Praying for Armageddon (2023) Movie Script
1
MOTORCYCLE RUNS
BIRDS CAW
- Heavenly Father...
- CHANTING:
- Heavenly Father...
- ..may the blood of Christ...
- ..may the blood of Christ...
- ..cleanse me.
- ..cleanse me.
- We bless your name, we praise you,
we thank you.
I do pray that you would wake up your
church to fight.
- In the beauty of holiness...
- CHANTING:
- In the beauty of holiness...
- ..for the rest of my life.
- ..for the rest of my life.
- Blessed is those who listen to the
words of this prophecy
and heed what is written in it, for
the hour of fulfilment is near.
- I will read and obey your word.
- CONGREGATION MURMUR
- He, Jesus Christ,
He is our all and all.
He is Lord!
- The next event on God's prophetic timetable,
the rapture of the church.
- CHANTING:
- I will be your servant.
- And from this day forward...
- And from this day forward...
- ..You become my Lord.
- ..You become my Lord.
- In Jesus' name.
- In Jesus' name.
- The four horses ride across the
world
and we're beginning to see them ride
now.
- SHOUTING
- And I will serve him...
- CHANTING:
- I will serve him...
- ..to the last day of my life.
- ..to the last day of my life.
- Or to the sounding of the trump of
God.
- In Jesus' name, I am saved.
- CHANTING:
- I am saved.
- CHANTING CONTINUES
- And heaven is my home.
CHANTING FADES
- I'm going to talk about war.
How many of you all recognise the
Bible is full of war?
- Amen.
- And so I don't want you to think
that I am raising a militia.
Well, I've been accused of that, brother.
Uh, because I get pretty dogmatic about...
Jesus asked us to fight.
And what I want you to just begin to
wrap your head around
is that Jesus called us to be warriors.
He said, "I didn't come to bring peace."
He said "I didn't come to bring peace.
I come to bring war."
How many of you all remember the
scripture in Luke 6 chapter
where it said, "If somebody does evil
to you, turn the other cheek."
- That's right.
- Yep.
- But see, there is another scripture
that we forget to
abide to all of that.
And that's Luke 22.
Jesus, he said, "Times are a-changing."
And he says, "Do you have a sword?"
Well, master, we don't... A sword?
He said, "Yeah, if you don't have a
sword, go sell your coat
"and buy one because the time is coming.
"You're going to need a sword."
- Amen.
- Amen.
- How many of y'all hear that things
may change in this country?
- Amen.
- And we're going to have to have a
spirit of discernment when to turn
the cheek and when to pull the sword.
- LONE CLAPPING
- That's right, man. That's right.
- A knight has to be moved by compassion,
by love, by something inside of you
that hurts.
I'm here because I believe that
there's got to be men
that's raised up.
There's got to be men that take on
another level.
And I'll knight you in the name of the
father, the son
and the Holy Spirit, and tell you to
rise and accept
your sword of responsibility.
The church has lost the battle of a
Christian nation
because they've concerned
themselves with what goes
on inside the four walls.
The Bible says an warrior must be funded,
an evangelist must be sent.
I believe God is raising up another
group of people,
and it's going to come out of the
broken, screwed-up people.
Live pure.
- CHANTING:
- Live pure.
- Speak truth.
- Speak truth.
- Right wrongs.
- Right wrongs.
- And follow the king.
- And follow the king.
- Say, that's my commitment.
- That's my commitment.
- That's a knight.
- That's a knight.
- The remnant is always a smaller
group that stays loyal.
Ad I believe that God is raising up a remnant.
It's going to be made up of those men
and women that are radical,
that are willing to put it all on the line.
There's got to be a climax to this war
of evil versus good.
At some point, there will be a major Armageddon,
and I believe that the blood will run
up to the horse's bits.
We're moving into a time in our history
where we don't know what's going to happen.
- SHOUTING
GUNFIRE
SCREAMING
SIREN BLARES
- The end of time, when is that?
That's right now.
The next thing that's about to happen
is the return
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Everything that's necessary
for this new world order
is at the door.
Major uncontrollable fires, the Bible
said, will break out
all over the world spontaneously.
The sun and the moon will be darkened.
Earthquakes so shattering that the islands
of the sea will disappear.
The seven seas of the earth will turn
to blood.
A world war so bloody that the blood
of those who are killed in battle
flows up to 200 miles to the
bridle of a horse.
The coronavirus was no accident.
When you see these signs...
..when you see nations against nation...
..when you see the moral collapse of America...
..when you see these things,
the apocalypse is coming.
We are called to be warriors.
And we need you to get in the fight!
- CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
In the tradition of Christianity,
there is no single view of the end times.
But the American evangelical community
has latched on to one.
Generally, they believe that
believers on earth
will be raptured to heaven before
things get really bad.
And that's the promise to the evangelical,
that they will not taste death if
Jesus comes back
and the rapture occurs in their lifetime.
- This book is literal from cover to cover.
B-I-B-L-E.
Basic Information Before Leaving Earth
- Bible.
- The American evangelical Christian
is someone who believes every word
of the Bible is literally true,
like the apocalypse and the
return of Jesus predicted
in the Book of Revelation.
Every single sign and wonder
that could be interpreted
to make it seems like it's sooner,
it's all good news to
the evangelical Christians.
Bring it on.
But there are certain
verses interpreted in
the Book of Revelation which
seem to intimate
that none of this can happen unless
the State of Israel exists.
- There will be no lasting peace in
the Middle East until
the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus
Christ, returns.
- The American evangelical movement now,
said, "Not only do we recognise this..."
"This process can be advanced by, for
instance, torpedoing the peace
"process so the Palestinians
never get their land back.
"The ancient borders of Israel
need to be reclaimed,
"and then Jesus will come back."
- When Jerusalem and Israel come together.
- HELICOPTER BLADES WHIR
As a reporter, I've covered
politics for so long,
and I've seen the fusion of politics
and religion in so many ways.
In recent decades, evangelical
Christian Zionists have become
an increasingly powerful force in
American politics.
I'm now investigating evangelical
power and how their direct
influence shapes US foreign policy and
our relationship to Israel.
- Some argue that calling for the
abolition of Israel
and the elimination of the only Jewish
state isn't anti-Semitic.
- We are absolutely, categorically committed
to Israel's right to exist.
- I'm a reporter from The Intercept.
I want to ask you about the hearing.
Do you have a quick second?
- Sure, man.
- Do you think there's a role of
religious extremism here in the US
funding and shaping the conflict?
I mean, there are a lot
of folks who are part
of the evangelical movement that want...
- To support Israel.
- ..to support Israel, and we don't
really kind of see that
same kind of constituent group pushing
the other way.
- Yeah, I wouldn't label the Baptist
or the evangelical community
as extreme, because I believe they feel
like they're following the Scripture
and what the Scripture says about Israel.
Those who bless Israel will be blessed.
I mean, they take it literally, and
I'm one of those people.
- You know, there are some Christian
Zionists that do believe
in some of these biblical prophecies,
and they're very controversial
even within the Christian Zionist
evangelical community.
- On what the interpretation is.
- Yeah. And believing in Armageddon,
that there will be a final battle
around Jerusalem, and that after that
battle, you know,
there's a Judgment Day.
Jews will be killed or converted,
Jesus will come back,
there's going to be a rapture event.
Um, what do you think about
those kind of prophecies?
- I believe Jesus will come back
and I'm going to be on his side.
- The Christian right has a very
organised and concerted effort
to shape the messages in DC.
I mean, they really have a political
apparatus that's very efficient,
that's very influential, even if it's often
behind the curtain.
Ralph Drollinger is a former college
basketball star who decided
to develop his own Bible
studies for politicians.
- With the advent of secularism in
America increasingly on the rise,
and what we call the mountains of
influence that are toppling
of late, one of the places
we're trying to hang
on is the mountain of political leadership,
to make sure we make disciples in that arena,
so that they can stand in office
with a prophetic voice and say,
"Thus saith the Lord."
- Ralph Drollinger formed his Bible study,
meeting with radical right
politicians, and slowly grew it.
His Bible study today has over 50
Members of Congress in attendance.
He brought his Bible study to the White House.
He convened weekly Bible studies with members
of the Trump cabinet.
- So one of the reasons we're issuing
this, how to think about Israel
through the lens of Scripture Bible
study of recent,
was because of the bombing from Gaza,
and then the glitch within the
administration to not fund
the Iron Dome resupply.
I thought I better issue a Bible study
that helps bring biblical
clarity to this issue.
- In these Bible studies, Drollinger
has attempted to provide
moral and biblical justification for
some of the most extreme
radical right policies.
He's used the Bible to justify the coronavirus,
blaming gays and members of the LGBT community...
..and really engage in the type
of radical right rhetoric that you
might hear on kind of
dark corners of the internet.
But here's someone who's directly
pastoring the Secretary of State
under the Trump administration, and
Members of Congress.
- O, God, our Father, Thou Searcher Of
Men's Hearts, help us to draw
near to Thee in sincerity and truth.
May our religion be filled with
gladness, and may our worship
of Thee be natural.
- When you look at the Book of Revelation,
things are going to get worse before
they get better.
And we're going to end up in a
tribulation period
where the Antichrist is going to war
against Israel,
and Christ is going to come back to
save Israel from the Antichrist.
- Here's a public policy issue where
the US interests are at play,
where there are so many different
policy solutions
that can be considered, but religion
is playing the dominant role.
We're talking to Members of Congress
about Israel
and the US's relationship.
- All right, y'all go.
The US has an intrinsic interest in
making sure that Israel
not only receives our best prayers and
offers of success,
but our armaments, our money, and our
ability to make sure
that in a very dangerous region, this
democracy survives.
- There are some biblical prophecies
that say that control of Jerusalem
by the Jews is important for the
Second Coming of Christ.
- This entire matter is based
upon faith of Our Maker, of Our Creator,
but it's also faith of a chosen people.
- Did you ask why the Democrats are
using our law enforcement officers
as political pawns?
The Democrats, who have been
campaigning to defund our law
enforcement as their people, BLM and Antifa
riot and loot in the streets.
- REPORTERS CLAMOUR
There's a new government in Israel.
Can you talk a little bit about the
importance of the US
relationship with Israel?
- There have been two nations created
to glorify God -
Israel and the United States of America.
I will bless both. I will honour both.
I will do all I can to stand and
defend them.
- Thank you, Congresswoman. Take care.
- Is it true that there are
people who really believe
that having Jerusalem unified under
total Israeli control
will bring on the end times?
- Well, yes, Joy. You know, I come
from a fundamentalist evangelical
background, and I grew up
in the '50s and '60s.
- AUDIO FADES
I'm 65, and when I was...
- So my background is one
where biblical prophecy
about the end times of Jesus's return,
the apocalypse,
were the reality we lived with.
And I can remember, as a child,
flushing a toilet and looking to see
if the water had turned to blood yet...
