Bartholomew's Notes

Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, in 2006:

[The world is] standing on the brink of a nuclear Armageddon…We are on a countdown to crisis. The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty…That war will affect every nation on earth, including America, and will affect every person on planet earth.”

Also:

Israel will come back, and I believe that this next round will be more severe, more aggressive, and the moment that Israel determines that Iran has nuclear capability or buys a nuclear weapon from North Korea that they will bomb the nuclear facilities in Iran or go after Iran. And then it is really going to become intense in the Middle East…I think the United States and Israel should keep their ear to the ground, and the moment that they feel that Iran has a nuclear device that they need to take out the nuclear capabilities of that country. Make no mistake, Iran will use nuclear weapons against Israel and use nuclear weapons against the United States of America. Even if it’s a nuclear suitcase bomb, they will do everything in their power to get it in the hands of sleeper cells that are already in the United States of America.

David Brog, executive director of Christians United for Israel, 2008:

In recent months, many commentators have been talking about the inevitability of Iran getting a nuclear weapon.  Others have been discussing the inevitability of an Israeli or American military strike against Iran.  Yet neither of these supposedly “inevitable” options bodes well for the peace and security of Israel or her neighbors.  Before accepting either such outcome as inevitable, it is time to redouble our efforts to stop Iran from enriching uranium through the most effective tools at our disposal:  economic sanctions, divestment and diplomacy.

Given that Brog is Jewish it is hardly suprisingly he would hold such a view: unlike Hagee, who is obsessed with the sanguinary events of the Last Days, Brog doubtless has a long-term view of Israel which doesn’t involve Jesus coming back to save the day (despite his position at CUFI, he doesn’t appear to adhere to Christianity or Messianic Judaism).

Brog’s statement is calculated to obscure Hagee’s apocalyptic theology in the run-up to next week’s CUFI “Washingon-Israel Summit“, at which Joseph Lieberman and the Israeli ambassador will be speakers. CUFI is desperate to appear moderate following the McCain endorsement fiasco: Walid Shoebat – co-author of God’s War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy, and the Bible, which argues that Muslims are under the control of the anti-Christ – disappeared from the speaker line-up a couple of weeks ago.

(Hat tip: Sarah Posner, who also gets to the bottom of the Hagee-Jim Hutchens spilt, which I blogged here. I blogged on David Brog here.)

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