Earth's Final Moments

by John Hagee

Coming soon€”Earth’s final cataclysmic moment! According to biblical prophecy, Earth is careening toward its final act on the stage of life. God is assembling the cast of characters and making preparations for the final scene€”a scene so powerfully dramatic that nothing could possibly compare. In Earth’s Final Moments, New York Times best-selling author Pastor John Hagee unveils how biblical prophecy and current world events are intersecting to give us an unparalleled glimpse into our planet’s final days. Aligning prophecy with End Time signs, he describes Israel’s emerging opponent and reveals the shock and awe of God’s coming judgment against those who oppose His people. As the Jewish people return to their homeland and the situation in the Middle East continues to deteriorate, you can’t afford to miss what comes next.

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Pastor John Hagee and his wife Diana reach out and spread Christ's message throughout the Northern Hemisphere. They reside in San Antonio, Texas with their five adult children, their spouses and grandchildren.

Paster John Hagee is a scholar, musician, athlete, evangelist, and above all, a pastor with a pastor's heart. A fourth-generation preacher in the tradition of his father and grandfathers before him, Pastor Hagee not only shepherds the 17, 000 member, nondenominational Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, he is pastor to other pastors around the country.

John Hagee Ministries produces three television programs. Cornerstone is a weekly broadcast of the Sunday morning service at Cornerstone Church. John Hagee Today is a teaching program aired Monday through Friday. SundayNightLive is a live-via-satellite broadcast of the Sunday evening service from Cornerstone Church that can be seen in over 93 million homes.

Author to several books, Pastor Hagee is a dynamic conference speaker whose straightforward style of preaching, laced wit humour, brings refreshing biblical insight to contemporary problems.

Reviews

[Joseph]

This just isn't a very good book...

The first half or so is devoted to explaining how the world will end soon due to current events, and how they fit into what Hagee believes is the Bible's explanation of the end of the world. It's nothing all that new. Russia will join all the Arab states in opposition to Israel, while meanwhile the Chinese traverse all of Asia to join in the battle, and then God saves Israel and there is a millennium. Nothing that Hal Lindsey hasn't been saying since the 1960's.

The book then focuses to make the case that the modern nation-state of Israel, where Christian missionaries have to lay low and use code names because of violence against them on the part of radical Jews, is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and should be hallowed most highly. He then argues against those who believe that God has broken His covenant with the Jews and now hates them (essentially, a caricature of so-called covenant theology).

This book has a lot of issues:

HAGEE OVER PROMISES
No one expects a book that is only about 110 pages to be all that in depth, but it leaves much of what it promises to accomplish unsatisfied. For example, in Chapter 6, we are told that he'll explain Romans 9-11 and its application to the relationship between the Jews and the church and related matters. He then quotes the first four verses, makes a brief argument about how the Jews are in view, and leaves it at that. Nothing is said about the "remnant" Paul speaks of, the hardening of the Jews, and most importantly, nothing is said about Paul's analogy of the olive tree and the branches.


QUESTIONABLE AND AT TIMES CLEARLY INACCURATE EXEGESIS
TO make his point that the Jews are special in God's economy (no argument from me), Hagee uses several texts poorly. Here are a few examples:

Matthew 25:31-46
This passage apparently teaches that salvation is based on how one treats the Jews. How do we know? Because Jesus refers to His brothers, and according to Hagee, "Gentiles were never called his brethren." But, what about Matthew 12:50? When someone points to Jesus blood relatives (who are obviously Israelites), Jesus rebuts that "Whoever does the will of my Father who is in Heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother." Surely Gentile Christians do the will of God...

Luke 7:5
He says that the reason Jesus went to the centurion in Luke 7:5 was because the Centurion had helped with the synagogue. Now, it is true that Jesus was told about the synagogue, but it is not as telling as it seems. It doesn't say that that is why Jesus went, and it definitely isn't why Jesus healed him. He healed the man's servant because of his faith, which was greater than that of the Jews (verse 9). And this wasn't the only time Jesus healed gentiles - He healed the daughter of the gentile woman in Matthew 15, and it makes no mention of her relationship with the Jews, but only of her faith.

Romans 15:27
He reads this passage as saying that what we call Jews today descendents of Jacob who do not believe in Jesus) should have a special place in Christian’s hearts. Indeed, we should show love and kindness to everyone, including unbelieving Jews (I'm not Martin Luther). However, in the context of this verse, Paul is talking specifically about the "saints in Jerusalem" (Verse 26 - Hagee substitutes "Jews" in Verse 27). It's not that Hagee is totally wrong. Indeed, non-Jewish believers do share in the spiritual blessings of the Jews. But Paul is speaking of those of Jews who believed in the Messiah. In other words, the Jewish remnant Paul speaks of in Romans 10 which Hagee doesn't even address.


