April 9, 2025 • 28 mins
On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (04/09/25), Hank talks about death from a biblical worldview and the significance of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
Hank also answers the following questions:
What happens after death? Do we immediately go to heaven or hell, or do we enter soul sleep? Twila - Gresham, OR (3:01)
I have been taught that suicide condemns a person to hell. Do Christians who commit suicide go to hell? Al - Kirkland, WA (5:26)
Are the Gnostic gospels authoritative? Should I use English translations of them for my devotions? Brian - Nashville, TN (7:36)
Can you give me an overview of the history and origin of the Bible? Ronald - Bethlehem, PA (15:11)
Can you explain the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24-30? Brian - Norman, OK (20:51)
Why would God create billions of people, knowing most of them would end up in hell? David - Trenton, NJ (24:34)
Hank also answers the following questions:
What happens after death? Do we immediately go to heaven or hell, or do we enter soul sleep? Twila - Gresham, OR (3:01)
I have been taught that suicide condemns a person to hell. Do Christians who commit suicide go to hell? Al - Kirkland, WA (5:26)
Are the Gnostic gospels authoritative? Should I use English translations of them for my devotions? Brian - Nashville, TN (7:36)
Can you give me an overview of the history and origin of the Bible? Ronald - Bethlehem, PA (15:11)
Can you explain the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24-30? Brian - Norman, OK (20:51)
Why would God create billions of people, knowing most of them would end up in hell? David - Trenton, NJ (24:34)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Heard all across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
This is the Bible answer Man broadcast with Hank Anagraph.
Hank as President of the Christian Research Institute at CRI.
Our desire is to equip you not only to defend
the historic Christian faith, but to become a winsome witness
(00:26):
to a spiritually hungry but skeptical world because life and
truth matter. To learn more or to find resources to
help you grow in grace, call eight eight eight seven
thousand CROI or go online to equip dot org. That's
equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded and
(00:49):
now here's Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
To the modern materialist, death is the cessation of being.
According to the mystic view of the ancients, when we die,
we devolve into a ghostly shadow of our present selves.
Reincarnationists will they hold that our souls continuously return dressed
up in other bodies. Hindus believe that the body is
(01:15):
merely illusion not. The only thing that ultimately survives is
an impersonal cosmic consciousness. Only in a biblical worldview do
we become greater after death than we were before it.
Because only in Christianity are our lowly bodies transformed into
(01:37):
his glorious resurrected body, a body like unto the Savior's body.
But what if Jesus never rose from the dead. The
apostle Paul answers that question. If Christ has not been raised,
our faith is feudile, we are still dead in our sins.
(02:02):
Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
If only in this life we have hope in material things,
we are to be pitied more than all men. But
Christ has risen, and therefore we can live by a
(02:24):
completely different standard. We do not hope in mortality. We
revel in immortality. We do not hope in perishability. We
exude imperishability. Because we know that Christ rose, we too
(02:45):
will rise, and that animates everything that we do. It's
not about being politically correct or popular. It is about
being in concert with the will and purposes of God.
A lot of you hanging on. We'll go right to
the phone. Calls first up as Twila Gresham Oregon, Hi, Twila, Hi,
(03:10):
how are you?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I'm okay? How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I'm doing great? Thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
My question was, when we die, do we immediately go
to heaven or hell?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Or do we enter in a soul sleep until the resurrection.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Well, when we die, we're absent from the body, present
with the Lord if we are believers, and that is
a great joy. It is something that we look forward
to to such a great extent that the apostle Paul says,
I'm hard pressed from both directions having the desire to
depart and be with Christ, for that is much better.
(03:47):
So he's looking at death not as sleeping, but having
heightened awareness in the presence of his redeemer and creator. So, no,
we don't sleep upon death. The soul does not have awareness,
It does not have extension in space as the body does,
but it does have awareness in fact, as I just mentioned,
(04:10):
heightened awareness in the presence of God. So there's a
intermediate state, twila, and that intermediate state is what happens
upon death, and then there's an eternal state, which happens
upon the time that Christ appears a second time to
put all things to right. Okay, that's when our bodies rise.
(04:31):
That's what I was talking about in the prolog to
the broadcast.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Okay, we do have consciousness at the time of death, absolutely,
and there are a lot of evidences for that in
the Scripture, not the least of which is the story
that Jesus told about the rich Man and Lazarus in
Luke chapter sixteen.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Lazarus, the beggar who suffered all the indignities of humanity
upon earth, is now in Abraham's bosom or paradise, both
metaphors for being in the presence of God and enjoying
that relationship in a way that we cannot even imagine
on this earth. And yet the best is to come,
(05:09):
as I just mentioned, in the final state, when Jesus
appears the second time, because then our bodies rise immortal
and perishablely and corruptible.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Okay, okay, okay, thank you so much, you got a twilight.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Thank you for your call back to the phone lines.
