January 2, 2026 • 28 mins
On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (01/02/26), Hank brings up the Legacy Reading Plan, an innovative guide for reading through the Bible each year, so you can gain a better understanding of God’s Word.
Hank also answers the following questions:
If the Magi followed the star in the East, wouldn’t that have taken them in the wrong direction? David - Columbus, IN (2:06)
What are your thoughts on the ministry of Michael Rozell and Refuge Ranch? Why don’t we see the signs described in Mark 16:17-18 today? Aaron - Hendersonville, TN (4:25)
My pastor is starting a series based on the book Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman. Do you know anything about this? Bob - Atlanta, GA (6:50)
My family seems to be against me since my divorce. Is this caused by the devil, or am I just depressed about the divorce during this time of year? Ronell - Nashville, TN (15:38)
Since God is omniscient, didn’t He know that Adam was going to sin before He created him? Did He know He would have to die to redeem us before He created Adam? Jason - St. Louis, MO (18:11)
Is Jesus waiting to return so that sin will run its course and be destroyed before His second coming? Jason - St. Louis, MO (20:04)
Is there any biblical evidence for cessationism? Charles - Lincoln, NE (21:34)
What about those today who claim to perform miracles, but their preaching is heretical? Charles - Lincoln, NE (24:12)
Hank also answers the following questions:
If the Magi followed the star in the East, wouldn’t that have taken them in the wrong direction? David - Columbus, IN (2:06)
What are your thoughts on the ministry of Michael Rozell and Refuge Ranch? Why don’t we see the signs described in Mark 16:17-18 today? Aaron - Hendersonville, TN (4:25)
My pastor is starting a series based on the book Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman. Do you know anything about this? Bob - Atlanta, GA (6:50)
My family seems to be against me since my divorce. Is this caused by the devil, or am I just depressed about the divorce during this time of year? Ronell - Nashville, TN (15:38)
Since God is omniscient, didn’t He know that Adam was going to sin before He created him? Did He know He would have to die to redeem us before He created Adam? Jason - St. Louis, MO (18:11)
Is Jesus waiting to return so that sin will run its course and be destroyed before His second coming? Jason - St. Louis, MO (20:04)
Is there any biblical evidence for cessationism? Charles - Lincoln, NE (21:34)
What about those today who claim to perform miracles, but their preaching is heretical? Charles - Lincoln, NE (24:12)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the Christian Research Institute and Charlotte, North Carolina. You're
listening to the Bible answer Man broadcast with Hank Hannagraph.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. The
mission of the Christian Research Institute is to equip believers
to answer life's essential questions soundly and persuasively, and to
(00:27):
give the reason for the hope that you have with
gentleness and respect. For more information, go online to equip
dot org. The following program was pre recorded and now
here's Bible answer Man host Hank Cantagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Thank you, Reddy.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I want to start by talking about the Legacy Reading Plan.
Whenever we're on the cost of a new year, it's
important for us to perhaps get into a habit that
we haven't been in prior year.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
See.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Reading Plan is an innovative approach that I developed or
reading through the Love Letters of God, one book at
a time for the rest of your life. And the
overarching objective of the plan is to read through the
Bible once a year, every year for the rest of
your life. The reading calendar is naturally segmented into seasons,
(01:22):
and then the seasons in two months at the beginning
of each year. You know that during the winter your
focus will be on the Pentateuch and poetry, in the
spring the historical books, in the summer of the Prophets,
and during the fall the New Testament. And then each
season is further broken down into months. And therefore every
(01:43):
January your goal is to read through Genesis and Exodus,
and every December the Synoptic Gospels and Acts. There are
times when you'll naturally read ten chapters, and others when
you'll read one or two. But more importantly, you'll read
the Bible just as you read other literature. Again, an
innovative plan. You can find it on the web had
(02:04):
equipp dot org. A lot of you hanging on. We'll
go right to the phone callers. First up as David
in Columbus, Indiana.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Hi David, yes, he thank you for taking my call.
I have a question about the wise men. We were
said to be from the east, and that they still
saw a star in the east. And so if they
followed the star in the east, that wouldn't take them
west to Jerusalem, take them somewhere east, like India or
(02:32):
something like that. I don't reckoncay that well.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
The text says that the Nagi came to Jerusalem from
the east, and then they saw his star in the east.
Natural stars, of course, appear to rise in the east
and then set in the west to the earth rotation.
