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John Hagee brought his Night to Honor Israel to about 1,500 people assembled at Furman’s McAlister Auditorium, Feb. 6.
Hagee, founder of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, said that
Jews “are now, always have been and always shall be the apple of God’s
eye,” telling them that “in the Bible you are the cherished people, a
chosen people, and a covenant people, and you remain that until this
day.”
The Texas-based evangelist hosts these events in cities across the United States, and this was the first one in South Carolina.
The master of ceremonies was Stephen Strang, founder of Strang Communications, which publishes Hagee’s books including his latest, Jerusalem Countdown.
The event brought together members of Greenville’s Christian and Jewish communities, including Jay Wachs, president of the Greenville Jewish Federation; Rabbi Dov Rubin of Congregation Beth Israel; Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz of Congregation B’nai Israel; Pastor Bill Critser of Freedom Fellowship Church; Dr. Paul Gaehring and Priscilla Schuler of Redemption Ministerial Fellowship; Pastor Scott Hunt of Calvary Chapel in Pickens; Pastor Mark Fleming of Solid Rock Church of God; Pastor Chuck Waldrup of Candler House of Prayer; and Pastor Houston Miles of Evangel Cathedral.
For more information on the Night to Honor Israel, visit the Christians United for Israel web site at www.cufi.org.
Evening’s events
The evening began with comments by Steve Spillman, founder of True Potential Publishing (www.tppress.com); Jay Wachs, president of the Greenville Jewish Federation; and William Daroff, vice president for Public Policy and director of the Washington office of United Jewish Communities.
Video greetings were shown from Rep. Bob Inglis, serving South Carolina’s fourth district; and Rep. Gresham Barrett of the third district.
Nicole Beach sang the national anthem, and Michael and Gina Walker sang the Israel national anthem, Hatikva. Rabbi Dov Rubin gave the invocation and later the benediction.
Helen Cregger’s Morning Star Classical Theatre performed two acts of drama and music depicting events in Israel’s past and future. An offering was taken for the town of Ma’a lot, Israel, damaged by rockets in last year’s war with Hezbollah.
Presidential candidate speaks
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who officially announced his candidacy for president last month in Spartanburg, flew in at the last moment and addressed the crowd.
Hunter noted that he came into office in 1981, the same year as President Ronald Reagan, who believed in peace through strength. Hunter spoke about the Israeli missile defense system that Hunter encouraged to be built.
Hunter said: “If I am elected president of the United States, Israel will have a friend in the White House,” and the audience reacted with thunderous applause.
Israeli consul general from Atlanta
Reda Mansour, Israeli consul general based in Atlanta, noted that an Israeli prime minister once said that Israel is “so close to God, but so far from the United States of America.” Yet, after seeing the support the audience expressed for Israel, Mansour said, “So close to God, so close to the United States of America.”
Diplomats generally talk about their own country, but Mansour felt he did not need to that evening because “I know that you know the Bible, and if you know the Bible, you know Israel.”
He said that Israel experienced airplane hijackings and suicide bombings before the rest of the world, noting that a nuclear Iran is not just a challenge for Israel but for other nations.
Israel is surrounded by dictatorships and military regimes, yet Mansour said that Israelis feel secure in their democracy because the United States is its friend, protecting their way of life. The seven million Israelis are soldiers of America in the region protecting the same values America protects.
“Whenever America decides anything, it can count on Israel to be the first vote in the world” in support of its policies, he said. “We always can count on America to be on our side, and to be the voice of Israel.”
Hagee address
“At a time in our history when the president of Iran threatens Israel with a nuclear holocaust, we have come to say, as the Christians of South Carolina: Israel, we are with you, and you do not stand alone,” adding that “we are Christians united with Israel now and forever.”
Hagee related how in the Crusade of 1096, a Roman Catholic army herded 969 Jewish men, women and children into a synagogue and burned them alive. They called themselves an army but they were in fact murderers and rapists. The Crusades were horrific for the Jewish people.
Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, said that the Jews should have their synagogues and homes burned down, and their men should have their tongues cut out through the back of their necks, and their children sold into slavery.
Hitler’s holocaust, Hagee said, was a blueprint “that was really drawn by the Roman church. He did not do anything differently. He only did it more ruthlessly, and on a national scale.
“The Bible from Genesis to Revelation supports the state of Israel and the Jewish people,” Hagee said. “God’s foreign policy statement for Israel begins in Gen. 12:3: “For I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” Hagee quoted the prophet Zechariah, who wrote: “He that touches you [the Jewish people] has touched the apple of God’s eye.
“Israel is the only nation on the face of the earth created by an act of God,” Hagee said. “God, the creator of heaven and earth, gave the title deed to the land of Israel and to the Jewish people by an eternal and unbreakable covenant in the book of Genesis, and that covenant still stands. Israel has a Bible mandate to own and possess the land of Israel forever. That covenant cannot be amended by the United Nations. It cannot be revoked by Hamas or Hezbollah. It cannot be altered by the United States State Department. It cannot be amended by the President of the United States. It cannot be amended by President Carter. It belongs to the Jewish people now and forever.”
Hagee said he tells reporters: “The Palestinian claim to Israel is a historical fraud. The truth of history is this: Israel existed as a sovereign nation until the Romans under the command of Hadrian conquered it, and Hadrian, because he hated the Jews so intensely renamed it Palestine after the ancient enemies of Israel, the Philistines.”
He went on to say: “The Palestinians have never existed as an autonomous society. They have never owned the land. They have no legitimate claim to it, not now, not later, not ever. It belongs to the Jewish people.”
God loves Israel above all nations, he said, referring to Zechariah 2:12, where God said: “For I will again choose Jerusalem.”
“When the Messiah comes back he is not coming to Rome, he is not coming to Washington, D.C. He is coming to the city of Jerusalem, and Jews and Christians will dance in the city of Jerusalem together because we are a covenant people.”
Hagee noted that “Jerusalem is where Isaiah and Jeremiah wrote spiritual principles that became the moral compass for Western civilization.
“We as Christians come tonight to express our gratitude to the Jewish people,” Hagee said, noting that the Jews gave us the Word of God, the patriarchs, the prophets, Joseph, Mary and Jesus. “Our roots are Jewish,” he said.
Paul writes in Romans 15:27: “If the Gentiles [you and I] have been partakers of the Jewish spiritual things, it is our responsibility, the Gentiles, to minister to the Jewish people in material things.”
Hagee said: “If you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity, there would be no Christianity. That means Judaism does not need Christianity to explain its existence, but Christianity cannot explain its existence without Judaism. Therefore, it is time to stop praising the dead Jews of the past, which would be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, while avoiding the Jewish people who live across the street from you. That’s anti-Semitism, and anti-Semitism is sin.”
Hagee quoted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, who said: “God [Allah] willing, we will soon experience a world without the United States and without Israel.”
Hagee warned: “America and Israel are at war with the same enemy. Radical Islam fully intends to bring down Western civilization. It is a war of good vs. evil. It is a war of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness vs. the culture of death.”
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