BAD ARGUMENTS AND ANALOGIES
Hagee was once asked by an East German why East Germany was rule by its repressive government, complete with the Berlin Wall to keep people trapped in. His answer: Because Germans kept the Jews locked away in camps. Of course, if that's the case, why was West Germany (as German as East Germany) a flourishing democracy? And what about all the other countries in the eastern bloc that were in the same position as East Germany (many quite worse). They were the countries that were conquered by the Germans in WWII. Poland lost the most Jews of any country, to the Germans, and yet it, a victim of Germany, got it worse under communism!

Similarly, Hitler was shot and his body burned up because of all the Jews he had shot and burnt up in the Holocaust. But, as Hagee is well aware, Hitler killed himself, and it was his decision that his body be burned (as Hagee himself notes). That hardly sounds like divine vengeance to me...

He implies that at least some unbelieving Jews are saved (page 71), yet gives no explanation for this, other than the fact that God loves the Jews. Didn't Jesus tell His disciples, after the resurrection, that "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned" (mark 16:16)? And weren't the people he first sent them to Jews?! Wasn't Jesus among Jews when He said "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18)? God does love the Jews. Thus, Israel was blessed, the prophets and apostles (foundation of God's household) were Jews, the first believers were Jews, even the Lord Himself was a Jew. But more explanation is needed as to what Hagee even means, and, if what he seems to be saying is what he is saying, why Jews today can disbelieve in Christ and not be eternally lost.

OVERTLY POLITICAL
This kind of speaks for itself.

CONCLUSION
All in all, the book engages in questionable reasoning, sloppy exegesis, and would do little to convince anyone who doesn't already agree with John Hagee's teachings (especially since those his disagree are caricatured, though much less viciously than in other sermons and books by Pastor Hagee...).

[London Storm]

This book is absolutely fascinating in nothing if not its incredible wrongness.

John Hagee assures us that by 2011, we had entered Earth's Final Moments. Fourteen years later, we are still waiting. Through wars, pandemics, authoritarian governments, and ethnic cleansings, the world has kept on turning, albeit millions of souls lighter.

One might convincingly argue that Hagee meant that it was Earth's Final Moments in God's time, not man's time, if not for the fact that this book was not aimed at God. This book was sold on the consumer market, to Christians, whose time is greatly more limited.

What is most incredible about this book is how poorly it has aged in a myriad of ways.

Russia, far from being able to rally the troops and destroy Israel, has been shown weak enough to struggle for 3 years with its 3 day special incursion into Ukraine, a nation with a much smaller population and much worse weaponry and training.

Egypt's time with democracy came and went, the Islamic Brotherhood scattered to the four winds by a very pragmatic and cautious military being its replacement. Libya, one of Israel's would be invaders, struggles to hold itself together at all. Syria, another one of Israel's would be invaders, has only recently emerged from its long and catastrophic civil war to establish a government not of marauding Islamists but modernist technocrats.

Israel has laid waste to Gaza, and threatens to do even more there, potentially expelling the remaining residents and letting the United States take over the territory under the leadership of Donald Trump, Hagee's chosen leader.

Iran, still lacking nuclear weapons and constantly foiled by Israel, has been the only regional power to respond militarily, with cat-and-mouse level attacks which are over quickly and do little damage. Israel's 2nd greatest would be invader does next to nothing and proudly declares itself victorious.

But let's hang on to Iran for a second: in the world of 2011, it was owned and operated by a band of Islamist thugs, but for most of the period since then, it has been governed by reformist moderates; the people of Iran are hardly behind the Ayatollah, whichever one he is now. I doubt even they care to remember. Their disdain for the regime is so intense that public displays once meriting a public hanging are reduced to mental health treatment. Iran, the great lion, has been castrated.

Furthermore, Hagee's assertions on the reason for this great conflict between Russia and Israel are essentially paper thin. Hagee assures us that Russia wants the mineral resources of the Dead Sea, and a warm-water port.

Little could this Prophet of God have known that in a few short years the leadership of Russia could turn and say "we've already got one!" in the form of a newly annexed Crimea.

Of course that leaves us to the mineral acquisitions, and one would have to ask: why Israel? Surely it would be much more easy for Russia to go after some third rate power in the Middle East with a great deal of resources that are already being acquired and sold to world markets?

But no, it is because they are atheists. But Hagee seems to have not noticed that Russia is no longer the Soviet Union of olde. It has embraced the Russian Orthodox church and become a curious mix of theocracy and fascism. Its social policies have been so influenced by the church that it is quickly approaching Hagee's ideal Godly nation.

