Q&A: Preparing for Christ’s Return, Prayers of Nonbelievers, and Jehovah’s Witnesses

On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (11/11/25), Hank answers the following questions:

What else can Christians do to get ready for the return of Christ? Carol - MO (0:49)
In Matthew 24:40-41, are the ones taken up going to hell and the ones left going to heaven? Is this the Rapture? Brad - St. Louis, MO (4:06)
Someone advised an agnostic to pray to God. Does God hear the prayers of unbelievers? Chris - Reno, NV (8:32)
Will we know our loved ones in heaven? Romanita - St. Louis, MO (15:11)
What is your opinion of Watchman Nee? Shawn - Nashville, TN (17:52)
I am a Jehovah’s Witness, and I was wondering what is wrong with the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Larry - Nashville, TN (21:40)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
From the Christian Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. You're
listening to the Bible answer Man Broadcast with Hank Canagraph.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. Today,
grateful Americans from coast to coast are observing Veteran's Day,
a day to reflect upon and honor those who have
served and sacrificed in all branches of the military. We

(00:29):
here at c R I would like to offer our
deepest respect, honor, and thankfulness for all who have served
to protect and defend the freedoms we enjoy in this country.
The following program was pre recorded, and now here's the
president of the Christian Research Institute, Hank Canagraph.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Thanks very much for Randy. A lot of you hanging on.
We'll go right to the phone calls. First up as
Carol listening in Missouri. Hi, Carol, how are you?

Speaker 3 (00:58):
I'm good? Thank you little nervous. The question that I
had for you is I have a lot of in laws,
family members that are really like end time. You know,
people they are always preaching about the end times and
getting ready for the end times. And I always ask them,
if you're saying, what more can you do to get ready?

(01:19):
For the end time. I mean, I can't think of
anything that I would do differently. You know. I give
the Gospel to other people when I can. You know,
I pray, I meditate, I go to church. I you know,
try to live as godly of life as I possibly can.
What more could I do to get ready for the
end of the world.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, well, I think all the things that you just
mentioned are commendable. I mean, that's what we ought to
be doing. We ought to be ambassadors for our Lord
and savior, Jesus Christ, because you are the normative means
through which the water of life, the bread of life
can be dispensed to another person. So you could not
only use your life to worship God through prayer, praise,

(02:02):
and the proclamation of the Word of God, through oneness
with other Christians, and through witness to the world, but
you can in essence become the source of life through
which the Holy Spirit is actually moving and regenerating another person,
so that witness can affect in another person, joining you

(02:26):
for eternal life. Again, God has ordained both the ends
and the means, and you're the means, the normative means
by which God reaches other people. So to equip yourself
is a very important thing. And also, as you mentioned,
to engage in the spiritual disciplines, reading the Bible, being
connected with other believers in worship in the local church,

(02:50):
learning to pray not in the sense of getting things
from God, but in the sense of building a relationship
with the love of your soul. All of these are
wonderful activities that we could involved in in the present world.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Right. But if you're doing all those things, what more
can you do to prepare.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
For the endzyme We can't do anything about the end times.
We don't know when, Jesus Christ. But you're making a
good point. I mean, when your life ends, that's the
end time for you. And so you prepare for your
time to be with the Lord. You want to use
your time, not to be politically correct or prosperous or

(03:28):
any number of What you want to do is focus
on your relationship with God. Live your life as though
this day might be your last, but prepare as though
you might be here for a long time.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Right right, Okay? Because you know they're always saying you've
got to be ready. You've got to be ready, And
I say, other than having my salvation and spreading the gospel.
What else is so to do?

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, And people that think that they know when Jesus
Christ is going to return simply do not know. And
the one thing we have learned from history is the
date setters are always wrong one hundred percent of the time,
every single time. I want to go back to the
phone lines, talk to Brad in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Hi, Brad, Oh, yes, I also have a question about
to see in times about the rapture. And I heard
about the tribulation of the rapture coming in tribulation you
know before, and I've heard about it in the middle
and in the end. But I went to a Bible
stow the other night and the preacher there was talking
about those that are going to be taken up are

(04:30):
going to hell, and know that are left are going
to be the ones that are saved. And I was
wondering what you thought about that.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Well, A couple of things I would say about that is,
if you go to the all of the discourse, it
is kind of interesting that a lot of people say
right there at Matthew twenty four, in the heart of it,
we find a passage on rapture, and this might be
what the pastor was talking about. This is what Jesus says,
as it was in the days of Noah. So at

(05:00):
the coming of the Son of Man. From the days
before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage up to the day Noah entered the arc,
and they knew nothing about what would happen until the
flood came and took them all away. That is how
it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
Two men will be in the field. One will be

(05:21):
taken and the other left. So if you look at
that passage in light of the illustration that Jesus uses
with respect to Noah, the person that's taken is the
person taken in judgment. But to then take this passage
and transport the passage into the twenty first century, I

