Hank Hanegraaff vs. The Christian Apologists

A few days ago it was brought to my attention that Hank Hanegraaff will be speaking at a major Christian Apologetics event in September, in the state of South Carolina. He will be working with some very talented speakers with sterling reputations.

For those reading this who are not familiar with the field of Christian Apologetics, it is providing objective evidence for believing in the Christian Faith. Ask any person who deals in this area and they will tell you perhaps the number one reason that most people give for not believing in Christianity is, “The Problem of Evil in the World”. In other words, why would a good god who is supposed to love mankind allow so much evil and suffering in the world?

I wish to submit the following:  Hank Hanegraaff is perhaps the greatest detriment to this conference there is of those connected to the event. He is a walking and talking contradiction. On one hand he defends Christianity and on the other hand for at least the last 23 years or more he has consistantly lied, cheated people, destroyed careers, stole CRI from any qualified applicants, promoted cult groups (The Local Church), worked for a government  (traveled  to Iran as a speaker in the winter of 2012) that promotes the destruction of Israel and the United States and he has been involved in assorted other activities that are beneath even some nonchristians (most of these are found in my book).

 Since writing my book, Hard Questions for the Bible Answer Man in 2009 I have been asked by Christians repeatedly, “Why doesn’t God just remove Hanegraaff from CRI?” With all the harm he has done over the years and his “Me first” attitude towards others, it is a valid question. It would be easy to see an agnostic or atheist looking at the awful life of this “Christian” apologist and asking, “If this is Christianity who needs it?”

The speakers at this fall conference in South Carolina would do well to point to his life as a cautionary tale and say, “This is not what Christianity is!” But for Hanegraaff to stand with these fine Christian men and women, on the same platform, and pretend that his life is to be looked at as an example of the Christian Apologist as the comedian Jerry Lewis has said, “Oye laddddyyyyy, you’ve gotta be kidding me!”

How Christianity is Hurt by Professional Christians

The question of how is Christianity hurt by professional Christians has gotten my attention over the last couple of years. I have spoken at conferences on this theme and discussed it with a few colleagues. I define the professional Christian not by the the fact that a person simply works for a church or some type of parachurch organization but rather how they seem to approach ministry. This type of  individual as he is working is doing so with a personal agenda “up his sleeve”. This type of person is not always easy to identify unless you have opportunity to observe him for a great deal of time or have a chance to work along side him. After awhile it becomes obvious that there are patterns that emerge through behavior and other tells (obsession with accumulating wealth, status, how he treats those around him in the same ministry etc) that will help to identify this type of Christian charlatan.

Granted, there is a fair amount of subjective analysis that goes into my appraisal of the professional Christian but I believe this issue is well worth looking at. Now, I have been in active ministry in the field of teaching and evangelism since 1983. Over these  years I have worked with many individuals in these two related areas. Some of which are people who do not derive any income from their activities but quite a few whose sole income comes from some type of Christian ministry.

There are a great many great Christians serving Jesus Christ humbly and sacrifically all over the world. These men and women who strive to emulate their Lord through Christian service are a wonder to behold. Their way of life, their obvious love of other brothers and sisters in the Faith are their calling cards.

When you see professional Christians in operation their demeanor, the way they approach ministry, seems to be almost always completely self-seriving and more concerned with advancing their ego and their image in the Christian world than serving a sin ravaged world.

How does this harm Christianity and the Christian message? Well unless you have lived in a cave for the better part of your life, you will find many people who only wish to denegrate Christianity. These people like nothing more than to spot the professional Christian. It helps them to cement their belief that Christanity and Christians are all about power, wealth, and domination. 

Also Christianity, in most cases, is hard enough for a sinful person to accept. It is asking that person to give up on self and take up the cross of Christ. However, the more road blocks you place before the individual (in this case the professional Christian) the more difficult it will be for that person to accept the free gift of Jesus’ shed blood. While obviously not the entire reason for for a lost person to reject the Gospel, the professional Christian must share in the blame in many cases.

The bible intimates that the hypocrite will always be with us but we must not be foolish enough to support them in their hypocrisy. It only adds fuel to their ego driven fire and aids in the undermining of the Christian Church on earth.