..because this was a sign that the apocalypse
was about to occur.
- Abortion on demand is another
humanistic euphemism
for man playing God.
Its ramifications go beyond that.
- I'm the son of a fundamentalist
American missionary.
People would show up to sit at the
feet of Francis Schaeffer
and learn the spirituality from him.
I was a prince of evangelical royalty.
By the time I was 18 years old,
I was talking to crowds of 20,000 people.
But over a 15-20 year period, gradually,
like a drug addict, I came clean.
I'm still estranged from
huge chunks of my family
because I'm a heretic.
I've joined the other side.
- Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!
- CLAPPING AND CHANTING
- The bedrock of support for the State
of Israel is there because American
evangelicals think it will
bring Jesus back quicker
and without the Republican
bedrock evangelical voter,
no Republican, anywhere in America,
for any office, gets elected.
- You commit yourself to the
principles of God
and politicians align themselves
with the eternal values in this book!
- CHEERING
- Thank you very much.
I want you to know that I endorse you
and what you're doing.
- I will faithfully execute the office
of President of the United States.
- So help me God.
- So help me God.
- If the evangelical movement had not
morphed into the religious right,
you would not have a situation that
would put Donald Trump in power.
- It's a Bible.
- We, who are evangelical Christians,
are going to have a true
friend in the White House.
CHANTING
- The big numbers who were there on
January 6th protesting him
not getting elected were evangelicals.
For them, when Trump lost the election,
somehow this couldn't be right because
they had interpreted him
being president for another four years
as God's will.
- SHOUTING
- Thank you, Heavenly Father, for
gracing us with this opportunity.
Thank you for allowing the United
States of America
to be reborn.
Thank you for filling this chamber
with patriots that love you
and that love Christ.
We love you and we thank you. In
Christ's holy name, we pray!
- SHOUTING:
- Amen!
- Today, the modern evangelical is
preparing for an actual holy war,
armed training, militia groups,
plenty of guns, plenty of ammunition.
They're going to cost
what you might call "sane, ordinary
America" very heavily.
- Kenneth, how are you this morning?
- I'm great, Gary. How are you?
- I'm good. Good to see you.
Hey, guys. Before I pray,
Jesus had to be a stud of a man
because he stood there
and broke bread for 15,000 people by himself.
So if you get a little tired,
think about who we serve.
- Amen.
- All right, here we go. We're
rolling!
How are you this morning?
Good.
God bless you all.
- Good morning.
- How are ya doing?
When Jesus comes back,
he's not going to send an army,
he's going to lead an army.
I want to be in that,
and I want to be right up in the
front.
Jesus said, "The first shall be last,
and the last shall be first."
So if you really want to be at the
front with Jesus...
..you've got to quit trying
to fight to be successful.
You've got to fight to be at the lower end.
Merry Christmas.
That's fine. We understand. We've all
had those days.
- CHILDREN:
- Play-Doh!
- GARY CHUCKLES
- Hey, girls, you know what?
We ride motorcycles, so you're going
to have a stick horse.
All right? We ride iron horses.
You're going to ride a stick horse,
all right?
Hey, we're in the port
in Ashdod, Israel.
And we just opened the containers
and the bikes are good. They made it!
In 2011, I shipped 30 motorcycles to Israel,
took 74 people over there.
When we rolled into Jerusalem, we had
our 30 bikes,
and then we had 120 Israeli bikes.
This ride was to honour the IDF soldiers.
- HORNS BEEPING
- And we would just say, "We just want
you to know that we care
"about Israel, and we thank you for
your sacrifice
"for this country."
How many of y'all know, when I say
Megiddo Valley,
you know what that means?
How many of you know what the Battle
of Armageddon is?
The final war of good and evil,
that's where it's going to be fought.
And I'm on this Harley,
and I'm headed in the Megiddo Valley.
I'm coming the direction that the
enemy, the Devil,
and all of his forces
are going to come against the bride
riding on that big white horse.
Visually, God, I can see that big
white horse.
And I'm riding along there and I said,
"God, I don't want to be
at the back of the pack.
"I want to be right up there
as close to you as I can.
"I want to see Jesus take that sword
"and slay the enemy and watch the
blood run up to
"the bits of the horses."
Anybody else in here?
- Yes.
- Man, I'm riding on that motorcycle
getting pumped!
And I said, "God, let me...
"I want to be right up there close to
the front. I want to see it.
"What have I got to do to get there?"
He said, "What did I teach you?"
What does the word say?
The last shall be first.
The servant of all...
..is the greatest.
- MUSLIM CALL TO PRAYER
MUSLIM PRAYING
QUIET CHANTING
- Hi. Good morning.
Welcome to our Jerusalem tour.
For us Palestinians, Jerusalem is not
just an important city.
Jerusalem is the symbol of Palestine.
Since the occupation of the eastern
part of Jerusalem in 1967,
the Israeli occupation authorities
have been designing and implementing
policies of systematic displacement
against Palestinians.
The wall is built deep inside the West Bank.
It is not on the green line,
so the wall is not just security,
it is also taking over lands.
- WHISTLING AND YELLING
REPORTER:
- Residents in East Jerusalem's Silwan
neighbourhood
said that Jewish settlers had moved
into two buildings
in the predominantly Arab area.
It's coveted by Israeli settlers, who refer
to it as the City of David.
- It makes me very angry to know that
the funding that these settler
organisations receive from people,
especially in the United States,
is making it possible for
them to actively push
Palestinians out from their city.
In Silwan, there is a so-called
national park called
the City of David, claimed to be where
King David's palace
was 2,000 years ago.
The City of David is managed and
controlled by the notorious
Elad settler organisation, which is in
charge of the settlement
activities in Silwan.
The same settler organisation
now want to establish
a biblical theme park in Silwan...
..using Jewish history in order to
justify
the uprooting of Palestinians.
- For decades, Palestinian families
that have lived in Jerusalem
for generations upon generations
are then forced out of their homes
and squashed into refugee camps.
This is happening in Sheikh Jarrah,
my neighbourhood,
this is happening in Silwan,
through various organisations
that ultimately have the same goal
of replacing Palestinian natives
with Jewish settlers.
SHOUTING:
For years, it was settlers that would
change every now and then.
They were in their early 20s
and I believe they were being paid,
and they are just there to harass us.
These settler organisations operate as
charities in the United States.
They are tax exempt,
and the evangelical organisations
are just funnelling money into them.
In Sheikh Jarrah, we have what the
Israeli Foreign Ministry
refers to as a property dispute
in which billionaire-backed settler
organisations can come
from all over the world and
exploit a judiciary
that is built by settlers to enforce
their claims
over our lands.
- Yacoub, you know this is not your house.
- Yes, but if I go, you don't go back.
So what's the problem?
Why are you yelling at me? I didn't do this.
I didn't do this.
It's easy to yell at me, but I didn't
do this.
- You are stealing my house.
- And if I don't steal it, someone
else is going to steal it.
- No. No-one...
No-one is allowed to steal it.
- CHEERING
CHANTING:
- Hey, CUFI, you shall see.
- Hey, CUFI, you shall see.
- Palestine will be free!
- Palestine will be free!
- Hey, CUFI, you shall see.
- Hey, CUFI, you shall see.
- Palestine will be free!
- Palestine will be free!
- Ladies and gentlemen, will you
please stand and give a warm
welcome to a consistent and faithful friend,
the 45th Vice President
of the United States, Mike Pence?
- CHEERING
- Well, hello, Christians United for Israel.
- John Hagee is the leading voice of
Christian Zionism.
He has built a political powerhouse
out of his organisation
Christians United for Israel.
- You know, a lot of people get
spun up with the wrong ideas
that American evangelicals want
to impose a theocracy on America.
Ha! I wish they'd be concerned about
the real theocratic takeover
that has been happening in Iran for
the last four decades.
- APPLAUSE
CHANTING
Christians United for Israel has a
really extreme view
in terms of promoting geopolitical
factors that could lead to
what they believe is the battle of Armageddon.
But in terms of the practical effect,
they're promoting policies that arm
Israel to the teeth with US weapons,
that drive Palestinians out of Jerusalem,
and that ultimately is pushing towards
more conflict
in the Middle East.
- Now, would you give a thunderous welcome
to the greatest rock star in Israel?
- Welcome to the City of David,
the place where Jerusalem began.
Pastor Hagee, thank you for
that very warm introduction.
It is an honour, as always,
to be here together...
- If you look at the website for the
City of David project,
it looks like an effort simply to
engage in archaeology
to find these biblical artefacts.
But underneath the surface,
there's a lot of Christian right money
and resources and support for this
foundation that's leading
the effort to evict Palestinian
families.
The City of David seems like
the perfect cover
for Christians United for Israel,
that conceals a very right wing agenda
that's driving this violence.
- We have 7.1 million members
and 5,000 of you in this room,
and it's because we're willing
to work little by little,
by little by little.
- We are going to have a great
time on Capitol Hill.
This is your opportunity to stand up
for Israel and the Jewish people
in the halls of Congress,
and it will be recorded
in the courts of Heaven, I assure you.
- Outside to my right...
- Thank you for putting action...
..behind words.
Prayers and hard work makes a
difference for America,
for Israel, and for the entire world.
- PRAYING
- Amen.
- APPLAUSE
SHOUTING
- I have determined that it is time
to officially recognise Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel.
- FANFARE
- Thanks for joining us, Pastor Hagee.
Really appreciate you being with us
here on Faith Nation.
I was curious about some of your
interactions
with the President on this.
You visited him at times at the White House.
- We spoke about moving the embassy.
- Welcome, our good friend.
- Welcome.
- Let's go, honey. Let's go.
- I talked to him about the
significance of moving
the embassy in the Jubilee year.
I said, "This is the year
"to move the embassy and make
"that declaration, because it is a
biblical timing
"of absolute precision."
Thank God he's going to do exactly that.
- REPORTER: The world will be watching
as the United States joins Israel
to mark the official opening of the US
Embassy in Jerusalem.
Pastor Robert Jeffress is delivering
the prayer
to kick off today's ceremony.
- Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
May those who love her prosper.
- SHOUTING
CHILD:
- Allah!
- I'd like to call upon Pastor John Hagee.
- We thank you, O Lord, for
President Donald Trump's courage
in acknowledging to the world
a truth established 3,000 years ago
that Jerusalem is, and always shall be,
the eternal capital of the Jewish people.
Can we all shout "hallelujah"?
- SHOUTING:
- Hallelujah!
- Amen.
- The torch goes up when you pray the
prayer of repentance.
So you'll have the torch.
Second Chronicles 7, 13 and 14.
"Suppose I hold back the rain,
or send locusts to eat the crops,
"or make my people suffer with deadly diseases.
"If my own people will humbly pray
and turn back to me
"and stop sinning, then I will answer
them from heaven."
