December 22, 2025 • 28 mins
Hank continues his special series leading up to Christmas Day featuring his acronym CHRISTMAS. Today, he picks up with the third and fourth letters of the acronym, “R” and “I”. The “R” in CHRISTMAS refers to Resurrection. This is so transcendently important because, without the Resurrection of Jesus, there is little point in even discussing Christmas. As the Apostle Paul put it in a letter to the Corinthian Christians, “if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless” (1 Corinthians 15:17 NLT). In light of St. Paul’s words, it is incumbent on us to demonstrate that the Christ of Christmas had the power to lay down His life and take it up again. The “I” in CHRISTMAS represents the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—the Incarnation that makes Resurrection possible. Jesus took on all the essential properties of human nature, but he did not take on that which is non-essential—namely, sinful inclinations. In fact, as Adam was created without a proclivity towards sin, so the Second Adam was untainted by original sin.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Broadcasting across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
This is the Bible answer Man Broadcast. Your host for
the program is Hank Canagraph, president of the Christian Research Institute.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. For
more information resources or to donate to cr I, call
(00:31):
eight eight eight seven thousand CRI, or go online to
equip dot org. That's equip dot org. The following program
was pre recorded to start today's Bible answer Man broadcast.
Here's your host, Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Thank you very much for Randy. As we inch closer
and closer to Christmas, working through my Christmas acronym, it
talked about the Christ of Christmas, and I also talked
about the history of Christmas, for Christ stands at the
very apex of human history. Today, I want to talk
(01:10):
about the R in Christmas, and that of course refers
to resurrection. This is so transcendently important because without the
resurrection of Jesus, there's little point in even discussing Christmas.
As the Apostle Paul put it in a letter to
the grinthen Christians, if Christ has not been raised or
(01:32):
preaching is useless and soldier faith. In light of Saint
Paul's words, it is incumbent on you and I to
demonstrate that the Christ of Christmas had the power to
lay down his life and the power to take it
up again, and thus he demonstrated that he is God
(01:55):
in human flesh. To begin with, liberal and conservative scholars
alike concede that after the suffering of Jesus Christ, after
he had suffered fatal torment, Jesus was buried in the
(02:15):
private tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and as a member
of the Jewish court that condemned him to death, Joseph
of Arimathea is clearly fact, not fiction. Jesus burial is
also substantiated by Mark's Gospel and is therefore far too
(02:37):
early to have been subject to legendary corruption. Indeed, the
earliest Jewish response to the resurrection of our Lord presupposes
the empty tomb, and in the centuries following the resurrection,
the fact the empty tomb was forwarded by Jesus's friends
(02:58):
and his foes uniformly. Christianity could not have survived an
identifiable tomb containing the corpse of Christ, and Jesus gave
his disciples many convincing proofs that he had indeed risen
from the dead. Well, for example, points out that Christ
(03:21):
appeared to more than five hundred of the Brothers at
the same time, most of whom he said are still living,
though well some of them are forormously. It would have
been one thing to attribute these supernatural experiences to people
who had already died. It was quite another to attribute
(03:42):
them to multitudes who were still alive. As the famed
New Testament scholar of Cambridge C. H. Dodd points out,
there could hardly be any purpose in mentioning the fact
that most of the five hundred are still alive on
them unless unless Saint Paul is saying the witnesses are
(04:04):
there to be questioned. One other point in this regard
is that what happened as a result of the resurrection
is unprecedent in human history. In the span of just
a few hundred years, a very small band of seemingly
insignificant believers succeeded in turning an entire empire upside down.
(04:29):
And while it's conceivable that they would have faced torture, vilification,
and even cruel death for what they fervently believed to
be true, it is inconceivable that they would have been
willing to die for what they knew to be alie.
As doctor Simon Greenleaf, the famous Royal professor of law
(04:50):
at Harvard, once put it, if were morally possible for
them to have been deceived in this matter, every human
motive operated to lead them to die, discover and then
to avow their error. If then their testimony said was
not true, there was no possible motive for the fabrication.
(05:12):
Given the rock solid evidence for the central pillar on
which Christianity either rises or falls, we can with certainty
embrace Christ's miraculous conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
Well that leads me to the eye. In the Christmas acronym,
(05:36):
we talked about christ history resurrection. Now let's talk about incarnation.
