Hank Hanegraaff

Hendrik "Hank" Hanegraaff also known as the Bible Answer Man is an American author, radio talk-show host and advocate of evangelical Christianity. He is an outspoken figure within the Christian countercult movement where he has established a reputation for his criticisms of non-Christian religions, new religious movements or cults and perceived heresies within conservative Christianity. He is also an apologist on doctrinal and cultural issues.

He was born in the Netherlands and raised in the United States since childhood. He is married with nine children.

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Hank Hannegraaff in St. Louis, Mo. August 30, 2007.

Career

Prior to becoming a leading figure in the Christian countercult movement, Hanegraaff was closely affiliated with the ministry of D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian church in Florida. During his association with Kennedy in the 1980s, Hanegraaff applied memory-based techniques (such as acrostic mnemonics) to summarise strategies, methods and techniques in Christian evangelism. His work bears resemblances to memory dynamics techniques developed in speed-reading courses and in memory training programs used in some executive business courses.

During the late 1980s Hanegraaff became associated with Walter Martin (1928-1989) at the Christian Research Institute (CRI), the conservative Protestant countercult and apologetic ministry which Martin founded in 1960.

After Martin's death from heart failure in June 1989, Hanegraaff became president of CRI. As part of his role as ministry president, Hanegraaff assumed the role from Martin of anchorman on the radio program The Bible Answer Man. Hanegraaff also became a conference speaker and itinerant preacher in churches, pursuing the general ministry charter of CRI. Shortly after the release of Dan Brown's fiction novel, he co-authored "The DaVinci Code: Fact or Fiction?" with Lutheran apologist Dr. Paul Maier. His most recent publication to date is "The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible REALLY Says About the End Times...and Why It Matters Today", from Thomas Nelson, 2007.

The content of The Bible Answer Man show includes both straightforward answering of questions about Christian doctrine, biblical interpretation, and denominational particularities, as well as special focuses on particular issues when a notable figure is a guest, such as frequent shows focused on Mormonism when former Mormons appear in studio as guests to speak from their experiences. Hanegraaff frequently expresses both agreement with and criticism of most religious groups and movements, according to his analysis of those groups' adherence to the Bible in doctrinal matters and ethics in practice. Most self-identifying Christian groups can find both support and criticism from Hanegraaff, and many respond with attacks on Hanegraaff as an apostate for his critcisms of their groups. Others find measured and balanced analyses focused on Hanegraaff's espoused goal of promoting a biblical worldview, employing the text of the Bible as its own interpreting touchstone, rather than allowing traditions or personalities to supersede the Bible or to twist its meaning.

Stance On God's Method of Salvation

Hank has identified himself as an Arminian by various statements such as the one below made on February, 4, 2000:

God is neither a cosmic rapist who forces his love on people, nor is he a cosmic puppeteer who forces people to love him. Instead God grants us the freedom of choice.

Word-Faith movement

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Cover from the British edition of Christianity in Crisis

In his 1993 book Christianity in Crisis, Hanegraaff charged the Word-Faith movement with heretical teachings, saying that many of the Word-Faith groups were "cults", and that those who "knowingly" accepted the movement's theology were "clearly embracing a different gospel, which is in reality no gospel at all."

In the best-selling book, Hanegraaff addressed five areas of doctrine under the following headings:

• Faith in Faith - a critique of Faith teaching on faith as a "force"
• Little Gods or Little Frauds? - the charge that the Faith movement teaches promotes man (and Satan) to godhood and demotes Christ
• Atonement Atrocities - a critique of the supposed teaching that Christ became "satanic" on the cross and was "born again" in Hell
• Wealth and Want - a critique of the movement's teachings on prosperity
• Sickness and Suffering - a critique of the movement's teachings on healing

He also made much of the Faith teachers' alleged tendencies to rely on visions and other experiential phenomena rather than Scripture alone.

