In 1989, Hank Hanegraaff succeeded Walter Martin as the head of the Christian Research Institute (CRI) when Martin died suddenly at age 60. The
Martin family says Hanegraaff was not Martin's choice as a successor. That made no difference to Hank. Yet for many years Hanegraaff also provided
stimulating apologetics on air. Sadly, there is an "until." One could say it was "until" he decided to wage a war against Dispensational theologians. [1]
The person who calls himself “The Bible Answer Man” is perhaps the one person within top-known Christian media personalities who most fits the prophesied
antagonistic profile presented by the Apostle Peter.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for
since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2 Pet. 3: 3-4)
He might be in his own mind “The Bible Answer Man,” but his answers are skewed, to be kind in the analysis of his views on eschatology (the study of end
things).
He is so virulently opposed to the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Doctrine that he has been known to slash at those who hold to the view with vicious attacks that
are often personal as well as doctrinal opposition.
In “Examining Hank Hanegraaff's The Apocalypse Code” - by Dillon Burroughs - www.johnankerberg.com, the writer gives us a place within “The Bible Answer
Man’s” writings to find Hanegraaf’s attempt at character assassination in order to attack the Dispensational/Pre-Trib viewpoint.
“A brief survey of [chapter 2 of ‘The Apocalypse Code’] shows remarks that are very anti-[Tim] LaHaye, with at least 12 specific references to him as a
person in the first chapter. Is this a fair and accurate representation of the pretribulational rapture or a personal attack? Even a reader unaware of the
viewpoints involved might wonder what LaHaye did to upset the author so much.”
Burroughs goes on to further point out Hanegraaf’s scoffing attitude. “Two additional extreme exaggerations are important to note as well. On page 44, The
Apocalypse Code makes the grossly unfair comment dispensationalism is associated with the ‘cultic fringe’ like Mormonism. A second highlight labels
pretribulationalism (the belief in rapture before a seven-year literal tribulation) as ‘blasphemous" (see pages 63-64).”
One must question whether a person who is so presumptuous as to accept the title “The Bible answer Man” should accuse a Doctrine so strongly presented in
God’s Word as “blasphemous”. Is Mr. Hanegraaff a man who wants to
”answer” a Bible question, or slash at True Scriptural Doctrine with confutation? Is his “answer” in the case of the Rapture not an “answer,” but a scoffing
rebuttal to a clearly given prophecy yet future?
In his novel 'Fuse of Armageddon' Hanegraff blames evangelical Christians for causing Middle East terrorism. He states "Much of American Middle East policy
is influenced by a huge voting bloc of evangelicals who are taught not to question Israel's divine right to the land," says Hanegraaff. "God is not pro-Jew.
He is pro-justice. He is not pro-Palestinian. He is pro-peace. Only a gospel of peace and justice is potent enough to break the stranglehold of anti-Semitism
and racism fueled in part by bad theology."
Hanegraaf holds to the preterist position that purports that all prophecy (with the exception, perhaps) of Christ’s actual Second Advent) was finished with
the AD 70 destruction of the Temple atop Moriah and Jerusalem. Modern Israel has no place in God’s economy. The Church has now replaced the Jew as inheritors
of God’s promises. God has, apparently, changed His Mind about Israel being His people forever, no matter what, as plainly laid out in the Book for which Mr.
Hanegraaf claims to have the answers.
Genesis 17:7-8
"And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to
you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an
everlasting possession; and I will be their God."
And: Psalm 89:30-37
"If his sons forsake My law, and do not walk in My judgments, if they violate My statues, and do not keep My commandments, then I will visit their
transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not break off My loving kindness from him, nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. My
covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His descendants shall
endure forever like the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful."
And, again:
Jeremiah 31:35-36
"This is what the Lord says, 'He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, Who
stirs up the sea so that its waves roar -- the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My sight,' declares the Lord, 'will the
descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me.'"
But, Hanegraaf scoffs at those of the Pre-Trib, Pre-Millennial, Dispensational position who maintain that God Always keeps His Promises. Our God changes not.
“The Bible Answer Man” rails time after time that the Islamic Arab nations have at least as much right to the land the Bible promised to Israel forever, if
not more of a right to that land. He joins the world in general, which accuses Israel in being the hold-up to peace in the region –who is the nation that
most harbors the trigger to nuclear Armageddon.
With the discernment Hank Hanegraaf displays, we think perhaps he should change his moniker to “The Bible Debunker Man”.
[1]
Answering "The Bible Answerman's" False Theology - www.olivetreeviews.org
