July 9, 2025 • 28 mins
On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (07/09/25), Hank offers a critique of the historicity and reliability of the Book of Mormon, showing that it is human, rather than divine in origin.
Hank also answers the following questions:
I take issue with Creflo Dollar’s teaching about us being equal to God. What are your thoughts? Ronna - New Bransfield, TX (5:53)
God said, “The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil” in Genesis 3:22. Can you expound upon this? David - Pleasantville, PA (9:20)
My son has determined that the Bible is just a good story book. He thinks there is a Creator, but it is not God. Can you give me some advice? Shirley - Chicago, IL (15:11)
Hank also answers the following questions:
I take issue with Creflo Dollar’s teaching about us being equal to God. What are your thoughts? Ronna - New Bransfield, TX (5:53)
God said, “The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil” in Genesis 3:22. Can you expound upon this? David - Pleasantville, PA (9:20)
My son has determined that the Bible is just a good story book. He thinks there is a Creator, but it is not God. Can you give me some advice? Shirley - Chicago, IL (15:11)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Bible answer Man broadcast with Christian Research
Institute President Hank Canagraph. Our mission at CRII is not
only to equip you with sound biblical teaching and spiritual discernment,
but to help you become a winsome and fruitful witness
of Jesus Christ. Because the credibility of our faith hinges
(00:27):
on the answers we provide to life's biggest questions, there's
often not a second chance to get those answers right,
to learn more, or to find resources to help you
grow in grace. Call eight eight eight seven thousand CRI.
That's eight eight eight seven thousand two seven four, or
go to our website at equip dot org. That's equip
(00:51):
dot org. The following program was pre recorded, and now
here's Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you very much. Randy opened the Book of Mormon
in the first words you will encounter are these. The
Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable
to the Bible. It is a record of God's dealing
with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as
does the Bible, the fullness of the everlasting Gospel. We
(01:23):
are told that the Book of Mormon is the record
of two great civilizations. The first, the Jaredites, left the
Tower of Babel and immigrated to the Americas twenty two
hundred years before Christ. The second migrated from Jerusalem around
(01:44):
six hundred BC, and then divided into two great nations,
the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Lamanites were said to
be white and exceedingly fair and delightsome. However, due to sin,
the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to
(02:06):
come upon them. Well. The lone Nephite survivor in the
final battle with their Lamanite enemies was allegedly a mighty
military commander named Moroni, and along with his father Mormon,
Moroni is said to have inscribed the most correct of
(02:30):
any book on earth, and that in reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics,
and then buried it in the Hill Camorra. After being
resurrected as an angel, Moroni appeared to the prophet Joseph
Smith and instructed him relative to its destined translation into
(02:50):
the English language. Well. In due course, Smith found golden
plates along with a pair of magical eyeglasses, and he
used them to translate the Egyptian into English. The result
was a new revelation and was called the Book of Mormon.
But there's a problem. No archaeological evidence for a language
(03:15):
such as Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics, no archaeological evidence for the
great civilizations touted in the Book of Mormon, no archaeological
evidence for lands such as the land of Moron described
in Ether seven to six. No anthropological evidence that the
(03:37):
Nephites and the Lamanites migrated from Jerusalem to mes America. Indeed,
both archaeology and anthropology militate against the people, the places,
and the particulars that are part and parcel of the
Book of Mormon, and demonstrate conclusively that the book is
little more than the product of a fertile and enterprising imagination.
(04:03):
The reason I cite this at the opening of the
Bible answer Men broadcast today is simply that the Bible
has been roundly denounced in the same way as the
Book of Mormon. It has been denounced as a cleverly
invented story. But unlike the Book of Mormon, the Bible
(04:25):
is buttressed by history and evidence. And while the archaeologist
Spade continues to mount up evidence against evidence against the
Book of Mormon. It is piled up proof upon proof
for the people places, in particulars that are inscribed on
the parchment and papyrus of biblical manuscripts. In other words,
(04:48):
via archaeology, you can be absolutely certain that what is
chronicled in the Book of Mormon is false, and just
as certain no what you find in the Bible is true.
I've written about this in my book Has God Spoken,
where I use archaeology as the centerpiece of demonstrating that
(05:12):
the Bible is indeed divine as opposed to merely human
in origin. If we are going to say the Bible
is our authority, we had better know that it is
in fact true that these are the words of God
as opposed to merely the words of men. Has God
Spoken available through the ministry of the Christian Research Institute.
