Hmmm . . . I skip out of town for a cousin's wedding and come back to find more fun and excitement here in the land of Apologetics. The latest salvo was fired today in the continuing assault of the would-be Bible Answer Man on Dr. Tim LaHaye. Hanegraaff's response to Dr. Thomas Ice's article is as follows (WARNING: Strong stimulant required to maintain attention span):

RESPONSE TO NATIONAL LIBERTY JOURNAL ARTICLE
ON THE APOCALYPSE CODE

To the Editor:
Thank‐you for this opportunity to respond to the recent National Liberty Journal article titled, “Hanegraaff Calls Tim LaHaye a Racist and Blasphemer,” by Thomas Ice (http://www.nljonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=688&Itemid=0).

In November 2004 an article appeared in the Dallas Morning News titled, “Last Disciple vs. Left Behind: New Take on Rapture Puts Authors in Apocalyptic Feud.” In the article Tim LaHaye supposed that I subscribe to the “nonsense” that “Christ came back in AD 68.” As LaHaye’s charge was circulated via newspapers and the Internet, I was summarily branded a “preterist” and a heretic who believes the second coming of Christ has already come. Pre‐Trib Research Center fellow Mark Hitchcock not only associates me with preterism but uses the label to suggest I may be prone to anti‐Semitic proclivities.

And now the National Liberty Journal headline: “Hanegraaff Calls Tim LaHaye a Racist and Blasphemer.” The article begins by characterizing The Apocalypse Code as “a sub‐Christian attack,” proceeds to say “Hanegraaff is certainly no lover of Israel,” and concludes with the assertion, “Hanegraaff embraces and argues for Replacement Theology.”

First, a careful reading of The Apocalypse Code demonstrates that I do not call LaHaye a racist or a blasphemer. Rather, it is the implications of his theology that I call into question. For example, as I explain, LaHaye divides people into two categories on the basis of race. He goes so far as to assert, “After carefully analyzing the temperament of the first Israelite as he is described in the Bible, I have found Jacob to be a ‘dead ringer’ for the twentieth‐century residents of Israel.” The good news for Jews is that LaHaye believes that on the basis of their race they have a divine right to the land of Palestine. The bad news, according to LaHayeʹs worldview, is that as a direct result of the crucifixion of Christ twentyfirst century Jews will soon die in an Armageddon that will make the Nazi Holocaust pale by comparison. In sharp contrast, I hold the very suggestion that Jews are under a national blood‐guiltiness for the murder of Christ to be abhorrent.

You can read the rest of the artice here (if you feel compelled):
http://www.equip.org/atf/cf/%7B9C4EE03A-F988-4091-84BD-F8E70A3B0215%7D/PSN001.PDF