Because there's a reason we rejoice at Christmas, and that
reason is that the baby born to Mary and Joseph
on the First Advent was no ordinary child. This baby
(06:00):
was the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy of Immanuel, meaning
God with us. It was the ultimate self revelation of
God to humankind. Jesus the Christ was and eternally is
God incarnate, literally God in flesh. And although John's Gospel
(06:25):
does not include a narrative of the birth and the
infancy of Jesus. The doctrine of the incarnation is aptly
summed up in his introduction. It's famous he probably know
it by heart. In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
(06:48):
The Word became flesh, the Word made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the one
and only who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth. The clear testimony scripture is that in the
incarnation Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. In
(07:14):
other words, he existed as the perfect unity of one person,
of a divine and a human nature. Saint Paul eloquently
expressed this profound truth, this incredible truth of the incarnation
in a letter to the Philippian Christians, when he said,
(07:34):
your attitude ought to be the same as that of Jesus, who,
being in very nature God, did not consider equality with
God something to be grasped. Instead, well, instead, he made
himself nothing. He took on the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness, and being found in appearances
(07:59):
a man. He humbled himself and became obedient to death,
even death on a cross, as the anthropost, as the
god Man, the spotless lamb of God, lived a perfectly
sinless human life, and he died a sinner's death. Why
(08:21):
to sufficiently atone, once and for all for the sins
of humanity? Think about it? Without both natures, Christ's payment
would have been insufficient. Has God his sacrifice was sufficient
(08:42):
to provide redemption for the sins of humankind. As man,
he did what the first Atom failed to do. Saint
Paul says this, for just as through the One Man
the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience
(09:03):
of the One Man, the many will be made righteous.
Where As Paul explained the Corinthian Christians, as in Atom
all die, so in Christ all will be made alive
like the Trinity. This precious doctrine of incarnation, this reality
(09:26):
is often considered to be logically incoherent. While many issues
surrounding the incarnation, such as the precise modes of interaction
between Christ's divine nature and his human nature, may transcend
our human understanding, the doctrine, the incarnation does not transgress
(09:46):
the laws of logic. To understand the logical coherence of
the incarnation. You have to first consider the image of God.
Because God created humanity in his own image, the essential
properties of human nature are not inconsistent with the divine nature.
(10:11):
So while the notion of God becoming a clam would
be patently absurd, the reality that God became a man
is not. I want to talk when we come back
from the break about how crucial it is to point
out that though the God Man is fully human, he
(10:33):
is not merely human. Though he took on all the
essential properties of human nature, he did not take on
that which is non essential. He did not take on
sinful inclinations. Talk more about that when we come back.
In the meantime, as we go to break, by thanks
(10:55):
to all of you who stand shoulder to shoulder with
me in the battle for life and truth. Please give
general to the ministry of the Christian Research Institute as
we close out the year that'll make a difference in
the lives of people all around the world. You can
give them a safe, secure fashion on the web at
equip dot org. We are going to be right back,
(11:16):
so please don't touch that dial.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
How would your life be different today without the Bible?
Answer Man broadcast, the Christian Research Journal, or CRI's website,
books and other resources. If CRII has blessed you this year,
please help us bring more of these blessings into your
life and many more in the new year. Give a
special tax deductible gift by December thirty first. To partner
(11:42):
with us in ministry, call eight eight eight seven thousand
CRII or visit equip dot org. Don't go away, Hank
hanagraph will be back in a moment. Anyone who's been
paying attention knows there's a war going on, not just
(12:05):
on traditional morality, civility, and decency, but even more fundamentally
on historic notions of truth. And the enemy isn't just
the onslaught of fake news, facilitated by a post truth
culture and turbocharged by growing legions of ideological spinductors. Note
the real enemies of truth range from postmodernist convictions that
(12:26):
there is no objective truth to militant scientism that claims
that only science can determine truth and religion is little
more than primitive superstitions. But CRI Support Team members are
not waving a white flag of surrender. They're holding the
fort by undergirding everyone of Christian Research Institute's mind shaping
and Life Changing outreaches twenty four to seven. To learn
(12:49):
how you can make a difference and enjoy all the
benefits of support team membership, simply visit equip dot org.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Hank Hanigraph has dedicated his life to defending truth because
truth matters. However, his life and ministry were radically transformed
by another three word phrase, Life matters more. Truth matters
because Christianity is rooted in history and evidence. Life matters
more because it is the experience of union with God.
