Victory Christian Center taught sound doctrine. At that time I thought on it and then decided that if Billy Joe knew that he had a teacher in his church that believed such a thing that he would be shocked as well. But, guess what? Billy Joe believes this as well and is part of the board of the new organization that believes and teaches this. Kenneth Hagin jr. is a member of the board as well.

John Hagee has released a book called "In Defense of Israel" that he says will change the way the Church thinks about Israel. I believe with all my heart that John Hagee wrote this book with good intentions and is taking the right stand when he says that America and all Christians should stand behind the nation of Israel. But, there are a number of things that he says in his book and in other writings that is actually working hand in hand with the devil. His teachings on this have actually become a stumbling stone to many that would have taken the Gospel to the Jewish people.

John Hagee is a dispensationalist and believes that Israel will not get saved until Christ returns and reigns in Jerusalem. By believing this he discourages people from witnessing to the Jewish people by telling them that it is a waste of time and that God isn’t in it.

His organization called "Christians United for Israel" is promoted from his TV ministry, as being something that God absolutely wants. It is good from the standpoint of America protecting Israel as a nation but it is terrible when it comes to laying a stumbling stone in front of those that would share Jesus with the Jews.

Hagee has believed for many years that God doesn’t want the Church to share Jesus with the Jews. In 1988 he said this: "The Jewish people have a relationship to God through the law of God as given through Moses," Hagee said. "I believe that every Gentile person can only come to God through the cross of Christ. I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a relationship with God and will come to redemption."
"The law of Moses is sufficient enough to bring a person into the knowledge of God until God gives him a greater revelation. And God has not," said Hagee . . ." (Julia Duin, "San Antonio Fundamentalist Battles Anti-Semitism," The Houston Chronicle, 30 April 1988)

The Houston newspaper quoted Hagee’s own words: "I’m not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith." "In fact, trying to convert Jews is a ‘waste of time,’ he said. ‘The Jewish person who has his roots in Judaism is not going to convert to Christianity. There is no form of Christian evangelism that has failed so miserably as evangelizing the Jewish people. They (already) have a faith structure.’ Everyone else, whether Buddhist or Baha’i, needs to believe in Jesus, he says. But not Jews. Jews already have a covenant with God that has never been replaced by Christianity." ("San Antonio fundamentalist battles anti-Semitism," Houston Chronicle, April 30, 1988, sec. 6, p. 1.)

Erwin M. de Castro of the Christian Research Institute wrote John Hagee about his view on the things that he is teaching and received this reply in a letter from him.
"There are Jewish people who have relationship with God right now according to the election of grace. (Romans 11:5) ... The Jewish people are judicially blinded to the identity of Messiah... Question: If God blinded the Jewish people to the identity of Jesus as Messiah, how could He send them to hell for not seeing what he had forbidden them to see? ... Inasmuch as God has blinded them to the identity of Messiah, targeting the Jewish people for mass evangelism is fruitless"

In John Hagee’s book "In Defense of Israel" under the heading "The Jews did not Reject Jesus as Messiah" (p. 132) John declares that Jesus did not come to be the Messiah of the Jewish people "If God intended for Jesus to be the Messiah of Israel, why didn't he authorize Jesus to use supernatural signs to prove he was God's Messiah, just as Moses had done? The Jews, knowing of Moses's signs to Israel, asked for a supernatural sign that Jesus was indeed their Messiah. Jesus answered: No sign will be given...except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. -- Matthew 12:39-40. Jesus refused to give a sign. He only compared himself with the prophet Jonah, who carried the message of repentance from God to the Gentiles in Nineveh" (p. 137-)

Is John Hagee’s argument accurate? Did Jesus really say that he would not give Israel a sign? John is clearly taking this scripture out of context. Let's read what Jesus actually said:
Matthew 12:12:38: Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
39: But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
I know with all my heart that John Hagee misunderstands what Jesus was saying. When Jesus spoke of not giving a sign he was simply stating that no matter how many miracles he did that an evil and adulterous generation would not believe. They would always need more signs. He was giving plenty of signs that he was the Messiah or Christ but it would never be enough to convince them of the truth. He did not say that he would not give Israel a sign but that he would not try to prove himself to the wicked that wants an excuse to live the way they were living. The teachings of Jesus caused these people to feel condemned, it made them angry.

You see Jesus himself had told the leaders of Israel that the works that he did were a witness of who he was. The works was the miracles and healings that he did along with preaching the kingdom of God. It finally came down to the fact that his resurrection from the grave would be the final proof. Why do I believe that his miracles were a sign to Israel? In the 8^th chapter of Matthew we are told by Matthew himself at a time that Jesus was healing multitudes in Israel that he was fulfilling scriptures by doing so.
Matthew 8: 16: When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
17: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
The scripture that was fulfilled is found in Isaiah 53:4 where Isaiah said.
4: Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

The above scriptures are speaking of Jesus coming to Israel as Messiah and healing the sick, taking away their grief that is caused by sickness. In spite of this is it was not enough to the Jew, they crucified him anyway. Jesus didn’t blind them in the way that John Hagee believes that they were blinded. They blinded themselves because they refused to believe the truth when they heard it. The same as Pharaoh’s heart being hardened. You see God only presented the truth to Pharaoh and it was his stubborn heart that blinded him. The Gospel will either soften your heart or harden it when we hear it for what it is. Pharaoh resented a God that would tell him what to do and it hardened his heart no matter how many miracles Moses worked in Egypt.