(05:34):
You can order online at equipped dot or you can
order via the mail at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte,
North Carolina, zip code two eight two seven one. As always,
you can talk to our resource consultants as well. That
number triple eight seven thousand CRI. A lot of you
hanging on will go right to the phone lines. First
(05:55):
up Rona. She's listening in Texas on the web.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Hi Runna, Yes, sir, he loove hang.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You're welcome.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Foremost, I want to say I was tuned in with
your broadcast via a friend that encouraged me. And my
question to you, sir, is because of my schedule, I've
not been able to attend church on a regular basis,
so I seek now TV church as it would be,
(06:24):
and I read the Bible constantly, first thing up in
the morning, you know, lunch break, and even when I
get home. And I even have watched an individual Krefel Dollar.
Have you heard of him?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I'm very familiar with him.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Yes, okay, I had to turn him off because I
wasn't really sure. But he started to correlate a lot
of scriptures First Corinthians six seventeen, Ephesians three, sixteen, John
one sixteen, Hebrews twelve twenty three, Philippians two five, First
John four seventeen, and he took all those scriptures tied
(07:03):
them in together, saying because of those scriptures that we
were equal with God, because of our Holy Spirit, that
we're able to be the same, if not like God
here on earth, and that the Holy Spirit speaks through us,
and I kind of got a little uneasy about that,
(07:24):
because I figure there's God is always above me, I
could never be equally yoke with him.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah. Well, this is one of the big problems of
the Word of Faith movement. The Word of Faith movement
teaches what is called the Little God's Doctrine, and the
way in which they teach it is decidedly unbiblical. There
is a place for saying that we can be deified,
(07:51):
just as Peter talks about deification, but that's a moral
transformation of our nature. In no sense whatsoever does the
Bible ever teach that we can become reproductions of God.
We reflect God, but we're not reproductions of God. We
(08:12):
share in a finite, in an imperfect way, the communicable
attributes of God, spirituality, rationality, knowledge, wisdom, and the like.
But we do not have the nature of God, nor
will we ever have the nature of God. Even in eternity,
we will not have the nature of God. And yet
(08:34):
Kreflo Dollar says, when God made Adam, all he did
was make an exact imprint of his self. He duplicated himself.
You are an exact duplicate of the image of God.
And again that is not only false, but it is heretical.
(08:55):
We bear the imago day, in other words, the image
of God, but that is a reflection of God's communicable attributes.
We do not share the incommunicable attributes of God, nor
will we ever. I've written about this in great detail
in a book called Christianity in Crisis twenty first century,
(09:16):
which is available through the ministry of the Christian Research Institute.
Back to the phone lines, we'll talk next to David
listening in Pennsylvania. Hi, David, Hi.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Hank recently got your book, The Personalized Collector's Edition Bible,
The Collector's Edition. Love it. It has edified me and
I just appreciate your ministry.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
My question is actually along the same lines of the
last question out of Genesis three twenty two, and the
scripture is in the Lord God said the man has
now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.
I was wondering if you could expound on that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah. Well, this is where we had the opportunity, speaking
about the parents of humanity, to either trust God as
the arbiter of that which is true and that which
is false, that which is right, and that which is wrong,
or we could imbibe moral relativism, where truth would be
(10:15):
in the eyes of beholder, where we would say what
is right and what is wrong? That is essentially the
test which came from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil? Are we going to determine that which
is right? Or is there a divine north star that
sets the course of our life?
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Okay, that helps a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Thank you, You're welcome, and I give further detail on
this in the same book that I mentioned earlier, Christianity
in Crisis twenty first century back with more questions and answers.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
In a moment, if you were going into combat, what
would be more important the number of those who were
for you or the number of those who were with you.
Now apply that question to today's battle for the hearts and
minds of literally millions of people at home and abroad.
That's what makes members of CRI's support teams so vital.
(11:10):
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at equipp dot org. Hank will be back right after this.
(12:01):
The number of wolves surrounding the Christian flock is growing,
and they relish nothing more than docile's sheep, utterly incapable
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but Christian Research Institutes Support Team members aren't in favor
(12:22):
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What's more, support Team members are equipping themselves with CRIIS
Equipping Essentials, a handpicked collection of the best apologetics tools around.