Of course, the text doesn't tell us whether the star
was a natural or a supernatural phenomenon. So in short,
(02:57):
it doesn't mean that they followed in an eastward direction.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Oh okay, well, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
And by the way, some of the things that I've
noted in a devotional I do for the season with
respect to Christmas is that when you look at the
star and the magi following the star, the Bible makes
it crystal clear that the wise men were led by God,
both by means of the star which guided them to Christ,
(03:29):
and by means of the warning that kept them from
returning to Herod. And not only that, but contrary to
the practice of astrology, which involves divination and attempts to
predict the future apart from God, the star that the
magi followed was not used to foretell the future, but
to fourth tell the future. In other words, the Star
of Bethlehem didn't prophesy the birth of Christ. It pronounced
(03:52):
the birth of Christ. And again when we come to
all these kinds of things. In Scripture, we have to
have a truly open mind, which is to say, we
have to allow for both natural as well as supernatural
explanations for what we encounter in the world. So some
of the things can be explained through natural explanations, some
require a supernatural explanation. And again the text doesn't tell
(04:16):
us whether the star was a natural or a supernatural phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
We just don't know.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
All right, Well, thank you very much, you got it.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Appreciate your call back to the phone as we'll talk
next to Aaron in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Hieran, Hey, my.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Question is about a pass I mean Michael Brazil. He
has a ministry called Refuge Ranch Ministries. I want to
know if if you've heard of him and what you
thought were about him.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
It's a deliverance model of spiritual warfare, which I am
very strongly opposed to on biblical grounds. In fact, I
wrote a book called The Covering God's Plan to Protect
You from Evil, which counters that model of spiritual warfare
and lays out a biblical model is delineated by the
apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter six, verses ten or twenty.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Okay, in Mark sixteen, verse seventeen, it says, these signs.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
Will company those who have believed in my name. They'll
cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues. They
will pick up serpents, and if they drink any daily poison,
it will not hurt them.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
They will lay hand them the sick.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
And they will recover. How Come I don't see much
of that around me.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, A couple of things that I would say about
this is, first and foremost, you are quoting a passage
of scripture that is not found in the most reliable
early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses, and so this is
a questionable ending to the Book of Mark. But if
you do consider it as part of the photographer or
(05:54):
the original writings, I think that you find some of
those principles manifested in the life of the New Testament writers.
But again, this is not normative for us today, which
is to say that the writers of the Bible were
attested to by the miraculous. Furthermore, I think it's really
(06:16):
important that we recognize that there's nothing in the Holy
Scripture that suggests in any way whatsoever that a believer
can be demon possessed. Unbelievers are of their father, the devil.
But believers are in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. And
therefore your temple is the temple of the Holy Spirit,
(06:36):
is not shared with a demon. So the whole notion
of deliverance of believers is simply an unbiblical notion, which
unfortunately is being plied before the altars of churches. Back
to the phone lines, we talked to Bob Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 7 (06:52):
Hi, Bob, Oh, thank God, bless you. I wish your mystery.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (06:57):
I have a question for you. My wife and family
leave it attending a church here, and we've got a
new past or in the last six months, and he's
about to start a series on the book called not
a Fan by Idleman, and I'm wondering. I've looked online
and there's a couple of reviews that associate him with
lordship Salvation, and I wonder if you could shed some
(07:18):
light on that.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, we've actually put together a little fact sheet on
this whole controversy with respect to lordship salvation predominantly, as
it's argued by on the one side, John MacArthur and
the other Riary, and so if you hang on, we
can send that out to you.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I'm not real familiar.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
With the specifics of what Idleman is teaching. I'm not
that familiar with him.
Speaker 7 (07:43):
Putting a lot of emphasis on following Christ and how
your life should change. You know, they give as example
as people that quit their jobs and go to remote
villages in South America to help dig wills or villages.
And you know, that's an extreme, but it seems like
(08:05):
the pastors spends an awful lot of time. It's almost
almost a works righteousness.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
There's a couple of things I would say about that.
I mean, I think it's really true that if you
want to live the life that Christ lived, then you
have to do the things that Christ did, which is
to say that Christ fasted. Christ was intimately acquainted with
(08:34):
the Word of God. Christ often withdrew to lonely places
and prayed because he treasured fellowship with his heavenly Father.
And so to be what Christ was, to be an
imitator of Jesus Christ in our own lives, it means
that we need to do what Christ did. We have
to imitate those life practices modeled by our Lord. That's
(08:57):
what Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. But
then we also have to recognize that the Christian life
is an ingrafted life. It is not even our own life.
Christ not only died for our sins, but we died
with Christ. And when we die with Christ, it means
that we have been crucified with Christ and we no
longer live, but Christ lives in us. So we have
(09:20):
to nurture the divine life within as we move through
the tangled web of human existence. So I do think
that it's important for us to recognize what it means
to follow Christ, not only in doctrine, but also life.
