John Hagee, the controversial leader of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio (anointed by none other than W. A. Criswell) has announced that the series of lunar eclipses (tetrads) that began about 2:00 AM today, which will be repeated in October 2014, April 2015, and September 2015, signals that Christ is returning soon.1
This is a kind of lunacy and, to paraphrase Billy Joel, Hagee just might be the lunatic we’re looking for. The nouns lunacy and lunatic are derived from the Latin lunaticus, which refers to a person driven out of his mind by the moon. He might be crazy like a fox, however. Hagee has a penchant for latching on to events to stir interest in his entrepreneurial enterprises. This is the fellow who has used Hurricane Katrina, politics, and other episodes to gain fame and, in the process, he has turned a 25-member congregation in 1975 to a 20,000 member megacongregation today.
His claims are based, in part, on the quotation by Peter, in Acts 2:20 of Joel 2:31:
The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
There are some significant problems with Hagee’s use of Scripture here. First, the Apostle Peter quoted this passage as a way to explain what was happening at Pentecost. The Lord Jesus had been raised from the dead and, after that, he had ascended and then the Holy Spirit had come upon the church in power. The evidence of the Spirit’s power was the Apostles were now able to preach the gospel, in a variety of languages, to the Jews assembled in Jerusalem for the feast. Some present were suggesting that perhaps the Apostles had started celebrating a little early. Peter replies, in effect, by saying not at all! This phenomenon was not evidence of the power of wine but of the power of the Holy Spirit, who used the foolishness of the preaching of the law and the gospel to convict 3,000 people of their sins, to give them new life, and to cause them to cry out for salvation. So, when Peter quoted Joel 2 he was not speaking of Christ’s return. Rather, when Peter quoted Joel 2, he interpreted it to refer to Pentecost.
In Matthew 24:29–31 our Lord Jesus did invoke the same sort of imagery used by Joel in connection to his return but the imagery does not appear to refer to a “blood moon.” Further, even if it did, there have been blood moons before. Jesus did not return in those episodes. It is not the case that whenever there is a blood moon that Jesus will return. This language is not meant to used the way Hagee is using it.
Beyond taking passages out of context and twisting them there is another serious problem with Hagee’s hermeneutic. As in the case of Hurricane Katrina, Hagee is interpreting providence. To quote the still-agile Dikembe Mutumbo: “No, no, no.”
It is one thing to pay attention to what is happening around us. It is quite another to say, “I know why the sovereign Lord permitted x or y.” The truth is you don’t know why you do what you do half the time. It is beyond presumption to think that we know why the Lord permits or has decreed an event. God has known, in a single free act, from eternity, everything that will happen. We require smart phones to remind us what to do at 2:00 PM (or to get up at 2:00 AM to see the eclipse). The Lord requires no reminders. We experience time as a succession of moments. As best we are able to describe it, the Lord does not experience time as a succession of moments. He knows what everyone in Berlin, Mumbai, Tokyo, and Mexico City has thought, os thinking, and will think and he does so effortlessly, eternally, simultaneously. We can’t comprehend what that means.
This is all to point out the silliness of claiming we know why the Lord in his all-wise, good providence has decreed or permitted something. We just don’t know. We may never know but we do know him. We know his Word. We know his Son. We know his moral law and we know his gospel. That should be enough.
Yes, we should pay attention to what is happening around us. We should pray for Christ’s return. We should eagerly anticipate, with uplifted faces, the judgment (because there is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus) consummation of all things. We should also go about fulfilling our vocations in this world, God’s world, quietly, with dignity and integrity. We should also pray that people like John Hagee don’t bring the faith into disrepute.
Finally, a word about “snark” or about cracking wise on the internets. If ever there was a case which cries out for snark it is this one but as I’ve spent the last two hours sorting out the life and misadventures of John Hagee and his wonderfully wacky hermeneutic, the snark slipped away from me. Maybe it will return after I’ve had breakfast? I’m confident, however, that the apostles would approve of sanctified snark directed at the likes of Hagee. It is a lot of foolishness and it’s discouraging to see the degree to which the Hagee and others like him, are able to attract followers and funds while true churches struggle to survive from week to week.
There’s a reason for his “success.” Hagee’s is a great example of the theology of glory (theologia gloriae) and Americans love a theology of victory. It is the theology of those who laid down and took up palm branches. It is a prosperity theology, a health and wealth theology. Jesus’ theology, however, was a theology of the cross, of suffering, and of death. Jesus did not say, “Start up your Cadillac and follow me.” He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” The Christian way is the way of shame, suffering, and sorrow for sin and death. Resurrection and glory follow death; they do not go before it.
NOTE
1. Ordinarily I don’t rely on Wikipedia for factual claims but, in this case, the Wiki page was the most comprehensive online account of Hagee’s career. Caveat: Always read Wikipedia pages with extreme caution. They can be changed by anyone, at any time, for any reason. The claims made on the page regarding his divorce and defrocking by the AOG are repeated elsewhere on the web, usually in a partisan political context (because of Hagee’s support of the Republican candidate for the presidency in 2008). Hagee’s biography page mentions his wife Diana and his education at Southwestern AOG University but not his divorce or defrocking by the AOG. This piece from Charisma magazine also passes over these events. Indeed, his alma mater joyfully announced a substantial gift by Hagee without mentioning Hagee’s relationship too the AOG.
A double plus for that one.
As in, A++.
I ascribe to Reformed Theology. I do not listen to Mr. Hagee and steer away from his worldviews. However, Mr. Hagee is a man created in the Image of God after all.