(12:43):
Your 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. The
Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection
(13:05):
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 the Bible, religions and cults, the
(13:28):
resurrection and afterlife, and many more issues vital to a
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To receive your copy of the Complete Bible answer Book
Collector's Edition, Revised and Expanded, call eight eight eight seven
thousand CROI and make a gift to support the Christian
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Research Institute's life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand
CROI or visit us at equip dot org. Has God spoken?
Are the words of Scripture merely human in origin? Or
(14:10):
are they in fact the very words of God himself?
Three years in the making and based on two decades
of research and reflection. Hank Henagraph'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,
(14:32):
Hank counters the contentions of the Bible attackers and clearly
shows that belief in the Holy Scriptures is not a
guess or wishful thinking. It is the only logical conclusion
after an honest examination of overwhelming evidence. Order Has God
Spoken from the Christian Research Institute by calling eighty eight
seven thousand CRII, or go online to equip dot org.
(14:56):
Equip dot org. Once again, here is hand Cantagraph.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Let's go right back to the phone lines. Well, doctor
Shirley in Chicago, Illinois, Hi.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Shirley, Hi, my son knows the Bible cover cover, He's
got a photographic memory. He's studied it, he's studied the history,
and he has determined that the Bible is just a
(15:36):
good story book. And he's decided that there is a creator,
but it's not God, it's not any one creator. And
he's coming up, come up with his own.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Religion.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And I keep telling him, you know, religion is a
Baptist Methodists that mine is. I mean, although I Baptist,
I go to a Baptist church, mind, the relationship of
Christ is.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
What I have.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And of course he tries to be respectful, but still
a sniggers because he doesn't believe that Christ died for
our sins or any of that. I don't know how
to and my memory is not as good as his.
I've read the Bible cover to cover twice and I
(16:31):
continue to study it every day. But what do you
say to someone like that, Well.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
First of all, bless you for continuing to read the
Bible and for recognizing the fact that your son doesn't
recognize the Bible is not just a book of stories.
The Bible is rooted in history and evidence, and anyone
with a photographic memory that has read the Bible cover
(17:00):
to cover would know that, not even on the basis
of just believing the Bible, but simply reading the Bible,
the Bible corresponds to history and evidence. The people, the places,
and the particulars that you find in the Bible are
cooperated by what is found in the soil. So, for example,
(17:21):
if you go back to the Enlightenment, there are all
kinds of people that said, ah, the Bible is just
a big bunch of stories. The Assyrians and the Hittites
are mythological. Well, then hatouosas the chief city of the
Hittite Empire, was uncovered, and then later on Layard, the
greatest Syriologist, uncovered Nineveh, which is the diamond of Assyrian.
(17:42):
It's embedded in the golden arc of the Fertile Crescent
midway between the Mediterranean and the Caspian seas. And he
discovered their asher Bantiple's palace to the north, and Ishtari's
cultic temple and Sanakreb's palace. So what was found in
the soil ended up corresponding to what is found in scripture.
(18:05):
So we can know that the Bible is rooted in
history and evidence and is not just a bunch of stories.
And interestingly enough, even the most secular a skeptics today
by and large confirm what you have said about the
death and crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
(18:26):
That's just a historical fact. Christ was a historical person,
he was crucified, and archaeology has cooperated even the details
with respect to how crucifixion took place in the Roman context.
I mean, obviously, the Romans didn't invent crucifixion, but they
perfected it was invented by the Persians. Not only that,
(18:48):
but the Bible gives us history long before the history
actually takes place, which is to say, it is for
telling the future. And so it's like wow, like reading
the history of nations before the nations even come on
the scene. So in Daniel, for example, you have a
(19:09):
graphic depiction of a succession of nations from the Babylonian
Empire to the Babe of Bethlehem to the coming of
Jesus Christ. So all of that simply undermines the contention
that the Bible is just a bunch of stories. The
Bible's rooted in history and evidence. And that's why we
(19:29):
have maps in the Bible, by the way, because what
you find in the Bible is rooted in real history
and real evidence.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
But then he turns right around and he says, why
would you want to believe in a God that kills
innocent women and children? You know, because well God does.
And I told him that that's a cleansing, that to
protect our people from exposure to their gods and their ways.