I mean, that's what Paul says to young Timothy says,
(09:42):
watch your life and your doctrine closely, persevere in them,
because if you do, you'll save both yourself and your hearers.
But ultimately, what we do is we hold as Christians,
our time, our talent, and our treasure with an open hand,
so that God can take out and put in he
sees fit. That's always the goal, to be a steward
(10:03):
of our time, talent, and treasure. To recognize we don't
even own them as believers. We have given them to
Christ and now we follow him, and that is in
whatever calling He places on our lives. Some people are
called to make a lot of money and then to
steward that money for the purposes of the kingdom. That's
(10:24):
a reality. We shouldn't abandon wealth, but we should harness well.
By abanding wealth, it just means someone else controls it.
But rather, if we've been gifted in that area, we
need to use the gift that God has given to us.
So if our gift is giving, we have to give
according to the grace given to us. If our gift
is showing mercy, we need to do that cheerfully. If
(10:45):
our gift is teaching, we have to teach. If it
is serving, we have to serve. But the idea is
to use our gifts for God's glory and for the
extension of His kingdom. Coming up to a station break,
be right back on the other side of the break
with more answers to your questions.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
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(15:29):
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Speaker 2 (15:38):
Back to the phone lines.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
We'll talk to Renel next listening in Nashville, Tennessee. Hi Renelle,
Oh you doing Hi good?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
I appreciate your show. Uh. I think it's from the
third time, Colin, you touched on what I was going
to ask about.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Okay, you're welcome. Yep.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
I've been going to church since my divorce almost a
year now, and seeming like the people at work are
noticed to change in me, but my own family seem like.
Speaker 7 (16:08):
That gives me.
Speaker 8 (16:11):
Cause of my divorce. So I was trying to figure out,
is that the devil doing this a ground this time of.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
The year or is it just.
Speaker 8 (16:21):
Me being depressed about being divorced around this time of year.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, it may be the latter.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I mean, I think one of the things that we
have to recognize when we think about spiritual warfare right
now is the words of Paul that greater is he
that is in us, that he that is in the world.
So the emphasis on spiritual warfare must always be the
power of God to protect rather than the power of
(16:47):
Satan to pillage. And that's why it's so important to
learn to put on the full armor of God, or
what I call the covering, so that you can stand
against principalities and powers of darkness. And after you've done everything,
Paul says, to stand stand firm with the belt of
truth buckled around your waist. And that means that you
(17:08):
come to a true valuation of things, whether it is
a lie from Satan or a life from family members
or friends. If we have the belt of truth, we're
able to discern the difference between truth and error, and
we hold steadfastly to truth no matter what anyone says
(17:28):
in the culture or otherwise. The same thing is true
with all pieces of the armor. We have to know
what they are and how they apply to our lives.
And again that's why I wrote the book The Covering,
God's plan to protect you from evil. And if you
want to hang on, I'd be happy to send you
a copy of that book. Is my gift and with
(17:49):
the hopes that it will give you some peace in
the midst of the storm.
Speaker 8 (17:54):
Okay, thank you, Hank, You were welcome. I will try
to donate when.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I came this is just my gift. If you can donate,
that's wonderful, But you hang on, I'll send.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
It out to you.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Okay, thank you, blessure my friend. May God give you
peace in the midst of the storm. Jason. Next Saint Louis, Missouri.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Hi, Jason, Hi, Hey, how you doing good? Thank you?
Speaker 9 (18:17):
I really appreciate your ministry. You have a huge influence
on me, and I just would I just want to
ask kind of an off the wall question. Did God
know before he made Adam whether or not he Adam
was going to sin? And then since since he probably
did know, since he's omniscient, that he was going to sin,
(18:42):
did he know he was going to have to die
on my behalf, you know, to save me before he
created Adam.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
The Believable says that Jesus Christ is a Lamb slain
before the foundations of the earth, so God certainly knew that,
and he also knew that out of Adam's sin would
come the best of all possible worlds, a world in
which we will forever be able not to sin.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
But remember, the reason.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
God created Adam in the way that he did is
because he wanted love and relationship to be genuine, not coerced,
but genuine. And for love to be genuine, there has
to be volition or will. Love is not true love
if it is at the muzzle of a gun. It
(19:32):
is true love when it is volitional of the will.
And so God created the potential for evil by giving
Adam a freedom of choice. Adam actualized that evil by
his choices.
Speaker 9 (19:46):
So because he's on this shit, I kind of I
totally agree with what you just said. I just wanted
to say that it's fantastic that God.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Knew he was going to die for us before he
created us.
