Speaker 1: Heard all across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
This is the Bible answer Man broadcast with Hank Hanagraph.
Hank is president of the Christian Research Institute at CRII.
Our desire is to equip you to not only defend
the historic Christian faith, but become an apprentice of Jesus Christ,
because life and truth matter. To learn more or to
find resources to help you grow in grace, call eight
eight eight seven thousand CRII. That's eight eight eight seven
thousand two seven four, or go to our website at
equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded. Now
here's Hank Hanagraph.
Speaker 2: Favvery much, Randy. Many people today believe that Jesus Christ
was a good teacher. The Bible, however, demonstrates that Jesus
Christ was God in human flesh. He is the superstar
of biblical prophecy. And I've been talking about this as
we promote a little resource that has a big punch.
Reason being, you can remember the information it's provided for
you in such a way that you can demonstrate that
only Jesus Christ could emerge through the doorway of biblical prophecy.
Over the last couple of days, I've talked about his
ancestry and his birthplace. His crucifixion, however, is noteworthy as well.
There's nothing new about crucifixion in general. In the sixth
century before Christ, the Persian Darius the first, crucified three
thousand political dissidents in Babylon. The fourth crucifixion was employed
by the Grecian Alexander the Great, and the second the
Grecosyrian beast Antiochus. The fourth Epiphanes, who crucified Jewish stalwarts
who simply refused to be Hellenized. While thousands have suffered
the horrors of crucifixion, Christ's crucifixion remains absolutely unique. He
suffered more than any human He suffered more than the
cumutive sufferings of all of humanity, for on the cross,
the infinite Christ bore the sin and suffering of finite humanity.
While few today doubt Christ's fatal torment on Calvary's Cross,
it is one of the most well established facts of
ancient history. It's conceded by friends and foes alike. There is, however,
fierce opposition to the notion that Christ's crucifixion was predicted
by the prophets venom found on the Internet is simply
mind boggling. The problem, of course, is that such naysayers
seem caught in the web of their own fundamentalism. They
may be vaguely aware of the power of direct predictive prophecies,
but remain blithely unaware of the explanatory power inherent in
typological prophecy. The composite picture of crucifixion presented in the
Old Testament is as graphic as it's gruesome. Isaiah foreshadows
the suffering and death of Christ as the aim in
the end of all the Old Testament sacrifices the enttetype
of the sin offering, the trespass offering, the passover lamb
itself silent before it cheers. Zachariah adds to the portrait,
they will look on me, the one they have pierced.
They will mourn for him as one mourns for an
only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves
for a firstborn son. Taking in isolation. The Old Testament
passages do little to convince the stiff necked in total, However,
they have the capacity of turning heads towards truth. John
testifies to this very truth, so that you also may
believe these things happened, so that scripture would be fulfilled.
Not one of his bones will be broken. Long before
crucifixion was invented by the Persians and popularized by the Romans,
the prophets portrayed a crucified Christ who died on a
cross so that the scriptures might be fulfilled and multitudes
may come to a knowledge of the truth, his ancestry,
his birthplace, his crucifixion, the date of his visitation, the
fact that he would be an extraordinary miracle worker, that
he would fulfill the law, and the prophets that he
would be a light to the gentiles. All of this
information presented in Jesus the Superstar of Biblical Prophecy in
a memorable format, so that you can assimilate, internalize the information,
and then use it to change your world, not by might,
not by power, but by His spirit. I am so
excited about this little booklet. Please send your gift today
to touch the lives of more men, women and children,
just as your life has been touched. And don't forget
to request your copy of Jesus the Superstar of Biblical Prophecy.
Three Ways to get it the web equipped dot org
post office box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip
code two eight two seven one, and then, as always,
via the phone Resource Consultant standing by triple eight seven
thousand CRI. A lot of you hanging on. Let's go
right to the phone lines. First up as John listening
on the web, Atlanta, Georgia. Hi John, Hey.
Speaker 3: Hank, thanks for doing the heavy lifting so we can
swoop in and get all your knowledge without having to
do the hard work that you've done over the past
what fifty years.
Speaker 2: Well a lot of years.
Speaker 3: Hey. I was watching this show the other night and
it was about the homosexual riots in New York in
nineteen seventy and this this lady said, you know, when
I knew that, I knew that something was wrong with me,
and when I kissed another woman, I knew that's it.
I've finally found out, you know, how to be happy.
So you know, I'm in Atlanta, I work around gay people,
I have gay people joining my church. I watched TV.