(05:42):
think would be wrong as well, because Jesus also gives
us a time frame for what he's talking about here. Remember,
the context of the passage is important. Jesus had just
left the temple. He's walking away, his disciples call his
attention to the temple, and then Jesus utters the unthinkable.
He says, do you see all these things? I tell

(06:04):
you the truth? Not one stone here will be left
on another. Every one will be thrown down. Well, here
Jesus is telling the disciples that the temple is going
to be destroyed, and he's telling them that Jerusalem itself
ultimately will be destroyed. So what do you think the
disciples are thinking? When's that going to happen? And Jesus

(06:27):
answers that question by saying, truly, truly, I say unto
you this generation. I'm putting some emphasis there. Jesus says,
this generation will certainly not pass away until all these
things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but

(06:50):
my words will never pass away. So Jesus is saying
this generation, in other words, the people to whom he's speaking,
will not pass away, the generation of people in general,
until all these things have been fulfilled. Now, a generation
in biblical terms is about forty years, So Jesus is
saying the temple is going to be destroyed in around

(07:12):
forty years, which is precisely what happened. So the context
of this passage is talking about the destruction of the
temple in Jerusalem specifically, in fact, so specifically that through
the ages people have pointed this passage and said Jesus
is a false prophet. Why because he not only said

(07:32):
that the Temple would be destroyed, Jerusalem would be destroyed,
but he's also saying that he would come again a
second time within a generation. But that's not what Jesus
is saying. He's using judgment language from the Old Testament
that all of us should be familiar with, and he's
applying it to the destruction of Jerusalem in the Temple
in that generation. This means this The point of the

(07:56):
matter is this. Those who accused Jesus then of being
a false apocalyptic prophet obviously wrong. And also there are
people who are suggesting that this has to do about
a tribulation of the twenty first century. They too are
wrong because they're taking a passage out of its intended
context and using it as a pretext for something that's

(08:17):
going to happen in twenty first century, as opposed to
when Jesus said it would happen. So the pastor's right
on the one hand, he's wrong on the other. They've
written about this in my book The Apocalypse Code, which
is available through the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute.
Let's go back to the phone lines we'll talk to
Chris listening in Reno, Nevada. Hi, Chris, Hey, I'm going.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
Through a small group with your book The Prayer of Jesus.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Oh wonderful.

Speaker 5 (08:42):
Yeah, that's awesome. We love it. And I heard something
interesting today on my drive and it was about an
agnostic man who became a believer and kind of went
through his process there. But at the end of the show,
the host basically said, you know, if you're struggling with this,
you know, maybe you should basically pray to God that

(09:04):
he give you a sign or show you, you know,
some something. And to me, after reading your book and
going through it, that just didn't seem quite right and that,
you know, if you're not a believer in Christ, then
there's not that intercession to God. And so then I
started mulling it over all day and was wondering, how
does God listen to or respond to the non believers.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah. I was just reading a book called Unbroken, and
very interesting that in the book you have an unbeliever
who cries out to God and he says, God, if
you will save me, he would get shot down and
he's floating on the raft. If you'll, if you'll spare
my life, I will serve you, essentially, And he forgot
all about that until he was at a Billy Graham crusade,

(09:49):
and suddenly he remembered what he had said while he
was drifting on the wrath of the Pacific Ocean and
realized that God had not only saved him on the
ocean for forty seven days I think it was, but
also saved him in the sense of the torment that
he went through in the Japanese prison camps. So God
heard his prayer and answered that prayer a long time later.

(10:11):
So you know, certainly if you cry out to God, yeah,
I think God can hear the prayer of an unbeliever
in that sense. But you get to remember that prayer
is not just supplication. I mean, as a point out
in the Prayer of Jesus, prayer ultimately as a way
of developing a relationship with the lover of your soul.
And that's why, on the one hand, while God causes
his reign to fall in the just and the unjust,

(10:34):
as Jesus points out and the Sermon on the Mount,
ultimately prayer is a way of developing a relationship. Deepening
that relationship between a believer and their Lord. But again,
when the unbeliever cries out, particularly in salvation, certainly God
hears that prayer.