Speaker 9 (19:59):
I mean, I just but I never knew I could
make that logical leap. I've just had to ask you,
do you think in the Day of Judgment that maybe
the reason why God's waiting to come back is to
let sin on earth play out and to have all
sin be done before it comes back, so he could
(20:20):
say that there's proof that all sin is destruction and
then he'll give us examples or something like that.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Well, no, Biblically, that's not what we're told. What we're
told is that we live in a christ creation and
we are sinners by nature. Therefore, until the time that
Jesus comes again, sin will continue to have its hold
not only on the lives of people, but on creation itself.
(20:51):
The effects of sin are seen in a chursed creation.
When Jesus appears a second time, then the problem of
sin will be fully and finally result. Those who are
in Christ will be glorified, and those who remain in
their sin will be separated from God, not only in time,
(21:14):
but certainly in eternity. So they will be, as it were,
in another dimension of God's creation, separate from those who
are redeemed.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
Right.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
Well, God, bless you, sir, and praise LRD, and thank
you for your ministry.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
You got it. Thank you so much. Jason.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Back to the phone lines, Charles Lincoln, Nebraska.
Speaker 10 (21:37):
Hi Charles, Hey, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Pleasure.
Speaker 10 (21:41):
So my question was, I just finished reading the book
Paradise Restored by David Chilton, and it brought me up
to speed on something that I've been considering for a
long time, which is, you know, the issue of estatology
and the theology diminion of that sort of thing which
I suspect might be true for a long time. I
just wanted more biblical evidence for that, well, one thing
(22:02):
that goes along with that and cessation Sensatianism, and that's
something that in the past I believed didn't have much
biblical evidence for it, but it certainly seems to jive
well with that sort of eschatology, So something that I'm considering.
So I'm just looking for some biblical, biblical evidence for Cessatianism.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, I don't know that you can prove from the
Bible that the supernatural gifts have ceased, but I do
think that we can demonstrate that they're not normative. In
other words, if you look at Jesus and the disciples,
they were ratified through their miracles. In other words, their
miracles demonstrated who they were as spokesman for God and
(22:51):
God incarnate himself, who could do the miraculous. The same
thing is true with respect to the prophets of old.
Were validated because what they said came to pass precisely
as prophesied. Therefore, they demonstrated again in spades that they
(23:13):
were spokesmen.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
For the Almighty. And that's what we have now.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
We have an infallible repository for faith and practice, that
is the Word of God. We ought to test all
things in light of that, and hold fast of that
which is good.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Now, having said all of.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
That, it doesn't mean that God doesn't do miracles in
the present. It simply means that miracles in the present
aren't the norm. The norm is we all get sick,
and we all die of our last disease. The death
rate is one per person. This has been well said,
and we're all going to make it. Sin and sickness
(23:48):
is part and parcel of this order of things. We
look forward to a new order of things in which
there'll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. So
my advice is, on the basis of scripture, you don't
find that miracles have ceased, but rather that they're non normative.
In fact, if they were normative, we wouldn't call them miracles.
Speaker 10 (24:11):
Okay. So in the Bible, the people who were involved
in these miracles, it was a show that they were
annointed by God. So what about all these people nowadays
who preached all these like heresies and then say, here
are evidence of my anointment. There's miracles happening here. How
do we address those issues?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, I mean you have to test them again. Reinhart Bonki,
you have so many of these people touting resurrections. Benny Hen,
you find this on TB and but when you actually
do the research, you find something amazing. I've told this
story before, but I was having dinner one night with
(24:51):
Benny Hen and the guy that was his chief right
hand man at the time, I think his name was
Geene Poulino. And while we're having dinner, Benny was talking
about a new book coming out, and that book was
going to chronicle detailed document by doctors all of his
many many miracles. And there were thousands upon thousands of
(25:12):
cheos rep So I just said to him, well, okay,
I can't deal with thousands and thousands, but how about
sending me your best three documented cases so I can
look at them. Well, he finally did. He sent me
his three best documented cases. Turns out that all three
of them were bogus. The only one we couldn't figure
out for a time was there was a cursinogenic tumor
(25:35):
that was supposedly healed at one of what he called
at the time his miracle invasion rallies.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Couldn't find it on the X ray anymore.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Well, we found out when we did the actual medical research.
We found out that, yeah, it had disappeared, but it
was excised by a doctor, not at his miracle invasion rally.
So you know, even with Benny hen the miracles are
conspicuous by their absence. But again saying that this mean
that I'm saying that God cannot do a miracle, but
if he did, it would be in spite of Benny Hid,
(26:04):
not because of him, because he is a person that
continuously is communicating Harrison. We are out of time for
this edition of the Bible Instrument Broadcast. Look forward to
seeing you next time with more of the show.