- There's a great possibility that us
stopping every 150 miles,
putting our feet down on the ground,
and declaring the power of God
over this country, that it
could be that God
would work in a heavenly...
Y'all with me at all?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
- Y'all with me?
I choose to believe every one of you are on
a divine assignment from God.
God, if you can get more glory
out of our living,
if you can get more glory out of us
getting to Lebanon
and celebrating the prayer there,
get us there.
- # If tomorrow all the things were
gone
# I'd worked for all my life
# And I had to start again with
# Just my children and my wife
# I thank my lucky stars
# To be living here today
# Where the flag still stands for
freedom
# And they can't take that away
# And I'm proud to be an American
# Where at least I know I'm free
# And I won't forget the men who died
# Who gave that right to me
# And I'd gladly stand up next to you
# And defend her still today
- # Cos there ain't no doubt I love
this land
- # I love this land
- # God bless the USA
- # God bless the USA. #
- Our organisation is leading from
eight different points
of our country to come together
at the geographical centre
in Lebanon, Kansas.
Every 150 miles, we're going to get
off our bike
and pray a prayer over our nation.
- Father, I just ask that we will be
more militant about serving you.
We will be more militant, Father,
about saying "yes" to the
things that is yes,
and "no" to the things that is no.
- What's the deal?
Are we in a straight line
instead of in a circle?
What is up?
- We like shade.
- You're a bunch of wusses.
- At this time, we're going to honour
the Judeo-Christian
values by playing a Jewish prayer.
- JEWISH PRAYER
PRAYING
- I've ridden hundreds of thousands of miles,
and God has spoken so many things to
me in that solitude,
and that's my sanctuary.
It's a place for me to hear God.
- ALARM BEEPING
SHOUTING
SIRENS
SIRENS
I grew up in the suburbs of the DC area.
September 11th was a huge event in my life.
Seeing the pillars of smoke billow out
of the Pentagon...
..the war on terror,
to see the whole country so swiftly
move to suspend civil liberties,
to march towards war.
And I was coming of age around the
time of the Iraq War.
I followed the 2004 election campaign,
where Bush had mobilised evangelical voters
and created this dichotomy
of good versus evil, us versus them.
Bush even went so far as to call the
war on terror a new crusade.
And so that's why I think it's
important to be critical,
to look at the role of the Christian right
in shaping US policy towards
the Middle East
and potentially pushing us towards war.
I'm going to speak with Colonel Wilkerson.
He was the chief of staff to Colin Powell.
He left government during the Bush years
and became an outspoken critic
of the war in Iraq, the war on terror.
And he's concerned about the role
of evangelical Christian nationalists
in the military.
Some of these Christian nationalists
have zeroed in
on some biblical prophecy that if a
certain criteria is met,
in terms of the chosen people of Jews
controlling Jerusalem,
that there will be an Armageddon.
What are the dangers of having people
that have this kind of
doomsday mind-set, that cataclysmic
war is important
for bringing back Christ?
How can that endanger US interests?
- The most vivid danger in all of
this, I think,
is the special relationship with Israel.
Christians United for Israel,
John Hagee's group,
is a quintessential example of the danger.
They are looking for the US
relationship with Israel,
ultimately, to bring about Armageddon,
and the Rapture
and Christ's thousand-year reign.
That's what they're there for.
- This is the first time that soldiers
from the United States
are going to be permanently assigned
to a base in Israel.
- We, in the military, said "no"
to every president
from Harry Truman on.
"We will not put a military base in
Israel.
"If you order us to, we'll quit."
- TRUMPETING
APPLAUSE
- Now we've got a base there.
We've got a base there.
When Hezbollah has the temerity
to put a missile on that base,
or by accident,
we're in for a penny, in for a pound.
That base is there
and Trump allowed that base to go there,
so that, as we say in the military,
if the shit really hits the fan,
we're in it immediately,
because the US has been attacked.
The Stars and Stripes flies over that base.
- Most of the young people that come
into the military
are there probably because they're
trying to figure out
who they are.
From an evangelistic standpoint,
I've always referred to them as,
"Ripe as black bananas."
- LAUGHTER
- Chaplains are increasingly coming
from the fundamentalist sects.
These evangelical fundamentalist
chaplains go to some place
where basic training graduates,
and they say beforehand,
in their meeting, "These troops are at
their most vulnerable.
"They've been racked and trained to
death. Go get them."
- The Holy Spirit...
- We try to reach our recruits immediately.
There are 450,000 recruits in the
freshman class of this next
year's Armed Forces.
That's going through boot camp.
We will touch about 200,000 of them
this next year.
- They had something like 70 baptisms
at Fort Jackson
at the end of basic training exercises.
And they proselytise and they get them,
they take them down and baptise them.
And then they're part of
the Christian nationalists.
- BARKING
PHONE MESSAGE:
- I'm just calling to ask you to keep your nose
where it belongs.
We don't need you up here.
Have a rotten day, asshole.
- Next message.
- Weinstein...
- Get it!
- You're sick.
- DISGUISED VOICE:
- Go and do something different.
You make me vomit.
- Yeah, Weinstein, you're another corrupt,
heartless, gutless, coward individual.
Go find a life.
Quit picking on the people
that defend your sorry ass
every fucking day, loser.
- Colonel Wilkerson recommended that I
talk to Mikey Weinstein.
He's with the Military Religious
Freedom Foundation,
and he's worked for the last two decades
shining a light on religious
fundamentalist influence
within the military.
This is kind of a shadow war.
PHONE:
- ..43887471.
- I come from a military family.
My dad went to the Naval Academy,
so I applied for and got into all
three of the military academies.
The cadet hat.
The Air Force Academy.
When people come to us, they are
freighted with terror.
They are terrified of reprisal,
revenge, retaliation.
We're closing in on 76,000 US Marines
that are clients of ours,
and about 95% of them are Christians
themselves,
being dehumanised and marginalised for
not being Christian enough.
- The military ministry of Cru only
does three things, really.
We win people to Christ,
we build them up in their faith, and
we send them out into the world
to do the same thing.
- There are probably three dozen
parachurch organisations,
some of them well known,
like Campus Crusade for Christ
Military Ministries,
Focus on the Family, Officers'
Christian Fellowship.
that are incredibly involved in the
military.
They have offices on military bases,
they have senior military officials.
We call those fundamentalist
Christians or Dominion Christians.
The Seven Mountain Mandate, the New
Apostolic Reformation.
Their job is to transform the military
and the militaries
of the world into this version of this
weaponised Christianity.
Jerry Boykin, the former three-star
general, has made it clear
that when Jesus comes back,
he'll be carrying an AR-15.
It's not a veneer, these are true believers.
- The Lord is a warrior.
The Lord is His name.
And in Revelation 19 it says, when He
comes back,
He's coming back as a warrior, riding
a white horse
with a bloodstained white robe,
carrying a sword.
And I believe that sword He'll be carrying
when He comes back is an AR-15.
- You know, in the media, we've seen
images of Crusader symbols,
of Christian symbols, of, you know,
units deployed
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- We had 138 US Marines,
they came to us in Helmand
Province in Afghanistan.
They were walking into the villages
out there and the village elders,
most of them hadn't even heard of
9/11, but they had heard
of what I ended up calling the Jesus Rifle.
A company called Trijicon,
based out of Michigan,
they had about a $2 billion contract
to make rifle scopes
for our military.
On the scopes, if you look closely,
were biblical citations
from the Book of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
John - Revelation.
It was burned into the scope.
Now, think of the optics of American
soldiers
shooting Muslims in Afghanistan
through the scopes
that have the New Testament citations.
These are Air Force fighters that can
carry nuclear weapons.
Complete Crusader iconography,
complete with the helmet,
the three cross-shaped stars,
of course the sword and the crucifix.
All stuff like this does is completely motivate
the recruiting efforts of Boko Haram,
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, ISIS,
the Mujahideen and the Taliban.
How do they refer to America? "The Crusaders."
This doesn't help.
- CHANTING
- Never, in the history of the world,
have all the players been on the stage.
Iran.
Russia.
China.
Europe.
America.
Everything is absolutely perfect.
The final battle for global supremacy
will be the mother of all wars and Armageddon.
- There are two Armageddon lobbies in the world.
There are the extreme Islamic Armageddon lobby,
they believe in a final conflict
between Islam and everyone else.
And then there is the Armageddon lobby
of American evangelicals.
Evangelical American voters in the
Republican Party want a final
conflict with all other religions, all
other political points of view.
They see it as us versus them,
true Christians versus everyone else.
- Nation shall rise up against nation,
and as we see these things increase
in intensity and frequency,
we can know that the Lord is going to return.
- "We don't want peace."
"We," being evangelicals,
"We want Armageddon. Bring it on."
Their view of Zionism is not going to
either help Israel
or any individual Jew.
Their view of Zionism is apocalyptic.
So when Israel is finally attacked
by, say, a nuclear-armed Iran, that
suits the Christians fine.
It's exactly what they're prophesying.
Then we'll have a big last battle,
Jesus comes back and we're all going
to heaven.
- Are you listening, Iran?
Are you listening, Russia?
God's going to wipe you out.
- The scary thing is, we are armed
with the largest and most powerful
military on Earth and thousands of
nuclear weapons.
And so when you put Armageddon lobby
together with American power,
it's a different deal.
- Father God, we stand here at the
heart of our nation,
the very geographical centre of it.
- Yes.
- Lord, in recent years, the heartbeat
of America has waned.
Lord, I've come here into
the centre of America
to plead in its behalf...
- Yes.
- ..and ask you, Lord, to heal the
hearts.
Father God, I pray for this nation.
I believe for a great revival.
We believe that it could happen
because you're a miracle-working God.
- Yes, you are.
- And nothing, but nothing, is impossible.
- Amen.
- We're going live in about seven
minutes.
I need everybody to give a shout
and a roar to welcome the six million people
that are going to be joining us right at 2:00.
So let's practise. One, two, three.
- CHEERING
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
- The enemies of faith and godliness
are no longer hiding.
Because our land seems alive now
with demonic powers once hidden.
A canopy of darkness seems to have
been stretched
across the whole nation.
Government, the founders believe,
derived its just powers
from the consent of the governed, and
without that consent,
the government was without foundation.
Send us a spiritual awakening.
We appeal to Heaven.
- I'm so excited for Gary Burd to be here.
- Yeah!
- We thank you Jesus for bringing
complete healing
to his body and his wife's body.
In the name of Jesus, hallelujah!
- Oh, praise God.
Four men tried to pick up my
motorcycle
pinned underneath a tree,
and there was a manifestation of a
divine angel
that came and helped my brother pick
that bike up off my wife.
And the Lord brought to my mind about
that angel
and he said, "Listen, where you fail,
"that's where I show up."
I'll tell you, I serve a God that's
worthy of all praise and glory.
It's my honour to get to pray for
the...
