Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Evangelical Apologist Hank Hanegraaff Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy
religiousresearcher.org ^ | 4-10-2017 | Rob Bowman

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 ...


TOPICS: Orthodox Christian
KEYWORDS: apostasy; bibleanswerman; easternorthodoxy; hanegraaff; indepth
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 801-820821-840841-860 ... 881-890 next last
To: imardmd1


Drink More OVALTINE...




821 posted on 04/24/2017 4:26:54 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 813 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
nicolaitanism: What it is...


14 But I have a few things against thee [the church in Pergamos], because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.



Any more biblical descriptors are welcomed.

822 posted on 04/24/2017 4:30:12 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 814 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor
Yeshua has been exceptionally precocious all of his life, and simple miracles abounded.

Oh??

Any more biblical descriptors are welcomed.

823 posted on 04/24/2017 4:31:14 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 815 | View Replies]

To: metmom
Why do you Prots ALWAYS demand EVIDENCE???

--Catholic_Wannabe_Dude(Hail Mary!!)

824 posted on 04/24/2017 4:33:50 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 818 | View Replies]

To: Elsie
Yeah... WHY??!!??

--Mormon_Dude(I don't quite understand EVERYTHING that SLC teaches; but, by gum, I sure BELIEVE it!!!)

825 posted on 04/24/2017 4:35:40 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 824 | View Replies]

To: imardmd1
Are you seriously trying to assert that the Nicolaitans were Jews trying to infiltrate Christian fellowships ?

Sure

I want to be sure this is your position, that the Nicolaitans were Jews, named after Nicolas the Gentile proselyte deacon named in Acts ?

Is that what you assert ?
826 posted on 04/24/2017 4:36:02 AM PDT by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 810 | View Replies]

To: imardmd1
Are you correcting me in what I said? When I said Hellenized Jews, that's what I meant.

Yes. You did not say or write Hellenized Jews (to me). You wrote Greeks, and there is a difference between Greeks (Gentiles) and Grecians (Jews who spoke Greek instead of Hebrew/Aramaic).

Here is what you wrote:
"All the Jerusalem deacons were Greeks, and for a purpose. "
789 posted on 4/23/2017, 12:57:47 AM by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)

Hellén: a Greek, usually a name for a Gentile
Original Word: Ἕλλην, ηνος, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: Hellén
Phonetic Spelling: (hel'-lane)
Short Definition: a Hellene, a Greek
Definition: a Hellene, the native word for a Greek; it is, however, a term wide enough to include all Greek-speaking (i.e. educated) non-Jews.


Hellénistés: a Hellenist (Greek-speaking Jew)
Original Word: Ἑλληνιστής, ου, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: Hellénistés
Phonetic Spelling: (hel-lay-nis-tace')
Short Definition: a Hellenist, Grecian Jew
Definition: a Hellenist, Grecian Jew, a Greek-speaking Jew, that is one who can speak Greek only and not Hebrew (or Aramaic).

827 posted on 04/24/2017 4:51:06 AM PDT by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 811 | View Replies]

To: imardmd1
Dogs
Revised Version, correctly, the dogs, referring to a well-known party--the Judaizers. These were nominally Christians who accepted Jesus as the Messiah, but as the Savior of Israel only.


Your reference does not fit the first mention of dogs, which applied to Gentiles. Perhaps the latter use you cite is best understood in light of these texts in Matthew and and a stubborn refusal by some, especially religious teachers, to submit to the authority of the one holy catholic apostolic church.

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.


Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.


Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.


Matthew, Catholic chapter seven, Protestant verse six,
Matthew, Catholic chapter fifteen, Protestant verses twenty one to twenty eight,
Matthew, Catholic chapter eighteen, Protestant verses fifteen to eighteen,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

828 posted on 04/24/2017 5:14:40 AM PDT by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 810 | View Replies]

To: af_vet_1981
Here is what you wrote:
"All the Jerusalem deacons were Greeks, and for a purpose. "
789 posted on 4/23/2017, 12:57:47 AM by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)

You are right on this, and I was wrong. Writing hurriedly and late at night, I should have checked what I wrote and corrected it myself. Still, the deacons were Hellenized Jews who could communicate with and give attention to other Hellenized Jews and barbarian converts to Judaism that were in Jerusalem.