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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Speaker 2 (26:42):
That's eight eight eight.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Seven thousand, two seven four. The Bible answer Man Broadcast
is supported by listeners like you. We're on the air
because life and truth matter. The Complete Bible answer Book
Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection of the most often
(27:06):
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 resurrection and afterlife, and
(27:30):
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
make a gift to support the Christian Research Institute's life
changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or visit
(27:55):
us at EQUIP dot org.
From the Christian Research Institute and Charlotte, North Carolina. You're
listening to the Bible answer Man broadcast with Hank Hannagraph.
We're on the air because life and truth matter. The
mission of the Christian Research Institute is to equip believers
to answer life's essential questions soundly and persuasively, and to
(00:27):
give the reason for the hope that you have with
gentleness and respect. For more information, go online to equip
dot org. The following program was pre recorded and now
here's Bible answer Man host Hank Cantagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Thank you, Reddy.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I want to start by talking about the Legacy Reading Plan.
Whenever we're on the cost of a new year, it's
important for us to perhaps get into a habit that
we haven't been in prior year.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
See.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Reading Plan is an innovative approach that I developed or
reading through the Love Letters of God, one book at
a time for the rest of your life. And the
overarching objective of the plan is to read through the
Bible once a year, every year for the rest of
your life. The reading calendar is naturally segmented into seasons,
(01:22):
and then the seasons in two months at the beginning
of each year. You know that during the winter your
focus will be on the Pentateuch and poetry, in the
spring the historical books, in the summer of the Prophets,
and during the fall the New Testament. And then each
season is further broken down into months. And therefore every
(01:43):
January your goal is to read through Genesis and Exodus,
and every December the Synoptic Gospels and Acts. There are
times when you'll naturally read ten chapters, and others when
you'll read one or two. But more importantly, you'll read
the Bible just as you read other literature. Again, an
innovative plan. You can find it on the web had
(02:04):
equipp dot org. A lot of you hanging on. We'll
go right to the phone callers. First up as David
in Columbus, Indiana.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Hi David, yes, he thank you for taking my call.
I have a question about the wise men. We were
said to be from the east, and that they still
saw a star in the east. And so if they
followed the star in the east, that wouldn't take them
west to Jerusalem, take them somewhere east, like India or
(02:32):
something like that. I don't reckoncay that well.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
The text says that the Nagi came to Jerusalem from
the east, and then they saw his star in the east.
Natural stars, of course, appear to rise in the east
and then set in the west to the earth rotation.
Of course, the text doesn't tell us whether the star
was a natural or a supernatural phenomenon. So in short,
(02:57):
it doesn't mean that they followed in an eastward direction.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Oh okay, well, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, you're welcome.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
And by the way, some of the things that I've
noted in a devotional I do for the season with
respect to Christmas is that when you look at the
star and the magi following the star, the Bible makes
it crystal clear that the wise men were led by God,
both by means of the star which guided them to Christ,
(03:29):
and by means of the warning that kept them from
returning to Herod. And not only that, but contrary to
the practice of astrology, which involves divination and attempts to
predict the future apart from God, the star that the
magi followed was not used to foretell the future, but
to fourth tell the future. In other words, the Star
of Bethlehem didn't prophesy the birth of Christ. It pronounced
(03:52):
the birth of Christ. And again when we come to
all these kinds of things. In Scripture, we have to
have a truly open mind, which is to say, we
have to allow for both natural as well as supernatural
explanations for what we encounter in the world. So some
of the things can be explained through natural explanations, some
require a supernatural explanation. And again the text doesn't tell
(04:16):
us whether the star was a natural or a supernatural phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
We just don't know.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
All right, Well, thank you very much, you got it.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Appreciate your call back to the phone as we'll talk
next to Aaron in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Hieran, Hey, my.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Question is about a pass I mean Michael Brazil. He
has a ministry called Refuge Ranch Ministries. I want to
know if if you've heard of him and what you
thought were about him.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
It's a deliverance model of spiritual warfare, which I am
very strongly opposed to on biblical grounds. In fact, I
wrote a book called The Covering God's Plan to Protect
You from Evil, which counters that model of spiritual warfare
and lays out a biblical model is delineated by the
apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter six, verses ten or twenty.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Okay, in Mark sixteen, verse seventeen, it says, these signs.
Speaker 6 (05:13):
Will company those who have believed in my name. They'll
cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues. They
will pick up serpents, and if they drink any daily poison,
it will not hurt them.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
They will lay hand them the sick.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
And they will recover. How Come I don't see much
of that around me.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, A couple of things that I would say about
this is, first and foremost, you are quoting a passage
of scripture that is not found in the most reliable
early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses, and so this is
a questionable ending to the Book of Mark. But if
you do consider it as part of the photographer or
(05:54):
the original writings, I think that you find some of
those principles manifested in the life of the New Testament writers.
