Posted on 04/10/2017 6:40:46 PM PDT by fishtank
Evangelical Apologist Hank Hanegraaff Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy
Posted by: Rob Bowman
On Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017, Hank Hanegraaff formally joined the Orthodox Church. Since 1989 Hanegraaff has been the President of the Christian Research Institute (CRI) and (since ca. 1992) the host of CRI’s Bible Answer Man radio program.[1] Hank, his wife Kathy, and two of their twelve children were inducted by a sacramental rite called chrismation into the Orthodox faith at St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, near where CRI is based. In chrismation, a baptized individual is anointed with oil in order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.[2]
(Excerpt) Read more at religiousresearcher.org ...
My experience has been that the “smells and bells” folk equate monetary wealth with spiritual wealth, much like the Charismatics do.
I will just disagree. It’s late and I’ve got an early morning.
I’ve seen Catholics bashed on here. I am not one to do that. I’ve seen Catholics dish it out too but I don’t care to go there either.
Interesting that the Sola Scriptura crowd is implicitly willing to accept that the first 400 years of work by the early church fathers was pretty solid. (Remember who determined which books of scripture were canonical?) Yet they reject the import of the other work done by these same people, presumably guided by the same Holy Spirit that guided them to discern what was “Scriptura” — this is rather confounding to me.
“I listened to Walter Martin nearly every day and then when he passed away, Hannegraff did a hostile takeover of the show.”
I remember Martin’s “Kingdom of the Cults”. He defended the faith against heresy.
Then I remember Hanegraaff getting into critiquing Christian ministries with which he disagreed on something.
There is no need for such a “ministry”.
The Church Fathers themselves show remarkable fidelity to sola scriptura. Those that claim otherwise haven’t read them.
That is exactly how I remember it. The people who worked at CRI must have been completely flummoxed. I stopped listening.
“My experience has been that the “smells and bells” folk equate monetary wealth with spiritual wealth, much like the Charismatics do.”
Then your experience is meaningless. How do you explain the Puritans’ idea that success in this life (i.e. wealth) meant you had found favor in God’s eyes?
And what “smells and bells” folk are you talking about? Are any Eastern Orthodox “folk” known for monetary wealth?
Why would Hank need to be anointed to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit when he already HAS the Holy Spirit??? That part is strange. Were it merely some formality to joining the Greek Orthodox church, that's one thing, but it sounds like they are saying he didn't have it yet.
It's not really any skin off my nose if people like him decide they want the formality - the "smells and bells" of an ancient liturgical tradition. That just appeals to some people more than others. What I DON'T see is why they would do so for theological reasons. The GO is much more "orthodox" - in the literal sense - than the Roman Catholic church is. As long as he still believes the truth of the gospel and the central tenets of the Christian faith and doesn't allow his message to be corrupted into a salvation by faith AND works one, it's not my business what church he choses to worship in. I don't see the big deal here, though I'm sure there will be a few who will tout this as some kind of condemnation against all Protestants. Hank should work to ensure his actions do not lead to that.
Didn't Frankie eventually go Atheist? I remember reading something about that.
Thanks BB.
13 But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. 17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
I don’t believe it’s about religion. It’s about relationship. It’s about a relationship with Jesus — the way, the truth, and the life.
Jesus never seemed overly impressed with religion. There were those that thought that they even knew more about it then him.
“Jesus never seemed overly impressed with religion. There were those that thought that they even knew more about it then him.”
Your view is completely wrong. I’m not saying you’re dumb. I’m not saying you’re stupid. I just believe that what you’re doing is anachronistic and you don’t even realize it.
TODAY many people have a “Jesus, but not religion” attitude. This appeals to the innate libertarian streak many Americans have, but that is NOT what Jesus taught, nor was it reflected in how He lived on earth. What many people do is they inflate Jesus’ criticism of hypocrisy as practiced by the Pharisees and others into being a critique of religion itself. That is not what Jesus did. Jesus practiced a religion. He followed the Mosaic Law - fulfilled it no less. He paid the Temple tax. He just didn’t usher people toward a hypocritical understanding of it all.