(20:05):
But he said, they killed innocent God ordered them to
kill in and destroy innocent children.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
But again that simply belies a proper reading of scripture.
A text without a context is a pretext. God's commands
to destroy the nations inhabiting the Promised Land should never
be interpreted in isolation from context. So the command to
destroy them totally is contextualized by the words do not
(20:37):
inter marry with them, for they will turn your sons
and daughters away from following me to serve other gods.
This is what you are to do. Break down the altars,
smash down the sacred stones, cut down the asheripose, burn
the idols in the fire. So the aim of God's
command was the obliteration of wickedness, not the obligy of
(21:00):
the wicked. And all one needs to do is look
at how that cashed out in real history. So, for
example Rahab, was she murdered, No, was she killed? No?
She was not only allowed to live, but she was
in the lineage of Jesus Christ. And so what God
does in essence is he creates human beings with volition.
(21:23):
They have the ability to act or to act Otherwise,
if God hadn't done that, then love would be meaningless.
If the only way you can get your son to
love you is to hold a gun to his head,
love doesn't mean anything. So God creates people with the
ability to choose, and because he does so, he created
(21:44):
the potential for evil. And I didn't say created evil.
I said he created the potential for evil. And there's
a world of difference between those two thoughts. Human kind
actualized that evil, and yet God, in his mercy, unveiled
an on going redemptive plan by which we could be
reconciled to him. And that is anyone who wills. C. S.
(22:08):
Lewis was right when he said 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 end says Thy will be done. So God has
provided a way for every person to be reconciled to him.
And so we have a perfectly holy and a perfectly
(22:30):
just God who manifests love to the greatest extent imaginable,
whereby Jesus Christ is willing to die so that we
could be reconciled to Him for time and for eternity.
So I think someone that reads the Bible with an
open mind will be convinced to the evidence and the
(22:50):
reason I can relate to your son because I was
once there. I used to think the same thoughts, but
it was because I was prejudiced against the and never
took the opportunity to read the Bible with an open mind.
And I think there's a difference between reading something and
reading something with an open mind. If you read something
(23:12):
with the idea of I'm trying to poke holes in it,
as opposed to reading it with the idea of I
really want to understand what it says. Those are two
completely different ways of reading.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
He concerned all.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Of my Bible studies when I'm done with them, like
why the dry sponge? But yet he swears it and down.
God created satan, God created evil, So what's wrong with evil?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Well, no, God didn't create evil. That's the mistake. God
did not create evil. God created the potential for evil,
and you have to make that distinction.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
That's what I said. That's why you're right. That's what
I said. I'm right.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
You are How do I make you see that?
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Well, you don't, you know? You do what my mother
did for me. You pray, you know, a mother like
you is a blessing to her son, because you know,
you can testify to your son by your life and
by your love, and if necessary, you can use words.
But my mother, she didn't have the right words to
say to me. She did know how to count of
my arguments, but she did know how to spend a
(24:19):
lot of time on her knees. And so I look
at my own conversion as a direct result of a
godly mother who spent a lot of time on her knees.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Okay, I'm thinking that there's something I should do, or
I know there's a lot I should have done while
I was younger, but you know, past is passed and
now it's just too late. And so I figure, how
old Charlotte?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Oh yeah, well, let me give you some hope. You
know how old I was when I was converted to
Christ twenty nine?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Oh, that would be such a blessing.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Will keep praying, surely, yes, yes, and equip yourself, you know,
and if he throws your curveball, say, you know what,
that is a really good question. I don't know the
answer to that question, but I'll find the answer for you,
and then you call me, or you find the answer,
and then we'll take it to the next step.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
All right, so you please pray for my son as well.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I will. I only have a few moments to do so,
but I will do so after we go off the
air as well. Father, be with Shirley's son, and be
particularly with Shirley. May she be a testimony of your grace,
not by might nor by power, but by your spirit.
The ements so long for now.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Thank you for joining us for the Bible answer Man
broadcast in today's post truth culture of confusion. The Christian
Research Institute exists to equip listeners like you with answers
to communicate the Gospel of Hope to a world in
desperate need of life and truth. Because life and truth
(26:01):
matter in addition to truth, we want to equip you
with life, not simply to know about God, but truly
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the energy of the Lord Jesus working powerfully through us.
For more information, call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII.