But again, this is not normative for us today, which
is to say that the writers of the Bible were
attested to by the miraculous. Furthermore, I think it's really
(06:16):
important that we recognize that there's nothing in the Holy
Scripture that suggests in any way whatsoever that a believer
can be demon possessed. Unbelievers are of their father, the devil.
But believers are in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. And
therefore your temple is the temple of the Holy Spirit,
(06:36):
is not shared with a demon. So the whole notion
of deliverance of believers is simply an unbiblical notion, which
unfortunately is being plied before the altars of churches. Back
to the phone lines, we talked to Bob Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 7 (06:52):
Hi, Bob, Oh, thank God, bless you. I wish your mystery.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 7 (06:57):
I have a question for you. My wife and family
leave it attending a church here, and we've got a
new past or in the last six months, and he's
about to start a series on the book called not
a Fan by Idleman, and I'm wondering. I've looked online
and there's a couple of reviews that associate him with
lordship Salvation, and I wonder if you could shed some
(07:18):
light on that.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, we've actually put together a little fact sheet on
this whole controversy with respect to lordship salvation predominantly, as
it's argued by on the one side, John MacArthur and
the other Riary, and so if you hang on, we
can send that out to you.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I'm not real familiar.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
With the specifics of what Idleman is teaching. I'm not
that familiar with him.
Speaker 7 (07:43):
Putting a lot of emphasis on following Christ and how
your life should change. You know, they give as example
as people that quit their jobs and go to remote
villages in South America to help dig wills or villages.
And you know, that's an extreme, but it seems like
(08:05):
the pastors spends an awful lot of time. It's almost
almost a works righteousness.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
There's a couple of things I would say about that.
I mean, I think it's really true that if you
want to live the life that Christ lived, then you
have to do the things that Christ did, which is
to say that Christ fasted. Christ was intimately acquainted with
(08:34):
the Word of God. Christ often withdrew to lonely places
and prayed because he treasured fellowship with his heavenly Father.
And so to be what Christ was, to be an
imitator of Jesus Christ in our own lives, it means
that we need to do what Christ did. We have
to imitate those life practices modeled by our Lord. That's
(08:57):
what Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. But
then we also have to recognize that the Christian life
is an ingrafted life. It is not even our own life.
Christ not only died for our sins, but we died
with Christ. And when we die with Christ, it means
that we have been crucified with Christ and we no
longer live, but Christ lives in us. So we have
(09:20):
to nurture the divine life within as we move through
the tangled web of human existence. So I do think
that it's important for us to recognize what it means
to follow Christ, not only in doctrine, but also life.
I mean, that's what Paul says to young Timothy says,
(09:42):
watch your life and your doctrine closely, persevere in them,
because if you do, you'll save both yourself and your hearers.
But ultimately, what we do is we hold as Christians,
our time, our talent, and our treasure with an open hand,
so that God can take out and put in he
sees fit. That's always the goal, to be a steward
(10:03):
of our time, talent, and treasure. To recognize we don't
even own them as believers. We have given them to
Christ and now we follow him, and that is in
whatever calling He places on our lives. Some people are
called to make a lot of money and then to
steward that money for the purposes of the kingdom. That's
(10:24):
a reality. We shouldn't abandon wealth, but we should harness well.
By abanding wealth, it just means someone else controls it.
But rather, if we've been gifted in that area, we
need to use the gift that God has given to us.
So if our gift is giving, we have to give
according to the grace given to us. If our gift
is showing mercy, we need to do that cheerfully. If
(10:45):
our gift is teaching, we have to teach. If it
is serving, we have to serve. But the idea is
to use our gifts for God's glory and for the
extension of His kingdom. Coming up to a station break,
be right back on the other side of the break
with more answers to your questions.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
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Or visit our website at EQUIP dot org. We'll return
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Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection of the most
often asked questions Hank Hannigraph has received throughout his four
(12:10):
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 resurrection and afterlife,
and many more issues vital to a better understanding of
(12:33):
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 make a gift to support the Christian Research Institute's
life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or
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visit us at equip dot org. Has God Spoken? Are
the words of Scripture merely human in origin? Or are they,
in fact the very words of God himself? Three years
(13:15):
in the making and based on two decades of research
and reflection, Hank Henigraph's monumental book, Has God Spoken answers
what is surely the most important question facing our world.
In Has God Spoken? Memorable proofs of the Bible's divine inspiration,
Hank counters the contentions of the Bible attackers and clearly
(13:36):
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. Ordered Has God Spoken?