Hank Hanegraaff vs.The Persecuted Church

Hank Hanegraaff has made statements, in the past, concerning his desire to somehow aid the persecuted Church throughout the world. In a statement he made in the volume 32 number 6 2009 edition of the Christian Research Journal  he said this about the persecuted Church in China: “Whatever the cost it pales by comparison to that borne by the persecuted church in China and around the world….When she finished, she thanked me for standing for truth no matter the cost.” (italics added)

I do not recall Hanegraaff mentioning in any of his statements, since he has returned from speaking at an Occupy Wall Street conference in Iran this winter, of how he confronted the Iranian government  on behalf of the persecuted Church in Iran. It would have been a perfect time to do so.

It is very clear that the Church, in that Islamic dominated country, has and is facing bruttal persecution. Where are the words of this champion of persecuted worldwide Christians, pleading with Iranian officials to release his brothers from prison, recorded during his visit? Since he has not mentioned that he was going there, in part, to plead for their cause we can be assured that he never planned to try.

The only things we can be sure of are that he was invited to go and speak at an anti-American conference, he shmoozed with Marxist professors and a rabbi who calls for the destruction of present day Israel, and that he was taken on a tour that showed him things about Iran that he claimed the western media has failed to report on.

Instead of doing the hard work of a Christian leader (that by the way is what he claims to be) and talking about important issues, he opts for becoming a shill for a totalitarian Iranian government and playing tourist (the only thing missing was a loud Hawaiian shirt and an oversized camera around his neck).

If Hanegraaff’s trip had been scored like a baseball game, the final score would have been: Iranian government 1 the persecuted Church 0. Refering to his quote above, what truth was he standing for in Iran and what cost did he pay? My guess is he didn’t even pay for his plane fare.

Hank Hanegraaff vs.The Terrorists

Hank Hanegraaff found himself attending a conference in Teheran, Iran earlier this winter. Remember Iran, the nation whose main goal is to destroy Israel and The United States. This is the nation that is working really, really hard to create a nuclear device. This is the nation that pretty much all the other muslim nations in the region think is 5 fries short of a happy-meal. This is the nation that most nations, including the US, agree is near the top of the heap when it comes to human rights violations.

Now did our hero of the downtrodden masses go to preach Jesus to the muslims who so desperately need the Good News of  The Gospel? Not exactly, he was invited to speak to a conference on the Occupy Wall Street Movement. His fellow speakers were composed of a couple of marxist professors from the US,  a rabbi who calls for the downfall of Israel and assorted others.

The question that is left dangling is how does a little known religious leader, like Hanegraaff, get invited to this conference made up of atheists, antisemites and terroristic thugs? The Iranian government  could not care less for him but I am sure they used his presence there to further their hate filled agenda. 

You have to hand it to Hanegraaff, while he continues to pilot the once important CRI right into the largest iceberg he can find; He thinks nothing of surrounding himself with only the finest cult groups, cut throats, and con men.

He has sown the seeds of his own destruction. His strange fascination with money, power and being around important people has hit a new low (and I really did not think that was possible after he decided to play Clarence Darrow for the Local Church a few years ago). When his sad little life is over and his days of  “ministry” are done, his reward will have been found on this earth. It is reminiscent of Nero, who played his fiddle and had a good time while Rome blazed around him.

CRI and John Ankerberg’s Endorsement of Hank Hanegraaff

Over the last year CRI has been claiming that since

John Ankerberg announced that Hank Hanegraaff

was to be the hand-picked successor of Walter Martin

at Dr. Martin’s funeral (June 29, 1989) that somehow Ankerberg

must have gotten the information from Martin himself

(this is at least CRI’s inference).

The truth is that Hanegraaff called a board meeting, the morning of the funeral (See my book for details). The information, that the board had voted 2 to 1 to make Hanegraaff the new president, was relayed to Ankerberg. There is absolutely no evidence that Dr. Martin ever told John Ankerberg that Hank Hanegraaff was to be his replacement. 

It should be noted that John Ankerberg  never had Hanegraaff on his apologetics program, “The John Ankerberg Show”. If  Ankerberg was truly convinced, all these years, that Hanegraaff was truly the choice of  the founder of CRI he would have called upon Hanegraaff repeatedly to shower the audience with his vast knowledge of cults, the occult and apologetics. Dr. Martin had been asked by Ankerberg, repeatedly, to be on his apologetics program over the years. However,  Hanegraaff was never asked to be a regular contributor on that show.  Why didn’t, “The John Ankerberg Show” see fit to showcase the protege of Walter Martin? Perhaps you should contact John Ankerberg’s ministry directly for the answer to that.