(26:25):
That's eight eight eight seven thousand CRII. You can also
write CRII at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte,
North Carolina. Two eight two seven one, or just visit
us online at equip dot org. That's equip dot org.
(26:46):
The Bible answer Man broadcast is funded by listeners like you.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. Anyone
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(27:09):
more fundamentally on historic notions of truth. And the enemy
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(27:51):
the benefits of Support Team membership, simply visit equip dot org.
Welcome to the Bible answer Man broadcast with Christian Research
Institute President Hank Canagraph. Our mission at CRII is not
only to equip you with sound biblical teaching and spiritual discernment,
but to help you become a winsome and fruitful witness
of Jesus Christ. Because the credibility of our faith hinges
(00:27):
on the answers we provide to life's biggest questions, there's
often not a second chance to get those answers right,
to learn more, or to find resources to help you
grow in grace. Call eight eight eight seven thousand CRI.
That's eight eight eight seven thousand two seven four, or
go to our website at equip dot org. That's equip
(00:51):
dot org. The following program was pre recorded, and now
here's Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you very much. Randy opened the Book of Mormon
in the first words you will encounter are these. The
Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable
to the Bible. It is a record of God's dealing
with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as
does the Bible, the fullness of the everlasting Gospel. We
(01:23):
are told that the Book of Mormon is the record
of two great civilizations. The first, the Jaredites, left the
Tower of Babel and immigrated to the Americas twenty two
hundred years before Christ. The second migrated from Jerusalem around
(01:44):
six hundred BC, and then divided into two great nations,
the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Lamanites were said to
be white and exceedingly fair and delightsome. However, due to sin,
the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to
(02:06):
come upon them. Well. The lone Nephite survivor in the
final battle with their Lamanite enemies was allegedly a mighty
military commander named Moroni, and along with his father Mormon,
Moroni is said to have inscribed the most correct of
(02:30):
any book on earth, and that in reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics,
and then buried it in the Hill Camorra. After being
resurrected as an angel, Moroni appeared to the prophet Joseph
Smith and instructed him relative to its destined translation into
(02:50):
the English language. Well. In due course, Smith found golden
plates along with a pair of magical eyeglasses, and he
used them to translate the Egyptian into English. The result
was a new revelation and was called the Book of Mormon.
But there's a problem. No archaeological evidence for a language
(03:15):
such as Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics, no archaeological evidence for the
great civilizations touted in the Book of Mormon, no archaeological
evidence for lands such as the land of Moron described
in Ether seven to six. No anthropological evidence that the
(03:37):
Nephites and the Lamanites migrated from Jerusalem to mes America. Indeed,
both archaeology and anthropology militate against the people, the places,
and the particulars that are part and parcel of the
Book of Mormon, and demonstrate conclusively that the book is
little more than the product of a fertile and enterprising imagination.
(04:03):
The reason I cite this at the opening of the
Bible answer Men broadcast today is simply that the Bible
has been roundly denounced in the same way as the
Book of Mormon. It has been denounced as a cleverly
invented story. But unlike the Book of Mormon, the Bible
(04:25):
is buttressed by history and evidence. And while the archaeologist
Spade continues to mount up evidence against evidence against the
Book of Mormon. It is piled up proof upon proof
for the people places, in particulars that are inscribed on
the parchment and papyrus of biblical manuscripts. In other words,
(04:48):
via archaeology, you can be absolutely certain that what is
chronicled in the Book of Mormon is false, and just
as certain no what you find in the Bible is true.
I've written about this in my book Has God Spoken,
where I use archaeology as the centerpiece of demonstrating that
(05:12):
the Bible is indeed divine as opposed to merely human
in origin. If we are going to say the Bible
is our authority, we had better know that it is
in fact true that these are the words of God
as opposed to merely the words of men. Has God
Spoken available through the ministry of the Christian Research Institute.
(05:34):
You can order online at equipped dot or you can
order via the mail at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte,
North Carolina, zip code two eight two seven one. As always,
you can talk to our resource consultants as well. That
number triple eight seven thousand CRI. A lot of you
hanging on will go right to the phone lines. First
(05:55):
up Rona. She's listening in Texas on the web.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Hi Runna, Yes, sir, he loove hang.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You're welcome.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Foremost, I want to say I was tuned in with
your broadcast via a friend that encouraged me. And my
question to you, sir, is because of my schedule, I've
not been able to attend church on a regular basis,
so I seek now TV church as it would be,
(06:24):
and I read the Bible constantly, first thing up in
the morning, you know, lunch break, and even when I
get home. And I even have watched an individual Krefel Dollar.