We'll talk next to Al in Kirkland, Washington, kyl Hi think.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
Thank you for taking a call.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Pleasure.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
A question I always knew from appearance in the Church
and all other religious peoples that the suicide is that
basically continue to help. Is that the case for Christians
or not?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, no, it is not. First of all, you're asking
a bit of a hypothetical, because in the truest sense,
any Christian in his right mind not commit suicide because
a Christian in their right mind recognizes that life and
death are the prerogative of God alone, and therefore we
dare not take the prerogative of God upon ourselves. However,
(06:15):
it is certainly conceivable that someone in a state of
despondency does something that they wouldn't ordinarily do, and that
does not preclude them from heaven. So it's important that
while we recognize suicide not as an unforgivable sin, we also,
(06:37):
in the same breath recognize that those who take the
sacred name of Christ upon their lips should never contemplate suicide.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
Right, Yeah, and I've said that part that was just
for some reasons, you know, I hear about a lot
OFT's but there is no unpartant sin. But then I remember, oh, oh,
my life for much and I just was.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Now, the unforgivable sin is a continuous, ongoing rejection of forgiveness.
Those who refuse forgiveness through Christ will spend eternity separated
from His love and grace. But those who sincerely desire
forgiveness can be absolutely certain that God will never spurn them.
But again, I think in terms of the direct answer
to your question, if you're a Christian, you dare not
(07:26):
contemplate suicide. But suicide is not the unforgivable sint. Okay,
thank you so much, you got it. Thank you for
your call back to the phone lines. We'll talk next
to Brian Nashville, Tennessee. Hi. Brian, Hey, Hank, how you
doing doing good?
Speaker 6 (07:42):
I got a question about the UH recently, about the
book about it's roughly for translations of the Gnostic Gospels,
and is that something I should read and supplement with
the New Testament or should I just stick with this
New Testament.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
No, I'd stick with the New Testament because the Gnostic
Gospels are riddled with error, they don't correspond to reality,
they're not authoritative. In some sense, we can say with
certainty that they are eminently dangerous. For example, if you
read the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, you have such nonsense
(08:20):
as a supposed conversation between Peter and Jesus where Simon
Peter says, make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life,
and Jesus answers, look, I'll guide her and make her
a male, so that you may become a living spirit
resembling you males. For every female who makes yourself male
into the domain of heaven. This is of course absurd.
(08:42):
So you have in gnosticism a patriarchal community, which is
inconsistent with the biblical teaching that in Christ there is
no male or female, there's no Jew or Greek, there's
no slave or free. So we have comple equality at
the foot of the cross. Were different, but we are
(09:06):
considered by God to be equal from the standpoint of
our nature.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yeah, I've felt kind of the same way when reading that.
I thought it was a bit of serve, especially referring
to the Book of Thomas. I actually read that earlier today.
So I guess you answered my question. I guess I
just I'll just stick with the New Testament. I've kind
of felt that way anyways, by just wondering that there
was any kind of supplement I could use that. I'm
(09:39):
not even really sure what the origins of the Gospels are.
Do you know about that?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yes? I do. And the Gospels themselves were written by
those who were eyewitnesses to Christ's life, death, and resurrection,
and they were written before the time that Jerusalem fell,
And so what we have is early eye witness attestation
(10:08):
to the life of Jesus Christ, there's no time for
legendary contamination. Exactly. The opposite is true with Gnostic Gospels.
They were influenced by second century concepts that came in
vogue long after the New Testament period, and therefore they're unreliable,
and I don't think unless you're doing research, I don't
(10:30):
think reading the Gnostic Gospel is particularly helpful. I remember
reading the Gospel of Judas with one of my co
laborers at CRI in my office one day, and both
of us ended up in stitches thirteen papyrus pages. But
they are incoherent babbling compared to the comprehensive connectedness of
(10:52):
the gospel corresponding to truth.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
Okay, well, thanking you got it.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Thank you so much for your call. Coming to the station,
brak right back.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Pastor Martin Nimoler spent the last seven years of Nazi
rule in concentration camps. Reflecting on the camps where millions
would die, Nimoler said, first they came for the socialists,
and I did not speak out because I was not
a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionist and
I did not speak out because I was not a
trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I
(11:24):
did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one
left to speak for me. To ensure that your voice
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(11:45):
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Don't tune out. Hankleby back after the break. Doctor Evan
Alexandra's wildly popular near death experience book Proof of Heaven
(12:09):
assures us that no matter what we do in this life,
only unconditional love and joy await us in the world
to come. But our Lord warned that while the gate
to Hell is wide, the road to it broad, and
those who enter through it are many, the gate is
narrow and the way is hard that leads to life,
and those who find it are few. Your generous support,
(12:30):
let's Hank hanograph and see Uri speak out against the
lies that lead to hell. In appreciation for your gift, today,
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to know about Heaven, the hereafter, and Near Death experiences
filled with answers to your questions about life after death.