The goal of Christian life is union with God. All
(13:24):
attempts to understand Christianity from a solely rational perspective put
us in danger of devolving into a transactional rather than
transformational relationship with God. Truth Matters, Life matters More will
equip you to move beyond intellectually knowing about God to
experientially knowing Him in christ. To receive your copy of
Truth Matters, Life Matters More called eight eight eight seven
(13:47):
thousand CRI and make a gift to support the Christian
Research Institute's Life Changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand
CRI or visit us online at equipp dot org.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
An infinite God reduced to the size of a human embryo,
the creator of time and space, invading both in human form.
Such is the mystery and the majesty of the Incarnation
Supreme being condescending to become one of us. Perhaps nothing
is more important than grasping the significance of the coming
(14:22):
God in human flesh. Without the life, death, and resurrection
of the incarnate One who walked among us, our world
would be unfathomably dark. To be equipped as a witness
and to be inspired in your walk, you'll want to
feast on Hank Hantagraph's book Incarnation, The Ultimate Self Revelation
(14:43):
of God. To receive your copy of Incarnation, simply call
eight eight eight seven thousand c RII and make a
gift to support curi's life changing outreaches or visit equip
dot org equip dot org. We now return to the
(15:11):
Bible answer Man Broadcast and your host, Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Thank you very much for Andy. I have been going
through my Christmas acronym, and I talked about the christ
of Christmas, the history of Christmas, the fact that Christmas
is rooted in history and evidence, and then earlier on
in this broadcast, I was talking about the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, that's the capstone in the arch of Christianity.
(15:38):
And now I'm talking about the incarnation of Jesus Christ,
the incarnation that makes resurrection possible. And before the break,
I was mentioning that Jesus took on all the essential
properties of human nature, but he didn't take on that
which is non essential, namely sinful inclination. In fact, as
(16:01):
Adam was created without a proclivity towards sin, so the
second atom was untainted by original sin. As with his
moral perfection, Jesus's other divine attributes were not undermined in
the incarnation, and while Christ Jesus voluntarily refrained from exercising
(16:26):
certain attributes of deity, he did not divest himself of
a single divine attribute with respect to his omniscience. His
human nature may have served as a filter limiting his
knowledge as a man, but nonetheless Jesus's divine omniscience was
(16:50):
ever accessible to the will of the Father. There is
no incoherence in the biblical teaching that Jesus became and
will forever remain one person with two distinct natures. Neither
commingling his natures nor becoming two persons. And yet, and yet,
(17:13):
there are those in the modern world who perpetrate pseudo intellectual,
fast food pontifications that claim that the incarnation of Jesus
Christ is but a pathetic facsimile of earlier pagan mystery religions.
A case in point is found in the assertion made
famous by W. B. Yeates that the incarnation of Christ
(17:39):
directly parallels the Greek mythology of Leda in the Swan,
as Zeus, having taken on the form of a swan,
had intercourse with the Virgin latest so the spirit overshadowed
Mary in the form of a dove in both scenes.
According to Yates, divinities, by impregnating mortal women intervene in
(18:04):
and transform cultural history. Well, purveyors of this mythology, what
do they do well? They employ biblical language and go
to great links to concoct commonalities. However, the alleged similarities,
as well as the terminology used to communicate them, are
(18:26):
clearly exaggerated. Parallels between the incarnation of Helen of Troy
and the incarnation of Jesus Christ, as well as the
terminology used to communicate those parallels or an obvious stretch,
and sadly, for the mystery religions, that is about as
(18:48):
good as it gets. If you have a truly open mind,
they are to resist rejecting the incarnation a priori in
other words, before you examine it. Why. Because miracles such
as the incarnation are not only possible, they're necessary in
(19:09):
order to make sense of the universe in which we live.
I say that because, according to modern science, the universe
not only had a beginning where the universe is unfathomably
fine tuned to support life, and not only that, but
the origin of the universe, information and the genetic code,
(19:33):
irreducible complexity and biological systems, and the phenomenon of the
human mind pose intractable difficulties for merely natural explanations. And
this reason reason forces us to look beyond the natural
(19:53):
world to a supernatural designer who miraculously intervenes in the
affairs of his creed handiwork. In other words, if we
are willing to believe that God created the heavens and
the Earth, we should have no problem whatsoever accepting his
incarnation in time in space. While many issues surrounding incarnation,
(20:21):
issues like well, like the precise modes of interaction between
Christ's divine nature and his human nature transcend human understanding,
the doctrine of incarnation does not transgress the laws of logic.
