Defending Israel unashamedly has been Rev. John Hagee’s main theme for four decades. His 45 books, podcasts and weekly TV programs reflect this. In 1992, he founded Christians United for Israel, an influential pro-Israel organization with 11 million members today. At age 85, he is also the senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, with 22,000 members.
He challenges fellow Christians with a pointed question, “Will we believe and obey the Word of God concerning Israel or will we continue to equivocate and sympathize with Israel’s enemies?” (“5 Biblical Reasons Christians Should Support Israel,” Charisma, October 11, 2023).
He opposes the Middle East policies of nations that promote a Two-State Solution or a Roadmap for Peace, because they “divide the land of Israel to create a terrorist-ruled Islamic Palestinian state, whose stated objective is the destruction of Israel.”
And he warns about God’s judgment on any nation wanting to divide the land of Israel, citing the Prophet Joel: “I will also gather all nations, and…will judge them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land….Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” (3:2, 14 [4:2, 14]).
There is no lack of clarity here. Nations attempting to divide the land will suffer grave consequences for, “He that touches you [Israel] touches the apple of His eye” (Zech. 2:8 [12]).
God’s love for Israel is expressed succinctly, “I will bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you” (Gen. 12:3). This sums up “God’s foreign policy toward the Jewish people from Genesis 12 until this day. Any man or nation that persecutes the Jewish people or the State of Israel will receive the swift judgment of God.”
Pastor Hagee says all Bible-believing Christians “must stand with Israel and their claim to their land.” In a speech to his supporters (CUFI Summit, July 18, 2022), he recalled a conversation with a past prime minister of Israel:
“It was Prime Minister Lapid that asked the premier question that I have been answering for 40 years. He said, ‘Pastor Hagee, what is it about your faith that motivates you to stand with Israel?’ I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, the answer is, Israel is not a political issue. Israel is a Bible issue.’ I said, ‘If you believe the Bible, you will be a supporter of Israel and the Jewish people.’
“If God created this earth from nothing, He is the owner of the earth. ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof’ (Ps. 24:1). As the owner of earth, God has rights and He has privileges….
“The Jewish people today do not occupy the land of Israel, as the media and Palestinians love to claim. The Jewish people own the land of Israel forever according to God.”
The pastor continued: “This Israel has never been stolen. It was the gift of God to the Jewish people by blood covenant from the dawning of Genesis. It belongs to them only.
“A second reason for standing with Israel is the covenant God made with Abraham that controls the future of the world: Genesis 12 is doubtless one of the most important chapters in all of the Bible. Around this chapter world history can be recorded. God makes the promise to Abraham, ‘I will bless those that bless you, and I will curse those that curse you.’
“World history can be explained in that one sentence. The nations that have blessed the Jewish
people have been blessed of God. Those who curse the Jewish people, God has made their lives grievous, and they are now found in the boneyard of human history….
“Where are the Jewish people? They are alive and well….and a testimonial to the faithfulness of God Almighty. So let us shout it from the housetops, let us shout it over national television, that Israel lives.
“Shout it down the halls of the antisemitic cesspool of the 10 horned dictators in New York known as the United Nations. Israel lives.
“Shout it down the marble halls of the ruthless dictators in Iran, whose maniacal dream of a nuclear bomb to wipe Israel off the map will never happen. Israel lives.
“Shout it from the housetops in Jerusalem, the city of God, where the eyes of God are constantly there. Israel lives today, tomorrow and forever.”
And lastly, Pastor Hagee tells his American audience, “I believe that the day America stops blessing Israel will be the day God stops blessing America.” Surely, the same can be said of all nations.
Rev. John Hagee
Israel is God’s own possession. The Creator of heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1) could give the land to whomever He chose. The title deed for the land of Israel was given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants forever (15:18; 17:2-8).
Ishmael, father of the Arabs, was excluded from the title deed to the land (17:19-21). Modern-day Palestinians, therefore, have no biblical mandate to own the land.
Israel’s boundaries are recorded in Scripture (Num. 34:2-15; Josh. 11:16-23; 13:1-32; and in greater detail in Ezek. 47:13-48:35. When God established the nations of the world, He began with Israel (Deut. 32:8-10).
Paul declared, “For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their [the Jews’] spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in material things” (Rom. 15:27). Jesus Christ, as a prominent rabbi from Nazareth, said, “Salvation is of the Jews” (Jn. 4:22).
Consider what Christianity has received from the Jewish people:
ˑ The sacred Scriptures
ˑ The prophets
ˑ The patriarchs
ˑ Mary, Joseph and Jesus
ˑ The 12 disciples
ˑ The apostles
It is not possible to say, “I am a Christian” and not love the Jewish people. The Bible teaches that love is determined by what you do, not by what you say (1 Jn. 3:18).
Some Christians try to deny the connection between Jesus of Nazareth and the Jews, but Jesus never denied His Jewishness. He was born Jewish. He was circumcised on the eighth day in keeping with Jewish practice. He had His bar mitzvah on His 13th birthday. He kept the Law of Moses. He wore the prayer shawl Moses commanded all Jewish men to wear. He died on the cross with an inscription over His head, “King of the Jews.”
Jesus considered the Jewish people His family. He said, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren [the Jews; Gentiles were never called His brethren], you have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:40).
King David commands all Christians, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper who love you” (Ps. 122:6). Personal prosperity is tied to blessing Israel and the city of Jerusalem.
God will bless you when you bless the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Why did Jesus go to the centurion’s house in Capernaum and heal his servant who was about to die? Jesus went because the gentile centurion deserved the blessing of God because he had demonstrated his love for the Jews by building a synagogue in Israel (Lk. 7:5).
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Ps. 122:6).
Why was the house of Cornelius in Caesarea the first gentile house in Israel to receive the gospel? The answer is given three times in Acts 10, where he is called “a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always” (v. 2). To whom did Cornelius give those alms? To the Jewish people that lived around him.
According to verse 4, “Your prayers and your alms are come up for a memorial before God.” And in verse 31, “your alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.”
A righteous gentile who expressed his unconditional love for the Jewish people in a practical manner was divinely selected to be the first gentile house to receive the gospel of salvation and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
These combined Scriptures verify that prosperity (Gen. 12:3; Ps. 122:6), divine healing (Lk. 7:1-5), and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10) came first to gentiles who blessed the Jewish people and the nation of Israel in a practical manner.
In Exodus 17, there’s the story of the Amalekites, who attacked the children of Israel as they came up out of Egypt en route to the Promised Land. Because the Amalekites…attacked the Jewish people, God promised to be at war with Amalek from generation to generation.
Where are the Roman Empire, the Greeks, the Babylonians, the Turks, the Ottoman Empire, Adolf Hitler and his goose-stepping Nazis? They are all footnotes in the boneyard of human history, because…they attacked the Jewish people and God Almighty reduced them to nothing.
God promises to punish the nations that come against Israel. America, the Arabs, the European Union, the United Nations, Russia, China–indeed, all nations–are in the valley of decision. Every nation that presumes to interfere with God’s plan for Israel, stands not only against Israel but also ultimately against God. God judges the nations of the world based on their treatment of the State of Israel.