I really think the best sticking point should be the obvious weaknesses of Russia and Iran. These are not the countries they might have been in decades past. Iran could probably have never mounted a serious challenge to Israel and they are much worsely positioned for that nowadays. Russia could have certainly, but unless it wants to nuke and risk being nuked, it is no longer such a power.

Israel, with its modern weapons, battle-hardened and well trained soldiers, and its memory of the horrors of the Holocaust stands powerful enough to probably take on the whole European Union. There is scarcely a country in the world that could successfully come against them. If China had the range, they could probably manage, but they don't. The United States could, but instead, we're making deals with them to turn the Gaza Strip into a new Las Vegas Strip.

Saudi Arabia at least has the weaponry to give Israel a real what-for, but no serious person imagines they could fare any better than any of the other major powers of the Middle East. Instead, Saudi Arabia is focused on modernization and liberalization. Instead of doubling down on the Islamist movements it bred and used to win wars (or at least attempt), it is now doubling down on being a tourist destination for gay couples. And its people are fine with that.

Ironically, Hagee's chosen man for President, Donald J. Trump, appears to match more of his own prophecies than he would like to admit.

Israel has supposedly made a deal with a figure that promises them peace and prosperity but only brings destruction. He will save them from the horrors of war and then turn on them. He is a friend to Russia, and will ultimately side with Russia.

This describes no politician better than Donald Trump, all other politics aside.

Hagee assures us that Islamists will get their hands on nuclear weapons from Iran. Weapons which Iran, as stated before, still does not have and probably will never have. One must wonder whether it would even matter, since nuclear weapons would be easy to detect when handled by terrorists.

One must remember that Israel knows where every nuclear facility in Iran is, attacking them regularly, sending in squads of men to kill the people working on them, and infecting them with computer viruses. Roving bands of Jihadists could not have greatly better luck.

He fearmongers about terrorists in the United States having received tactical nukes in 2001, a whole decade prior to this book's publication. When were they intending to use these? Why didn't they? Could it be that, like the flimsy justifications for the attack on Iraq, these weapons simply did not exist and the intelligence was fake?

Wilder still, he outright lies to the reader in this passage:

"In another instance, an al Qaeda operative was arrested at Ramallah with a tactical nuke strapped to his back."

This, as it should be noted with the utmost laughter, simply did not happen. Hagee, or someone in his orbit, made up this story. Not content to do it the one time, he adds this:

"And US military officials discovered a lead canister containing uranium-238 in Kandahar at the outset of Operation Enduring Freedom."

Would anyone like to hazard a guess whether or not this ever happened? Allow me to break the uneasy silence once more: he, or someone in his orbit, made it up. His citations simply do not confirm these statements whatsoever. Nor do they even try. Nor are they even formatted properly to make finding that information easy. Surprise, surprise.

And we could further our surprise with other claims that totally lack any connection to reality:

"They are working within mosques and Islamic centers. In the United States, a federal judge will not provide any FBI or law enforcement agent with a warrant to search a mosque of an Islamic center for any reason since such places are listed as "houses of worship.""

This is simply false. And he knows it's false. So is the fearmongering.

"The seven areas that have been identified are New York, Miami, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington DC. The attacks will occur simultaneously at the seven sites."

If you are reading this at any point in the far future, you will be able to confirm this never happened. That in spite of all the nuclear material making it into the country, the complicit and anomalously unsearchable mosques, and the almost supernatural ability given to these people by the devil himself.

It is a drumbeat descending into a frantic cacophony of voluminous paranoia from every angle.

Iran, using its non-existent nuclear technology, will soon send a fake satellite over the United States to detonate an EMP that blitzes the US grid and leaves everyone in the dark. He assures us of this and that it is fact. I am utterly confident you could read this review in a thousand years and that will not have happened by the hand of Iran.

There is, of course, the usual anti-China fearmongering.

Hagee assures us that China has a mighty and unquenchable thirst for oil that will, for some reason or another, send them to Israel instead of, you know, Saudi Arabia. Funnily enough, neither of those currently seem in the cards: China is singularly focused on taking back Taiwan, and Hagee's chosen one in the White House couldn't care less.

He goes on to definitively state it is obvious what Russia, China and the Middle Eastern powers are up to. If it was so obvious, why did history diverge significantly from his fever dream? Why did the Great Powers of the Middle East collapse and reform as governments to deal primarily with internal problems, like rebuilding after catastrophic civil wars? Why did Iran issue such a tepid response to the destruction of Gaza? Why did Saudi Arabia double down on modernization and liberalization? Why did Russia take Crimea for its warm water port and go after the rest of Ukraine to reconstitute its fallen glory? Why is China singularly focused on Taiwan?