- I want to live a life that says
sacrifice is important to me,
and I choose to sacrifice.
Mark 10:45, Christ said,
"I didn't come to be served.
"I come to serve.
"And to give my life as a sacrifice."
- Listen, dear Americans,
God is trying to get our attention.
The destiny of our nation, the hope of
our children and grandchildren
lies in our age.
- # We wait for you
# America
# For the truth... #
- So I can't tell you that I believe
we are at the end of the end.
I think we are at the end of our comfort.
We're at the end of what we know.
- You're making your people...
..just come into a nation that is very bad.
And then the next day, it is a very
holy nation.
- CHEERING
- Thank you.
- I thank you for everyone that has
upheld America
whenever we were in need.
Whenever we were in need,
we had others that helped us.
When they were in need, we helped them.
Israel will not go down because of us.
No-one will go down that is our ally,
that is not trying to attack us and kill us.
- Please put your hands on them, Lord.
Please protect this earth.
Lord, we'd never lose so much. Amen.
- Amen.
- Now, what giants are we going to face?
I think we've already seen some of them.
Enemies, you know,
the homosexual movement,
the transgender back in our military...
..the abortion issue.
- # I am free
# Hell lost another one
# I am free, I am free
# I am free
# Hell lost another one
# I am free, I am free... #
- It's kind of like we're still
telling a fairy-tale.
Everything's going to be OK.
God is good, and everything's going to be OK.
It's not going to be OK.
If you read the book, if you truly
believe Revelations...
..it's going to get worse.
- We're going to put these parts in
these flames for the sake of keeping
these individuals out of the flames.
- Yeah, yeah.
- We're going to snatch them out of
the flames of hell.
- Rejoice. Come on.
- CHEERING
TRUMPETING
I'm in Texas because this is really
the heartland
of the Christian Zionist movement.
Many of the political leaders
and the theological Christian leaders
who are really the tip of the spear
in terms of pushing the US-Israel alliance,
pushing the kind of end times theology,
they're right here in Texas.
This is their power base.
Our colleague talked to you about
talking to Phil King.
- OK.
- Hey, folks, this is a private event.
You've got to go.
- Oh, we have tickets.
- We're not going to have anti
anything.
This is the great state of Texas.
You've got to go.
- Anti what?
- Y'all anti-Israel or whatever,
we're not doing anything like that.
- I'm not anti anything.
- I'll report you to the FBI, so
you've got to go.
- You're reporting us to the FBI?
- I would.
- For what?
- Sir, you've got to go.
Just leave.
- OK.
- OK.
- All right.
Many of the proponents of this kind of
militant pro-Israel policy
don't want to talk about the merits of
this policy.
They don't want to talk about the ramifications.
They don't want to talk about the
human rights issues
raised by Israel in terms of the
displacement of Palestinians.
They run away, or they
literally kick reporters out
and threaten to report them to the
police.
I think the fundamental problem
with the Israel-Palestine conflict
is similar to some of the core issues
driving political instability
in the US.
There's too much polarisation.
There's too much dehumanisation.
PHONE RINGS
- You're calling Cornerstone Church.
Our office hours are 8:30am to 5:30pm
Monday through Friday.
- I've been trying to get in contact
with Pastor Hagee and his church,
Cornerstone Church in San Antonio,
for some time.
I've tried to get interviews, but
they've been completely walled off.
- Joining me now is Pastor Robert Jeffress,
member of the White House Faith Initiative,
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas.
What do you make of this dust-up
between these two congresswomen
- LAUGHTER
in Israel?
- They said they didn't want to go to Israel.
They wanted to go to occupied Palestine.
David, that proves that these two women
were not on a fact-finding mission.
They were on a propaganda-spewing mission.
And Israel was...
- Dr Robert Jeffress is one
of the most powerful
evangelical leaders in the country.
He's on TV all the time.
He leads one of the largest
megachurches in the country.
He's a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump.
- Now, Perfect Ending is a
book that talks a lot
about end times, prophecy.
- Yes.
- OK.
- The Bible doesn't tell us the when,
but the Bible tells us the what.
- Dr Jeffress is outspoken
on the end times,
the battle of Armageddon.
You know, he's not just talking about
this to his own flock.
He's making policy. He's
influencing Donald Trump.
He's advising him.
He's going to Israel and shaping the
geopolitics there.
- Would you join me in welcoming our
great friend
and the 45th President of the United
States of America,
President Donald J Trump?
Come on up, Mr President.
Thank you so much.
- God bless you.
- I love you.
- Robert, I want to thank you so much.
You know, you never told me how
beautiful this is.
A highly respected man.
He does very well on television and
spreading the word.
- But you have a special relationship
with Trump as his friend,
as his spiritual adviser.
Could you talk a little bit about your
relationship with Trump?
- Well, President Trump was here just
a few weeks ago in our church.
He's the only president who was able
to move our US embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
But people wonder why that was such a
big deal.
What that means is Israel possesses
the land.
- In the historical City of David in
East Jerusalem,
there's been an attempt to find the
archaeological artefacts
that form the basis of this ancient city.
Right now, there are Palestinians
living there.
What's your view on this City of David project?
- The Palestinians are trying to do
everything they can
to stop that project,
because what they are unearthing is
the archaeological evidence that the
Jewish people inhabited this land
far before what we call "Palestinians" today.
And let me just say a word today,
what we call "Palestinians", that's a
made-up term.
You don't find it in history until 100 AD.
- I've heard you talk about the battle
of Armageddon.
Could you talk about what you see in
the Middle East and how that fits
the prophetic vision for the battle of Armageddon?
- The Bible does teach in Revelation 16 and 19
that there's a final world battle that
will take place.
How would John describe an Apache
helicopter or a tank?
How would he explain a nuclear explosion?
He uses the language of appearance,
but that doesn't make
it any less real. It makes it more real.
It means these things are literally
going to happen.
- In this battle of Armageddon, who is
on God's side?
Or in other words, who's God's enemy?
- Well, the ultimate enemy
is going to be all those
who have rejected Christ as Saviour.
And it's a hard thing for people to
believe that Jesus,
the carpenter, the mild and meek
teacher, is going to return,
as Revelation 19 describes him,
sitting on a horse with a sword
and executing those who have opposed
God.
But that is Jesus.
Yes, the first time he came,
he came as Saviour of the World.
The next time he comes, he's coming as
the judge of all the world.
Our programme, Pathway To Victory,
is seen on television in all 195 countries.
We're the most viewed programme on the
Trinity Broadcasting Network,
the largest Christian network in the world.
- We're going to roll this right quick.
All right. Whenever you're ready.
- The countdown to Armageddon has begun,
and our only hope is that
Jesus will return soon
to take his children home.
Though today's global powers make
every attempt to establish binding
agreements with other nations,
God will have the final say.
No matter how hard we try
to make world peace
or undo the effects of
humanity on this earth,
the end of the world is coming
and there's nothing we can do to stop it.
Bible prophecy always begins
and ends with Israel,
in which we get a glimpse of the final
pages of human history,
the seven-year tribulation,
the final world battle, and finally
the glorious return of Jesus Christ.
My message is titled
"Countdown to Armageddon."
It feels like the end is near,
but once you read and understand
the prophecies in Scripture,
you'll realise that the end
of the world is nothing to fear.
- We heard about the news that the
Israeli occupation courts
have ruled to dispossess us around
October or November of 2020.
SHOUTING
BANGING
SHOUTING
WOMAN SCREAMS
It was such a heavy weight on my
shoulders
and the shoulders of my community,
particularly because this is something
we have dealt
with for many, many years.
But then we decided we were going to
call it what it is and start
a campaign against the
ethnic cleansing in
Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.
MUSLIM PRAYER
CHANTING:
- In our series Countdown to the
Apocalypse,
we're looking at the signs
Jesus said would precede
His visible, literal
return to planet Earth.
And the first of those signs is the
rise of radical Islam.
And Jesus said these signs will be
like the labour pains,
the birth pains that a woman experiences.
They will increase in both frequency
and intensity before the end comes.
Oh, my God.
- SOBBING
- Wow, wow, wow.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
- SHOUTING
SIRENS BLARE
SHOUTING
- How many of you would like to
experience
an explosion of God's blessing...
..to enter into a land flowing with
milk and honey?
All of your enemies have been
conquered before you.
Walk across the Jordan River
and put your foot on the property
God wants you to have.
You are a soldier of the cross.
We are conquerors in Jesus' name.
The victory is ours.
Advance and conquer.
- CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Right now, I'm at a small hotel in the
parking lot
of Cornerstone Church.
So not that far away, watching a live
stream of Pastor Hagee.
- God is waiting in the wings
to destroy your enemies.
- I tried to secure a sit-down
interview
that has been so far unsuccessful.
So I hope to just get a moment with
Pastor Hagee
before or after his sermon.
OK. He's here.
Um, excuse me, Pastor Hagee,
I have a quick question.
Do you have a moment for just one question?
- No, he doesn't.
- I wanted to ask if you're
trying to bring about
the battle of Armageddon,
is that your goal?
Excuse me, why are you holding me this way?
Excuse me, sir. OK, but why are you
twisting my arm?
You're twisting it.
The stakes are high.
John Hagee, he's seen as kind of a
political kingmaker.
Presidential hopefuls go to his megachurch...
..seek his endorsement.
The president has unilateral authority
to launch a strike or use nuclear weapons.
So for John Hagee or Robert Jeffress,
or one of these other pastors
who believes that a cataclysmic world war
could bring about Armageddon, these
are the people whispering in the ear
of a president who could
actually make that happen.
We cannot look away.
WHISPERING:
- Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners.
- WHISPERED PRAYER
- American foreign policy is guided
as much by a theocratic set of ideas
as, for instance, Iran or Saudi Arabia is.
The next step in the American
evangelical community
is to turn America into a theocracy.
- NEWSCASTER:
- Today in a landmark ruling,
the United States Supreme Court
overturned Roe versus Wade,
essentially ending abortion rights at
the federal level.
- REPORTER:
- A Texas woman facing murder charges
over an abortion.
- In God We Trust will be required
reading in Louisiana
schools this year.
- USA, USA, USA, USA, USA!
- CLAPPING AND CHANTING
- If, for instance, Trump goes
into a second term...
Beyond that, you have these
evangelical theocracy people.
- PRAYING
- If this vision prevails,
they would be fighting
a genuine crusade...
..and so their American foreign policy
becomes a tool of biblical prophecy.
And it hinges on a minority of
American voters
to whom this is not AN issue.
It is THE issue.
Because the whole apocalyptic vision
of the end of their own lives hinges
on it.
It's personal.
- We're going to see a time
where we're going to have to defend
the Christian life with a sword.
And there's a strong movement
underneath the surface
of men that feel this way.
We're going to have a bloodbath
like we've never witnessed
since the Civil War.
In the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit,
I knight you.