To understand the logical coherence of incarnation, you have to
(20:44):
first consider human beings as icons of God. Because God
created humanity in his own image, the essential properties of
human nature are not they're not inconsistent with his divine nature.
So while the notion of Zeus becoming a swan is
(21:04):
self evidently absurd, the reality that God became a man
is not suffice it to say. When we encountered those
who cast aspersions on the miraculous nature of Christ coming
in in flesh, wet would do well to remember that
it is our it's our responsibility to use well recent
(21:28):
answers as opportunities to demonstrate that the historical account of
Christ's incarnation is not blind faith, but rather is faith
founded on a refutable fact. It's one thing to say
that the child born in Bethlehem was God incarnate. It's
(21:49):
quite another to establish this beyond all reasonable doubt, and
to do that we have to demonstrate Jesus to be
the sinless super name natural savior of humanity. Let me
give you how you do that. The first thing you
do is you recognize that Christ is the only human
(22:09):
who ever demonstrated the credential of sinlessness. So while the
Qur'an exhorts Mohammed to seek forgiveness for his sins, the
Bible exonerates Messiah, saying Jesus had no sin. Furthermore, a
second reason, Jesus demonstrated supernatural authority over sickness, over the
(22:37):
forces of nature, fallen angels, even death itself. Matthew for
records that Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching, preaching healing every disease,
every sickness among the people. Mark four documents, Jesus rebuking
(23:03):
the winds and waves, saying quiet, be still, and look
for Jesus encounters a man possessed by an evil spirit
and commands the demon come out of him. Had John four,
(23:24):
Jesus tells the royal official whose son was close to death,
your son will live. In fact, the four gospel writers
all record that Jesus demonstrated ultimate power over death through
the immutable fact of his resurrection. A third and final
(23:48):
point is this the credentials of Christ's deity are seen
in the lives of countless men, women and children. Each
and every day, people of every tongue and tribe and nation.
(24:08):
They experience the Christ of Christmas. They repented their sins.
They receive Him as Lord and savior of their lives.
They're baptized, they're washed, they're cleansed, They're filled with the
Holy Spirit, They're incorporated in church, They're united with Christ. This,
(24:36):
this is the credential of Christ's deity seen in the
lives of people. People of every tongue and tribe and
nation experienced the Christ of Christmas by repenting of their
(24:56):
sins again, being baptized, receiving Him as Lord and Savior
of their lives. They not only come to know about
Christ evidentially, but experientially. They experience the resurrected Christ, and
He becomes more real to them than the very flesh
(25:17):
upon their bones. Well, today we have gone through resurrection
and incarnation. Tomorrow I want to talk about the s
in the acronym Christmas, as again we inch closer and
closer to the celebration of Christ coming in flesh, as
(25:40):
always says I close out this broadcast, want to thank
those who stand with us in the battle for life
and truth. You are deeply appreciated. If you haven't given
this year, please remember that by giving, you tangibly make
a difference in the lives of people for time and
for eternity. Thanks for being generous. You can given a safe,
(26:04):
secure fashion on thewebit equipped dot org. Out of time
for today, look forward to being back with you tomorrow.
With the rest of my acronym.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You've been listening to the Bible Answerman Broadcast with Hank Hannagraph.
Our mailing address is Pobox eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina,
zip code two eight two seven one. To listen to
the broadcast on the Internet, visit equip dot org, where
you'll also find a wealth of information and resources to
equip you to talk to a resource consultant called eight
(26:36):
eight eight seven thousand CRII. That's eight eight eight seven thousand,
two seven four. The preceding program was pre recorded. The
Bible answer Man Broadcast is supported by listeners like you.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. The
(27:01):
number of wolves surrounding the Christian flock is growing, and
they relish nothing more than Docile's sheep. Utterly incapable of
defending themselves from militant secularists at home to militant Islamists abroad.