The Apostle John when writing his Gospel used the miracles that Jesus did as signs for all to believe in Jesus. John was an Israelite the same as the rest of the disciples. Here is what he said:
John 20:30: And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
Most of the miracles that Jesus did was in the presence of multitudes. Only a few such as walking the sea was not in front of everyone, but he did enough that fulfilled Bible scriptures about him that they should have believed. In fact many Jews did believe because of the signs that Jesus gave them.
John 7:31: And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?
They knew in their hearts by what they had been taught in the past that the Christ or Messiah would do the things that Jesus was doing.

The Apostle Peter while preaching to Israel on the day of Pentecost said this in Acts 2:22-23:
Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Then again in the same message he went on to say that Jesus was the Messiah. John Hagee says that Jesus didn't come to be the Messiah of Israel. The word Christ is the same meaning of the word Messiah.
Acts 2:36: Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

John Hagee said that if Jesus had worked the same kind of miracles that Moses did that the people of Israel would have believed that he was the Messiah. But even in the days of Moses did the miracles of Moses cause the children of Israel to believe? It was only days after they crossed the Red Sea that many wanted to go back to Egypt. Does it sound like this worked? Only Joshua and Caleb along with the children of the families that came out of Egypt ever inherited the Promised Land. Multitudes of Israelites perished in the wilderness because of unbelief. If Jesus had come working the miracles of Moses would it have helped? In spite of raising Lazarus and others from the dead. In spite of his miracles in feeding thousands with the fishes and loaves of bread, he was still rejected. It would not have mattered if he had rolled back the Red Sea like Moses, they did not like the truth when they heard it. They did not want to change from the old ways to follow the new way that Jesus was laying before them. They created their own blindness not Jesus.

John Hagee believes that if a Jew keeps the Law of Moses and love God that they are saved and do not need Jesus. He also believes that Jesus would be wrong to send any of them to Hell that does not believe because God himself blinded them from the truth. He believes and says that Jesus did not come to be the Messiah for Israel and that if he had he would have destroyed the Romans to give them a sign that he was the Messiah. Since he believes that it is God’s fault the Jews are not saved he says that God has given them another way to be saved until Jesus comes back. He says that the way to salvation for the Jew is the keeping of the Law, but is this belief the truth? The Apostle Paul said this:
Galatians 2:16: Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
So the primary purpose for "Christians United for Israel" is to protect Israel’s right to their land and culture. But John Hagee has no concern for their souls. Who’s watching out for their souls?

When the Gospel came, it came to the Jew first and then the Gentile. It was that way when Jesus was here and it continued that way for a very long time until the Gentile Church forgot God’s plan. Jesus told his disciples this; Acts 1:8: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

It began in Jerusalem and was to go through the earth to all nations. Paul said that it was to the Jew first and then the Gentile. When he went into any city to preach he always went to the synagogue to try and reach the Jewish people first. When or if they rejected his message he turned to the Gentiles and led many of them to Christ. Paul also told us that it was his desire that Israel would be saved. If John Hagee is right Paul shouldn’t have been concerned or worried about the salvation of Israel. But modern day teachers are rewriting the Word of God to fit their own ideas and feelings rather than stick with the truth.

The Apostles in their efforts to reach the Jews were beaten, stoned and sometimes killed for preaching Jesus to them. Stephen was killed because he told the Jews that they resisted the Holy Ghost. If the Jew could have been saved through the Law then these men were some of the biggest fools that ever lived. But the truth is that they were not fools but heroes and would end up being sometimes persecuted and killed for preaching the Gospel to the Jew. Paul was beaten many times because he preached the cross of Christ that was an offence to the Jew.

Another thought is that if the Jews can be saved through the Law of Moses is this; are the Jews really keeping the Law of Moses today? Do you know any Jews that are offering up any kind of sacrifice for sin? Without the remission of sins there is no salvation. They do not practice this any longer. The only people that I know of that do practice animal sacrifice for sins are a few Samaritans in the mountains of Israel and they are not considered to be Jews. But the Bible teaches us that even if they were offering animal sacrifice that God no longer accepts it for salvation. Only the Blood of Jesus is sufficient to remove sin. Unless there is removal of sin then there is no salvation.

This grieves me tremendously because people like myself have a hard enough time trying to get the Church to respond to God’s will in this matter. Now here is a man that is viewed by over 50 million people with a false doctrine that destroys the truth.

On this website we have a link that is to help send New Testaments to the Jews in Israel. If you are interested in helping Israel try helping them find Jesus as their Lord and Savior. You might find that this is exactly what God wants you to do.

Yours in Christ,
Tommie Spurgeon

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