All Episodes

October 1, 2025 28 mins
On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (10/01/25), Hank answers the following questions:

I have heard that Darwin originally believed in a Creator. Is this true? Jake - Grand Island, NE (0:48)
What is your view of the age of the Earth? Jake - Grand Island, NE (4:11)
Is there any historical evidence of Jesus outside of the Bible? Fred - St. Louis, MO (7:08)
Why do you say that the universe is millions of years old? Willard - Lethbridge, AB (15:11)
What are your thoughts on the day-age theory of creation? Shawn - Topeka, KS (18:26)
Earlier, you said Darwin’s theory is about to be upended. Can you give me some examples of this? Casey - Arlington, WA (20:47)
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're just in time for the Bible answer Man broadcast
with Hank Anagraph, the radio outreach of the Christian Research Institute.
Our purpose here at CRII is to equip Christians to
pursue sound doctrine, to discern truth and error, and to
become faithful disciples of Christ because life and truth matter.

(00:28):
For more information, to order resources or donate, call eight
eight eight seven thousand CROI, or go online to equip
dot org. The following program was pre recorded. Now here's
the President of the Christian Research Institute, Hank Canagraph.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Thank you much, Randy. Let's get right to the phone lines.
First step, Jake listening in Grand Island, Nebraska by Jake Dan.
How good? How are you?

Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm not too bad.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
I got two things I got at the comments and
then a question. I guess. The first one is about
the Darwin's theory, and I'm a Christian. The people that
believe in Darwin's theory. His first couple of research papers
that he had written, and I don't know if you
know this or it has not a lot of not
really common knowledge, but in his first couple research papers

(01:21):
that he had written, he had mentioned that whether in
his theory we came from a single cell organism, or
there was multi single cell organisms. He gave credits that
there was a creator and no matter how small it was,
that there was a creator that made those organisms. And
I let a lot of people know that. And uh,

(01:43):
and the reason I know that is because the guy
that goes to my brother's church has an original copy
of that. And and since three of those people that
to believe in that in his theory, it all comes
back to even he said there was a creator, and
that has been taken out because just like uh, nowadays,
when we don't like things, we change him. If we
don't like how marriage is, we change the definition of marriage,

(02:05):
and so on and so forth. And so people his
fellow researches after him have changed that and have taken
that out of there.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Well, first of all, there's no question whatsoever that Darwin
at one point in his life said he was an
Orthodox believer. In fact, I have a quote in one
of my books whereby Charles Darwin says, whilst on board
the Beagle, I was quite Orthodox, and I remember being
hardly laughed at by several of the officers, though themselves Orthodox,

(02:37):
for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some
point of morality. But Darwin also said this an origin
of species by means of natural selection, which is his
magnum opus. When it was first said that the Son
stood still and the world turned round, the common sense

(02:58):
of humankind declared the doctrine false. But the old saying
voice of the people, voice of God, as every philosopher knows,
cannot be trusted in science. And ultimately Darwin opted not
for orthodox Christianity, but for the notion that everything could

(03:19):
be explained through the process of natural selection working by
random processes. So Darwin, whilst he said he started out
an orthodox believer, his belief was shattered as a result
of embracing the evolutionary paradigm. And when I'm talking about
evolution here, I'm not talking about microevolution. I'm talking about

(03:42):
macro evolution, the idea that kinds evolve into different kinds.
And I've said this on the broadcast before, but the
Cambrian Explosion has uprooted Darwin's tree of life and demonstrate
beyond a peradventure of a doubt, that Darwin's theory of
evolution is no longer in an age of scientific enlightenment.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
Yeah, that's very well put. Uh, And so I guess
that covers that that comments last question. I guess uh
the second one real quick. I've heard you talk before
about the age of the Earth, and I believe in
a young Earth has been you know, roughly six thousand years.
And if I'm wrong, they then please just tell me.

(04:27):
But from my understanding, you believe maybe in a little
bit of an odor of an earth may be measured
in millions and billions of years. And I've heard you
use the illustration of of of light years, how long
the light years take to get from the Sun to
the Earth. And if you look in the sky, had
not you could see a star in its infancy and
see a star that's the brid to to tie and burnout.