And how did this marvel of apologetics repay Ankerberg’s kindness in cementing Hanegraaff’s new position at CRI on June 29, 1989?  He aids the cult known as the Local Church in suing Ankerberg’s publisher, Harvest House in 2005 for $136,000,000, by filing a friend of the court brief against the publisher who had just published Ankerberg’s book on cults. 

Remind me to never do a favor for Hank Hanegraaff. With friends like that who needs enemies.

CRI and the Case of the Disappearing Quote

For several months now CRI and its spokesman, Elliot Miller have been trying to sell the idea that Walter Martin wrote a glowing endorsement for Hank Hanegraaff a year or so before he died. The statement explains how he saw Hanegraaff as the one man who would take CRI into the twenty first century. I have read the endorsement and Hanegraaff would be a shoe in for, “Man of the Year” with this type of glowing testimonial. The problem is, as I have been pointing out to Miller and his buddies at CRI, the quote they keep pushing as a 1988 quote is found in a CRI Newsletter dated 1989 and was published months after Walter Martin died. As I have been urging CRI to provide people with this quote in some type of CRI publication from 1988, Miller has released through www.waltermartinjude3.com the following:

It is true that no one remembers the exact form in which Walter’s
endorsement originally appeared or was intended to appear. It could have
been published in a press release or a direct mail letter, or written for a
newsletter that had yet to be published at the time of his death. After
twenty-two years, two moves, with many files literally buried in storage…,

This is a variation of the “Dog ate my homework” gambit. Miller is saying, this all important quote has been lost for 21 years. They are telling us to trust them because they are, after all, CRI. The fact that they are CRI once meant something when Walter Martin was at the helm but now a promise from CRI and $29.00 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

It is plain to see they get very upset when someone doubts their veracity. But when they have a man like Hank Hanegraaff, who has done the things he has done for over 21 years, most people will need more than, “The Dog ate my homework” to believe they are telling the truth.

The Christian Research Institute Continues Its’ Silence

Several months ago I published my response to CRI’s attack on my book. I then posted it on  my ministry website: www.focusonthefaulty.org  It was there that I showed that CRIhas been claiming that the late Walter Martin had announced, in a 1988 CRI Newsletter, that he had chosen Hank Hanegraaff to succeed him as president. Unfortunately, for CRI a former employee has stated that the alleged quote actually came from the office of the new president Hank Hanegraaff and not from a 1988 CRI Newsletter.

Further, in my response I asked for CRI to make available to the Christian cult/apologetic community a copy of the 1988 CRI Newsletter in question. It has been about 6 months since my response was posted on the Religious Research Project website and CRI has failed to release the 1988 issue that would prove that Martin was excited for Hanegraaff to succeed him. This seems like awfully strange behavior for an organization that is so anxious to prove, once and for all, that Martin was squarely behind Hanegraaff for president.

It begs the question: If Hanegraaff is the rightful successor to Martin why did he see a need to create counterfeit quotes by Dr. Martin, seemingly giving his imprimatur to him as the next president?

The truth is when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar it is always best to say nothing. At this  point the so called, Bible Answer Man has no answers. It is what I expected!

Good coming from evil?

In a recent fundraising letter by Hank Hanegraaff, he says this about his recent defense of the theologically challenged group known as the The Local Church: 

“God has opened unparalleled opportunities to strengthen a burgeoning church in the East. Multitudes embroiled in ancestor worship, animism, folk and world religions have come to embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior. However, while they have come to worship Jesus, many have scant familiarity with His Word. The Christian Research Institute is called to strengthen these fledgling believers in the faith.”

Do we give CRI and Hanegraaff a pass because in his view God has called him to strengthen the Local Church (LC)? Since no one I have spoken within the Christian cult ministry world has altered their opinion of the LC, due to CRI’s defense of the group in their December 2009 journal, CRI’s odd defense can hardly be called a rousing success.  Those in the Christian research field still see the group as theologically dangerous and since many people who leave the LC end up needing therapy to deal with the abuse they experienced (see my comments in other articles on this blog site) the LC shows no sign of being a Christian group. This group’s ongoing treatment of its members, speaks volumes to the unrepentant nature of this group founded by Witness Lee. Hardly a group God wants defended and supported.