MOTORCYCLE RUNS
BIRDS CAW
- Heavenly Father...
- CHANTING:
- Heavenly Father...
- ..may the blood of Christ...
- ..may the blood of Christ...
- ..cleanse me.
- ..cleanse me.
- We bless your name, we praise you,
we thank you.
I do pray that you would wake up your
church to fight.
- In the beauty of holiness...
- CHANTING:
- In the beauty of holiness...
- ..for the rest of my life.
- ..for the rest of my life.
- Blessed is those who listen to the
words of this prophecy
and heed what is written in it, for
the hour of fulfilment is near.
- I will read and obey your word.
- CONGREGATION MURMUR
- He, Jesus Christ,
He is our all and all.
He is Lord!
- The next event on God's prophetic timetable,
the rapture of the church.
- CHANTING:
- I will be your servant.
- And from this day forward...
- And from this day forward...
- ..You become my Lord.
- ..You become my Lord.
- In Jesus' name.
- In Jesus' name.
- The four horses ride across the
world
and we're beginning to see them ride
now.
- SHOUTING
- And I will serve him...
- CHANTING:
- I will serve him...
- ..to the last day of my life.
- ..to the last day of my life.
- Or to the sounding of the trump of
God.
- In Jesus' name, I am saved.
- CHANTING:
- I am saved.
- CHANTING CONTINUES
- And heaven is my home.
CHANTING FADES
- I'm going to talk about war.
How many of you all recognise the
Bible is full of war?
- Amen.
- And so I don't want you to think
that I am raising a militia.
Well, I've been accused of that, brother.
Uh, because I get pretty dogmatic about...
Jesus asked us to fight.
And what I want you to just begin to
wrap your head around
is that Jesus called us to be warriors.
He said, "I didn't come to bring peace."
He said "I didn't come to bring peace.
I come to bring war."
How many of you all remember the
scripture in Luke 6 chapter
where it said, "If somebody does evil
to you, turn the other cheek."
- That's right.
- Yep.
- But see, there is another scripture
that we forget to
abide to all of that.
And that's Luke 22.
Jesus, he said, "Times are a-changing."
And he says, "Do you have a sword?"
Well, master, we don't... A sword?
He said, "Yeah, if you don't have a
sword, go sell your coat
"and buy one because the time is coming.
"You're going to need a sword."
- Amen.
- Amen.
- How many of y'all hear that things
may change in this country?
- Amen.
- And we're going to have to have a
spirit of discernment when to turn
the cheek and when to pull the sword.
- LONE CLAPPING
- That's right, man. That's right.
- A knight has to be moved by compassion,
by love, by something inside of you
that hurts.
I'm here because I believe that
there's got to be men
that's raised up.
There's got to be men that take on
another level.
And I'll knight you in the name of the
father, the son
and the Holy Spirit, and tell you to
rise and accept
your sword of responsibility.
The church has lost the battle of a
Christian nation
because they've concerned
themselves with what goes
on inside the four walls.
The Bible says an warrior must be funded,
an evangelist must be sent.
I believe God is raising up another
group of people,
and it's going to come out of the
broken, screwed-up people.
Live pure.
- CHANTING:
- Live pure.
- Speak truth.
- Speak truth.
- Right wrongs.
- Right wrongs.
- And follow the king.
- And follow the king.
- Say, that's my commitment.
- That's my commitment.
- That's a knight.
- That's a knight.
- The remnant is always a smaller
group that stays loyal.
Ad I believe that God is raising up a remnant.
It's going to be made up of those men
and women that are radical,
that are willing to put it all on the line.
There's got to be a climax to this war
of evil versus good.
At some point, there will be a major Armageddon,
and I believe that the blood will run
up to the horse's bits.
We're moving into a time in our history
where we don't know what's going to happen.
- SHOUTING
GUNFIRE
SCREAMING
SIREN BLARES
- The end of time, when is that?
That's right now.
The next thing that's about to happen
is the return
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Everything that's necessary
for this new world order
is at the door.
Major uncontrollable fires, the Bible
said, will break out
all over the world spontaneously.
The sun and the moon will be darkened.
Earthquakes so shattering that the islands
of the sea will disappear.
The seven seas of the earth will turn
to blood.
A world war so bloody that the blood
of those who are killed in battle
flows up to 200 miles to the
bridle of a horse.
The coronavirus was no accident.
When you see these signs...
..when you see nations against nation...
..when you see the moral collapse of America...
..when you see these things,
the apocalypse is coming.
We are called to be warriors.
And we need you to get in the fight!
- CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
In the tradition of Christianity,
there is no single view of the end times.
But the American evangelical community
has latched on to one.
Generally, they believe that
believers on earth
will be raptured to heaven before
things get really bad.
And that's the promise to the evangelical,
that they will not taste death if
Jesus comes back
and the rapture occurs in their lifetime.
- This book is literal from cover to cover.
B-I-B-L-E.
Basic Information Before Leaving Earth
- Bible.
- The American evangelical Christian
is someone who believes every word
of the Bible is literally true,
like the apocalypse and the
return of Jesus predicted
in the Book of Revelation.
Every single sign and wonder
that could be interpreted
to make it seems like it's sooner,
it's all good news to
the evangelical Christians.
Bring it on.
But there are certain
verses interpreted in
the Book of Revelation which
seem to intimate
that none of this can happen unless
the State of Israel exists.
- There will be no lasting peace in
the Middle East until
the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus
Christ, returns.
- The American evangelical movement now,
said, "Not only do we recognise this..."
"This process can be advanced by, for
instance, torpedoing the peace
"process so the Palestinians
never get their land back.
"The ancient borders of Israel
need to be reclaimed,
"and then Jesus will come back."
- When Jerusalem and Israel come together.
- HELICOPTER BLADES WHIR
As a reporter, I've covered
politics for so long,
and I've seen the fusion of politics
and religion in so many ways.
In recent decades, evangelical
Christian Zionists have become
an increasingly powerful force in
American politics.
I'm now investigating evangelical
power and how their direct
influence shapes US foreign policy and
our relationship to Israel.
- Some argue that calling for the
abolition of Israel
and the elimination of the only Jewish
state isn't anti-Semitic.
- We are absolutely, categorically committed
to Israel's right to exist.
- I'm a reporter from The Intercept.
I want to ask you about the hearing.
Do you have a quick second?
- Sure, man.
- Do you think there's a role of
religious extremism here in the US
funding and shaping the conflict?
I mean, there are a lot
of folks who are part
of the evangelical movement that want...
- To support Israel.
- ..to support Israel, and we don't
really kind of see that
same kind of constituent group pushing
the other way.
- Yeah, I wouldn't label the Baptist
or the evangelical community
as extreme, because I believe they feel
like they're following the Scripture
and what the Scripture says about Israel.
Those who bless Israel will be blessed.
I mean, they take it literally, and
I'm one of those people.
- You know, there are some Christian
Zionists that do believe
in some of these biblical prophecies,
and they're very controversial
even within the Christian Zionist
evangelical community.
- On what the interpretation is.
- Yeah. And believing in Armageddon,
that there will be a final battle
around Jerusalem, and that after that
battle, you know,
there's a Judgment Day.
Jews will be killed or converted,
Jesus will come back,
there's going to be a rapture event.
Um, what do you think about
those kind of prophecies?
- I believe Jesus will come back
and I'm going to be on his side.
- The Christian right has a very
organised and concerted effort
to shape the messages in DC.
I mean, they really have a political
apparatus that's very efficient,
that's very influential, even if it's often
behind the curtain.
Ralph Drollinger is a former college
basketball star who decided
to develop his own Bible
studies for politicians.
- With the advent of secularism in
America increasingly on the rise,
and what we call the mountains of
influence that are toppling
of late, one of the places
we're trying to hang
on is the mountain of political leadership,
to make sure we make disciples in that arena,
so that they can stand in office
with a prophetic voice and say,
"Thus saith the Lord."
- Ralph Drollinger formed his Bible study,
meeting with radical right
politicians, and slowly grew it.
His Bible study today has over 50
Members of Congress in attendance.
He brought his Bible study to the White House.
He convened weekly Bible studies with members
of the Trump cabinet.
- So one of the reasons we're issuing
this, how to think about Israel
through the lens of Scripture Bible
study of recent,
was because of the bombing from Gaza,
and then the glitch within the
administration to not fund
the Iron Dome resupply.
I thought I better issue a Bible study
that helps bring biblical
clarity to this issue.
- In these Bible studies, Drollinger
has attempted to provide
moral and biblical justification for
some of the most extreme
radical right policies.
He's used the Bible to justify the coronavirus,
blaming gays and members of the LGBT community...
..and really engage in the type
of radical right rhetoric that you
might hear on kind of
dark corners of the internet.
But here's someone who's directly
pastoring the Secretary of State
under the Trump administration, and
Members of Congress.
- O, God, our Father, Thou Searcher Of
Men's Hearts, help us to draw
near to Thee in sincerity and truth.
May our religion be filled with
gladness, and may our worship
of Thee be natural.
- When you look at the Book of Revelation,
things are going to get worse before
they get better.
And we're going to end up in a
tribulation period
where the Antichrist is going to war
against Israel,
and Christ is going to come back to
save Israel from the Antichrist.
- Here's a public policy issue where
the US interests are at play,
where there are so many different
policy solutions
that can be considered, but religion
is playing the dominant role.
We're talking to Members of Congress
about Israel
and the US's relationship.
- All right, y'all go.
The US has an intrinsic interest in
making sure that Israel
not only receives our best prayers and
offers of success,
but our armaments, our money, and our
ability to make sure
that in a very dangerous region, this
democracy survives.
- There are some biblical prophecies
that say that control of Jerusalem
by the Jews is important for the
Second Coming of Christ.
- This entire matter is based
upon faith of Our Maker, of Our Creator,
but it's also faith of a chosen people.
- Did you ask why the Democrats are
using our law enforcement officers
as political pawns?
The Democrats, who have been
campaigning to defund our law
enforcement as their people, BLM and Antifa
riot and loot in the streets.
- REPORTERS CLAMOUR
There's a new government in Israel.
Can you talk a little bit about the
importance of the US
relationship with Israel?
- There have been two nations created
to glorify God -
Israel and the United States of America.
I will bless both. I will honour both.
I will do all I can to stand and
defend them.
- Thank you, Congresswoman. Take care.
- Is it true that there are
people who really believe
that having Jerusalem unified under
total Israeli control
will bring on the end times?
- Well, yes, Joy. You know, I come
from a fundamentalist evangelical
background, and I grew up
in the '50s and '60s.
- AUDIO FADES
I'm 65, and when I was...
- So my background is one
where biblical prophecy
about the end times of Jesus's return,
the apocalypse,
were the reality we lived with.
And I can remember, as a child,
flushing a toilet and looking to see
if the water had turned to blood yet...