The assaults on biblical Christianity are growing dangerously, but Christian
Research Institutes Support Team members aren't in favor of feeding
(27:22):
these wolves. Instead, each day they're making possible an array
of outreaches that defang these wolfpacks with solid arguments and
evidence that have stood the test of time. What's more,
Support Team members are equipping themselves with criis Equipping Essentials,
a handpicked collection of the best apologetics tools around. Your
(27:44):
selection of resources are just our way of saying thanks.
To learn more about the benefits of membership, simply visit
equip dot org. Once again, that's equip dot org.
Broadcasting across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
This is the Bible answer Man Broadcast. Your host for
the program is Hank Canagraph, president of the Christian Research Institute.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. For
more information resources or to donate to cr I, call
(00:31):
eight eight eight seven thousand CRI, or go online to
equip dot org. That's equip dot org. The following program
was pre recorded to start today's Bible answer Man broadcast.
Here's your host, Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Thank you very much for Randy. As we inch closer
and closer to Christmas, working through my Christmas acronym, it
talked about the Christ of Christmas, and I also talked
about the history of Christmas, for Christ stands at the
very apex of human history. Today, I want to talk
(01:10):
about the R in Christmas, and that of course refers
to resurrection. This is so transcendently important because without the
resurrection of Jesus, there's little point in even discussing Christmas.
As the Apostle Paul put it in a letter to
the grinthen Christians, if Christ has not been raised or
(01:32):
preaching is useless and soldier faith. In light of Saint
Paul's words, it is incumbent on you and I to
demonstrate that the Christ of Christmas had the power to
lay down his life and the power to take it
up again, and thus he demonstrated that he is God
(01:55):
in human flesh. To begin with, liberal and conservative scholars
alike concede that after the suffering of Jesus Christ, after
he had suffered fatal torment, Jesus was buried in the
(02:15):
private tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and as a member
of the Jewish court that condemned him to death, Joseph
of Arimathea is clearly fact, not fiction. Jesus burial is
also substantiated by Mark's Gospel and is therefore far too
(02:37):
early to have been subject to legendary corruption. Indeed, the
earliest Jewish response to the resurrection of our Lord presupposes
the empty tomb, and in the centuries following the resurrection,
the fact the empty tomb was forwarded by Jesus's friends
(02:58):
and his foes uniformly. Christianity could not have survived an
identifiable tomb containing the corpse of Christ, and Jesus gave
his disciples many convincing proofs that he had indeed risen
from the dead. Well, for example, points out that Christ
(03:21):
appeared to more than five hundred of the Brothers at
the same time, most of whom he said are still living,
though well some of them are forormously. It would have
been one thing to attribute these supernatural experiences to people
who had already died. It was quite another to attribute
(03:42):
them to multitudes who were still alive. As the famed
New Testament scholar of Cambridge C. H. Dodd points out,
there could hardly be any purpose in mentioning the fact
that most of the five hundred are still alive on
them unless unless Saint Paul is saying the witnesses are
(04:04):
there to be questioned. One other point in this regard
is that what happened as a result of the resurrection
is unprecedent in human history. In the span of just
a few hundred years, a very small band of seemingly
insignificant believers succeeded in turning an entire empire upside down.
(04:29):
And while it's conceivable that they would have faced torture, vilification,
and even cruel death for what they fervently believed to
be true, it is inconceivable that they would have been
willing to die for what they knew to be alie.
As doctor Simon Greenleaf, the famous Royal professor of law
(04:50):
at Harvard, once put it, if were morally possible for
them to have been deceived in this matter, every human
motive operated to lead them to die, discover and then
to avow their error. If then their testimony said was
not true, there was no possible motive for the fabrication.
(05:12):
Given the rock solid evidence for the central pillar on
which Christianity either rises or falls, we can with certainty
embrace Christ's miraculous conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
Well that leads me to the eye. In the Christmas acronym,
(05:36):
we talked about christ history resurrection. Now let's talk about incarnation.