Are we settled on this point? Don't waste more time on this. Even correcting it doesn't improve your thesis.

829 posted on 04/24/2017 6:02:28 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 827 | View Replies]

To: Elsie
Verse 14 does not describe nicolaitans. It describes the clique in the church promoting the Balaamite doctrine of eating idol sacrifices (which is OK for Christians if it is not a stumbling-block to a weak, unspiritual fellow "believer") AND to engage in not solely male-female coupling but any kind of immoral perverse sex gratification going against God's plan for the sex function.

Verse 15 shows that this does NOT describe or include nicolaitanism. That is another form of doctrine that is also hateful to Jesus and His servants.

Rev 2:15  So hast thou also* them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

  * "also" means "in addition to," "over and above"

Pergamos had Balaamites and (also) nicolaitans--two different groups. If Nicolaitans were Balaamites in practices, why was that not mentioned in the letter to the angel of Ephesus?

Nicolaitans are organizational power-grabbers, very plainly ones who seek to overwhelm the ordinary constituents of a group and dominate them. Nikaw = conquer, overwhelm; lao = the passive sheeple deprived of the self-direction function.

No wonder that the ones determined to introduce a clergy want the terminology directed away from them. To counter resistance, they rationalize another origin of the derivation of the title to deflect opposition.

830 posted on 04/24/2017 7:23:45 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 822 | View Replies]

To: af_vet_1981
Apparently either you are not getting what I am saying, or I am not making it clear. Nicolaitanism has nothing to do with the Gentile proselyte deacon Nicolas.

Nicolaitanism has everything to do with inserting a priestly class into a single-class. That would be men that wish to control organizational dynamics in order to secure a structure for irresistible control over the common people, an absolute oligarchy or dictatorship.

In the emerging New Testament churches, nicolaitans were the power-grabbers that desired to reinstitute the priestly class as a carry-over from the old Jewish religion; another title for it is "supersessionism," or "replacement theology." They would be Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyon, or Constantine I, or Augustine.

Is that clear?

831 posted on 04/24/2017 8:25:22 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 826 | View Replies]

To: af_vet_1981

This will be helpful to the reader. But I think it is off topic and deserves another airing someplace else.


832 posted on 04/24/2017 8:27:10 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 827 | View Replies]

To: metmom

ES, being a blind follower of Michael Rood, has incorporated Roodian fables into his belief system. You have to know what Rood is in order to see why ES spews the things he does at FR.


833 posted on 04/24/2017 9:16:59 AM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 818 | View Replies]

To: Elsie

.
Try when he lingered in the temple after the family had moved on, and taught the scriptures to the scribes and priests.


834 posted on 04/24/2017 9:41:31 AM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 823 | View Replies]

To: af_vet_1981; Elsie; MHGinTN; boatbums; Mark17; ealgeone
Not the same. Read thoroughly what I posted, a direct faithful copy of what Vincent had to say about it.

Contextually, the audience addressed was, from the point of view of the orthodox pre-Cross Jew, already a bunch of dogs. So your approach does not apply to the correct exegesis of this passage. You are applying these verses out of context.

Another well-received commentator says the same thing, even clearer:

Adam Clarke

Philippians 3:2

Beware of dogs - The Jews, who have here the same appellative which they formerly gave to the Gentiles: because the Gentiles were not included in the covenant, they called them Dogs; and themselves, the children of the Most High. Now, they are cast out of the covenant and the Gentiles taken in; therefore they are the dogs, and the Gentiles the children.

Evil workers - Judaizing teachers, who endeavored to pervert the Gospel. The concision - Κατατομην· The cutting or excision; not περιτομην, the circumcision: the word is used by the apostle to degrade the pretensions which the Jews made to sanctity by the cutting in their flesh. Circumcision was an honorable thing, for it was a sign of the covenant; but as they now had rejected the new covenant, their circumcision was rendered uncircumcision, and is termed a cutting, by way of degradation.

=========

From John Newton Darby, this:

Philippians 3:1-21

(excerpt)

To the apostle, who knew Christ in heaven, all this(supersessionism, my note) was but a bait to draw the Christian away from Christ, and throw him back again into the ruin out of which Christ had drawn him. And this would be so much the worse, because it would be to abandon a known and glorified Christ, and to return to that which had been proved to be of no value through the flesh. The apostle therefore spares neither the doctrine nor those who taught it.