Call eight eight eight seven thousand CROI or visit equip
(12:52):
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Are the words of Scripture merely human in origin? Or
are they, in fact the very words of God himself?
(13:15):
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
(13:38):
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
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(14:02):
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(14:25):
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(14:46):
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visit us at EQUIP dot org. Once again, here is
(15:09):
hand catagraph.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Thanks very much, Randy. Let's go right back to the
phone callers. Next up is Ronald listening in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Hi Ronald, Hi Hank, how are you good? Thank you?
Speaker 7 (15:19):
First of all, thank you Hank for your minstream making
this show very lively and very active. Though I appreciate
all your input thank you so much. I guess my
question is more like getting your inputs. I just wanted
to get some insight from you as to the summarized
history of the Bible, where it came from, how it
(15:40):
came about. Who has the original manuscript of the Bible,
and who was the authority to kind of translate that
to all the versions that we have right now in English,
and who gave them that authority. I would say, I'm
going to hang up my phone on Hank and I'm
going to continue listening to my radio again show and
(16:01):
self issue.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, thank you very much for that question, and I
have written about this in my book Has God spoken
memorable proofs of the Bible's divine inspiration? What is so
wonderful about the Bible is that we have the text
of scripture preserved in the autographs, and through the tenacity
(16:26):
of the text, the autographs or the original writings emerge.
So we have manuscripts that were taken care of in
meticulous fashion by the Old Testament copyists. And therefore Jesus
could put his impra mater on the Old Testament, saying
(16:46):
that not a single jot or tittle would disappear from
the law until everything had been fulfilled. In terms of
the New Testament, we also have some five thousand and
six hundred manuscripts, and those manuscripts are a treasury by
(17:06):
which we can get back to the autograph, so we
can know for certain that within the manuscript God has
preserved his word. It isn't preserved by an ecclesiastical authority,
but rather it is approved of in the manuscripts themselves.
But as far as the English Bible is concerned, the
(17:29):
genesis of the English Bible was in the writings of
Oxford theologian John Wickliffe. It was called the morning Star
of the Reformation, and his translations from the thirteen eighties
remained the only English Bible until the invention of movable
type in the sixteenth century. And I should note that
(17:49):
putting scripture into the hands of the lady was considered
such an outrage against the authority of the Church, that
forty four years after he had died, Pope Martin the
Fifth had his bones unearthed, incinerated, and the ashes thrown
to the wind. But like his ashes, the legacy of
(18:10):
the English Bible spread abroad in the years to come.
No single person, I would say, made a greater contribution
to the legacy of the English Bible than did William Tindall.
He purposed to make the Bible available to the commoner,
(18:31):
so that a boy who drives the plow would be
as familiar with the Bible as was the pope. And
his work became the basis for a plethora of translations,
culminating with a King James version, which was commissioned in
sixteen oh four and completed in sixteen eleven and became
the most cherished Bible in the English speaking world. And
(18:54):
if you look at the linguistic artistry and stylistic majesty
of the King James Version, you find an enduring reverence
for the author, God himself, and the legacy of the
King James Bible. We find in the ethos and the moras,
and the civil liberties, the art, the language, the science,
(19:15):
the jurisprudence of Western civilization. So while we now live
in the shadow of the Bible, our civilization once lived
in the pages of the Bible. I should also note
that the King James Version would likely have remained pre
eminent among English Bible translations were it not for three
(19:36):
principal factors. The first is the evolution of language. In
other words, word meanings of verb forms, spelling has changed
over time, and the newer translations take that into account.
Second is the progress of our knowledge and understanding of
the original Biblical languages, which has helped for newer and
(19:59):
truer translations of the Biblical text to emerge. So there
are mistakes in the King James Bible, we don't create
some kind of doctrine for infallibility of the translations. What
we call for is the infallibility of the autographs. And again,
(20:19):
the autographs are housed within the extent manuscripts. A third
thing I should mention in closing is the discovery of
earlier and better manuscripts. And these manuscripts provide evidence that
conclusively points to the fact that certain inclusions in the
King James version were unwarranted, the most notable of which
(20:43):
is the Comma Johanneum. And so I read about this
and has got spoken. There's much more information, obviously, and
has presented in a memorable fashion. Back to the phone lines.