That being said, I just read a review about Mr. Hagee’s book and wanted to share the link:
http://bookwomanjoan.blogspot.com/2013/10/four-blood-moons-by-john-hagee.html
Thank you for bringing this issue to light, I was unaware of the dialogue about these matters. I will be researching it some more as it catches my interest a lot.
Gods Peace
Patricia Hunt
http://estudio121.wordpress.com/
I’m not a fan of John Hagee, but I don’t think your column is very proper to take shots at him personally. I have listened to his preaching enough to know that he is not a proponent of “prosperity theology”. I’ve heard him tell his congregation how to experience God’s blessing, but I’ve never heard him fleecing people like some others who do it unashamedly. Criticize, analyze, disagree with his theology; that’s your right. But I see no Biblical right to take aim at his character. He’s had failure, some of his “ventures” went awry, but better to try and lose than to sit on the side lines and criticize.
Hagee most certainly is a peddler of prosperity ‘theology.’ He sold a book that claimed to reveal the Bible’s seven secrets of financial freedom. Here’s how his own website describes it:
“The Bible is the greatest financial manual on the face of the earth. For those courageous and intelligent enough to follow its precepts, God will open the windows of heaven and pour out His prosperity that will simply blow your mind. In this series you will uncover the seven truths… the seven secrets that will unlock the doors of heaven’s wealth for the righteous. Every person desires financial freedom – to be free from debt and the bondage of creditors. To be free to have more than enough financial means to meet every need. Every believer needs to recognize that this is God’s will for you. Pastor Hagee encourages you to move beyond mediocrities and fulfill your divine potential.”
The 11th commandment at a school I took some classes at (but was asked to leave because I was ‘too Presbyterian’ [Actual words by the Dean of Students to me] was ‘thou shalt not take the name of W. A. Criswell, Judge Pressler and Paige Patterson in vain. Also, pilgrimages were expected to the blimp hanger/Baptist Dome and to the Holy See (1st Baptist Dallas) There is definitely a cult of personality going on and Hagee manipulates it well.
They also joked the hymn ‘MY HOPE IS BUILT’ should be sung ‘My hope is built on nothing less than Scofield notes and Holman press
I dare not trust this Thompson’s chain
But wholly lean on Pressler’s fame.’
Am curious as what is meant by Hagee manipulates it well?
Patricia,
I mean simply that Hagee actively engages his public image to maintain his cult of personality. His followers are followers of Hagee, not his doctrine. Or rather they accept Hagees doctrine because Hagee espouses it. Hagee is well skilled in maintaining his following.
That was the reason I then went on to mention a number of other players in similar circles who have similar skills at social manipulation.
R.K. Brumbelow,
Ah, I see. I was confused in reading it, I was incorrect in reading it as if you were saying Hagee has manipulative power in the other camps. :/
Thank you for clarifying
Gods Peace,
Patricia
Patricia,
My fault for not being clearer, thank you for letting me sort things out.
Hagee most certainly is a peddler of prosperity ‘theology.’ He sold a book that claimed to reveal the Bible’s seven secrets of financial freedom. Here’s how his own website describes it:
“The Bible is the greatest financial manual on the face of the earth. For those courageous and intelligent enough to follow its precepts, God will open the windows of heaven and pour out His prosperity that will simply blow your mind. In this series you will uncover the seven truths… the seven secrets that will unlock the doors of heaven’s wealth for the righteous. Every person desires financial freedom – to be free from debt and the bondage of creditors. To be free to have more than enough financial means to meet every need. Every believer needs to recognize that this is God’s will for you. Pastor Hagee encourages you to move beyond mediocrities and fulfill your divine potential.”
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son.” (Jesus Christ in Matthew 24:36, ESV)
Making predictions about when the Lord Jesus will come again is a sure sign of a false prophet/teacher and cult leaders. Hagee is clearly a false teacher if he is trying to make predictions about when Jesus will return. Unless he repents, he will have much to answer for on Judgment Day.
But gullible Christians who follow Hagee and his ilk will also have much to answer for as well. God’s Word commands all believers to exercise discernment, to “test the spirits” (1 Jn. 4:1ff), and to reject false teaching and false teachers. It is disobedience and rebellion for believers to refuse their responsibility to exercise discernment; indeed, those who persistently follow false shepherds give reason to doubt that they are, in fact, Christ’s true sheep.
Hagee’s speculations are basically a subtle form of occultism with a Christian veneer. Misusing biblical prophecy to stare into the crystal ball of the future will always appeal to gullible, immature Christians who have very little practice in the exercise of discernment. It is time for those of us in positions of Christian leadership to expose these frauds for the wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing that they are, and to call God’s people back to the truth that “the secret things belong to the LORD, but the things revealed (namely, God’s Word) belong to us and to our children” (Deut. 29:29).
Nothing but facts here.
Hagee is a false teacher and there is plenty of other info proving such.
Dr. Clark,
Thank you for this helpful post. It was not until a few years ago I began to learn about a theology of glory. I spent some formative years of my Christian life in the Assemblies of God and the Word of Faith movement and this form of very speculative theology seems very prevalent in the AoG. It’s funny and yet sad that the AoG “condemns” WoF yet gladly takes money from JHM. Folks that follow his false teaching are consumed with speaking about these “prophetic” words but speak little of the person and work of Christ for sinners like us. When one tries to change the subject with these folks to more to do about Christ and the gospel for us, it takes away from one glorying in their speculations. I could be wrong, but it seems like few pastors in Pentecostal denominations are willing to condemn this foolishness. It seems ministers are more concerned about offended givers than the One that gives life to the dead.