And it is about a relationship with Christ. The problem is that you deny - by what you’re saying - that those in a historic Church can have that relationship. Don’t bother denying it. I don’t think you’re fully aware that’s what it boils down to. The Eucharist is about a relationship with Christ. ALL of the Sacraments are about a relationship with Christ since He founded them and He acts through them to draw us closer to Him through them by way of grace. The Divine Liturgy is about a relationship with Christ. The Jesus Prayer is all about a relationship with Christ.
Jesus founded a Church and gave it authority (see Matthew 10:40 and 28:18-20). That means He founded a religion. A spiritual body that has authority from God Himself and can set rules (Acts 15) clearly means that there’s a religion. There is NO OTHER WAY of looking at it logically. NONE. Jesus knew what He was doing. It is not that “Jesus never seemed overly impressed with religion”. It is that Jesus never accepted hypocrisy as if it were religion. Those are two entirely different things.
Christianity is a religion established by God Himself: It has:
An authoritative clergy established by God Himself. That authority establishes binding rules. Most etymologists believe “religion” is from the word “religare”: “Middle English religioun, from Anglo-French religiun, Latin religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare to restrain, tie back.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion
An authoritative moral code, moral law grounded in what was given by God Himself at Sinai and in the Sermon on the Mount.
Sacred Scriptures given by God Himself.
Sacred Tradition given by God Himself and passed down by the Apostles (who were all appointed by God and their successors): See 2 Thessalonians 2:15 and 2 Thessalonians 3:6. If you’re using an NIV check the footnotes to see how they deliberately mistranslate it.
Sacred Liturgical Worship - given by God Himself.
Christianity is a religion and God established it that way. If you want the deepest possible relationship with Christ, than you want what He established for you, what He died for to give you.
I don’t think Frankie a committed atheist - he seems to equivocate on the issue and apparently still takes communion with the EO from time to time.
It’s kind of hard with him to figure out what he really (doesn’t) believe and how much of it is a “look at me” to sell books.
Welcome to the Church, Hank Hanegraaff!!!! Many Years!
Here is more about the Chrism that he was anointed with:
It is different from the oil used in Holy Unction that many of us Orthodox will receive tomorrow night or Thursday morning.
https://www.goarch.org/-/the-sacrament-of-holy-unction-holy-wednesday-afternoon-and-evening
I will add that we in the Orthodox Church know very well the life of struggle and suffering that identifies with Jesus Christ Who willingly took on as His sacrifice for us.
A hundred years ago, there were more Orthodox Christians in the world than Protestants (about 300,000,000) predominantly in the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Turkish Empires. We have lost about 100,000,000 shot or starved or otherwise killed under the brutality of Communism, Nazism, and Islamic tyranny. We know the reality of life and death on the front lines of defending Christianity, in a way that the prosperous nations of Western Europe and America will never know.
It is sad and alarming (to see the spiritual danger before us) when we hear ourselves dismissed by our foolish acquaintances as "heretics" because we refuse to accept the shallow spirituality of the so-called "born again", "once saved, always saved" simplistic interpretation of the actual Gospel. We pray that those who think that way, and who accept the tending-toward-heretical "Prosperity Gospel" will repent of their sin against fellow Christians. (The sin consisting of possibly inducing someone else, by carelessness of tongue, into a feeling of discouragement or worse.)
I am glad to hear of various people actually taking the time to study the true history of Christianity as a living *community* of faith as the Body of Christ with unbroken continuity of practice. (No 1,500 year gaps.)
Just about everything that the Protestants rebelled against and rejected (e.g., the Sacraments) as being "Catholic" and "Popish" has in fact been an integral part of organic Christianity since the very beginning. Otherwise, you would not find them in the Orthodox, Armenian, Coptic, and Oriental Orthodox Churches, none of whom were ever under Rome. This is just simple logic.
Frank Schaeffer is NOT a good Orthodox Christian, even though he apparently receives the Eucharist in his parish:
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Frank_Schaeffer
Real Orthodox are pro-life, firmly theistic, and in most cases would be considered “homophobic” by liberal Democrats and “gay” activists. It is too bad that Frank Schaeffer is such a popular lecturer and blogger.
May God forgive him—and me, a sinner!!!!
See my post #59.
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