But the followers of Hanegraaff are led to believe that God has told him to strengthen the LC and help them any way he can. Since when does God command people to defend wickedness and call wrong right? It appears Hanegraaff is listening to another voice and not the voice of God. The question needs to be asked: When in the last 21 years has he ever listened to God’s voice?

Where’s the Beef?

For those of you who love vintage advertising campaigns (and who doesn’t),  about 20 years ago there was a great fast food franchise ad that had a old lady ordering a hamburger at a restaurant counter. She looks down at her newly delivered hot and tasty prize, opens the bun and yells that now famous phrase, “Where’s the beef?”

Well we have an equally important moment in history. On January 4, 2010 Hank Hanegraaff exclaimed, on his radio show, that against the counsel of friends and coworkers, he was going to at last come out on his radio show and decimate all those nasty critics that have been attacking him all these years. Then this blustery fellow fell silent. Not a peep, whisper, breath, mutter, squeak, gafaw, gasp, silent scream, nothin’! He’s on the down low.

Come on now Hank, you attack Word of Faith teachers with wild abandon. You even go after Christian leaders like: D James Kennedy, Chuck Smith, Tim LaHaye, Ozzie Osbourne (Well I just made up the part about Ozzie just to see if you were paying attention) when it benefits you some how. Hank you promised to blow the doors off your critics back on January 4th. That was nearly four months ago?!?

Could it just be you can’t come out and play because you don’t want the Christian world exposed to the seamy side of CRI and all your sin for the last couple of decades?

What’s that Hank? I can’t hear you, your saber is rattling too loud!

Hank Hanegraaff and the Piranha People

Have you ever watched old movies about the intrepid adventurer in the Amazon jungles, where sooner-or-later you know someone will fall into the river, will be swarmed by hundreds of Piranha fish and chewed right down to the toe nails? At this point in the movie the person will pretty well be dead. That actor then goes home and  hopes to be called back in the sequel, to play his character’s evil twin brother Ricardo. I have even seen a movie or two where the same thing happens to a group of intrepid adventurers in deepest, darkest Africa. And  while I am fairly certain there are no Piranhas in the rivers there,  that never stopped a great scriptwriter from exercising his or her imagination (after all this is a free country, please don’t get me started!).

Now to my little tale for today. It just so happens I have my very own swarm of Piranha fish or to be more accurate, Piranha People (It sounds like a 1950’s SciFi movie doesn’t it?) following me around on the internet (thank you Al Gore!). One of the main fishys is a young woman that goes by the name of, Cindee Martin Morgan. She has a website at www.waltermartinjude3.com. You can go there and find about how she is being persecuted terribly by people like me; who think that Hank Hanegraaff lied and connived to take over the Christian Research Institute in 1989, along with a whole host of other sinful behavior that he has never repented.

You see, gentle reader when you have written a book entitled, Hard Questions for the Bible Answer Man every nut bunny who belongs to the, “Hank Hanegraaff is godlike and I will really mess-up anyone who says otherwise” fan club will get a major case of “kill the messenger” fever. Not that any of these up standing citizens would ever do me bodily harm. No, they are having too much fun calling me every name in the book and  calling those who have read and defend the material in the book, ‘terribly misguided, biblically undiscerning, unchristian, nonmattheweighteeners’. Why one young man even exclaimed that,  how could anyone trust me and what I have written about his hero Hank because (horror of horrors) I sell things on my website: www.focusonthefaulty.org . You see with this vast array of irrefutable logic, brilliant analysis (Though every critic of my book, so far, has told me they have never read my book and many have said they would rather have their tongue cut out and buried in the sands of the Sahara than look at my book. Critics, ya gotta love ’em!) and deftly thought out argumentation coming against me, what chance does little ol’ me have?

 If you go to the Amazon.com page where my book is advertised and, for instance, click on dear Ms. Martin Morgan’s review of my book (She gave me  one star. Now I heard she asked Amazon if she could give a negative 592 rating to my book but they told her nyet) you will see many of the Piranha People’s tracks. This type of bizarre behavior and verbal vitriol has been going on for months. I am sure Hanegraaff would be pleased with his fan club’s extracurricular activities. But for me all I can say is, ‘does anyone have a can of Piranha repellant handy’?