Speaker 5 (10:53):
Appreciate it very much and I love the book.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Thank you so much, God, bless you appreciate your call
back with more of your questions in just a few moments,
So please don't touch that dial.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
The famous British apologist GK. Chesterton once noted, the true
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(11:48):
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(12:11):
of the Bible answer Man broadcast. With more than half
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the truth on topics such as reliability of the Bible,
religions and cults, the resurrection and afterlife, and many more
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(12:34):
and our relationship to Him. To receive your copy of
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call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII and make a
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(12:55):
equip dot org. Breaking the Code. If the Book of
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and foreign policy. In the Apocalypse Code, find out what

(13:16):
the Bible really says about the end times and why
it matters today. Hank Canagraph argues that the key to
understanding the Last Book of the Bible is the other
sixty five books of the Bible, not current events or
recent history. The Apocalypse Code offers sane answers to some
very controversial questions, such as what does it mean to

(13:36):
take the Book of Revelation literally? Who are the Antichrist
and the Great Horror of Babylon? And what is the
real meaning of six hundred and sixty six? Order The
Apocalypse Code by Hank Cantigraph today, available in softcover, MP
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(14:01):
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(14:25):
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Once again, here is Hank catagraph.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Thank you Randy, and we'll go right back to our
phone callers as well. Romanita is next listening in Saint Louis, Missouri. Herominita, Hi, Hank,
how are you. I'm well, it's a pleasure to talk
to you.

Speaker 6 (15:21):
Also listen. When a loved one dies, often people come
to you and say, well, you'll see them again in heaven.
My question is I'd like to know the validity of that,
and what is the biblical background for saying that. Is

(15:41):
that really true? Will we recognize and know I love ones?

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Well, I think there is biblical validity for that. We're
not going to have less knowledge, We're going to have
more knowledge in heaven, and we're going to be gathered together.
Is a body of believers which is to say that
just as baptism and communion symbolize community as a body

(16:07):
of believers of which Christ is the head, so we
can be certain that we will forever partake, as it were,
of that communion in eternity with our Lord and Savior
of Jesus Christ. So yeah, I don't think we're going
to have less information. We're going to have more information,
and we will recognize each other's not only physically, but

(16:29):
metaphysically as well. In other words, human beings are composed
of both body and soul. There's a physical aspect to
our humanity. There's also a metaphysical aspect to our humanity,
and we will be recognizable I think, in both capacities,
which is to say that the DNA that makes you

(16:50):
use the DNA that will make you you for all eternity.
But that DNA, of course, is going to develop in
a pristine universe, and therefore you're going to flower to
what you would have been if sin had never entered
the world. Very much like the metamorphosis that a caterpillar
goes through. It's the same body that goes in the
chrystalis that comes out, but it's now transformed it goes

(17:12):
through metamorphosis, and that will be the same with us,
so we'll likely look different. We don't know how that
will be, and therefore I don't want to scream where
the Bible's largely silent. But we do know on the
basis of First Corinthians Chapter fifteen, when we're resurrected, we're
going to be resurrected, immortal, imperishable, in corruptible, can be
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

(17:33):
And like his resurrected body, we're going to take on
resurrected bodies as well. So yes, I think on the
basis of the Bible, we can clearly say that we'll
recognize one another physically and metaphysically as people. We will
recognize one another.

Speaker 6 (17:48):
Okay, thank you very.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Much, you got it. Thank you so much for your
call back to the phone lines. We'll talk next to
Sean listening in Nashville, Tennessee.

Speaker 7 (17:56):
Hi, Sean, Hey, brother, Hang, it's an honor to speak
with you.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Nice to talk to you as well.

Speaker 7 (18:01):
So in my search for truth, I've come across the
lives of C. S. Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Watchman Nie.
I wanted to sort of get your take on Watchman
Nie and sort of know if there's any sort of
lens or red flags while reading him that you might suggest, Well.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Remember something that we say on the Bible, Lanceman broadcast
over and over again in essentials, Unity, non essentials, liberty,
and all things charity. With respect to essential Christian doctrine,
we stand shoulder to shoulder with men like Watchman Knee
and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and C. S. Lewis. They are believers
and they have edified the body of Christ greatly. In fact,

(18:46):
one of the books we carried at the Christian Research
Institute is by Watchman Nie. It's called The Normal Christian Life.
And I particularly love the work of Watchman Nie because
he emphasizes one track of the spiritual life in Christ
that is so often neglected, and that is when Paul

(19:09):
said to Timothy, watcher life and doctrine closely. Many of
us focus on the word doctrine to the neglect of
the word life. And Watchman Ni gives great insight into
living the Christian life, experiencing Christ. And I think he

(19:30):
does so with a great amount of credibility, because remember
the Communists gained control in China nineteen forty nine, they
began to infiltrate the church, and in nineteen fifty two
the government actually brought Watchman Ni into police custody. He's
brought to trial in Shanghai in nineteen fifty six, and

(19:50):
then he was accused of being a counter revolutionary and
he served twenty years in prison, and then he died.
But his written works, which were compiled from sermons and lectures,
gained prominence in the West, and The Normal Christian Life
was one of those books that has deeply impacted Western Christianity,

(20:15):
and its teachings, primarily in Romans one through eight, are refreshing,
and they're grounded in scriptural texts. And again, I like
his engaging anecdotes. I like the fact that he has
become an eminent reminder in the free world to pray
for the persecuted church and to pray that they're praying
for us as well. Our brothers and sisters in China

(20:37):
even today, are oftentimes detained and imprisoned for reading unauthorized
material and unauthorized places, and we can pray for them,
but we can also learn a lot from them. I've
been to China quite a number of times and met
people who have spent a lot of time in prison,
and their lives have deeply impacted mine, particularly when it

(20:59):
comes to the word life, not only doctrine, but life.
And so I love this book The Normal Christian Life. Again.
Do I agree with everything? No, But where I disagree
is in minor categories and the major categories. There's a
lot to be gained and learned from people who have
experienced Christ in the culdron of adversity like prison.