Let's talk next to Brian in Norman, Oklahoma. Hi, Brian, Hey,
I'm doing well. How are you.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
I'm doing great. I wanted to talk to you about
the parable about the weeds. I'm not that well versed
in the Bible. I know you don't believe in Calvinism,
and I've had a big problem with it as well.
And it seems to suggest that though because there's good
and bad seeds, and the enemy plants to bad seeds, well.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I don't want to make that parable walking off fours.
I mean, basically, Jesus is giving an example of what
the Kingdom of Heaven is like, and he uses this
idea of a man who sowed good seed in his field,
but then while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and
sowed weeds among the wheat and then goes away. And
(21:42):
when the wheat sprouts and forms heads, the weeds also appear.
And then the owner's servants come to him and say, sir,
didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then
did these weeds come from? And he says, an enemy
did this, And the servants ask him, do you want
to go and pull them up? And then he answers no,
(22:03):
because while you're pulling the weeds, you might uproot the
wheat with them as well. Let them both grow together
until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters,
first collect the weeds, tie them in bundles to be burned,
and then gather the wheat and bring them into my barn.
So I think to ask the question with respect to
(22:25):
calvinism of this passage or determinism, is to ask the
wrong question of the passage.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Okay, I might be wrong. I'm just further asking. But
he goes on. Jesus explained the prophets asked him to
explain the parable, and he gives an example, and he says,
the planner is the son of Man and the seeds
are men. It's not. And I thought that was the
(22:52):
case too, that the seeds were the word, because he
usually it's referred to as the word as the seed.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
He says, the one who sowed the good seed is
the son of Man. The field is the world, and
the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom.
The weeds are the sons of the evil ones. So
the imagery is very clearly explained by Jesus Christ himself.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the
harvesters are angels, as the weeds are pulled up and
(23:21):
burned in the fire. So it will be at the
end of the age the son of Man will send
out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom.
Everything that causes sin, and all who do evil, they
will throw them in the fiery furnace where they be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so what's pointed out
here in terms of the meaning of the parable is
(23:43):
specific and precise, okay.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And it doesn't have to do with anything with actual
men and being good or bad seeds or good or
bad weeds or wheat.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Well, it has to do with men, yes, it says
they are the sons of the kingdom in terms of
the good seed and the weeds are the sons of
the evil one. What's going on here is that Christians
live side by side with the unbelieving people in the world,
and at the end things will be straightened out. In
(24:19):
the meantime, evil and good will grow up together. In
the end they'll be quarantined. Evil is contagious and must
be quarantined otherwise, like a deadly plague, will continue to infect.
Back to the phone lines, we'll talk next to David
in Trenton, New Jersey. He is listening on the web. Hi, David?
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Or why would God create billions of people knowing that
they would end up going to help most of them?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Well, God created a universe in which there is such
a thing as volition, and volition or will creates the
reality of love. And thus God creates a universe in
which people of their own volition or will can choose
to love and serve Him or to reject him. If
(25:07):
God created the universe in any other way, love would
not have been genuine. And if love was not genuine,
it wouldn't be meaningful. So God creates people who can
choose to have fellowship with Him or to reject fellowship
with Him. And that is what hell is in a
continuous fashion. It is the rejection of a relationship with God,
(25:32):
which erases the true mark or image of God in humanity.
So C. S. Lewis put it best, and I like
to quote him at this point because he puts it
in a profound way. There are only two kinds of
people in the world, those who say to God, Thy
will be done, and those to whom God in the
(25:53):
end says Thy will be done. God is not a
cosmic rapist, and therefore he does not force himself on people,
either in this life or in the life to come.
If he did, love wouldn't be love.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
Thank you, you got it.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Thank you so much for your call and look forward
to see you next time right here with more the show.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Thank you for joining us today. Our mission at the
Christian Research Institute is to defend the faith, answer Bible questions,
and encourage Christians to watch their life and doctrine closely.
To find resources to help equip you, go to equip
dot org. That's equip dot org, or call us at
(26:34):
eight eight eight seven thousand CROI. You can also write
CRI at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina,
two eight two seven one. The Bible answer Man Broadcast
is supported by listeners like you. We're on the air
because life and truth matter to doctor Evan Alexandra's wildly
(27:06):
popular near death experience book, Proof of Heaven assures us
that no matter what we do in this life, only
unconditional love and joy await us in the world to come.