Every single show has one, you know, gay actor or
gay character. So I'm just wondering, Okay, how should the
modern Christian deal with the homosexual community. We see how
far things have gone since nineteen seventy. I'm just wondering,
all right, what should I tell my kids? How should
I act? Because the gay people I know have always
treated me nice. I've always been you know, good nice people.
Speaker 2: Well, I think the point is always the same, whether
you are homosexual or heterosexual, whether you are a Jew
or a Muslim, whether you're a Garden variety pagan or
Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon, the point is always the same.
The Gospel is what liberates, the Gospel is what redeems,
and ultimately, the Gospel says this, we recognize that we
are sinners, whatever that sin proclivity is, we repent of
that sin, and we say God knows better. I'm going
to turn and do it his way rather than doing
it my own way, and then receive Jesus Christ as
savior and Lord of our life. And he begins to
clean up the dirt or the mess in the rooms
that are unkempt, which is to say, the one who
justifies us is also the one who sanctifies us. So
it's not as though we come to faith in Christ
then we have to stand outside the shower and get
scrubbed off. It is the shower itself that cleans us.
And in the metaphor, you have Christ who justifies us,
Christ who sanctifies us in Christ who one day will
glorify us. So, no matter what someone's proclivity is in
terms of sin, sexual or otherwise, the Gospel is that
which liberates and redeems. Now, as far as modern sensibilities
are concerned, there's nothing in the Bible that's outdated. We
can't say somehow or other that the Bible no longer
is tenable in an age of scientific enlightenment. In fact,
we might say exactly the opposite. The more evidence that
we have, the more we can be absolutely certain that
the Bible is rooted in history and evidence, that the
Bible is the infallible repository for redemptive revelation, that it's
everything necessary for faith and practice. So we still want
to communicate the message of the Gospel, rather than being
conformed by the culture. Because what are we called to
be as Christians. We're called to be change agents in
the culture. We're called to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ.
The fact that it's not politically correct not impede our
progress in the least. I can tell you this from
a personal standpoint. Over the years I've taken the hard road,
whether in my book Christianity in Crisis or Counterfeit Revival
The Apocalypse Code, I have never tried to say that
which is politically correct or popular. Why because truth matters
and I genuinely care to carry out the mission and
the vision that God has given to the Christian Research Institute.
Now in the process, sometimes you find yourself out of
the mainstream, you find yourself under the pile, you find
that people no longer support you. But that's not the point.
The point has never been popularity. The point is always
to do what you do because truth matters, and ultimately
we only have an audience one that one is God.
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: Every CRII outreach, our broadcast, podcast, website, resources, the Christian
Research Journal and more is made possible only because of
friends like you. Your partnership matters. What kind of impact
has your partnership had an impact for time and for eternity.
Stand with Hank Hanagraph and the Christian Research Institute during
the key month of June to ensure that we end
the financial year in a position of strength, to make
a gift to support crii's life changing outreaches. Simply call
eight eight eight seven thousand CROI. That's eight eight eight
seven thousand CRII, or visit us at equip dot org.
God bless you. We'll be back in just a moment
with more from Hank Hannagraph. Winston Churchill once declared, you
may have to fight when there is no hope of victory,
because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
Churchill sought to awaken those who were reluctant to fight
against the advancing Nazi war machine. Today, a spiritual battle
is taking place. Atheism advances in the West, and slavery
to secularity is imprisoning more and more hearts and minds
in the United States. For this reason, crii's ministry is critical,
but we need people willing to stand for truth, along
with the financial provisions to accomplish its mission. Stand with
Hank Hanigraph and the Christian Research Institute during the month
of June to end the fiscal year in a position
of strength. Call eight eight eight seven thousand CreI and
make a gift to support CRI's life changing outreaches. Eight
eight eight seven thousand CreI or visit equip dot org.
Equip dot org. Has God Spoken? Are the words of
Scripture merely human in origin? Or are they, in fact
the very words of God himself. Three years in the
making and based on two decades of research and reflection,
Hank Henigraph's monumental book Has God Spoken answers what is
surely the most important question facing our world. In Has
God Spoken? Memorable Proofs of the Bible's Divine Inspiration, Hank
counters the contentions of the Bible attackers and clearly shows
that belief in the Holy Scriptures is not a guess
or wishful thinking. It is the only logical conclusion after
an honest examination of overwhelming evidence ordered Has God Spoken?
From the Christian Research Institute by calling eighty eight seven
thousand CRII or go online to equip dot org equip
dot org.