What is obvious to Hagee is not obviously playing out in the real world. And it never will, because it is a fever dream concocted in states of psychotic paranoia, expressing itself in full-price "books" the size of Trotskyist pamphlets handed out on the streets of Brooklyn.

In the latter half of the book, Hagee guides us through God's response to all of these terrible things that are never happening. He does so with a tiredness that would impress Hypnos, God of Sleep to the Greco-Roman world!

Basically, Christianity needs better prophets, seers and revelators. Not one cut from the Mormon cloth, but people who rely on more than delusional fantasies dreamed up in creative fits rivaling only that of the average schizophrenic doomsayer.

[Micah Bennett]

Great book, it explained the importance of Israel and the other nations according to scriptures. It reaffirmed God's love for the Israelites it talked about Gog and Magog and their coalition of Islamic nations against Israel. If your looking on insight into the end time prophetic then I would refer this book. If your wanting to learn why Israel is so important to God then this book really can help you understand the nature between God and Israel.

For me I had some questions concerning Israel and this book really really cleared it up for me. I am still seeking knowledge and studying but this book is well written.
God bless brother John Hagee

[Shirley Kummer]

This book was amazing yet scary. The author revealed scripture upon scripture that warns us of the end times and particular signs to look for. This book was written in 2008/2009 and tells of things that will be taking place and it is happening right now. Keep an eye on Russia, Iran and Israel.
This was a fast read and a great little book.

[Mary]

Biblical while concise, this could be helpful to people who want a primer on future events as laid out by some of the Hebrew prophets. The author’s political concerns influence the writing however and will be distracting to some. There are several books like this, marketed to Christians. The audience I am writing to is concerned for themselves and their families. Who is catching their interest? My Pocket Guide will look not at events but at Biblical people in events, highlighting what we can learn through their spiritual responses before God.

[Doris Holbrook]

Nothing new

I respect the pastor however there was no inspiring message here. Needs more detail and reference material. It is basically a warning.

[Virginia Wade]

Great book

All Christians and
Anyone who would be interested in what the bible says about getting close to end times. Love and trust this author

[Becky]

A small book filled with lots of great information about the events leading up to the Rapture and the Second Coming.

[Omisile Kehinde Olugbenga]

The first part of the book that focused on what to expect towards earth's end is quite educating. Hence the remaining two **. I'd have give the book no * if it had contained only the second half which focused on the nation of Israel and what should be our temperament towards them. Of course we know that God so loved all men, Jews and Gentiles, but the Lord never taught that we give the Jews any special privileged love because of their position in the covenant.

God chose them. Jews didn't choose God. Despite their rejection of Him time and again, God has remained faithful to His covenant time and again.

An attempt by the author to make a case for pro-Semitism led into several flaws found in the book. For instance,

1. Page 87. The author described how Jesus Christ was so committed to the Law of Moses but he forgot that the Jews attacked Jesus and His disciples for not washing hands the proper way before eating.

2. The author mentioned that only the Jews expected The Messiah. I think this statement is too general. Yorubas have long held the belief about the Son of God called /Ela/ and they believed that someday He would come from heaven. You may need to find out why the Yorubas had some of the largest Christian congregations in the world today - home and abroad.

3. The author said, "Jesus was a Jew of Jews, yet the Christian gospel has so twisted truth in History that most of its readers identify Jesus with the Gentiles". Pg 87. This is an affront to the Christian faith and makes me think that part of the book was written albeit mistakenly by an agnostic. There is no proof for this statement. The gospel os the power of God to save not the opium of mindless men.

4. On page 78, the author said "It is misunderstanding for Christians to call it the "Law of Moses". It is not the Law of Moses; it is the Law of God as given to Moses on Mount Sinai..." However, on Page 86, the author himself said Jesus had been faithful to the "Law of Moses". I think he could have avoided all these contradictions if he had stuck with simple Biblical teaching and not attempt a study of types. Even the Bible calls that law the "Law of Moses" - Lk 2:22, 24:44; Jn 7:23; Acts 13:39,15:5...
Jesus said this "Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the LAW OF MOSES and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled." Luke 24:44.

I've never quite read a book of contradictions such as this before. It puts a doubt on the other facts contained therein.

[Rhonda Gibson]

This is a book that I will read again and probably again. John Hagee does a wonderful job of explaining the end times and what to expect.

[Mary Alexis]

interesting

[Shelley Wilemon]

Awesome Book...true to what's happening in America now!!