But our Lord warned that while the gate to Hell
is wide, the road to it broad, and those who
enter through it are many, the gate is narrow and
the way is hard that leads to life, and those
(27:27):
who find it are few. Your generous support, let's hank
hanograph and see Uri speak out against the lies that
lead to hell. In appreciation for your gift, today, we'll
rush you Hank's book After Life What you Need to
Know about Heaven, the Hereafter, and Near death Experiences, filled
with answers to your questions about life after death. Call
(27:48):
eight eight eight seven thousand CROI or visit equip dot org.
Now again, that's equip dot org
Heard all across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
This is the Bible answer Man broadcast with Hank Anagraph.
Hank as President of the Christian Research Institute at CRI.
Our desire is to equip you not only to defend
the historic Christian faith, but to become a winsome witness
(00:26):
to a spiritually hungry but skeptical world because life and
truth matter. To learn more or to find resources to
help you grow in grace, call eight eight eight seven
thousand CROI or go online to equip dot org. That's
equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded and
(00:49):
now here's Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
To the modern materialist, death is the cessation of being.
According to the mystic view of the ancients, when we die,
we devolve into a ghostly shadow of our present selves.
Reincarnationists will they hold that our souls continuously return dressed
up in other bodies. Hindus believe that the body is
(01:15):
merely illusion not. The only thing that ultimately survives is
an impersonal cosmic consciousness. Only in a biblical worldview do
we become greater after death than we were before it.
Because only in Christianity are our lowly bodies transformed into
(01:37):
his glorious resurrected body, a body like unto the Savior's body.
But what if Jesus never rose from the dead. The
apostle Paul answers that question. If Christ has not been raised,
our faith is feudile, we are still dead in our sins.
(02:02):
Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
If only in this life we have hope in material things,
we are to be pitied more than all men. But
Christ has risen, and therefore we can live by a
(02:24):
completely different standard. We do not hope in mortality. We
revel in immortality. We do not hope in perishability. We
exude imperishability. Because we know that Christ rose, we too
(02:45):
will rise, and that animates everything that we do. It's
not about being politically correct or popular. It is about
being in concert with the will and purposes of God.
A lot of you hanging on. We'll go right to
the phone. Calls first up as Twila Gresham Oregon, Hi, Twila, Hi,
(03:10):
how are you?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I'm okay? How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I'm doing great? Thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
My question was, when we die, do we immediately go
to heaven or hell?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Or do we enter in a soul sleep until the resurrection.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Well, when we die, we're absent from the body, present
with the Lord if we are believers, and that is
a great joy. It is something that we look forward
to to such a great extent that the apostle Paul says,
I'm hard pressed from both directions having the desire to
depart and be with Christ, for that is much better.
(03:47):
So he's looking at death not as sleeping, but having
heightened awareness in the presence of his redeemer and creator. So, no,
we don't sleep upon death. The soul does not have awareness,
It does not have extension in space as the body does,
but it does have awareness in fact, as I just mentioned,
(04:10):
heightened awareness in the presence of God. So there's a
intermediate state, twila, and that intermediate state is what happens
upon death, and then there's an eternal state, which happens
upon the time that Christ appears a second time to
put all things to right. Okay, that's when our bodies rise.
(04:31):
That's what I was talking about in the prolog to
the broadcast.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Okay, we do have consciousness at the time of death, absolutely,
and there are a lot of evidences for that in
the Scripture, not the least of which is the story
that Jesus told about the rich Man and Lazarus in
Luke chapter sixteen.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Lazarus, the beggar who suffered all the indignities of humanity
upon earth, is now in Abraham's bosom or paradise, both
metaphors for being in the presence of God and enjoying
that relationship in a way that we cannot even imagine
on this earth. And yet the best is to come,
(05:09):
as I just mentioned, in the final state, when Jesus
appears the second time, because then our bodies rise immortal
and perishablely and corruptible.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Okay, okay, okay, thank you so much, you got a twilight.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Thank you for your call back to the phone lines.
We'll talk next to Al in Kirkland, Washington, kyl Hi think.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
Thank you for taking a call.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Pleasure.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
A question I always knew from appearance in the Church
and all other religious peoples that the suicide is that
basically continue to help. Is that the case for Christians
or not?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, no, it is not. First of all, you're asking
a bit of a hypothetical, because in the truest sense,
any Christian in his right mind not commit suicide because
a Christian in their right mind recognizes that life and
death are the prerogative of God alone, and therefore we
dare not take the prerogative of God upon ourselves. However,
(06:15):
it is certainly conceivable that someone in a state of
despondency does something that they wouldn't ordinarily do, and that
does not preclude them from heaven. So it's important that
while we recognize suicide not as an unforgivable sin, we also,
(06:37):
in the same breath recognize that those who take the
sacred name of Christ upon their lips should never contemplate suicide.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
Right, Yeah, and I've said that part that was just
for some reasons, you know, I hear about a lot
OFT's but there is no unpartant sin. But then I remember, oh, oh,
my life for much and I just was.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Now, the unforgivable sin is a continuous, ongoing rejection of forgiveness.