From the Christian Research Institute by calling eighty eight seven
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dot Org. 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
the enemy isn't just the onslaught of fake news, facilitated
by a post truth culture and turbocharged by growing legions
(14:19):
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(15:09):
I today. We'd love to hear from you. You can
get in touch with us several ways. You can call
us toll free at eight eight eight seven thousand CRI.
That's eight eight eight seven thousand cr I. Also right
to us sat VO Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte and
North Carolina, ZIP two eight two seven one, or if
(15:29):
you're on the internet, look us up at www dot
equip dot org. And now once again here is Hank Hannagraph.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Back to the phone lines.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
We'll talk to Renel next listening in Nashville, Tennessee. Hi Renelle,
Oh you doing Hi good?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
I appreciate your show. Uh. I think it's from the
third time, Colin, you touched on what I was going
to ask about.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Okay, you're welcome. Yep.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
I've been going to church since my divorce almost a
year now, and seeming like the people at work are
noticed to change in me, but my own family seem like.
Speaker 7 (16:08):
That gives me.
Speaker 8 (16:11):
Cause of my divorce. So I was trying to figure out,
is that the devil doing this a ground this time of.
Speaker 7 (16:17):
The year or is it just.
Speaker 8 (16:21):
Me being depressed about being divorced around this time of year.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, it may be the latter.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I mean, I think one of the things that we
have to recognize when we think about spiritual warfare right
now is the words of Paul that greater is he
that is in us, that he that is in the world.
So the emphasis on spiritual warfare must always be the
power of God to protect rather than the power of
(16:47):
Satan to pillage. And that's why it's so important to
learn to put on the full armor of God, or
what I call the covering, so that you can stand
against principalities and powers of darkness. And after you've done everything,
Paul says, to stand stand firm with the belt of
truth buckled around your waist. And that means that you
(17:08):
come to a true valuation of things, whether it is
a lie from Satan or a life from family members
or friends. If we have the belt of truth, we're
able to discern the difference between truth and error, and
we hold steadfastly to truth no matter what anyone says
(17:28):
in the culture or otherwise. The same thing is true
with all pieces of the armor. We have to know
what they are and how they apply to our lives.
And again that's why I wrote the book The Covering,
God's plan to protect you from evil. And if you
want to hang on, I'd be happy to send you
a copy of that book. Is my gift and with
(17:49):
the hopes that it will give you some peace in
the midst of the storm.
Speaker 8 (17:54):
Okay, thank you, Hank, You were welcome. I will try
to donate when.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I came this is just my gift. If you can donate,
that's wonderful, But you hang on, I'll send.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
It out to you.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Okay, thank you, blessure my friend. May God give you
peace in the midst of the storm. Jason. Next Saint Louis, Missouri.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Hi, Jason, Hi, Hey, how you doing good? Thank you?
Speaker 9 (18:17):
I really appreciate your ministry. You have a huge influence
on me, and I just would I just want to
ask kind of an off the wall question. Did God
know before he made Adam whether or not he Adam
was going to sin? And then since since he probably
did know, since he's omniscient, that he was going to sin,
(18:42):
did he know he was going to have to die
on my behalf, you know, to save me before he
created Adam.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
The Believable says that Jesus Christ is a Lamb slain
before the foundations of the earth, so God certainly knew that,
and he also knew that out of Adam's sin would
come the best of all possible worlds, a world in
which we will forever be able not to sin.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
But remember, the reason.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
God created Adam in the way that he did is
because he wanted love and relationship to be genuine, not coerced,
but genuine. And for love to be genuine, there has
to be volition or will. Love is not true love
if it is at the muzzle of a gun. It
(19:32):
is true love when it is volitional of the will.
And so God created the potential for evil by giving
Adam a freedom of choice. Adam actualized that evil by
his choices.
Speaker 9 (19:46):
So because he's on this shit, I kind of I
totally agree with what you just said. I just wanted
to say that it's fantastic that God.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Knew he was going to die for us before he
created us.
Speaker 9 (19:59):
I mean, I just but I never knew I could
make that logical leap. I've just had to ask you,
do you think in the Day of Judgment that maybe
the reason why God's waiting to come back is to
let sin on earth play out and to have all
sin be done before it comes back, so he could
(20:20):
say that there's proof that all sin is destruction and
then he'll give us examples or something like that.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Well, no, Biblically, that's not what we're told. What we're
told is that we live in a christ creation and
we are sinners by nature. Therefore, until the time that
Jesus comes again, sin will continue to have its hold
not only on the lives of people, but on creation itself.
(20:51):
The effects of sin are seen in a chursed creation.