Counterfeit Revival

Hanegraaff revisited some of the same issues in his 1997 book Counterfeit Revival, in which he rejected the claims of many Pentecostal and charismatic teachers such as Rodney Howard Browne concerning what became known as the Toronto Blessing. The Toronto Blessing was associated with the Vineyard church located at Toronto airport, and was characterized by spontaneous and sustained outbursts of bodily phenomena such as laughing, crying, animal noises, and dancing. The proponents of this blessing believed this was a special time of refreshing bestowed on churches by the Holy Spirit. A different set of phenomena and claims subsequently emanated from churches in Brownsville, Pensacola, Florida, and became known as the Brownsville Revival.

Hanegraaff accused the leaders of the movement of using hypnosis and manipulation.

Despite its warm reception by evangelicals, the book (as well as Christianity in Crisis) was harshly criticized by many Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders such as Don Williams, William DeArteaga and Michael L. Brown.

Counterfeit Revival was criticized in Christianity Today magazine's review of the book. The review, while acknowledging that Counterfeit Revival "exposes some real excesses and imbalances" in the Toronto Blessing, also states that Counterfeit Revival is a "misleading, simplistic, and harmful book, marred by faulty logic, outdated and limited research".

Worldwide Church of God

Throughout the 1990s, Hanegraaff engaged in dialogue with Joseph Tkach, Jr. and other leaders of the heterodox Worldwide Church of God (WCG). The WCG was founded in the 1930s by Herbert W. Armstrong, and had long been regarded as a cult by evangelicals, primarily for its denial of the Trinity and other traditional Christian doctrines. Following Armstrong's death in 1986, the group re-evaluated many of its teachings, including the British Israel doctrine and various eschatological predictions.

Hanegraaff was one of a handful of evangelical apologists - along with, e.g., Ruth A. Tucker (author of Another Gospel), and members of The White Horse Inn - who assisted in the reforms. The biggest changes, and certainly those most necessary to ensure their acceptance among evangelicals, were in accepting the doctrine of the Trinity and Salvation by Grace through Faith.

The story is told in the 1997 book Transformed by Truth by Joseph Tkach, with a foreword by Hanegraaff. The book, now out of print, is posted chapter by chapter on the WCG Web site.

Other apologetic works

Hanegraaff has also defended the historicity of the Resurrection of Christ in print and on radio, and has been outspoken against the theory of Evolution, in favour of creationism.

Hanegraaff is noted for his belief that Biblical inerrancy can be proven on a rational basis. He has also followed his predecessor, Walter Martin, in opposing what he describes as "pseudo-Christian" cults, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormons. In recent times he has co-authored three novels with Sigmund Brouwer.

Books

• Hank Hanegraaff (1993). Christianity in Crisis. Eugene: Harvest House Pub. ISBN 0-89081-976-9.
• Counterfeit Revival (Dallas: Word, 1997).
• The FACE That Demonstrates the Farce of Evolution (Nashville: Word, 1998).
• (General editor), The Kingdom of the Cults (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1997).
• Millennium Bug Debugged (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1998).
• Resurrection (Nashville: Word, 2000).
• The Prayer of Jesus (Nashville: Word, 2001).
• Fatal Flaws (Nashville: Word, 2003).
• Bible Answer Book (Nashville: J. Countryman, 2004).
• (with Sigmund Brouwer) The Last Disciple (A Novel), (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2004).
• (with Sigmund Brouwer) The Last Sacrifice (A Novel), (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2005).
• The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible REALLY Says About the End Times . . . and Why It Matters Today (Thomas Nelson, 2007)
• (with Sigmund Brouwer) Fuse of Armageddon (A Novel), (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2007)

See also

• Christian countercult movement
• Category:Cults
• List of anti-cult organizations and individuals
• Partial Preterism

Other Relevant Sources

• Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1965; revised in several editions published by Bethany House in 1967, 1977, 1985, 1997 and 2003).
• J. Gordon Melton, "The counter-cult monitoring movement in historical perspective," in Challenging Religion: Essays in Honour of Eileen Barker, edited by James A. Beckford & James T. Richardson, (Routledge, London, 2003), pp. 102-113.
• Larry Nichols and George Mather, Discovering the Plain Truth: How the Worldwide Church of God Encountered the Gospel of Grace (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1998).
• Joseph Tkach, Transformed By Truth (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah, 1997).

External links

• Christian Research Institute
• Archive of Bible Answerman shows
• Hank Hanegraaff Blog