by John Hagee
You will either bow before the Antichrist or bow before Jesus Christ. It’s not a matter of if you will bow; it’s just a matter of when you will bow.
HAS THE RAPTURE HAPPENED?
The deception that Jesus warned us about in Matthew 24 is spreading in our generation like a contagious theological virus with lies such as Jesus has already returned and the rapture of the church is a thing of the past. Not so! In fact, Paul writes about those “who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some” (2 Timothy 2:18).
Peter declares:
We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
(2 PETER 1:16)
The question is: when did Simon Peter see the power and coming of Jesus Christ? Peter makes it clear he is referring to the transfiguration of Christ. He continues:
He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
(vv. 17–18)
When Peter speaks of “the holy mountain,” he is referring to the Mount of Transfiguration. What did Jesus mean in Matthew 16:28 when He spoke to Peter, James, and John?
Assuredly I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
Many believers get confused while interpreting the meaning of certain scriptures because they fail to recognize that while every word of the Bible is divinely inspired of the Holy Spirit, chapter divisions are not!
Chapter divisions were inserted by the hands of mere mortal men centuries ago. The fact is, Matthew 16 and 17 are related in concept, and to fully understand the meaning of Matthew 16:28 we must connect the last verse of Matthew 16 to Matthew 17:1–2.
Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.
The Lord Jesus Christ was glorified before His death and resurrection and this is the picture given here. Understand this truth: what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration recorded in Matthew 16 and 17 was an abbreviated portrait of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God was reflected by the presence of Moses, who represented the law, and Elijah, who represented the prophets of the Old Testament. They were discussing the forthcoming death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (Luke 9:30–31 NIV).
Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
Moses and Elijah represented the dead saints of the Old Testament, and Peter, James, and John represented the living saints. The church was not yet in existence; Peter, James, and John would soon represent the body of the New Testament believers, which is the church.4
The transfiguration of Christ occurred before He died on the cross; the church did not yet exist. If it did not exist, it could not have been raptured.
DECEPTION IN THE CHURCH
Paul writes the following to the believers in Thessalonica:
Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? (2 Thessalonians 2:1–5 NASB)
The “day of the Lord” in this verse has nothing to do with the church; it has to do with a “day” of God’s judgment on the earth that occurs after the rapture—beginning with the Great Tribulation and going through the Millennium.
Apparently someone in the first-century church had fabricated a “letter from us” (meaning Paul, Timothy, or Silas) and was deceiving the Christians in Thessalonica, leading them to believe they were in the Great Tribulation. Because of the persecution the church was experiencing at the time, it was a distortion of the truth that was easily believed.
Paul writes his letter to the believers in the church of Thessalonica that the counterfeit letter and its message were false.5
As I have stated before, Joel describes the actual coming of the “day of the Lord”:
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of
the LORD.
(JOEL 2:30–31)
These two verses describe the occurrence of Blood Moons. As you will soon learn, God is speaking to us in the heavens, through the Blood Moons. His message will be on display for the world to see. But to recognize His heavenly announcement, we first need to understand how these Blood Moons relate to the Jewish people and the end times.
The following chapter is biblical evidence of the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, which has never been broken and is binding to this day.
It makes no difference what Washington, DC, thinks . . . what Iran wants . . . what Russia demands . . . or what the European Union hopes for—it only matters what God Almighty has declared! He has all power in heaven and on earth!
CHAPTER 7
Land of Promise, Land of Pain
Arise, walk in the land through its length and its
width, for I give it to you.
—GENESIS 13:17
The real estate contract between God Almighty and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is recorded repeatedly in the Word of God. The borders and boundaries are clearly stated in the title policy registered in Scripture.
Yet no piece of real estate on planet earth has been more contested than the land of Israel even though God clearly gave it to the Jewish people forever.
There are those who state that the Palestinians have a claim to the land through Ishmael. The Scripture clearly states that God eliminated Ishmael from all consideration to the land of Israel.
Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Then God said, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.”
(GENESIS 17:18–19)
Even though God did not give the land to Ishmael, He did bless him by declaring that he would produce twelve princes that would become a mighty nation (v. 20). Those nations are now known as OPEC. Isaac, the son of covenant, got the land promised to Abraham, and that land is known as Israel today.
Some say that the issue of inheritance between Ishmael and Isaac was only directly referred to in the Old Testament. However, when Paul wrote to the Galatians he used the sons of Hagar and Sarah as an allegory to teach about law and grace. In doing so, he quoted the prophet Isaiah (54:1) and the book of Genesis (21:10) to reiterate the true heir to the land.
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia
and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written:
“Be glad, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
shout for joy and cry aloud,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband” [Isaiah 54:1].
Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son” [Genesis 21:10]. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
(GALATIANS 4:21–31 NIV)
Paul was as direct as only he can be when he answers the question, “What does Scripture say?” about who owns the “land, leaving no doubt” as to who inherited the Promised Land; it was Isaac not Ishmael.
Why is this important? Because the world is about to explode into World War III over who owns the land of Israel, as Iran races toward the development of a nuclear bomb that will destabilize the world forever. The greatest geopolitical threat to America and the world can be resolved by answering the question: to whom does the land of Israel truly belong? God resolved this controversy centuries ago.
In the following pages, I have given twenty-five Bible references to emphasize God’s desire for the Jewish people to exclusively own this land forever.
1. Now the LORD had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
(GENESIS 12:1–7)
2. The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.”
(GENESIS 13:14–15)
3. Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” And [Abram] said, “LORD God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
(GENESIS 15:7–10)
4. And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
(GENESIS 15:17–21)
5. Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still living he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east.
(GENESIS 25:5–6)
6. There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar [Gaza]. Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” So Isaac dwelt in Gerar [Gaza].
(GENESIS 26:1–6)
7. Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.”
(GENESIS 28:10–13)
8. I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
(EXODUS 3:8)
9. God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them. I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.”
(EXODUS 6:2–4)
10. Therefore say to the children of Israel: “I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD.”
(EXODUS 6:6–8)
11. Then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land.
(LEVITICUS 26:42)
12. Command the children of Israel, and say to them: “When you come into the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance—the land of Canaan to its boundaries.”
(NUMBERS 34:2)
13. See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give to them and their descendants after them.
(DEUTERONOMY 1:8)
14. Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea [Mediterranean Sea] toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.
(JOSHUA 1:2–4)
15. . . . and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.
(1 KINGS 8:36)
16. O seed of Israel His servant,
You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!
He is the LORD our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
Remember His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel for an everlasting covenant,
Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of
your inheritance.”
(1 CHRONICLES 16:13–18)
17. Then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers.
(2 CHRONICLES 6:25)
18. You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, And told them to go in to possess the land
Which You had sworn to give them.
(NEHEMIAH 9:15)
19. He remembers His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of your inheritance.”
(PSALM 105:8–11)
20. Also your people shall all be righteous;
They shall inherit the land forever,
The branch of My planting,
The work of My hands,
That I may be glorified.
(ISAIAH 60:21)
21. “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,” says the LORD. “And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”
(JEREMIAH 30:3)
22. I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
(EZEKIEL 36:24)
23. Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy,
Then I will say to those who were not My people,
“You are My people!”
And they shall say, “You are my God!”
(HOSEA 2:23)