Those who refuse forgiveness through Christ will spend eternity separated
from His love and grace. But those who sincerely desire
forgiveness can be absolutely certain that God will never spurn them.
But again, I think in terms of the direct answer
to your question, if you're a Christian, you dare not
(07:26):
contemplate suicide. But suicide is not the unforgivable sint. Okay,
thank you so much, you got it. Thank you for
your call back to the phone lines. We'll talk next
to Brian Nashville, Tennessee. Hi. Brian, Hey, Hank, how you
doing doing good?
Speaker 6 (07:42):
I got a question about the UH recently, about the
book about it's roughly for translations of the Gnostic Gospels,
and is that something I should read and supplement with
the New Testament or should I just stick with this
New Testament.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
No, I'd stick with the New Testament because the Gnostic
Gospels are riddled with error, they don't correspond to reality,
they're not authoritative. In some sense, we can say with
certainty that they are eminently dangerous. For example, if you
read the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, you have such nonsense
(08:20):
as a supposed conversation between Peter and Jesus where Simon
Peter says, make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life,
and Jesus answers, look, I'll guide her and make her
a male, so that you may become a living spirit
resembling you males. For every female who makes yourself male
into the domain of heaven. This is of course absurd.
(08:42):
So you have in gnosticism a patriarchal community, which is
inconsistent with the biblical teaching that in Christ there is
no male or female, there's no Jew or Greek, there's
no slave or free. So we have comple equality at
the foot of the cross. Were different, but we are
(09:06):
considered by God to be equal from the standpoint of
our nature.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yeah, I've felt kind of the same way when reading that.
I thought it was a bit of serve, especially referring
to the Book of Thomas. I actually read that earlier today.
So I guess you answered my question. I guess I
just I'll just stick with the New Testament. I've kind
of felt that way anyways, by just wondering that there
was any kind of supplement I could use that. I'm
(09:39):
not even really sure what the origins of the Gospels are.
Do you know about that?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yes? I do. And the Gospels themselves were written by
those who were eyewitnesses to Christ's life, death, and resurrection,
and they were written before the time that Jerusalem fell,
And so what we have is early eye witness attestation
(10:08):
to the life of Jesus Christ, there's no time for
legendary contamination. Exactly. The opposite is true with Gnostic Gospels.
They were influenced by second century concepts that came in
vogue long after the New Testament period, and therefore they're unreliable,
and I don't think unless you're doing research, I don't
(10:30):
think reading the Gnostic Gospel is particularly helpful. I remember
reading the Gospel of Judas with one of my co
laborers at CRI in my office one day, and both
of us ended up in stitches thirteen papyrus pages. But
they are incoherent babbling compared to the comprehensive connectedness of
(10:52):
the gospel corresponding to truth.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
Okay, well, thanking you got it.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Thank you so much for your call. Coming to the station,
brak right back.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Pastor Martin Nimoler spent the last seven years of Nazi
rule in concentration camps. Reflecting on the camps where millions
would die, Nimoler said, first they came for the socialists,
and I did not speak out because I was not
a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionist and
I did not speak out because I was not a
trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I
(11:24):
did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one
left to speak for me. To ensure that your voice
is heard and that someone is speaking for you, become
a member today of CRI's support team. Simply call eight
eight eight seven thousand CROI. That's eight eight eight seven
(11:45):
thousand CRII, or visit our website at equip dot org.
Don't tune out. Hankleby back after the break. Doctor Evan
Alexandra's wildly popular near death experience book Proof of Heaven
(12:09):
assures us that no matter what we do in this life,
only unconditional love and joy await us in the world
to come. But our Lord warned that while the gate
to Hell is wide, the road to it broad, and
those who enter through it are many, the gate is
narrow and the way is hard that leads to life,
and those who find it are few. Your generous support,
(12:30):
let's Hank hanograph and see Uri speak out against the
lies that lead to hell. In appreciation for your gift, today,
we'll rush you Hank's book After Life. What you need
to know about Heaven, the hereafter, and Near Death experiences
filled with answers to your questions about life after death.
Call eight eight eight seven thousand CROI or visit equip
(12:52):
dot org. Now again, that's 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?
