Gohmert Gives Netanyahu Book From End Times Fanatic

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins today had Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on his radio show Washington Watch Weekly to discuss their recent trip to Israel with a delegation that also included congressmen Louie Gohmert (R-TX), John Fleming (R-LA), Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and Randy Forbes (R-VA). Perkins and Jordan recounted their meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which included Gohmert knocking over Netanyahu’s coffee cup when he “presented the Prime Minister with the latest novel from Joel Rosenberg”:

Joel Rosenberg is a Christian author who primarily writes about the End Times and frequently shares his thoughts with Glenn Beck. His latest novel describes a future time when Iran has a nuclear weapon and “[m]illions of Muslims around the world are convinced their messiah—known as ‘the Twelfth Imam’—has just arrived on earth.” Christianbook.com says that Rosenberg’s novel “combines the action and exquisite detail of Tom Clancy with the tense religious drama of Left Behind.”

Gohmert’s choice of Rosenberg’s novel as a gift for the Israeli Prime Minister is odd for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Rosenberg actively works to proselytize to Jews and convert them to Christianity. On his website, the author revels, “Jews are turning to Jesus in record numbers, and they are getting excited about His Second Coming.” Rosenberg has also told Glenn Beck that he believes that we are in the End Times and headed into the Apocalypse as a result of an emerging Islamic caliphate.

During GodTV’s 9/11 Wake Up Call, Rosenberg claimed that God let the attacks on September 11, 2011 happen “to shake America, to get our attention, to wake us up,” later pointing to America’s abortion rate and pornography industry as national sins. He said that through earthquakes and hurricanes, “God is trying to shake us” because “He is trying to get us to let go of anything else, any form of ideology, philosophy, political belief, religious belief, material position, anything or anyone that we are holding onto other than Jesus Christ.”

This begs the question: is it really appropriate for a representative of the United States to give the Israeli Prime Minister a gift from an End Times fanatic who works to proselytize to Jews?