Have you heard of him?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I'm very familiar with him.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Yes, okay, I had to turn him off because I
wasn't really sure. But he started to correlate a lot
of scriptures First Corinthians six seventeen, Ephesians three, sixteen, John
one sixteen, Hebrews twelve twenty three, Philippians two five, First
John four seventeen, and he took all those scriptures tied
(07:03):
them in together, saying because of those scriptures that we
were equal with God, because of our Holy Spirit, that
we're able to be the same, if not like God
here on earth, and that the Holy Spirit speaks through us,
and I kind of got a little uneasy about that,
(07:24):
because I figure there's God is always above me, I
could never be equally yoke with him.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah. Well, this is one of the big problems of
the Word of Faith movement. The Word of Faith movement
teaches what is called the Little God's Doctrine, and the
way in which they teach it is decidedly unbiblical. There
is a place for saying that we can be deified,
(07:51):
just as Peter talks about deification, but that's a moral
transformation of our nature. In no sense whatsoever does the
Bible ever teach that we can become reproductions of God.
We reflect God, but we're not reproductions of God. We
(08:12):
share in a finite, in an imperfect way, the communicable
attributes of God, spirituality, rationality, knowledge, wisdom, and the like.
But we do not have the nature of God, nor
will we ever have the nature of God. Even in eternity,
we will not have the nature of God. And yet
(08:34):
Kreflo Dollar says, when God made Adam, all he did
was make an exact imprint of his self. He duplicated himself.
You are an exact duplicate of the image of God.
And again that is not only false, but it is heretical.
(08:55):
We bear the imago day, in other words, the image
of God, but that is a reflection of God's communicable attributes.
We do not share the incommunicable attributes of God, nor
will we ever. I've written about this in great detail
in a book called Christianity in Crisis twenty first century,
(09:16):
which is available through the ministry of the Christian Research Institute.
Back to the phone lines, we'll talk next to David
listening in Pennsylvania. Hi, David, Hi.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Hank recently got your book, The Personalized Collector's Edition Bible,
The Collector's Edition. Love it. It has edified me and
I just appreciate your ministry.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
My question is actually along the same lines of the
last question out of Genesis three twenty two, and the
scripture is in the Lord God said the man has
now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.
I was wondering if you could expound on that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah. Well, this is where we had the opportunity, speaking
about the parents of humanity, to either trust God as
the arbiter of that which is true and that which
is false, that which is right, and that which is wrong,
or we could imbibe moral relativism, where truth would be
(10:15):
in the eyes of beholder, where we would say what
is right and what is wrong? That is essentially the
test which came from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil? Are we going to determine that which
is right? Or is there a divine north star that
sets the course of our life?
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Okay, that helps a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Thank you, You're welcome, and I give further detail on
this in the same book that I mentioned earlier, Christianity
in Crisis twenty first century back with more questions and answers.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
In a moment, if you were going into combat, what
would be more important the number of those who were
for you or the number of those who were with you.
Now apply that question to today's battle for the hearts and
minds of literally millions of people at home and abroad.
That's what makes members of CRI's support teams so vital.
(11:10):
They're not simply for CRI's critical mission. They're standing with
CRI each and every day. If you want your voice
and your values to be heard twenty four to seven
through the outreaches of the Christian Research Institute, become a
member of CRI's support team today. Just call eight eight
eight seven thousand CRII to stand with CRII daily in
(11:33):
the battle for life and truth, and as our thanks,
Hank Canagraph will personalize to you a copy of his
Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition, revised and expanded. Call
eight eight eight seven thousand CROI or visit our website
at equipp dot org. Hank will be back right after this.
(12:01):
The 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
(12:22):
of feeding 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.
(12:43):
Your 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. The
Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection
(13:05):
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 the Bible, religions and cults, the
(13:28):
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 CROI and make a gift to support the Christian
(13:48):
Research Institute's life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand
CROI or visit us at equip dot org. Has God spoken?
Are the words of Scripture merely human in origin? Or
(14:10):
are they in fact the very words of God himself?