Speaker 4: Hank Hanigraph has dedicated his life to defending truth because
truth matters. Yet, an encounter with Christians in the underground
Church of China left Hanograph contemplating his Christian experience. They
were experiencing something beyond truth. They were experiencing life. Truth matters,
Life matters More by Hank Hanigraph is two books in one,
Because Truth Matters. Part one equips Christians to defend the
essential truths of the historic Christian faith. In Part two,
Hank explains why life matters more and how we can
experience the height of human existence union with God. Prepare
to move past intellectually knowing about God to experientially knowing
God in Christ. To receive your copy of Truth Matters,
Life Matters More, the unexpected beauty of an authentic Christian
life called eight eight eight seven thousand CRI, and make
a gift to support the Christian Research Institutes Life Changing
Outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRI. Or visit us
at equipped dot org.
Speaker 1: And now here's Hank Hanagraph.
Speaker 2: Here very much, Randy and my phone lines doctor Chris.
He's listening on serious XM.
Speaker 5: Hi Chris, Hi, Hank, thanks for taking my call, my pleasure.
I have a friend who recently has disclosed that he
adheres to thee A millennial view of scripture, and my
alarm bells went off real quick when I got into
a bit of a debate with him. And I'm wondering
what your position is on that, And further, I feel
like it's twisting scripture, and it mayn't be heretical. So
I was just wondering what you thought about that.
Speaker 2: Well, the first thing I think about that is the
timing of the tribulation or the meaning of the millennium
is not something that we want to affix the word Harris.
This is something that we can debate vigorously as Christians,
but we simply don't have to divide over. So I
wouldn't have fixed the word heresy to this. There are
Christians who believe that the millennium is a period of
time between the first and second comings of Christ, so
they still associate an indiscriminate amount of time, perhaps two
thousand or more years to this timeframe. We don't know
at this point, or a non millennial can't tell you
exactly how much time will elapse because the second Coming
of Jesus Christ is not yet taking place. The pre
millennial position is a position which says that after the
second Coming of Jesus Christ, people will be saved and
there'll be a one thousand years semi golden age with
a rebuilt temple and reinstitute of temple sacrifices, and some
even say that those temple sacrifices will atone for sin,
then there'll be a great apostasy at the end of
this millennial age, and then the eternal state. I personally
don't agree with either of those two positions. I think
that what Revelation is communicating is not a quantity of time,
but a quality of vindication for the martyrs. In other words,
they will suffer for a short time, their vindication will
be an eternal vindication. But I think ultimately to settle
this in your mind requires something that I think few
people spend enough time with, and that is an understanding
of the art and science, a biblical interpretation. To understand
the Book of Revelation, and this includes Revelation chapter twenty,
where this idea of a thousand years is repeated six times.
You have to have a good understanding or a good
grasp of the Old Testament scriptures. If you do not,
you might get caught going off on a fantastic fantasy
journey as opposed to rooting or grounding yourself in the
wellspring of Old ten Testament information. Want to go back
to the phone lines, talk to Roxanne Hi.
Speaker 3: Roxanne Hik, I was wondering if you think Jewish people
go to heaven.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think it has anything to do with ethnicity.
I don't think it has to do with your background
or your genealogy, whether you're a male or a female,
whether you're Jew or Greek, what your station in life is.
All it has to do with is are you in
Jesus Christ. If you are in Jesus Christ, then you
are the seed of Abraham and an air according to
the promise. This Paul makes very very plain in Galatians
chapter three. Abraham only had one seed. That seed is
Jesus Christ. If you are in Jesus Christ, you are
the seed of Abraham, as I said, The Bible explicitly
says you are then an heir according to the promise.
So Abraham was called to be the father of many nations.
In fact, that's what his name means. His name was
changed from Abram to Abraham, and we see him as
being the father of many nations. In that it's not
about whether you are a particular ethnicity. It has to
do with whether you are rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you, you got it.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your call. We'll go back
to the phone lines now. Talk to Chris. He's listening
to Oklahoma. Hi Chris, Hey, Hank.
Speaker 6: I have a question for you. How would I explain
to someone that thinks Jesus Christ is the only way?
You know, the bay goes on when you say, well,
someone in the third one country who haven't heard of
Jesus Christ. If they never heard of him, that's their
fault because it's in their will and they're not going
to go to heaven. And I'm trying to explain to
him that Jesus is the way, but it's not the
only way. Am I right?