Because there's a reason we rejoice at Christmas, and that
reason is that the baby born to Mary and Joseph
on the First Advent was no ordinary child. This baby
(06:00):
was the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy of Immanuel, meaning
God with us. It was the ultimate self revelation of
God to humankind. Jesus the Christ was and eternally is
God incarnate, literally God in flesh. And although John's Gospel
(06:25):
does not include a narrative of the birth and the
infancy of Jesus. The doctrine of the incarnation is aptly
summed up in his introduction. It's famous he probably know
it by heart. In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
(06:48):
The Word became flesh, the Word made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the one
and only who came from the Father, full of grace
and truth. The clear testimony scripture is that in the
incarnation Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. In
(07:14):
other words, he existed as the perfect unity of one person,
of a divine and a human nature. Saint Paul eloquently
expressed this profound truth, this incredible truth of the incarnation
in a letter to the Philippian Christians, when he said,
(07:34):
your attitude ought to be the same as that of Jesus, who,
being in very nature God, did not consider equality with
God something to be grasped. Instead, well, instead, he made
himself nothing. He took on the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness, and being found in appearances
(07:59):
a man. He humbled himself and became obedient to death,
even death on a cross, as the anthropost, as the
god Man, the spotless lamb of God, lived a perfectly
sinless human life, and he died a sinner's death. Why
(08:21):
to sufficiently atone, once and for all for the sins
of humanity? Think about it? Without both natures, Christ's payment
would have been insufficient. Has God his sacrifice was sufficient
(08:42):
to provide redemption for the sins of humankind. As man,
he did what the first Atom failed to do. Saint
Paul says this, for just as through the One Man
the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience
(09:03):
of the One Man, the many will be made righteous.
Where As Paul explained the Corinthian Christians, as in Atom
all die, so in Christ all will be made alive
like the Trinity. This precious doctrine of incarnation, this reality
(09:26):
is often considered to be logically incoherent. While many issues
surrounding the incarnation, such as the precise modes of interaction
between Christ's divine nature and his human nature, may transcend
our human understanding, the doctrine, the incarnation does not transgress
(09:46):
the laws of logic. To understand the logical coherence of
the incarnation. You have to first consider the image of God.
Because God created humanity in his own image, the essential
properties of human nature are not inconsistent with the divine nature.
(10:11):
So while the notion of God becoming a clam would
be patently absurd, the reality that God became a man
is not. I want to talk when we come back
from the break about how crucial it is to point
out that though the God Man is fully human, he
(10:33):
is not merely human. Though he took on all the
essential properties of human nature, he did not take on
that which is non essential. He did not take on
sinful inclinations. Talk more about that when we come back.
In the meantime, as we go to break, by thanks
(10:55):
to all of you who stand shoulder to shoulder with
me in the battle for life and truth. Please give
general to the ministry of the Christian Research Institute as
we close out the year that'll make a difference in
the lives of people all around the world. You can
give them a safe, secure fashion on the web at
equip dot org. We are going to be right back,
(11:16):
so please don't touch that dial.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
How would your life be different today without the Bible?
Answer Man broadcast, the Christian Research Journal, or CRI's website,
books and other resources. If CRII has blessed you this year,
please help us bring more of these blessings into your
life and many more in the new year. Give a
special tax deductible gift by December thirty first. To partner
(11:42):
with us in ministry, call eight eight eight seven thousand
CRII or visit equip dot org. Don't go away, Hank
hanagraph will be back in a moment. Anyone who's been
paying attention knows there's a war going on, not just
(12:05):
on traditional morality, civility, and decency, but even more fundamentally
on historic notions of truth. And the enemy isn't just
the onslaught of fake news, facilitated by a post truth
culture and turbocharged by growing legions of ideological spinductors. Note
the real enemies of truth range from postmodernist convictions that
(12:26):
there is no objective truth to militant scientism that claims
that only science can determine truth and religion is little
more than primitive superstitions. But CRI Support Team members are
not waving a white flag of surrender. They're holding the
fort by undergirding everyone of Christian Research Institute's mind shaping
and Life Changing outreaches twenty four to seven. To learn
(12:49):
how you can make a difference and enjoy all the
benefits of support team membership, simply visit equip dot org.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Hank Hanigraph has dedicated his life to defending truth because
truth matters. However, his life and ministry were radically transformed
by another three word phrase, Life matters more. Truth matters
because Christianity is rooted in history and evidence. Life matters
more because it is the experience of union with God.
The goal of Christian life is union with God. All
(13:24):
attempts to understand Christianity from a solely rational perspective put
us in danger of devolving into a transactional rather than
transformational relationship with God. Truth Matters, Life matters More will
equip you to move beyond intellectually knowing about God to
experientially knowing Him in christ. To receive your copy of
Truth Matters, Life Matters More called eight eight eight seven
(13:47):
thousand CRI and make a gift to support the Christian
Research Institute's Life Changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand
CRI or visit us online at equipp dot org.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
An infinite God reduced to the size of a human embryo,
the creator of time and space, invading both in human form.
