Sleeping Giant Awakened

[Christina]

American Evangelical leader: Sleeping giant of Christian Zionism has awakened By Stan Goodenough March 15, 2007 American evangelical leader John Hagee took a powerful message of support for Israel to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's 2007 policy conference in Washington DC earlier this week. "I want to say this as clearly and as plainly as I can possibly say it," he emphasized, his booming voice filling the auditorium. "Israel you are not alone. There are 50 million Christians standing up and applauding the State of Israel." Hagee, pastor of the 18,000 member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, and founder of the newly-formed national organization Christians United for Israel (CUFI), repeatedly triggered standing ovations from the crowd. "It's a new day in America," he cried. "The sleeping giant of Christian Zionism has awakened. Millions of Christians across America consider the Jewish people the apple of God's eye; the chosen people; a cherished people." These Christians, standing with America's five million Jews on behalf of Israel, had powerful potential to shape the future and were "a match made in heaven." Hagee said CUFI was spreading quickly across the United States, its goal being to ensure "that Congress knows that the matter of Israel is no longer just a Jewish issue. "It is a Christian-Jewish issue from this day forward." Speaking to the megalomanic rantings and actions of Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hagee said it was imperative that "we must stop Iran's nuclear threat and stop it now. "The only way to win a nuclear war," he stressed, "is to make certain it never starts." As far as Israel and the nations were concerned, the only real truth pertaining to them was to be found in the pages of the Bible, in which God warned that He would bless those who bless Israel and curse him who curses Israel. Those threatened judgments, Hagee said, are "very real." "Where are the nations that have persecuted the Jewish people," he asked, listing Pharaoh and his army, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottoman Empire and "that goose-stepping lunatic Adolf Hitler and his Nazi hordes?" All were "historic footnotes in the bone yard of human history." As for Israel and the Jewish people, "they are alive and well. They are thriving. They are prospering. They are growing. Even in the day of adversity they are still going forward." "Israel lives," Hagee proclaimed, his voice rising and his hand stabbing the air in front of him. "Shout it from the housetop: Israel lives! Let every Islamic terrorist group hear it: Israel lives! Let every tin horn dictator in the Middle East hear it; Israel lives! Let it be heard in the halls of the UN: Israel lives! Let it echo down the marble halls of the presidential palace in Iran: Israel lives! Let it ring in the terrorist camps of Osama bin Laden: Israel lives! Israel Lives! Israel lives!" Answering the often-asked question of why Christians support Israel, Hagee said it was because Christians believe that they owe "a debt of gratitude" to the Jewish people. "You gave us the Word of God. You gave us the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You gave us the prophets. [You gave us ] the first family of Christianity Mary, Joseph, and Jesus; the Apostles... "If you take away the Jewish contribution from Christianity there would be no Christianity," he continued. "Judaism does not need Christianity to explain its existence. But Christianity cannot explain its existence without Judaism." Hagee "humbly ask[ed] forgiveness of the Jewish people... for the deafening silence of Christianity in your greatest hour of need, during the Holocaust. "We were not there. We cannot change the past. But together we can shape the future," he said. Ending his message, the Texan declared: "Let the word go forth from Washington DC tonight: There is a new beginning in America between Christians and Jews. "We pledge to God and to the Jewish people to fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah: 'For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent and give the LORD no rest until He makes Jerusalem the praise of all the earth.'"