..because this was a sign that the apocalypse
was about to occur.
- Abortion on demand is another
humanistic euphemism
for man playing God.
Its ramifications go beyond that.
- I'm the son of a fundamentalist
American missionary.
People would show up to sit at the
feet of Francis Schaeffer
and learn the spirituality from him.
I was a prince of evangelical royalty.
By the time I was 18 years old,
I was talking to crowds of 20,000 people.
But over a 15-20 year period, gradually,
like a drug addict, I came clean.
I'm still estranged from
huge chunks of my family
because I'm a heretic.
I've joined the other side.
- Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!
- CLAPPING AND CHANTING
- The bedrock of support for the State
of Israel is there because American
evangelicals think it will
bring Jesus back quicker
and without the Republican
bedrock evangelical voter,
no Republican, anywhere in America,
for any office, gets elected.
- You commit yourself to the
principles of God
and politicians align themselves
with the eternal values in this book!
- CHEERING
- Thank you very much.
I want you to know that I endorse you
and what you're doing.
- I will faithfully execute the office
of President of the United States.
- So help me God.
- So help me God.
- If the evangelical movement had not
morphed into the religious right,
you would not have a situation that
would put Donald Trump in power.
- It's a Bible.
- We, who are evangelical Christians,
are going to have a true
friend in the White House.
CHANTING
- The big numbers who were there on
January 6th protesting him
not getting elected were evangelicals.
For them, when Trump lost the election,
somehow this couldn't be right because
they had interpreted him
being president for another four years
as God's will.
- SHOUTING
- Thank you, Heavenly Father, for
gracing us with this opportunity.
Thank you for allowing the United
States of America
to be reborn.
Thank you for filling this chamber
with patriots that love you
and that love Christ.
We love you and we thank you. In
Christ's holy name, we pray!
- SHOUTING:
- Amen!
- Today, the modern evangelical is
preparing for an actual holy war,
armed training, militia groups,
plenty of guns, plenty of ammunition.
They're going to cost
what you might call "sane, ordinary
America" very heavily.
- Kenneth, how are you this morning?
- I'm great, Gary. How are you?
- I'm good. Good to see you.
Hey, guys. Before I pray,
Jesus had to be a stud of a man
because he stood there
and broke bread for 15,000 people by himself.
So if you get a little tired,
think about who we serve.
- Amen.
- All right, here we go. We're
rolling!
How are you this morning?
Good.
God bless you all.
- Good morning.
- How are ya doing?
When Jesus comes back,
he's not going to send an army,
he's going to lead an army.
I want to be in that,
and I want to be right up in the
front.
Jesus said, "The first shall be last,
and the last shall be first."
So if you really want to be at the
front with Jesus...
..you've got to quit trying
to fight to be successful.
You've got to fight to be at the lower end.
Merry Christmas.
That's fine. We understand. We've all
had those days.
- CHILDREN:
- Play-Doh!
- GARY CHUCKLES
- Hey, girls, you know what?
We ride motorcycles, so you're going
to have a stick horse.
All right? We ride iron horses.
You're going to ride a stick horse,
all right?
Hey, we're in the port
in Ashdod, Israel.
And we just opened the containers
and the bikes are good. They made it!
In 2011, I shipped 30 motorcycles to Israel,
took 74 people over there.
When we rolled into Jerusalem, we had
our 30 bikes,
and then we had 120 Israeli bikes.
This ride was to honour the IDF soldiers.
- HORNS BEEPING
- And we would just say, "We just want
you to know that we care
"about Israel, and we thank you for
your sacrifice
"for this country."
How many of y'all know, when I say
Megiddo Valley,
you know what that means?
How many of you know what the Battle
of Armageddon is?
The final war of good and evil,
that's where it's going to be fought.
And I'm on this Harley,
and I'm headed in the Megiddo Valley.
I'm coming the direction that the
enemy, the Devil,
and all of his forces
are going to come against the bride
riding on that big white horse.
Visually, God, I can see that big
white horse.
And I'm riding along there and I said,
"God, I don't want to be
at the back of the pack.
"I want to be right up there
as close to you as I can.
"I want to see Jesus take that sword
"and slay the enemy and watch the
blood run up to
"the bits of the horses."
Anybody else in here?
- Yes.
- Man, I'm riding on that motorcycle
getting pumped!
And I said, "God, let me...
"I want to be right up there close to
the front. I want to see it.
"What have I got to do to get there?"
He said, "What did I teach you?"
What does the word say?
The last shall be first.
The servant of all...
..is the greatest.
- MUSLIM CALL TO PRAYER
MUSLIM PRAYING
QUIET CHANTING
- Hi. Good morning.
Welcome to our Jerusalem tour.
For us Palestinians, Jerusalem is not
just an important city.
Jerusalem is the symbol of Palestine.
Since the occupation of the eastern
part of Jerusalem in 1967,
the Israeli occupation authorities
have been designing and implementing
policies of systematic displacement
against Palestinians.
The wall is built deep inside the West Bank.
It is not on the green line,
so the wall is not just security,
it is also taking over lands.
- WHISTLING AND YELLING
REPORTER:
- Residents in East Jerusalem's Silwan
neighbourhood
said that Jewish settlers had moved
into two buildings
in the predominantly Arab area.
It's coveted by Israeli settlers, who refer
to it as the City of David.
- It makes me very angry to know that
the funding that these settler
organisations receive from people,
especially in the United States,
is making it possible for
them to actively push
Palestinians out from their city.
In Silwan, there is a so-called
national park called
the City of David, claimed to be where
King David's palace
was 2,000 years ago.
The City of David is managed and
controlled by the notorious
Elad settler organisation, which is in
charge of the settlement
activities in Silwan.
The same settler organisation
now want to establish
a biblical theme park in Silwan...
..using Jewish history in order to
justify
the uprooting of Palestinians.
- For decades, Palestinian families
that have lived in Jerusalem
for generations upon generations
are then forced out of their homes
and squashed into refugee camps.
This is happening in Sheikh Jarrah,
my neighbourhood,
this is happening in Silwan,
through various organisations
that ultimately have the same goal
of replacing Palestinian natives
with Jewish settlers.
SHOUTING:
For years, it was settlers that would
change every now and then.
They were in their early 20s
and I believe they were being paid,
and they are just there to harass us.
These settler organisations operate as
charities in the United States.
They are tax exempt,
and the evangelical organisations
are just funnelling money into them.
In Sheikh Jarrah, we have what the
Israeli Foreign Ministry
refers to as a property dispute
in which billionaire-backed settler
organisations can come
from all over the world and
exploit a judiciary
that is built by settlers to enforce
their claims
over our lands.
- Yacoub, you know this is not your house.
- Yes, but if I go, you don't go back.
So what's the problem?
Why are you yelling at me? I didn't do this.
I didn't do this.
It's easy to yell at me, but I didn't
do this.
- You are stealing my house.
- And if I don't steal it, someone
else is going to steal it.
- No. No-one...
No-one is allowed to steal it.
- CHEERING
CHANTING:
- Hey, CUFI, you shall see.
- Hey, CUFI, you shall see.
- Palestine will be free!
- Palestine will be free!
- Hey, CUFI, you shall see.
- Hey, CUFI, you shall see.
- Palestine will be free!
- Palestine will be free!
- Ladies and gentlemen, will you
please stand and give a warm
welcome to a consistent and faithful friend,
the 45th Vice President
of the United States, Mike Pence?
- CHEERING
- Well, hello, Christians United for Israel.
- John Hagee is the leading voice of
Christian Zionism.
He has built a political powerhouse
out of his organisation
Christians United for Israel.
- You know, a lot of people get
spun up with the wrong ideas
that American evangelicals want
to impose a theocracy on America.
Ha! I wish they'd be concerned about
the real theocratic takeover
that has been happening in Iran for
the last four decades.
- APPLAUSE
CHANTING
Christians United for Israel has a
really extreme view
in terms of promoting geopolitical
factors that could lead to
what they believe is the battle of Armageddon.
But in terms of the practical effect,
they're promoting policies that arm
Israel to the teeth with US weapons,
that drive Palestinians out of Jerusalem,
and that ultimately is pushing towards
more conflict
in the Middle East.
- Now, would you give a thunderous welcome
to the greatest rock star in Israel?
- Welcome to the City of David,
the place where Jerusalem began.
Pastor Hagee, thank you for
that very warm introduction.
It is an honour, as always,
to be here together...
- If you look at the website for the
City of David project,
it looks like an effort simply to
engage in archaeology
to find these biblical artefacts.
But underneath the surface,
there's a lot of Christian right money
and resources and support for this
foundation that's leading
the effort to evict Palestinian
families.
The City of David seems like
the perfect cover
for Christians United for Israel,
that conceals a very right wing agenda
that's driving this violence.
- We have 7.1 million members
and 5,000 of you in this room,
and it's because we're willing
to work little by little,
by little by little.
- We are going to have a great
time on Capitol Hill.
This is your opportunity to stand up
for Israel and the Jewish people
in the halls of Congress,
and it will be recorded
in the courts of Heaven, I assure you.
- Outside to my right...
- Thank you for putting action...
..behind words.
Prayers and hard work makes a
difference for America,
for Israel, and for the entire world.
- PRAYING
- Amen.
- APPLAUSE
SHOUTING
- I have determined that it is time
to officially recognise Jerusalem
as the capital of Israel.
- FANFARE
- Thanks for joining us, Pastor Hagee.
Really appreciate you being with us
here on Faith Nation.
I was curious about some of your
interactions
with the President on this.
You visited him at times at the White House.
- We spoke about moving the embassy.
- Welcome, our good friend.
- Welcome.
- Let's go, honey. Let's go.
- I talked to him about the
significance of moving
the embassy in the Jubilee year.
I said, "This is the year
"to move the embassy and make
"that declaration, because it is a
biblical timing
"of absolute precision."
Thank God he's going to do exactly that.
- REPORTER: The world will be watching
as the United States joins Israel
to mark the official opening of the US
Embassy in Jerusalem.
Pastor Robert Jeffress is delivering
the prayer
to kick off today's ceremony.
- Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
May those who love her prosper.
- SHOUTING
CHILD:
- Allah!
- I'd like to call upon Pastor John Hagee.
- We thank you, O Lord, for
President Donald Trump's courage
in acknowledging to the world
a truth established 3,000 years ago
that Jerusalem is, and always shall be,
the eternal capital of the Jewish people.
Can we all shout "hallelujah"?
- SHOUTING:
- Hallelujah!
- Amen.
- The torch goes up when you pray the
prayer of repentance.
So you'll have the torch.
Second Chronicles 7, 13 and 14.
"Suppose I hold back the rain,
or send locusts to eat the crops,
"or make my people suffer with deadly diseases.
"If my own people will humbly pray
and turn back to me
"and stop sinning, then I will answer
them from heaven."