(13:15):
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
(13:38):
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 CURI or go online to
equip dot org. Equip dot org. The Complete Bible Answer
(14:02):
Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection of the most
often asked questions Hank Hannigraph has received throughout his four
decades as host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast. With
more than half a million copies already in print, this
newly revised and expanded Collector's Edition helped seekers and skeptics
alike sort through the truth on topics such as reliability
(14:25):
of the Bible, religions and cults, the resurrection and afterlife,
and many more issues vital to a better understanding of
God in Christ and our relationship to Him. To receive
your copy of the Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition,
Revised and Expanded, call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII
(14:46):
and make a gift to support the Christian Research Institute's
life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or
visit us at EQUIP dot org. Once again, here is
(15:09):
hand catagraph.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Thanks very much, Randy. Let's go right back to the
phone callers. Next up is Ronald listening in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Hi Ronald, Hi Hank, how are you good? Thank you?
Speaker 7 (15:19):
First of all, thank you Hank for your minstream making
this show very lively and very active. Though I appreciate
all your input thank you so much. I guess my
question is more like getting your inputs. I just wanted
to get some insight from you as to the summarized
history of the Bible, where it came from, how it
(15:40):
came about. Who has the original manuscript of the Bible,
and who was the authority to kind of translate that
to all the versions that we have right now in English,
and who gave them that authority. I would say, I'm
going to hang up my phone on Hank and I'm
going to continue listening to my radio again show and
(16:01):
self issue.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, thank you very much for that question, and I
have written about this in my book Has God spoken
memorable proofs of the Bible's divine inspiration? What is so
wonderful about the Bible is that we have the text
of scripture preserved in the autographs, and through the tenacity
(16:26):
of the text, the autographs or the original writings emerge.
So we have manuscripts that were taken care of in
meticulous fashion by the Old Testament copyists. And therefore Jesus
could put his impra mater on the Old Testament, saying
(16:46):
that not a single jot or tittle would disappear from
the law until everything had been fulfilled. In terms of
the New Testament, we also have some five thousand and
six hundred manuscripts, and those manuscripts are a treasury by
(17:06):
which we can get back to the autograph, so we
can know for certain that within the manuscript God has
preserved his word. It isn't preserved by an ecclesiastical authority,
but rather it is approved of in the manuscripts themselves.
But as far as the English Bible is concerned, the
(17:29):
genesis of the English Bible was in the writings of
Oxford theologian John Wickliffe. It was called the morning Star
of the Reformation, and his translations from the thirteen eighties
remained the only English Bible until the invention of movable
type in the sixteenth century. And I should note that
(17:49):
putting scripture into the hands of the lady was considered
such an outrage against the authority of the Church, that
forty four years after he had died, Pope Martin the
Fifth had his bones unearthed, incinerated, and the ashes thrown
to the wind. But like his ashes, the legacy of
(18:10):
the English Bible spread abroad in the years to come.
No single person, I would say, made a greater contribution
to the legacy of the English Bible than did William Tindall.
He purposed to make the Bible available to the commoner,
(18:31):
so that a boy who drives the plow would be
as familiar with the Bible as was the pope. And
his work became the basis for a plethora of translations,
culminating with a King James version, which was commissioned in
sixteen oh four and completed in sixteen eleven and became
the most cherished Bible in the English speaking world. And
(18:54):
if you look at the linguistic artistry and stylistic majesty
of the King James Version, you find an enduring reverence
for the author, God himself, and the legacy of the
King James Bible. We find in the ethos and the moras,
and the civil liberties, the art, the language, the science,
(19:15):
the jurisprudence of Western civilization. So while we now live
in the shadow of the Bible, our civilization once lived
in the pages of the Bible. I should also note
that the King James Version would likely have remained pre
eminent among English Bible translations were it not for three
(19:36):
principal factors. The first is the evolution of language. In
other words, word meanings of verb forms, spelling has changed
over time, and the newer translations take that into account.
Second is the progress of our knowledge and understanding of
the original Biblical languages, which has helped for newer and
(19:59):
truer translations of the Biblical text to emerge. So there
are mistakes in the King James Bible, we don't create
some kind of doctrine for infallibility of the translations. What
we call for is the infallibility of the autographs. And again,
(20:19):
the autographs are housed within the extent manuscripts. A third
thing I should mention in closing is the discovery of
earlier and better manuscripts. And these manuscripts provide evidence that
conclusively points to the fact that certain inclusions in the
King James version were unwarranted, the most notable of which
(20:43):
is the Comma Johanneum. And so I read about this
and has got spoken. There's much more information, obviously, and
has presented in a memorable fashion. Back to the phone lines.
Let's talk next to Brian in Norman, Oklahoma. Hi, Brian, Hey,
I'm doing well. How are you.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
I'm doing great. I wanted to talk to you about
the parable about the weeds. I'm not that well versed
in the Bible. I know you don't believe in Calvinism,
and I've had a big problem with it as well.