Speaker 2: Well? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth in
the life. No one comes to the Father but by me,
So I think that words trump any other words. But
here's how you need to look at it. Every single
person gets the light of creation in the light of conscience,
which is to say that there's an outer light in
an inner light. The outer light is a light that
demonstrates there has to be a God. If you look
at any effect, it has to have a cause equal
to or greater than itself. So when you look at
the heavens, you know there is a God. But God
has also written large a knowledge of himself on the
tablet of our consciousness. So we have that inner light
as well. And if we respond to the light of creation,
light of conscience, we can receive the light of Christ.
Which is to say that Christ himself made clear that
the real problem is not that there isn't enough light.
The real problem is that men loved darkness rather than
light because their deeds are evil. So there is only
one way by which you can be reconciled to the fight.
There's only one who can bridge the chasm between our
sin and God's holiness. That one is crystal, is pure,
that one can give to us the sparkling robes of
his own righteousness to cover our own righteousness. And there's
no one else who can save us. We can't save ourselves.
Mohammed can't save us, Krishna can't save us, No other
earthly human being can save us. Only Jesus Christ, who
is God in human flesh, can bridge that chasm between
our sin and God's righteousness. That's the message of the Bible.
And I'd add to that that it's never the absence
of truth that damns, it's always the despising of truth
that damns. And therefore, once again I refer you to
the words of Jesus Christ who said light came into darkness.
Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
So again, the problem is not that there's not light
that people can adhere to. It is that people are
lost because they love darkness rather than light.
Speaker 6: Well, Hank, you answered that. Thank you very much. Maygod
continue to bless you in your ministry. And thankful who
God bless you?
Speaker 2: You got it. Thank you so much. And let's go
back to the phone lines and talk to Carl next.
He's listening in cal Grielberti, Canada.
Speaker 7: Hi Carl, Hi, Hank. My question ties in nicely with
one of your previous callers in terms of how we
as leaders in the church deal with individuals coming to
the church that are on church, no church background, or
very little church background. They have a lot of sin
in their lives, whether it be homosexuality or living common law.
At what point do we offer them or extend them
baptism and then also membership into the church. Well, how
far along the sanctification process do they need to be
to qualify for say, baptism and or membership.
Speaker 2: Well, the entrance requirements are always the same. It doesn't
matter what your station in life is, or what your
gender is, what your background is. The entrance requirements are
always the same for every single person, which is to
say that we recognize that we're a sinner, we repent
of our sin, and then we receive Jesus Christ as
savior and Lord of our life. When we do that,
then Jesus Christ comes in and it begins to clean
up our life. So the entrance requirements again are realize
you're a sinner, repent of your sin, and receive Jesus
Christ as savior and Lord of your life. When you
do that, then you're baptized. And you're not baptized as
a lone ranger Christian, but you're baptized into the body
of Christ. Christ is building a body we can't look
down at any person. Do not be proud, says Paul.
Do not be conceited, but be willing to associate with
people of low position. So in the body of Christ,
there's no hierarchy. I'm better than you, I'm cleaner than you,
I've got more money than you. At the foot of
the cross, there's complete equality, and we recognize that every
person is necessary within the body. Now obviously if someone
comes into the body and says, you know, I don't
really care about this message that Jesus Christ has given
by which you must be saved. Rather, I want to
continue doing it my own way. Well, certainly they would
not become members of the Body of Christ. They may
be spectators looking on from without, but they're not members
of the Body of Christ, and therefore they don't partake
of communion. In fact, to let them partake of communion
as part of the Community or the Fellowship of Blo
would be eating and drinking destruction into their own lives.
So we would protect them from those kinds of things
because they would be harmful to them. We always want
to protect the people, which are ultimately the crowning jewels
of God's creation, even if they decide to live by
the dictates of their own will. So again, the simple
answer is, anyone who realizes that they're a sinner, repents
of their sin and receive Jesus Christ should be welcomed
into the Church with open arms, regardless of what their
station in life may or may not be.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for the Bible answer Man broadcast.
In today's post truth culture of confusion, the Christian Research
Institute exists to equip listeners like you with answers to
communicate the Gospel of hope to a world and desperate
need of life and truth. Because life and truth matter.
In addition to truth, we want to equip you with life,
not simply to know about God, but truly to know Him.
Experiencing union with Christ enables us to live life not
merely by our own energy, but with the energy of
the Lord Jesus working powerfully through us. For more information,
call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII. That's eight eight
eight seven thousand CRII. You can also write CRII at
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eight two seven one, or just visit us online at
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Man Broadcast is funded by listeners like you. We're on
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willing to stand for truth, along with the financial means
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month of June to end the fiscal year in a
position of strength. Call eight eight eight seven thousand CROI
and make a gift to support CRI's life changing outreaches
or visit equip dot org