(04:49):
And that takes millions of years for those things to happen.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
That as I just can read now, I firmly believe
that if God wants there to be light from the
Sun to the Earth, which would take millions of light years,
because he wants that to happen in one second, he
can have that happen in one second. I feel that
if we say those things about the stars and the sun,
that we might be limiting God on his power and

(05:15):
say that he has a wait for those.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Things to come around. I don't know what your thoughts
are on that.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
I guess well, first of all, I don't disagree with
your premise. I mean God can in fact do that.
The question is did he? And I think that's really
how we have modern science to begin with. It came
as a result of thinkers like Augustine who believed that
we could, in fact read the Book of Nature, not

(05:41):
only could, but should with the same diligence that we
apply to reading the Bible. And therefore we need to
be students of the Book of Nature. And the Book
of Nature, like the Bible, is not full of lies
or full of deception. It's a textbook that we can trust.

(06:03):
That's really what gave birth to Christian universities, It's what
gave birth to the whole mechanism of science to begin with.
It is men of science, men of God, learning to
think God's thoughts after him. So whether the universe is
old or young is a function of learning to read

(06:25):
God's Book of Nature. And of course Psalms talks about
both the Book of Nature and the Bible, one being
special revelation, the other being general revelation. And again I
think that if you read the Book of Nature correctly,
it points to an old universe, not to a young earth.
If you look at the Bible, the Bible doesn't really

(06:46):
weigh in on the issue. The Bible doesn't give us
a chronology of creation. It gives us a hierarchy of creation,
culminating in the crowning jewels of God's creation humankind.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
Sure, yeah, that's.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Some good stuff.

Speaker 4 (06:59):
Well some of my questions in my comments and my
thoughts and stuff. So I appreciate your broadcast and for
taking my call.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, thank you so much for your call, Jake. Let's
go right back to the phone lines. Next step as Fred.
He's listening in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Hi, Fred, I think thinking for taking my call.

Speaker 5 (07:16):
I really appreciate your ministry and God bless you.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
I have a just a quick question. It's flated to
what is claimed as the absence of any historical evidence
of or mention of Jesus in the Roman history. It
was basically something I picked up online somebody who was
answering a question for somebody else, and he mentioned that

(07:41):
there is no mention of Jesus in anything related to
the Roman history. So that's why he doesn't believe in
Jesus or the Bible. So, not knowing anything about that,
I thought I would kind of run that by you.
Is that true? There is no mention of Jesus in
the history book mainly the history.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
No, it's completely false. In fact, you can piece together
highlights of the life of Jesus Christ wholly apart from
the Bible on the basis of Roman history. When we're
speaking about Roman history, I would first of all mention
Flavius Josephus, who was a Jew writing to please the Romans.

(08:26):
He very clearly mentions Jesus Christ and the earthly ministry
of Jesus Christ in graphic detail. And then, of course
there are people like the Roman Tacitus, who was the
greatest first century historian of the ancient Roman Empire, and
he chronicles the death of Christ, who he says suffered

(08:48):
the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the
hands of one of our procreators, Pontius Pilot Sweetonius, who
was a contemporary of Tacitus. He was best known for
the Twelve Caesars. He's also well known for gathering historical
data from eyewitnesses, and he clearly talks about Jesus Christ

(09:11):
as well. Plenty's the Younger, another historian, a contemporary of
Sweetonius and Tacitus, wrote about Jesus Christ. So there's ample
evidence about Jesus Christ as a historical figure in the
writings of Roman historians.

Speaker 5 (09:28):
Thank you very much. I'm just how surprised that can
people that you know, we can perish from the lack
of knowledge, and that's why I appreciate your ministry providing
the information. Everybody really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
You know what might be helpful to you if you
hang on, I can send you out a flip chart
that I put together that's called maps, And what this
does is it gives you in a flip chart format
most of this information, and it also chronicles the evidence
for this information so that you know that it it
comes from reliable sources.

Speaker 5 (10:02):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
You're welcome. Thank you so much for your call. As
we go to break a reminder once again that this
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If you can give Cliff generously and again, you can
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(10:23):
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head box eighty five hundred Charlotte, North Carolina, zip code
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number once again triple eight seven thousand, Sierra. Well, you're
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So please don't touch that dial.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
The Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning,
is a socially subversive pseudo Christian cult. It follows a
self proclaimed female Christ whose heretical doctrines incite violence, denying
the Trinity and Biblical authority. Eastern Lightning uses psychological intimidation,

(11:03):
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The counterfeit Christ exhorts followers to abandon their families and
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of this false Almighty God in a special print issue

(11:26):
of the Christian Research Journal to receive your copy, call
EIGHTA eight seven thousand CROI and make a gift to
support the Christian Research Institute's Mind shaping, life changing outreaches.
That's eight eight eight seven thousand CROI, or visit us
online at equip dot org. That's equip dot org. Don't

(11:49):
tune out. Hank Hanagraph will be back with more right
after this. Anyone who's been paying attention knows there's a
war going on, not just on traditional morality, civility, and decency,
but even more fundamentally on historic notions of truth. And