Three years in the making and based on two decades
of research and reflection. Hank Henagraph'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,
(14:32):
Hank counters the contentions of the Bible attackers and clearly
shows that belief in the Holy Scriptures is not a
guess or wishful thinking. It is the only logical conclusion
after an honest examination of overwhelming evidence. Order Has God
Spoken from the Christian Research Institute by calling eighty eight
seven thousand CRII, or go online to equip dot org.
(14:56):
Equip dot org. Once again, here is hand Cantagraph.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Let's go right back to the phone lines. Well, doctor
Shirley in Chicago, Illinois, Hi.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Shirley, Hi, my son knows the Bible cover cover, He's
got a photographic memory. He's studied it, he's studied the history,
and he has determined that the Bible is just a
(15:36):
good story book. And he's decided that there is a creator,
but it's not God, it's not any one creator. And
he's coming up, come up with his own.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Religion.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And I keep telling him, you know, religion is a
Baptist Methodists that mine is. I mean, although I Baptist,
I go to a Baptist church, mind, the relationship of
Christ is.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
What I have.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
And of course he tries to be respectful, but still
a sniggers because he doesn't believe that Christ died for
our sins or any of that. I don't know how
to and my memory is not as good as his.
I've read the Bible cover to cover twice and I
(16:31):
continue to study it every day. But what do you
say to someone like that, Well.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
First of all, bless you for continuing to read the
Bible and for recognizing the fact that your son doesn't
recognize the Bible is not just a book of stories.
The Bible is rooted in history and evidence, and anyone
with a photographic memory that has read the Bible cover
(17:00):
to cover would know that, not even on the basis
of just believing the Bible, but simply reading the Bible,
the Bible corresponds to history and evidence. The people, the places,
and the particulars that you find in the Bible are
cooperated by what is found in the soil. So, for example,
(17:21):
if you go back to the Enlightenment, there are all
kinds of people that said, ah, the Bible is just
a big bunch of stories. The Assyrians and the Hittites
are mythological. Well, then hatouosas the chief city of the
Hittite Empire, was uncovered, and then later on Layard, the
greatest Syriologist, uncovered Nineveh, which is the diamond of Assyrian.
(17:42):
It's embedded in the golden arc of the Fertile Crescent
midway between the Mediterranean and the Caspian seas. And he
discovered their asher Bantiple's palace to the north, and Ishtari's
cultic temple and Sanakreb's palace. So what was found in
the soil ended up corresponding to what is found in scripture.
(18:05):
So we can know that the Bible is rooted in
history and evidence and is not just a bunch of stories.
And interestingly enough, even the most secular a skeptics today
by and large confirm what you have said about the
death and crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
(18:26):
That's just a historical fact. Christ was a historical person,
he was crucified, and archaeology has cooperated even the details
with respect to how crucifixion took place in the Roman context.
I mean, obviously, the Romans didn't invent crucifixion, but they
perfected it was invented by the Persians. Not only that,
(18:48):
but the Bible gives us history long before the history
actually takes place, which is to say, it is for
telling the future. And so it's like wow, like reading
the history of nations before the nations even come on
the scene. So in Daniel, for example, you have a
(19:09):
graphic depiction of a succession of nations from the Babylonian
Empire to the Babe of Bethlehem to the coming of
Jesus Christ. So all of that simply undermines the contention
that the Bible is just a bunch of stories. The
Bible's rooted in history and evidence. And that's why we
(19:29):
have maps in the Bible, by the way, because what
you find in the Bible is rooted in real history
and real evidence.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
But then he turns right around and he says, why
would you want to believe in a God that kills
innocent women and children? You know, because well God does.
And I told him that that's a cleansing, that to
protect our people from exposure to their gods and their ways.
(20:05):
But he said, they killed innocent God ordered them to
kill in and destroy innocent children.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
But again that simply belies a proper reading of scripture.
A text without a context is a pretext. God's commands
to destroy the nations inhabiting the Promised Land should never
be interpreted in isolation from context. So the command to
destroy them totally is contextualized by the words do not
(20:37):
inter marry with them, for they will turn your sons
and daughters away from following me to serve other gods.
This is what you are to do. Break down the altars,
smash down the sacred stones, cut down the asheripose, burn
the idols in the fire. So the aim of God's
command was the obliteration of wickedness, not the obligy of
(21:00):
the wicked. And all one needs to do is look
at how that cashed out in real history. So, for
example Rahab, was she murdered, No, was she killed? No?