- There's a great possibility that us
stopping every 150 miles,
putting our feet down on the ground,
and declaring the power of God
over this country, that it
could be that God
would work in a heavenly...
Y'all with me at all?
- Yes.
- Yeah.
- Y'all with me?
I choose to believe every one of you are on
a divine assignment from God.
God, if you can get more glory
out of our living,
if you can get more glory out of us
getting to Lebanon
and celebrating the prayer there,
get us there.
- # If tomorrow all the things were
gone
# I'd worked for all my life
# And I had to start again with
# Just my children and my wife
# I thank my lucky stars
# To be living here today
# Where the flag still stands for
freedom
# And they can't take that away
# And I'm proud to be an American
# Where at least I know I'm free
# And I won't forget the men who died
# Who gave that right to me
# And I'd gladly stand up next to you
# And defend her still today
- # Cos there ain't no doubt I love
this land
- # I love this land
- # God bless the USA
- # God bless the USA. #
- Our organisation is leading from
eight different points
of our country to come together
at the geographical centre
in Lebanon, Kansas.
Every 150 miles, we're going to get
off our bike
and pray a prayer over our nation.
- Father, I just ask that we will be
more militant about serving you.
We will be more militant, Father,
about saying "yes" to the
things that is yes,
and "no" to the things that is no.
- What's the deal?
Are we in a straight line
instead of in a circle?
What is up?
- We like shade.
- You're a bunch of wusses.
- At this time, we're going to honour
the Judeo-Christian
values by playing a Jewish prayer.
- JEWISH PRAYER
PRAYING
- I've ridden hundreds of thousands of miles,
and God has spoken so many things to
me in that solitude,
and that's my sanctuary.
It's a place for me to hear God.
- ALARM BEEPING
SHOUTING
SIRENS
SIRENS
I grew up in the suburbs of the DC area.
September 11th was a huge event in my life.
Seeing the pillars of smoke billow out
of the Pentagon...
..the war on terror,
to see the whole country so swiftly
move to suspend civil liberties,
to march towards war.
And I was coming of age around the
time of the Iraq War.
I followed the 2004 election campaign,
where Bush had mobilised evangelical voters
and created this dichotomy
of good versus evil, us versus them.
Bush even went so far as to call the
war on terror a new crusade.
And so that's why I think it's
important to be critical,
to look at the role of the Christian right
in shaping US policy towards
the Middle East
and potentially pushing us towards war.
I'm going to speak with Colonel Wilkerson.
He was the chief of staff to Colin Powell.
He left government during the Bush years
and became an outspoken critic
of the war in Iraq, the war on terror.
And he's concerned about the role
of evangelical Christian nationalists
in the military.
Some of these Christian nationalists
have zeroed in
on some biblical prophecy that if a
certain criteria is met,
in terms of the chosen people of Jews
controlling Jerusalem,
that there will be an Armageddon.
What are the dangers of having people
that have this kind of
doomsday mind-set, that cataclysmic
war is important
for bringing back Christ?
How can that endanger US interests?
- The most vivid danger in all of
this, I think,
is the special relationship with Israel.
Christians United for Israel,
John Hagee's group,
is a quintessential example of the danger.
They are looking for the US
relationship with Israel,
ultimately, to bring about Armageddon,
and the Rapture
and Christ's thousand-year reign.
That's what they're there for.
- This is the first time that soldiers
from the United States
are going to be permanently assigned
to a base in Israel.
- We, in the military, said "no"
to every president
from Harry Truman on.
"We will not put a military base in
Israel.
"If you order us to, we'll quit."
- TRUMPETING
APPLAUSE
- Now we've got a base there.
We've got a base there.
When Hezbollah has the temerity
to put a missile on that base,
or by accident,
we're in for a penny, in for a pound.
That base is there
and Trump allowed that base to go there,
so that, as we say in the military,
if the shit really hits the fan,
we're in it immediately,
because the US has been attacked.
The Stars and Stripes flies over that base.
- Most of the young people that come
into the military
are there probably because they're
trying to figure out
who they are.
From an evangelistic standpoint,
I've always referred to them as,
"Ripe as black bananas."
- LAUGHTER
- Chaplains are increasingly coming
from the fundamentalist sects.
These evangelical fundamentalist
chaplains go to some place
where basic training graduates,
and they say beforehand,
in their meeting, "These troops are at
their most vulnerable.
"They've been racked and trained to
death. Go get them."
- The Holy Spirit...
- We try to reach our recruits immediately.
There are 450,000 recruits in the
freshman class of this next
year's Armed Forces.
That's going through boot camp.
We will touch about 200,000 of them
this next year.
- They had something like 70 baptisms
at Fort Jackson
at the end of basic training exercises.
And they proselytise and they get them,
they take them down and baptise them.
And then they're part of
the Christian nationalists.
- BARKING
PHONE MESSAGE:
- I'm just calling to ask you to keep your nose
where it belongs.
We don't need you up here.
Have a rotten day, asshole.
- Next message.
- Weinstein...
- Get it!
- You're sick.
- DISGUISED VOICE:
- Go and do something different.
You make me vomit.
- Yeah, Weinstein, you're another corrupt,
heartless, gutless, coward individual.
Go find a life.
Quit picking on the people
that defend your sorry ass
every fucking day, loser.
- Colonel Wilkerson recommended that I
talk to Mikey Weinstein.
He's with the Military Religious
Freedom Foundation,
and he's worked for the last two decades
shining a light on religious
fundamentalist influence
within the military.
This is kind of a shadow war.
PHONE:
- ..43887471.
- I come from a military family.
My dad went to the Naval Academy,
so I applied for and got into all
three of the military academies.
The cadet hat.
The Air Force Academy.
When people come to us, they are
freighted with terror.
They are terrified of reprisal,
revenge, retaliation.
We're closing in on 76,000 US Marines
that are clients of ours,
and about 95% of them are Christians
themselves,
being dehumanised and marginalised for
not being Christian enough.
- The military ministry of Cru only
does three things, really.
We win people to Christ,
we build them up in their faith, and
we send them out into the world
to do the same thing.
- There are probably three dozen
parachurch organisations,
some of them well known,
like Campus Crusade for Christ
Military Ministries,
Focus on the Family, Officers'
Christian Fellowship.
that are incredibly involved in the
military.
They have offices on military bases,
they have senior military officials.
We call those fundamentalist
Christians or Dominion Christians.
The Seven Mountain Mandate, the New
Apostolic Reformation.
Their job is to transform the military
and the militaries
of the world into this version of this
weaponised Christianity.
Jerry Boykin, the former three-star
general, has made it clear
that when Jesus comes back,
he'll be carrying an AR-15.
It's not a veneer, these are true believers.
- The Lord is a warrior.
The Lord is His name.
And in Revelation 19 it says, when He
comes back,
He's coming back as a warrior, riding
a white horse
with a bloodstained white robe,
carrying a sword.
And I believe that sword He'll be carrying
when He comes back is an AR-15.
- You know, in the media, we've seen
images of Crusader symbols,
of Christian symbols, of, you know,
units deployed
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- We had 138 US Marines,
they came to us in Helmand
Province in Afghanistan.
They were walking into the villages
out there and the village elders,
most of them hadn't even heard of
9/11, but they had heard
of what I ended up calling the Jesus Rifle.
A company called Trijicon,
based out of Michigan,
they had about a $2 billion contract
to make rifle scopes
for our military.
On the scopes, if you look closely,
were biblical citations
from the Book of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
John - Revelation.
It was burned into the scope.
Now, think of the optics of American
soldiers
shooting Muslims in Afghanistan
through the scopes
that have the New Testament citations.
These are Air Force fighters that can
carry nuclear weapons.
Complete Crusader iconography,
complete with the helmet,
the three cross-shaped stars,
of course the sword and the crucifix.
All stuff like this does is completely motivate
the recruiting efforts of Boko Haram,
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, ISIS,
the Mujahideen and the Taliban.
How do they refer to America? "The Crusaders."
This doesn't help.
- CHANTING
- Never, in the history of the world,
have all the players been on the stage.
Iran.
Russia.
China.
Europe.
America.
Everything is absolutely perfect.
The final battle for global supremacy
will be the mother of all wars and Armageddon.
- There are two Armageddon lobbies in the world.
There are the extreme Islamic Armageddon lobby,
they believe in a final conflict
between Islam and everyone else.
And then there is the Armageddon lobby
of American evangelicals.
Evangelical American voters in the
Republican Party want a final
conflict with all other religions, all
other political points of view.
They see it as us versus them,
true Christians versus everyone else.
- Nation shall rise up against nation,
and as we see these things increase
in intensity and frequency,
we can know that the Lord is going to return.
- "We don't want peace."
"We," being evangelicals,
"We want Armageddon. Bring it on."
Their view of Zionism is not going to
either help Israel
or any individual Jew.
Their view of Zionism is apocalyptic.
So when Israel is finally attacked
by, say, a nuclear-armed Iran, that
suits the Christians fine.
It's exactly what they're prophesying.
Then we'll have a big last battle,
Jesus comes back and we're all going
to heaven.
- Are you listening, Iran?
Are you listening, Russia?
God's going to wipe you out.
- The scary thing is, we are armed
with the largest and most powerful
military on Earth and thousands of
nuclear weapons.
And so when you put Armageddon lobby
together with American power,
it's a different deal.
- Father God, we stand here at the
heart of our nation,
the very geographical centre of it.
- Yes.
- Lord, in recent years, the heartbeat
of America has waned.
Lord, I've come here into
the centre of America
to plead in its behalf...
- Yes.
- ..and ask you, Lord, to heal the
hearts.
Father God, I pray for this nation.
I believe for a great revival.
We believe that it could happen
because you're a miracle-working God.
- Yes, you are.
- And nothing, but nothing, is impossible.
- Amen.
- We're going live in about seven
minutes.
I need everybody to give a shout
and a roar to welcome the six million people
that are going to be joining us right at 2:00.
So let's practise. One, two, three.
- CHEERING
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
- The enemies of faith and godliness
are no longer hiding.
Because our land seems alive now
with demonic powers once hidden.
A canopy of darkness seems to have
been stretched
across the whole nation.
Government, the founders believe,
derived its just powers
from the consent of the governed, and
without that consent,
the government was without foundation.
Send us a spiritual awakening.
We appeal to Heaven.
- I'm so excited for Gary Burd to be here.
- Yeah!
- We thank you Jesus for bringing
complete healing
to his body and his wife's body.
In the name of Jesus, hallelujah!
- Oh, praise God.
Four men tried to pick up my
motorcycle
pinned underneath a tree,
and there was a manifestation of a
divine angel
that came and helped my brother pick
that bike up off my wife.
And the Lord brought to my mind about
that angel
and he said, "Listen, where you fail,
"that's where I show up."
I'll tell you, I serve a God that's
worthy of all praise and glory.
It's my honour to get to pray for
the...