(12:12):
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 there is no objective truth to
militant scientism that claims that only science can determine truth

(12:32):
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 how you can make a difference and
enjoy all the benefits of support team membership. Simply visit

(12:54):
equip dot org. The Complete Bible answer 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

(13:17):
expanded Collector's Edition helped seekers and skeptics alike sort through
the truth on topics such as reliability of the Bible,
religions and cults, the resurrection and afterlife, and many more
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(13:37):
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Speaker 6 (14:01):
Hank Hannagraph 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

(14:24):
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
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(14:47):
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Speaker 1 (15:07):
Once again, here is hand cantagraph.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
I want to go back to the phone lines, doctor Willard.
He's listening in Alberta, Canada.

Speaker 7 (15:14):
High Willard, Hi, I don't believe the universe is millions
of years old.

Speaker 5 (15:21):
I don't know where you get that from.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
Well, as I said, people are divided in the Christian
camp as to how old the universe is. What I'm
saying is that what we have to do is carefully
read General Revelation, just as we carefully read the Bible.
And if you read General Revelation and come up with
a six thousand year old universe, all the more power

(15:46):
to you. But I think the real issue here, again
is to read carefully the improm mater that God has
placed on the universe in which we reside. I think
it's incumbent upon us to do that. My personal view
that the universe is older than six thousand years old
is articulated for a number of reasons. One of the

(16:08):
reasons is, as mentioned earlier in the broadcast, is if
you look at the night sky, you can see a
star in infancy, you can see a star in midlife.
You can see a white dwarf star that's burned out
its nuclear fusion. All of that takes time, and that
time can be measured, and I think it's measured not
in thousands of years, but in multiples of that. And

(16:29):
that's why I don't hold to a six thousand year
old universe. But beyond that, I don't think that the
Bible weighs in on the issue. I don't think the
Bible tells us how old the universe is. And therefore,
though the Bible gives us God's purposes in creation, I
don't think it gives us a specific chronology of creation.

(16:51):
And so if you want to find out the answer
in terms of the age of the universe, you have
to look at God's imprimater in general revelation.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
What about just the basic six days of creation and
one day of rest is the full week?

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Well, again, Christians are divided as to whether these are
six twenty four hour days or whether this is a
structure by which we can remember God's creative prowess. Now,
those who think that these are literal twenty four hour days,
I don't think read the Bible literally, because if you

(17:29):
look at the first three days, the way that they're
posited is as literal solar days, even though they come
before the advent of the sun on the fourth day.
I take this language literally, but not as a chronology
of creation, but as a hierarchy of creation. In other words,

(17:54):
God is chirologically or he's showing his purposes in creation
and rather than giving us a timetable for creation. And
that's consistent with a reading of the Book of Genesis.
In general, because Moses uses mnemonics so that people might
not only hear, but also remember to that end. For example,

(18:16):
he gives the structure of Genesis in such a way
that you can remember it with the ten fingers of
your hands. All right, thank you, thank you so much
for your call. Next up is Sean listening in Topeka,
Kansas by Sean.

Speaker 7 (18:30):
Yeah. Thank I got a question for you. I heard
on the radio on the other morning. I'm not going
to say a picture's name, but he said that it's
in the presence of God. One day is a thousand years.
And when you just said that a second ago, that
it's one you believe that the earth was built in
one solar day. And my deluma is is this is

(18:50):
how churches get into arguments back and forth. One says
one's wrong, once says another wrong. I've never heard you
say somebody is wrong, listen wrong. But that's my dilemma.
So what do you believe.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Well, I'm not saying that the universe was created in
a solar day. I'm saying that the days of creation
are given as solar days, which is to say that
if you look at day one, day one is expressed
as morning and evening the first day. The same is
true with Day two and day three, although the sun, moon,

(19:29):
and stars were not created until Day four. So all
I'm suggesting is that the grid given to us is
given to us in solar days, but not to give
us a chronology of creation, rather to give us a
way of remembering each day of the week that God
is the creator of all things. So Moses is giving

(19:52):
his hearers a way in which they can not only hear,
but remember, so that the information is in printed on
the canvas of their consciousness. And that further is why
I explained that he put together in an oral culture
the Book of Genesis in such a way that people
might not only read, but also remember. And so he

(20:15):
puts it together in such a way that you can
remember the main themes with the ten fingers of your hands,
from my primeval history to the patriarchs. So I'm simply saying,
it's intentional so that we remember God's purposes in creation.
It's not intentional so that we have a chronology of creation.

