The Heresy Hunter

John Hagee and Cognitive Dissonance

Yesterday John Hagee was defending the health and wealth gospel on his Cornerstone show. He states:

Because of the triumph of the cross, sickness and disease is forever finished. The Bible says by His stripes we are healed. I want to tell you, we are still being healed. He is still the great Physician. Are you sitting in this room today or watching around the nations of the earth and you need a major miracle in your life? I’ve got good news. Because of the cross, our God is a miracle-working God. The Father has said What you ask of Me in the name of My Son, I will do it. Therefore, ask in faith believing, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

....Because of the victory of the cross, poverty is finished. Christ took my poverty and He gave me the riches of Abraham. I’m an heir and a join heir with Jesus Christ. Now I know there are major denominations that teach that poverty is spiritual. Please understand that poverty in the Word of God is a curse. It is the end result of sin. It is not a result of your righteousness. It is often the result of your stupidity and laziness. But it is never the result of your righteousness. God says: I will make you the head and not the tail. The Bible says I will give you the power to get wealth. I will cause your cup to run over. I will cause your territory to be enlarged. I will give you wells you didn’t dig and I’ll give you vineyards you didn’t plant and I’ll give you houses that you did not build. I will make you the lender and not the borrower. I will make you the envy of the nations, because I am going to crush poverty and give you the abundance of Abraham.

Fine, Pastor Hagee, so you say the Christian should be rich and healthy - but don't you see a little contradiction later on in your sermon?

The fourth judgment is the judgment of the nations. It’s described in Matthew 25:22. And God’s basis of judgment is going to be how the nations treated the nation of Israel. The Roman Church is going to answer for the Crusades. Rome is going to have to answer for the massacre of 70 AD and 130 AD. The crusades that robbed and murdered and raped the Jewish people, God’s going to demand an answer. Revelation 17:6 says: And I saw in the hand of the harlot a cup full with the blood, the blood of the saints - that would be the Jewish people – and the blood of the martyrs of Christ. If you don’t know what happened in the seven crusades, read up. If you’ve never heard of Fox’s Book of Martyrs, get it and read it. You want to know what happened to people who really believed in Jesus Christ during the Dark Ages, it will turn your stomach. But God is saying in Revelation 17:6, there’s a payday some day. Spain is going to have to answer for the Spanish Inquisition. Germany is going to have to answer for the Holocaust. Russia is going to have to answer for every pogrom. France is going to have to answer for the Vichy government that helped the Nazis slaughter the Jews. Palestine is going to have to answer for every suicide bomber who murdered innocent Jewish women and children.

Are you saying that some Christians have been treated poorly in the past? Are you saying that some have been beaten and even killed? Why were they not healthy and wealthy? Wasn't - as Joel Osteen would say - God's favor on them?

Incidentally, you not only got the Scripture reference wrong, but Matt. 25:31-46 isn't talking about how people treated the Jews but how they treated Christ's followers. And how, Pastor Hagee, is Jesus going to judge a nation? Is an entire nation and everyone in it going to be cast into hell? Are all generations of that nation going to be cast into hell or just certain generations? The passage is clear that individuals will be judged for their own sins, not nations as such.

Labels: John Hagee

posted by Bob Hunter @ Monday, August 20, 2007