Review: "The Power of the Prophetic Blessing"

I would like to thank Handlebar Publishing and Worthy Books for sending me a free copy of John Hagee’s book, The Power of the Prophetic Blessing: an Astonishing Revelation for a New Generation.

Pastor Hagee writes with an enthusiastic and readable style. However, his book seems to be less and organized treaties than off-the-cuff. That being said, my biggest problem was not with the author’s organizational skills, but with his theology.

In his opening chapter, the author writes that the reason that the Jews “have excelled throughout history in the fields of medicine, technology, literature, science, the arts, and much more” (11) is due to the fact that they employed the prophetic blessing. I found the whole idea of the Jews being better than everyone else very uncomfortable at best.

As he continues by arguing that blessings are guaranteed to the person who speaks them (21), that there is a guarantee of abundance to the person who speaks blessings, and that blessing means at its very heart that a person will have material and spiritual wealth (27), that going through “testing” is a guarantee of blessing (50), I found myself categorizing the author in the heretical “health and wealth movement.” Casual reading of the Scripture will convince the reader that those who are obedient to God are not guaranteed blessing.

On page 81, he discusses what he calls, “Replacement Theology.”  He argues that there are those who say that all of the promises made to Israel have been transferred to the Church, and that this is incorrect. While I would agree with him that not all the promises made to Israel have been transfer to the Church, I have to disagree with him saying that all of the conditional promises – made to the ancient nation of Israel as they entered Canaan – are still in force today. This discussion is all part of his understanding of what it means when the Scripture says that all people are to “bless Israel.”  However, he takes it to the perverse extreme of claiming that the reason Hugo Chavez got cancer was due to the fact that he spoke against the nation of Israel (88). This is not biblical. He continues by saying that anyone who does not support Israel is against Christ (91), and that God will destroy every nation that is not pro-Israel (99-100). This cannot be supported biblically.

While it is true that Paul in Romans explains that God has not forsaken Israel – and there is an indication of a mass conversion of Jews to Christianity – to faith in the Gospel of Jesus the Only Savior and Messiah, the promises that God made to the nation of Israel in the land are no longer applicable – God engaged Israel in a conditional promise, and they broke the promise, so the land was lost.

He goes on to a very curious discussion about what Jesus did – and while he does not say it – he comes very close to implying that Israel is saved by the keeping of the Law and Gentiles are saved by faith alone in Jesus. He says that Jesus's death was for the Gentiles (159), that Jesus's death was to give us divine health, that Jesus's death was to secure the material wealth of Abraham for the Gentiles wealth (160) – none of which is biblical.  (He does rightly explain that Jesus was forsaken that our sin might be forgiven and that is only through Jesus that we can receive everlasting life.)

In chapter 7, he discusses the Beatitudes – which he calls “the eight prophetic blessings of Jesus.”  If we simply enact, receive, confess, speak these eight blessings, we will “live the good life.”

In chapter 8, he explains that the prophetic blessing must be released through the spoken word. He explains that God waits on our word to act (214). And he uses Habakkuk 2:2-3 to argue that if we write down what we want to happen, God will cause it to come to pass (217).

Chapter 9, he explains of the prophetic blessing must be released through touch. And while I agree with him that touch is very powerful and very necessary in the Church, is going beyond the text to say that touching people and speaking blessings on them is more adequate than praying for them outside of their presence.

He argues that every blessing is ours, if we only ask for (252). We can have anything we want. All we have to do is believe it and ask for. One of the problems, he argues, is that we don't know what we want, so we must determine what we want and ask for it and God will give it (253). He argues that this knowledge of what we want is why it is necessary that everyone know the exact moment of their conversion (256) – and he says if you don't know the exact moment of your conversion, you should pray “the sinner's prayer” again, which includes on page 257.

Speaking the word is so powerful, he argues, that we can change God's plans. Nothing that God desires or plans or wills is set in stone, God has to change his plans based on our word of faith (262).

He concludes the 10th chapter by explaining the six scriptural requirements for releasing and receiving prophetic blessing: he states that the blessing must be imparted by a person and spiritual authority, the blessing must be given while standing, the blessing must be given with uplifted hands, it must be done in the name of the Lord, it must be done face-to-face, and it must be given in a loud voice (266-273). The author is taking individual incidents and making them universal laws of God.

His final chapter is a series of form blessings that you can use for yourself, your friends and family. All you have to do is fill in the names in the blanks and God will do what you want. Included are proclamations for your children and grandchildren, your wife, your business, health and healing, for testing and trial, for emotional stability, for the favor of God, and for overall prosperity.

This is not Christianity. The author has taken conditional promises to a specific people at a specific time, expanded them, and made them for every person throughout time and space. He is taken the one promise of a single Savior for all people and made one way of salvation for the Jews, one way of salvation for the Gentiles, and the need for all people to embrace the Jews – believing or not – as superior and having the magic formula for worldly blessing. I cannot recommend this book.

Since it seems as though most people do not have a clue as to what the Gospel is, I quote it here for your consideration:  “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, ESV).