- I want to live a life that says
sacrifice is important to me,
and I choose to sacrifice.
Mark 10:45, Christ said,
"I didn't come to be served.
"I come to serve.
"And to give my life as a sacrifice."
- Listen, dear Americans,
God is trying to get our attention.
The destiny of our nation, the hope of
our children and grandchildren
lies in our age.
- # We wait for you
# America
# For the truth... #
- So I can't tell you that I believe
we are at the end of the end.
I think we are at the end of our comfort.
We're at the end of what we know.
- You're making your people...
..just come into a nation that is very bad.
And then the next day, it is a very
holy nation.
- CHEERING
- Thank you.
- I thank you for everyone that has
upheld America
whenever we were in need.
Whenever we were in need,
we had others that helped us.
When they were in need, we helped them.
Israel will not go down because of us.
No-one will go down that is our ally,
that is not trying to attack us and kill us.
- Please put your hands on them, Lord.
Please protect this earth.
Lord, we'd never lose so much. Amen.
- Amen.
- Now, what giants are we going to face?
I think we've already seen some of them.
Enemies, you know,
the homosexual movement,
the transgender back in our military...
..the abortion issue.
- # I am free
# Hell lost another one
# I am free, I am free
# I am free
# Hell lost another one
# I am free, I am free... #
- It's kind of like we're still
telling a fairy-tale.
Everything's going to be OK.
God is good, and everything's going to be OK.
It's not going to be OK.
If you read the book, if you truly
believe Revelations...
..it's going to get worse.
- We're going to put these parts in
these flames for the sake of keeping
these individuals out of the flames.
- Yeah, yeah.
- We're going to snatch them out of
the flames of hell.
- Rejoice. Come on.
- CHEERING
TRUMPETING
I'm in Texas because this is really
the heartland
of the Christian Zionist movement.
Many of the political leaders
and the theological Christian leaders
who are really the tip of the spear
in terms of pushing the US-Israel alliance,
pushing the kind of end times theology,
they're right here in Texas.
This is their power base.
Our colleague talked to you about
talking to Phil King.
- OK.
- Hey, folks, this is a private event.
You've got to go.
- Oh, we have tickets.
- We're not going to have anti
anything.
This is the great state of Texas.
You've got to go.
- Anti what?
- Y'all anti-Israel or whatever,
we're not doing anything like that.
- I'm not anti anything.
- I'll report you to the FBI, so
you've got to go.
- You're reporting us to the FBI?
- I would.
- For what?
- Sir, you've got to go.
Just leave.
- OK.
- OK.
- All right.
Many of the proponents of this kind of
militant pro-Israel policy
don't want to talk about the merits of
this policy.
They don't want to talk about the ramifications.
They don't want to talk about the
human rights issues
raised by Israel in terms of the
displacement of Palestinians.
They run away, or they
literally kick reporters out
and threaten to report them to the
police.
I think the fundamental problem
with the Israel-Palestine conflict
is similar to some of the core issues
driving political instability
in the US.
There's too much polarisation.
There's too much dehumanisation.
PHONE RINGS
- You're calling Cornerstone Church.
Our office hours are 8:30am to 5:30pm
Monday through Friday.
- I've been trying to get in contact
with Pastor Hagee and his church,
Cornerstone Church in San Antonio,
for some time.
I've tried to get interviews, but
they've been completely walled off.
- Joining me now is Pastor Robert Jeffress,
member of the White House Faith Initiative,
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas.
What do you make of this dust-up
between these two congresswomen
- LAUGHTER
in Israel?
- They said they didn't want to go to Israel.
They wanted to go to occupied Palestine.
David, that proves that these two women
were not on a fact-finding mission.
They were on a propaganda-spewing mission.
And Israel was...
- Dr Robert Jeffress is one
of the most powerful
evangelical leaders in the country.
He's on TV all the time.
He leads one of the largest
megachurches in the country.
He's a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump.
- Now, Perfect Ending is a
book that talks a lot
about end times, prophecy.
- Yes.
- OK.
- The Bible doesn't tell us the when,
but the Bible tells us the what.
- Dr Jeffress is outspoken
on the end times,
the battle of Armageddon.
You know, he's not just talking about
this to his own flock.
He's making policy. He's
influencing Donald Trump.
He's advising him.
He's going to Israel and shaping the
geopolitics there.
- Would you join me in welcoming our
great friend
and the 45th President of the United
States of America,
President Donald J Trump?
Come on up, Mr President.
Thank you so much.
- God bless you.
- I love you.
- Robert, I want to thank you so much.
You know, you never told me how
beautiful this is.
A highly respected man.
He does very well on television and
spreading the word.
- But you have a special relationship
with Trump as his friend,
as his spiritual adviser.
Could you talk a little bit about your
relationship with Trump?
- Well, President Trump was here just
a few weeks ago in our church.
He's the only president who was able
to move our US embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
But people wonder why that was such a
big deal.
What that means is Israel possesses
the land.
- In the historical City of David in
East Jerusalem,
there's been an attempt to find the
archaeological artefacts
that form the basis of this ancient city.
Right now, there are Palestinians
living there.
What's your view on this City of David project?
- The Palestinians are trying to do
everything they can
to stop that project,
because what they are unearthing is
the archaeological evidence that the
Jewish people inhabited this land
far before what we call "Palestinians" today.
And let me just say a word today,
what we call "Palestinians", that's a
made-up term.
You don't find it in history until 100 AD.
- I've heard you talk about the battle
of Armageddon.
Could you talk about what you see in
the Middle East and how that fits
the prophetic vision for the battle of Armageddon?
- The Bible does teach in Revelation 16 and 19
that there's a final world battle that
will take place.
How would John describe an Apache
helicopter or a tank?
How would he explain a nuclear explosion?
He uses the language of appearance,
but that doesn't make
it any less real. It makes it more real.
It means these things are literally
going to happen.
- In this battle of Armageddon, who is
on God's side?
Or in other words, who's God's enemy?
- Well, the ultimate enemy
is going to be all those
who have rejected Christ as Saviour.
And it's a hard thing for people to
believe that Jesus,
the carpenter, the mild and meek
teacher, is going to return,
as Revelation 19 describes him,
sitting on a horse with a sword
and executing those who have opposed
God.
But that is Jesus.
Yes, the first time he came,
he came as Saviour of the World.
The next time he comes, he's coming as
the judge of all the world.
Our programme, Pathway To Victory,
is seen on television in all 195 countries.
We're the most viewed programme on the
Trinity Broadcasting Network,
the largest Christian network in the world.
- We're going to roll this right quick.
All right. Whenever you're ready.
- The countdown to Armageddon has begun,
and our only hope is that
Jesus will return soon
to take his children home.
Though today's global powers make
every attempt to establish binding
agreements with other nations,
God will have the final say.
No matter how hard we try
to make world peace
or undo the effects of
humanity on this earth,
the end of the world is coming
and there's nothing we can do to stop it.
Bible prophecy always begins
and ends with Israel,
in which we get a glimpse of the final
pages of human history,
the seven-year tribulation,
the final world battle, and finally
the glorious return of Jesus Christ.
My message is titled
"Countdown to Armageddon."
It feels like the end is near,
but once you read and understand
the prophecies in Scripture,
you'll realise that the end
of the world is nothing to fear.
- We heard about the news that the
Israeli occupation courts
have ruled to dispossess us around
October or November of 2020.
SHOUTING
BANGING
SHOUTING
WOMAN SCREAMS
It was such a heavy weight on my
shoulders
and the shoulders of my community,
particularly because this is something
we have dealt
with for many, many years.
But then we decided we were going to
call it what it is and start
a campaign against the
ethnic cleansing in
Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan.
MUSLIM PRAYER
CHANTING:
- In our series Countdown to the
Apocalypse,
we're looking at the signs
Jesus said would precede
His visible, literal
return to planet Earth.
And the first of those signs is the
rise of radical Islam.
And Jesus said these signs will be
like the labour pains,
the birth pains that a woman experiences.
They will increase in both frequency
and intensity before the end comes.
Oh, my God.
- SOBBING
- Wow, wow, wow.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
- SHOUTING
SIRENS BLARE
SHOUTING
- How many of you would like to
experience
an explosion of God's blessing...
..to enter into a land flowing with
milk and honey?
All of your enemies have been
conquered before you.
Walk across the Jordan River
and put your foot on the property
God wants you to have.
You are a soldier of the cross.
We are conquerors in Jesus' name.
The victory is ours.
Advance and conquer.
- CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Right now, I'm at a small hotel in the
parking lot
of Cornerstone Church.
So not that far away, watching a live
stream of Pastor Hagee.
- God is waiting in the wings
to destroy your enemies.
- I tried to secure a sit-down
interview
that has been so far unsuccessful.
So I hope to just get a moment with
Pastor Hagee
before or after his sermon.
OK. He's here.
Um, excuse me, Pastor Hagee,
I have a quick question.
Do you have a moment for just one question?
- No, he doesn't.
- I wanted to ask if you're
trying to bring about
the battle of Armageddon,
is that your goal?
Excuse me, why are you holding me this way?
Excuse me, sir. OK, but why are you
twisting my arm?
You're twisting it.
The stakes are high.
John Hagee, he's seen as kind of a
political kingmaker.
Presidential hopefuls go to his megachurch...
..seek his endorsement.
The president has unilateral authority
to launch a strike or use nuclear weapons.
So for John Hagee or Robert Jeffress,
or one of these other pastors
who believes that a cataclysmic world war
could bring about Armageddon, these
are the people whispering in the ear
of a president who could
actually make that happen.
We cannot look away.
WHISPERING:
- Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners.
- WHISPERED PRAYER
- American foreign policy is guided
as much by a theocratic set of ideas
as, for instance, Iran or Saudi Arabia is.
The next step in the American
evangelical community
is to turn America into a theocracy.
- NEWSCASTER:
- Today in a landmark ruling,
the United States Supreme Court
overturned Roe versus Wade,
essentially ending abortion rights at
the federal level.
- REPORTER:
- A Texas woman facing murder charges
over an abortion.
- In God We Trust will be required
reading in Louisiana
schools this year.
- USA, USA, USA, USA, USA!
- CLAPPING AND CHANTING
- If, for instance, Trump goes
into a second term...
Beyond that, you have these
evangelical theocracy people.
- PRAYING
- If this vision prevails,
they would be fighting
a genuine crusade...
..and so their American foreign policy
becomes a tool of biblical prophecy.
And it hinges on a minority of
American voters
to whom this is not AN issue.
It is THE issue.
Because the whole apocalyptic vision
of the end of their own lives hinges
on it.
It's personal.
- We're going to see a time
where we're going to have to defend
the Christian life with a sword.
And there's a strong movement
underneath the surface
of men that feel this way.
We're going to have a bloodbath
like we've never witnessed
since the Civil War.
In the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit,
I knight you.