Such is the mystery and the majesty of the Incarnation
Supreme being condescending to become one of us. Perhaps nothing
is more important than grasping the significance of the coming
(14:22):
God in human flesh. Without the life, death, and resurrection
of the incarnate One who walked among us, our world
would be unfathomably dark. To be equipped as a witness
and to be inspired in your walk, you'll want to
feast on Hank Hantagraph's book Incarnation, The Ultimate Self Revelation
(14:43):
of God. To receive your copy of Incarnation, simply call
eight eight eight seven thousand c RII and make a
gift to support curi's life changing outreaches or visit equip
dot org equip dot org. We now return to the
(15:11):
Bible answer Man Broadcast and your host, Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Thank you very much for Andy. I have been going
through my Christmas acronym, and I talked about the christ
of Christmas, the history of Christmas, the fact that Christmas
is rooted in history and evidence, and then earlier on
in this broadcast, I was talking about the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, that's the capstone in the arch of Christianity.
(15:38):
And now I'm talking about the incarnation of Jesus Christ,
the incarnation that makes resurrection possible. And before the break,
I was mentioning that Jesus took on all the essential
properties of human nature, but he didn't take on that
which is non essential, namely sinful inclination. In fact, as
(16:01):
Adam was created without a proclivity towards sin, so the
second atom was untainted by original sin. As with his
moral perfection, Jesus's other divine attributes were not undermined in
the incarnation, and while Christ Jesus voluntarily refrained from exercising
(16:26):
certain attributes of deity, he did not divest himself of
a single divine attribute with respect to his omniscience. His
human nature may have served as a filter limiting his
knowledge as a man, but nonetheless Jesus's divine omniscience was
(16:50):
ever accessible to the will of the Father. There is
no incoherence in the biblical teaching that Jesus became and
will forever remain one person with two distinct natures. Neither
commingling his natures nor becoming two persons. And yet, and yet,
(17:13):
there are those in the modern world who perpetrate pseudo intellectual,
fast food pontifications that claim that the incarnation of Jesus
Christ is but a pathetic facsimile of earlier pagan mystery religions.
A case in point is found in the assertion made
famous by W. B. Yeates that the incarnation of Christ
(17:39):
directly parallels the Greek mythology of Leda in the Swan,
as Zeus, having taken on the form of a swan,
had intercourse with the Virgin latest so the spirit overshadowed
Mary in the form of a dove in both scenes.
According to Yates, divinities, by impregnating mortal women intervene in
(18:04):
and transform cultural history. Well, purveyors of this mythology, what
do they do well? They employ biblical language and go
to great links to concoct commonalities. However, the alleged similarities,
as well as the terminology used to communicate them, are
(18:26):
clearly exaggerated. Parallels between the incarnation of Helen of Troy
and the incarnation of Jesus Christ, as well as the
terminology used to communicate those parallels or an obvious stretch,
and sadly, for the mystery religions, that is about as
(18:48):
good as it gets. If you have a truly open mind,
they are to resist rejecting the incarnation a priori in
other words, before you examine it. Why. Because miracles such
as the incarnation are not only possible, they're necessary in
(19:09):
order to make sense of the universe in which we live.
I say that because, according to modern science, the universe
not only had a beginning where the universe is unfathomably
fine tuned to support life, and not only that, but
the origin of the universe, information and the genetic code,
(19:33):
irreducible complexity and biological systems, and the phenomenon of the
human mind pose intractable difficulties for merely natural explanations. And
this reason reason forces us to look beyond the natural
(19:53):
world to a supernatural designer who miraculously intervenes in the
affairs of his creed handiwork. In other words, if we
are willing to believe that God created the heavens and
the Earth, we should have no problem whatsoever accepting his
incarnation in time in space. While many issues surrounding incarnation,
(20:21):
issues like well, like the precise modes of interaction between
Christ's divine nature and his human nature transcend human understanding,
the doctrine of incarnation does not transgress the laws of logic.