Speaker 7 (21:22):
Yeah, all right, that's excellent, good work to hear. Thank
you so much for your insight.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
Well you got it. And again, The Normal Christian Life
is a book that I recommend. In fact, we make
it available for your gift to the ongoing work of
the Christian Research Institute. You can order online at equipped
dot org. Let's go right back to the phone lines.
We'll talk next to Larry listening in Nashville, Tennessee.

Speaker 8 (21:44):
Hi, Larry, Oh, Hi, I'm just wanting to ask you
a question. I mean, I listen to you, I am,
and I thank You're probably the smartest man I've ever
heard talk that I'm a Jehova waittness, and I ask
one if you could tell me so man time. While
with hob witnesses in your opinion.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Well, there are a lot of things that are problematic
with the Jehovah's Witnesses, including their eschatology, but the main
thing always boils down to the person work of Jesus Christ.
In Mormon view Jesus Christ as a spirit brother of Lucifer.
The Jehovah's Witnesses say something just as faulty. They say

(22:25):
that Jesus was created by God as the archangel Michael,
and during his earthly sojourn he was merely a human being,
and then after his crucifixion he was recreated an immaterial
spirit creature. And they also, and this is very crucial
to the discussion, they deny the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In fact, according to their founder.

Speaker 8 (22:47):
We don't deny the physical resurrection. We don't you know. Wait,
wait than that.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Well, let me tell you what Charles tays Russell said.
He said, the body that hung on a torture stage
either dissolved into gases or is preserved somewhere as the
grand memorial of God's love. Yeah, okay, we do not
believe that the body of Jesus Christ dissolved into gases

(23:18):
or is preserved somewhere as a grand memorial of God's love.
In Orthodox Christianity, we say that the body of Jesus
Christ was resurrected.

Speaker 8 (23:28):
Yeah, that's what we say. We say he was buried
soon as he died, and then three days he was rhetoricted,
and then he walked around and people, lots of people
saw him and talk to him, And that's that's what
we believe.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Really well, so you don't believe what Charles tays Russell,
You're founder taught and that is fantastic. I'm really happy
to hear.

Speaker 8 (23:53):
That that'st not.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah, yeah, well, that's that's really good.

Speaker 8 (23:57):
Want to know for my own benefit?

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, well, and I think that the major thing that
we should be focusing on is what is systemic to
what gets us to the resurrection. In Jehovah's Witness doctrine,
Jesus is a god. In other words, God creates Jesus Christ,
and Jesus Christ becomes a junior partner in the creation

(24:21):
of all other things. So if you look at the
Watchtower rendition of scripture in Colossians one, you'll see that
they add the word other four times to the text,
so that Jesus Christ is not the creator of all things.
He is the creator of all other things. So he himself,

(24:42):
in Watchtower lore, is a created being, and we say no,
Jesus Christ is uncreated, as Orthodox Christians. And that's a huge,
huge difference. So the Jehovah's Witness will say to the
Christian if you go to John one to one, we
see that Jesus Christ was a god. We say no.

(25:03):
The text there tells us that Jesus Christ was God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. And then the
text tells us the Word became flesh.

Speaker 8 (25:14):
And now we're doing different with you on that part
of course. You know. Now you know we believed, of
course in the beginning there was God, and then Jesus
had to be born because he said in the First
Colossians two and sixteen he was the first born.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Of all creation, right. And that's the misunderstanding of the
Watchtower organization because first born is not the first in
a chronology first born if you interpret scripture, and like
a scripture has to do with pre eminence, David is
called first born not because he is the first of
Jesse's sons. He wasn't he was the last, but because

(25:53):
he was the pre eminent of Jesse's sons. So there's
a misunderstanding on the part of the watch Tew organization
of what firstborn means. And in my book has got spoken.
I lay all of this out so you can understand
how to read the Bible for all its worth. Look
forward to see you next time with more of the

(26:14):
Bible Instrument Broadcast.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
You've been listening to the Bible answer Man Broadcast with
Hank Hannagraph. Our mailing address is Pobox eighty five hundred, Charlotte,
North Carolina, zip code two eight two seven one. To
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(26:39):
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because life and truth matter. The Complete Bible answer Book

(27:02):
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 of

(27:25):
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 and

(27:46):
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