She was not only allowed to live, but she was
in the lineage of Jesus Christ. And so what God
does in essence is he creates human beings with volition.
(21:23):
They have the ability to act or to act Otherwise,
if God hadn't done that, then love would be meaningless.
If the only way you can get your son to
love you is to hold a gun to his head,
love doesn't mean anything. So God creates people with the
ability to choose, and because he does so, he created
(21:44):
the potential for evil. And I didn't say created evil.
I said he created the potential for evil. And there's
a world of difference between those two thoughts. Human kind
actualized that evil, and yet God, in his mercy, unveiled
an on going redemptive plan by which we could be
reconciled to him. And that is anyone who wills. C. S.
(22:08):
Lewis was right when he said 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 end says Thy will be done. So God has
provided a way for every person to be reconciled to him.
And so we have a perfectly holy and a perfectly
(22:30):
just God who manifests love to the greatest extent imaginable,
whereby Jesus Christ is willing to die so that we
could be reconciled to Him for time and for eternity.
So I think someone that reads the Bible with an
open mind will be convinced to the evidence and the
(22:50):
reason I can relate to your son because I was
once there. I used to think the same thoughts, but
it was because I was prejudiced against the and never
took the opportunity to read the Bible with an open mind.
And I think there's a difference between reading something and
reading something with an open mind. If you read something
(23:12):
with the idea of I'm trying to poke holes in it,
as opposed to reading it with the idea of I
really want to understand what it says. Those are two
completely different ways of reading.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
He concerned all.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Of my Bible studies when I'm done with them, like
why the dry sponge? But yet he swears it and down.
God created satan, God created evil, So what's wrong with evil?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Well, no, God didn't create evil. That's the mistake. God
did not create evil. God created the potential for evil,
and you have to make that distinction.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
That's what I said. That's why you're right. That's what
I said. I'm right.
Speaker 5 (23:53):
You are How do I make you see that?
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Well, you don't, you know? You do what my mother
did for me. You pray, you know, a mother like
you is a blessing to her son, because you know,
you can testify to your son by your life and
by your love, and if necessary, you can use words.
But my mother, she didn't have the right words to
say to me. She did know how to count of
my arguments, but she did know how to spend a
(24:19):
lot of time on her knees. And so I look
at my own conversion as a direct result of a
godly mother who spent a lot of time on her knees.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Okay, I'm thinking that there's something I should do, or
I know there's a lot I should have done while
I was younger, but you know, past is passed and
now it's just too late. And so I figure, how
old Charlotte?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Oh yeah, well, let me give you some hope. You
know how old I was when I was converted to
Christ twenty nine?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Oh, that would be such a blessing.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Will keep praying, surely, yes, yes, and equip yourself, you know,
and if he throws your curveball, say, you know what,
that is a really good question. I don't know the
answer to that question, but I'll find the answer for you,
and then you call me, or you find the answer,
and then we'll take it to the next step.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
All right, so you please pray for my son as well.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I will. I only have a few moments to do so,
but I will do so after we go off the
air as well. Father, be with Shirley's son, and be
particularly with Shirley. May she be a testimony of your grace,
not by might nor by power, but by your spirit.
The ements so long for now.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Thank you for joining us for the Bible answer Man
broadcast in today's post truth culture of confusion. The Christian
Research Institute exists to equip listeners like you with answers
to communicate the Gospel of Hope to a world in
desperate need of life and truth. Because life and truth
(26:01):
matter in addition to truth, we want to equip you
with life, not simply to know about God, but truly
to know Him. Experiencing union with christ enables us to
live life not merely by our own energy, but with
the energy of the Lord Jesus working powerfully through us.
For more information, call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII.
(26:25):
That's eight eight eight seven thousand CRII. You can also
write CRII at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte,
North Carolina. Two eight two seven one, or just visit
us online at equip dot org. That's equip dot org.
(26:46):
The Bible answer Man broadcast is funded by listeners like you.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. Anyone
who's been paying attention knows there's a war going on,
not just on traditional morality, civility, and decency, but even
(27:09):
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 there is no objective truth to militant scientism that
(27:29):
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 how you can make a difference and enjoy all
(27:51):
the benefits of Support Team membership, simply visit equip dot org.
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