Rejoice! A Man Begins to Recant His Heresy!

Pastor John Hagee is the radical preacher that I called a heretic during Thanksgiving dinner earlier this year. He is the one who said that Jesus was not the Messiah and never claimed to be.

God be praised! Pastor Hagee has started to recant some of his false doctrine and blasphemy. He has released a statement that appears to be an attempt to clarify and retract many of the errors that had scandalized Christ's church. Unfortunately, the release was still filled with arguements that reveal the geopolitical fanaticism that often blinds Pastor Hagee.

But there is hope! In the release, he has said:

"God could have sent His Son to earth as the reigning Messiah the Jews were expecting. Instead He chose to send Him as the suffering Messiah, who submitted to the Cross, and I thank Him every day that He did."

That is a huge step in the right direction. He has also resolved to attempt a correction of his heretical book, In Defense of Israel. He promised:

"In the expanded Chapter Ten, I will make the same point with language that does not hide my own perspective on the matter. The primary change will involve how I use the word “Messiah.” In the expanded version, I will clarify the clear distinction between the “Suffering Messiah,” the Lamb of God and the “Reigning Messiah,” the Lion of the Tribe of Judah!"

Hopefully, Pastor Hagee's effort at a rewrite will cause him to recognize the problems with his "clever" word play. He needs to do more than just try to fix a hopelessly bad chapter; a pig in a dress with lipstick is still a pig. While many Christians have good reason to remain cynical about Pastor Hagee and many will view his retraction as incomplete and politically motivated, I remain optimistic that the Holy Spirit is working to bring this man to repentance and truth.

I pray for the day when this man's noble fight against the sin of antisemitism will stop coloring his theology. I pray that Pastor Hagee will put his crusade for the Jewish people in the proper perspective and turn his full attention to preaching what is primary: Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who takes away the sins of the whole world; the Eternal King of the Jews and the Gentiles.

More from Pastor Hagee:

"I am deeply grieved for any confusion my writing may have caused the body of Christ. It was never intended. I trust this letter and the expanded edition of In Defense of Israel will clarify what I believe. I also hope that we can return our focus to what I had anticipated to highlight all along, the fact that we Christians must shift from condemning the Jews for what they missed to thanking them for what they gave."

Clarification is always good. Hopefully, this turn around will continue. Pastor Hagee still has a long way to go from this point before he reaches anything that looks like pure doctrine. Still, it is the first good news to come from the extreme fringe of the heterodox sects in quite some time. Maybe this won't be the last that we have heard from Pastor Hagee. Maybe we will start to hear other heretics recant and begin to return to the truth. Joel Osteen perhaps?

HT: The Heresy Hunter