When Jesus appears a second time, then the problem of
sin will be fully and finally result. Those who are
in Christ will be glorified, and those who remain in
their sin will be separated from God, not only in time,
(21:14):
but certainly in eternity. So they will be, as it were,
in another dimension of God's creation, separate from those who
are redeemed.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
Right.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
Well, God, bless you, sir, and praise LRD, and thank
you for your ministry.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
You got it. Thank you so much. Jason.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Back to the phone lines, Charles Lincoln, Nebraska.
Speaker 10 (21:37):
Hi Charles, Hey, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Pleasure.
Speaker 10 (21:41):
So my question was, I just finished reading the book
Paradise Restored by David Chilton, and it brought me up
to speed on something that I've been considering for a
long time, which is, you know, the issue of estatology
and the theology diminion of that sort of thing which
I suspect might be true for a long time. I
just wanted more biblical evidence for that, well, one thing
(22:02):
that goes along with that and cessation Sensatianism, and that's
something that in the past I believed didn't have much
biblical evidence for it, but it certainly seems to jive
well with that sort of eschatology, So something that I'm considering.
So I'm just looking for some biblical, biblical evidence for Cessatianism.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, I don't know that you can prove from the
Bible that the supernatural gifts have ceased, but I do
think that we can demonstrate that they're not normative. In
other words, if you look at Jesus and the disciples,
they were ratified through their miracles. In other words, their
miracles demonstrated who they were as spokesman for God and
(22:51):
God incarnate himself, who could do the miraculous. The same
thing is true with respect to the prophets of old.
Were validated because what they said came to pass precisely
as prophesied. Therefore, they demonstrated again in spades that they
(23:13):
were spokesmen.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
For the Almighty. And that's what we have now.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
We have an infallible repository for faith and practice, that
is the Word of God. We ought to test all
things in light of that, and hold fast of that
which is good.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Now, having said all of.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
That, it doesn't mean that God doesn't do miracles in
the present. It simply means that miracles in the present
aren't the norm. The norm is we all get sick,
and we all die of our last disease. The death
rate is one per person. This has been well said,
and we're all going to make it. Sin and sickness
(23:48):
is part and parcel of this order of things. We
look forward to a new order of things in which
there'll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. So
my advice is, on the basis of scripture, you don't
find that miracles have ceased, but rather that they're non normative.
In fact, if they were normative, we wouldn't call them miracles.
Speaker 10 (24:11):
Okay. So in the Bible, the people who were involved
in these miracles, it was a show that they were
annointed by God. So what about all these people nowadays
who preached all these like heresies and then say, here
are evidence of my anointment. There's miracles happening here. How
do we address those issues?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, I mean you have to test them again. Reinhart Bonki,
you have so many of these people touting resurrections. Benny Hen,
you find this on TB and but when you actually
do the research, you find something amazing. I've told this
story before, but I was having dinner one night with
(24:51):
Benny Hen and the guy that was his chief right
hand man at the time, I think his name was
Geene Poulino. And while we're having dinner, Benny was talking
about a new book coming out, and that book was
going to chronicle detailed document by doctors all of his
many many miracles. And there were thousands upon thousands of
(25:12):
cheos rep So I just said to him, well, okay,
I can't deal with thousands and thousands, but how about
sending me your best three documented cases so I can
look at them. Well, he finally did. He sent me
his three best documented cases. Turns out that all three
of them were bogus. The only one we couldn't figure
out for a time was there was a cursinogenic tumor
(25:35):
that was supposedly healed at one of what he called
at the time his miracle invasion rallies.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Couldn't find it on the X ray anymore.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Well, we found out when we did the actual medical research.
We found out that, yeah, it had disappeared, but it
was excised by a doctor, not at his miracle invasion rally.
So you know, even with Benny hen the miracles are
conspicuous by their absence. But again saying that this mean
that I'm saying that God cannot do a miracle, but
if he did, it would be in spite of Benny Hid,
(26:04):
not because of him, because he is a person that
continuously is communicating Harrison. We are out of time for
this edition of the Bible Instrument Broadcast. Look forward to
seeing you next time with more of the show.
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
listen to the broadcast on the internet, visit equip dot org,
where you'll also find a wealth of information and resources
to equip you to talk to a resource consultant. Call
(26:39):
eight eight eight seven thousand CRII.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
That's eight eight eight.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Seven thousand, two seven four. The Bible answer Man Broadcast
is supported by listeners like you. We're on the air
because life and truth matter. The Complete Bible answer Book
Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection of the most often
(27:06):
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 resurrection and afterlife, and
(27:30):
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
make a gift to support the Christian Research Institute's life
changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or visit
(27:55):
us at EQUIP dot org.
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