To understand the logical coherence of incarnation, you have to
(20:44):
first consider human beings as icons of God. Because God
created humanity in his own image, the essential properties of
human nature are not they're not inconsistent with his divine nature.
So while the notion of Zeus becoming a swan is
(21:04):
self evidently absurd, the reality that God became a man
is not suffice it to say. When we encountered those
who cast aspersions on the miraculous nature of Christ coming
in in flesh, wet would do well to remember that
it is our it's our responsibility to use well recent
(21:28):
answers as opportunities to demonstrate that the historical account of
Christ's incarnation is not blind faith, but rather is faith
founded on a refutable fact. It's one thing to say
that the child born in Bethlehem was God incarnate. It's
(21:49):
quite another to establish this beyond all reasonable doubt, and
to do that we have to demonstrate Jesus to be
the sinless super name natural savior of humanity. Let me
give you how you do that. The first thing you
do is you recognize that Christ is the only human
(22:09):
who ever demonstrated the credential of sinlessness. So while the
Qur'an exhorts Mohammed to seek forgiveness for his sins, the
Bible exonerates Messiah, saying Jesus had no sin. Furthermore, a
second reason, Jesus demonstrated supernatural authority over sickness, over the
(22:37):
forces of nature, fallen angels, even death itself. Matthew for
records that Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching, preaching healing every disease,
every sickness among the people. Mark four documents, Jesus rebuking
(23:03):
the winds and waves, saying quiet, be still, and look
for Jesus encounters a man possessed by an evil spirit
and commands the demon come out of him. Had John four,
(23:24):
Jesus tells the royal official whose son was close to death,
your son will live. In fact, the four gospel writers
all record that Jesus demonstrated ultimate power over death through
the immutable fact of his resurrection. A third and final
(23:48):
point is this the credentials of Christ's deity are seen
in the lives of countless men, women and children. Each
and every day, people of every tongue and tribe and nation.
(24:08):
They experience the Christ of Christmas. They repented their sins.
They receive Him as Lord and savior of their lives.
They're baptized, they're washed, they're cleansed, They're filled with the
Holy Spirit, They're incorporated in church, They're united with Christ. This,
(24:36):
this is the credential of Christ's deity seen in the
lives of people. People of every tongue and tribe and
nation experienced the Christ of Christmas by repenting of their
(24:56):
sins again, being baptized, receiving Him as Lord and Savior
of their lives. They not only come to know about
Christ evidentially, but experientially. They experience the resurrected Christ, and
He becomes more real to them than the very flesh
(25:17):
upon their bones. Well, today we have gone through resurrection
and incarnation. Tomorrow I want to talk about the s
in the acronym Christmas, as again we inch closer and
closer to the celebration of Christ coming in flesh, as
(25:40):
always says I close out this broadcast, want to thank
those who stand with us in the battle for life
and truth. You are deeply appreciated. If you haven't given
this year, please remember that by giving, you tangibly make
a difference in the lives of people for time and
for eternity. Thanks for being generous. You can given a safe,
(26:04):
secure fashion on thewebit equipped dot org. Out of time
for today, look forward to being back with you tomorrow.
With the rest of my acronym.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You've been listening to the Bible Answerman Broadcast with Hank Hannagraph.
Our mailing address is Pobox eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina,
zip code two eight two seven one. To listen to
the broadcast on the Internet, visit equip dot org, where
you'll also find a wealth of information and resources to
equip you to talk to a resource consultant called eight
(26:36):
eight eight seven thousand CRII. That's eight eight eight seven thousand,
two seven four. The preceding program was pre recorded. The
Bible answer Man Broadcast is supported by listeners like you.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. The
(27:01):
number of wolves surrounding the Christian flock is growing, and
they relish nothing more than Docile's sheep. Utterly incapable of
defending themselves from militant secularists at home to militant Islamists abroad.
The assaults on biblical Christianity are growing dangerously, but Christian
Research Institutes Support Team members aren't in favor of feeding
(27:22):
these wolves. Instead, each day they're making possible an array
of outreaches that defang these wolfpacks with solid arguments and
evidence that have stood the test of time. What's more,
Support Team members are equipping themselves with criis Equipping Essentials,
a handpicked collection of the best apologetics tools around. Your
(27:44):
selection of resources are just our way of saying thanks.
To learn more about the benefits of membership, simply visit
equip dot org. Once again, that's equip dot org.
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