Speaker 7 (20:34):
Okay, I understand, Okay, I got that part. Okay, thank you,
thank you helping me out a great deal, and I
appreciate it. And God bless you for your ministry, and
once again, thank you very much for your help.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Sir, you got it, my friend, thank you so much
for your call as well. Back to the phone lines.
We'll talk to Casey next in Arlington. Hi, Casey, Hi,
thanking my call.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
My question is that the evolution is getting risk of that.

Speaker 7 (21:00):
I hear that, right, Yeah, so I would just carrying
to you.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
Out any specific examples from science that demonstrate that, tod
I just tend to hear it a lot, but I
never hear anyone kind of followed up with kind of
what's happening in the science team.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah. Well, one of the major reasons that I say
that is because Darwin's tree of life has been uprooted
by the Cambrian explosion. The Cambrian explosion shows that these
body plans did not evolve one from the other, but
are complete in and of themselves, So a theory is

(21:37):
upended by fact. Not only so, but in the origin
of species, Darwin speculated that bears might well evolve into Wales.
He said, I see no difficulty in a race of
bears being rendered by natural selection more and more aquatic
in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouse

(22:01):
till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale. Well,
in contrast to Darwin, you got to remember that contemporary
darwinis hold that hippo like animals evolved into wales. Now
the question is, again, is that a whale of a tale?
In other words, does it correspond to reality or is

(22:22):
it just a story? And I would say it's a story.
And here's why, And I've written about this in my book,
The Creation answer Book. To believe that hippo like animals
evolved into whales takes a lot of faith. Why, because
extant fossil transitions simply are missing. They're conspicuous by their absence.

(22:45):
And therefore, belief in the evolutionary development of things like
blowholes or sonar or diving mechanisms takes a lot of devotion,
but doesn't take a lot in terms of practical evidence,
because there is no evidence. And then you also have

(23:05):
a molecular issue. Molecular evidence appears to be at odds
with fossil evidence. In other words, fossil similarities point to
hippos as first cousins of pigs. Molecular similarities position hippos
as first cousins to whales. But in either case it

(23:26):
takes substantial faith to suppose that the similarities provide an
adequate basis for neo Darwinism. And I'll give you one
more point on this same basic premise, and that is
the notion that unguided, purposeless processes could transform the ears
of a land dwelling freshwater hippo like animal into the

(23:46):
echolocation system of a sea dwelling saltwater whale, and that
in a mere ten million years takes more faith than
any of us should be able to muster.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Great, Well, thanks for answering points in there. I guess
I would just say that, you know, the Cambrian explosion
has been known about for quite a while and I
don't see it uprooting the theory anytime soon.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
But well it does because in the geological period that's
designated Cambrian, the highest orders in the biological hierarchy appear suddenly,
and as I said before, they appear fully formed. In fact,
Richard Dawkins, who was probably the best known evolutionist on
the planet today, said it is as though fossils were

(24:31):
just planted there without any evolutionary history. He's conceding that
the evidence does not point to the evolutionary paradigm or
the Darwinian paradigm that the Cambrian explosion is giving us
a different picture. So he has to discard the evidence
and say I don't care about the evidence. I have
great faith in Darwin.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Excellent.

Speaker 7 (24:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
I appreciate you taking the topic on.

Speaker 7 (24:54):
It's really an.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Interesting debate and I do like to hear about it,
so please talk about it more often.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Hey, you got it. Thank you so much for your call.
We're almost out of time for this edition of the
Bible Answerment Broadcast. I want to end the broadcast today
by making a very specific and strong appeal for financial
support for the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute. If
you have some of the Lord's resources, we ask you
to consider investing those resources in the Ministry of the

(25:22):
Christian Research Institute. You can give in a safe, secure
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you can pick up your telephone and talk to one
of our resource consults that number triple eight seven thousand,
and the letters CRI again, do remember that this is

(25:45):
a ministry supported by listeners just like you. Please be generous.
We need your support today more than ever, and you've
can give in a safe, secure fashion on the web
at equipped dot org. I think all of you for
tuning in to this edition of the Bible answer Man Broadcast.
Look forward to seeing you right back here, Lord willing

(26:06):
with more answers to your questions right here at the
Bible answer Man Broadcast.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
So one for now, we appreciate you tuning in to
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(26:31):
CRII again, that's eight eight eight seven thousand, two seven four,
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eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip code two eight
two seven one. The Bible answer Man Broadcast is supported
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(26:52):
and truth matter. The number of wolves surrounding the Christian
flock is growing and they relish nothing more than docile's sheep,
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(27:16):
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