Lee,
I was very disturbed by what Hagee said. I also did additional research and understand what he meant. I still disagree with him, but it isn’t the heresy that it sounds like. He claims that explicit faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice is how Jew or Gentile are saved. His latest kick about how Jesus didn’t come to be the Messiah and how we can’t blame the Jews for rejecting what He never claimed to be is nowhere near what dispensationalism teaches. It is out in left field somewhere, and it is biblically false. It isn’t dispensationalism that is fueling this. It is itching ears syndrome. And the itching ears he is trying to appease are his Jewish friends. He is biblically, provably wrong.
What I basically construed Hagee to be saying is that Christ came as suffering servant not the conquering Messiah the Jews expected.
BUT HE WILL COME AS CONQUERING MESSIAH.
IF that’s what he meant, he was not far off.
I was very disturbed by what Hagee said.
Good.
I also did additional research and understand what he meant.
I've read Hagee's statement (more likely written by a press and publicity minion). It looks like spin to me. I think when Rev. Hagee did the ad and wrote the book he said exactly what he wanted to say, and it didn't sound at all strange to him or anyone around him.
It isn’t dispensationalism that is fueling this.
This is the kind of thing you get when your theology says there's a different plan for Israel, separate from the gentile ekklesia. This is the kind of thing I expect to hear from people who have an obsession with Israel-according-to-the-flesh, and the benefits that supposedly accrue to them separate from the gospel ("they get the land, man!""So?").
God's not going back to dealing with Israel once the church is off the scene. From the incarnation on out, nothing is the same. How could it be? God's plan for Israel is that they be saved, in the same way we are, grafted back into the same metaphorical tree we're grafted into, in the fullness of God's time.
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
He doesn't mention the land. I wonder why that is? Maybe because the enumerated advantages mean that Paul doesn't have to lecture for a week getting his audience up to speed before he can get to Jesus.