And it seems to suggest that though because there's good
and bad seeds, and the enemy plants to bad seeds, well.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I don't want to make that parable walking off fours.
I mean, basically, Jesus is giving an example of what
the Kingdom of Heaven is like, and he uses this
idea of a man who sowed good seed in his field,
but then while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and
sowed weeds among the wheat and then goes away. And
(21:42):
when the wheat sprouts and forms heads, the weeds also appear.
And then the owner's servants come to him and say, sir,
didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then
did these weeds come from? And he says, an enemy
did this, And the servants ask him, do you want
to go and pull them up? And then he answers no,
(22:03):
because while you're pulling the weeds, you might uproot the
wheat with them as well. Let them both grow together
until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters,
first collect the weeds, tie them in bundles to be burned,
and then gather the wheat and bring them into my barn.
So I think to ask the question with respect to
(22:25):
calvinism of this passage or determinism, is to ask the
wrong question of the passage.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Okay, I might be wrong. I'm just further asking. But
he goes on. Jesus explained the prophets asked him to
explain the parable, and he gives an example, and he says,
the planner is the son of Man and the seeds
are men. It's not. And I thought that was the
(22:52):
case too, that the seeds were the word, because he
usually it's referred to as the word as the seed.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
He says, the one who sowed the good seed is
the son of Man. The field is the world, and
the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom.
The weeds are the sons of the evil ones. So
the imagery is very clearly explained by Jesus Christ himself.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the
harvesters are angels, as the weeds are pulled up and
(23:21):
burned in the fire. So it will be at the
end of the age the son of Man will send
out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom.
Everything that causes sin, and all who do evil, they
will throw them in the fiery furnace where they be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so what's pointed out
here in terms of the meaning of the parable is
(23:43):
specific and precise, okay.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And it doesn't have to do with anything with actual
men and being good or bad seeds or good or
bad weeds or wheat.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Well, it has to do with men, yes, it says
they are the sons of the kingdom in terms of
the good seed and the weeds are the sons of
the evil one. What's going on here is that Christians
live side by side with the unbelieving people in the world,
and at the end things will be straightened out. In
(24:19):
the meantime, evil and good will grow up together. In
the end they'll be quarantined. Evil is contagious and must
be quarantined otherwise, like a deadly plague, will continue to infect.
Back to the phone lines, we'll talk next to David
in Trenton, New Jersey. He is listening on the web. Hi, David?
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Or why would God create billions of people knowing that
they would end up going to help most of them?
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Well, God created a universe in which there is such
a thing as volition, and volition or will creates the
reality of love. And thus God creates a universe in
which people of their own volition or will can choose
to love and serve Him or to reject him. If
(25:07):
God created the universe in any other way, love would
not have been genuine. And if love was not genuine,
it wouldn't be meaningful. So God creates people who can
choose to have fellowship with Him or to reject fellowship
with Him. And that is what hell is in a
continuous fashion. It is the rejection of a relationship with God,
(25:32):
which erases the true mark or image of God in humanity.
So C. S. Lewis put it best, and I like
to quote him at this point because he puts it
in a profound way. There are only two kinds of
people in the world, those who say to God, Thy
will be done, and those to whom God in the
(25:53):
end says Thy will be done. God is not a
cosmic rapist, and therefore he does not force himself on people,
either in this life or in the life to come.
If he did, love wouldn't be love.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
Thank you, you got it.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Thank you so much for your call and look forward
to see you next time right here with more the show.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Thank you for joining us today. Our mission at the
Christian Research Institute is to defend the faith, answer Bible questions,
and encourage Christians to watch their life and doctrine closely.
To find resources to help equip you, go to equip
dot org. That's equip dot org, or call us at
(26:34):
eight eight eight seven thousand CROI. You can also write
CRI at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina,
two eight two seven one. The Bible answer Man Broadcast
is supported by listeners like you. We're on the air
because life and truth matter to doctor Evan Alexandra's wildly
(27:06):
popular near death experience book, Proof of Heaven assures us
that no matter what we do in this life, only
unconditional love and joy await us in the world to come.
But our Lord warned that while the gate to Hell
is wide, the road to it broad, and those who
enter through it are many, the gate is narrow and
the way is hard that leads to life, and those
(27:27):
who find it are few. Your generous support, let's hank
hanograph and see Uri speak out against the lies that
lead to hell. In appreciation for your gift, today, we'll
rush you Hank's book After Life What you Need to
Know about Heaven, the Hereafter, and Near death Experiences, filled
with answers to your questions about life after death. Call
(27:48):
eight eight eight seven thousand CROI or visit equip dot org.
Now again, that's equip dot org
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