The glory which he had seen, his contests with these false teachers, the state into which they had thrown the assembly, Jerusalem and Rome, his liberty and his prison — all, had gained him the experience of what Judaism was worth as to the assembly of God. They were dogs, evil workers, that is workers of malice and wickedness. It(the Jewish system; see Rom. 2:25-29) was not the circumcision. He treats it with profound contempt, and uses language, the harshness of which is justified by his love for theassembly; for love is severe towards those who, devoid of conscience, corrupt the object of that love. It was the concision. When evil without shame, and labouring to produce evil under a disgraceful veil of religion, is manifested in its true character, mildness is a crime against the objects of the love of Christ. If we love Him, we shall in our intercourse with the assembly give the evil its true character, which it seeks to hide. This is real love and faithfulness to Christ. The apostle had certainly not failed in condescension to the weak in this respect. He had carried it far; his prison testified it. And now the assembly, deprived of his energy and that spiritual decision which was full of love to all which is good, was more in danger than ever. The experience of a whole life of activity, of the greatest patience, of four years' reflection in prison, led to these forcible and urgent words, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision." The doctrine of the epistle to the Ephesians, the exhortation of that to the Colossians, the affection of that to these Philippians, with the denunciation contained in Php_3:2, date from the same epoch, and are marked with the same love. But it sufficed to denounce them. Elsewhere, where they were not well known, he gave details, as in the case of Timotheus, who had still to watch over the assembly. It was sufficient now to point out their well-known character. Whatever Judaised, whatever sought to mingle law and gospel, trusting in ordinances and the Spirit, was shameless, malicious, and contemptible. But the apostle will rather occupy himself with the power that delivers from it. We are the circumcision (that which is really separate from the evil, that which is dead to sin and to the flesh), we who worship God, not in the false pretension of ordinances, but spiritually by the power of the Holy Ghost, who rejoice in Christ the Saviour and not in the flesh, but on the contrary have no confidence in it. We see here Christ and the Spirit in contrast with the flesh and self.

Paul might indeed boast, if needful, in that which belonged to the flesh. As to all Jewish privileges, he possessed them in the highest degree. He had outstript every one in holy zeal against innovators. One thing alone had changed it all-he had seen a glorified Christ. All that he had according to the flesh was thenceforth loss to him. It would place something between him and the Christ of his faith and of his desire — the Christ whom he knew. And, observe, that here it is not the sins of the flesh which Christ expiates and abolishes that he rejects; it is its righteousness. It has none, we may say; but even if the apostle had possessed any righteousness of the flesh — as, in fact, he did possess it outwardly — he would not have it, because he had seen a better. In Christ, who had appeared to him on the way to Damascus, he had seen divine righteousness for man, and divine glory in man. He had seen a glorified Christ, who acknowledged the poor feeble members of the assembly as a part of Himself. He would have nothing else. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord had eclipsed everything — changed everything which was not that into loss. The stars, as well as the darkness of night, disappear before the sun. The righteousness of the law, the righteousness of Paul, all that distinguished him among men, disappeared before the righteousness of God and the glory of Christ.

(end of excerpt)

========

What this brings to the fore is that supersessionism, trying to pretend that Christianity is an extension of the old Jewish religion with its priestly class, is just another form of Judaizing. It inserts a mediatory agency and agents between the regenerated believer and His Master, Who is our True Mediator between the humble supplicant and his/her Heavenly Father.

In other words, to me supersessionism is Nicolaitianism. It embodies the doctrine mentioned to the angels of Ephesus and Pergamos, the one that Our Christ Jesus hates.

Supersessionism/nicolaitanism separates the seeker of salvation and holiness from the Christ and His Father, unto another Jesus of the same kind--but another--with another gospel and another spirit of a different kind.

835 posted on 04/24/2017 9:42:18 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 828 | View Replies]

To: Elsie

Baalam had nothing whatsoever to do with Nicolaitanism, which is the creation of a human hierarchy within the Assembly (falsely called a “church” in the Greek translations)


836 posted on 04/24/2017 9:44:14 AM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 822 | View Replies]

To: metmom

.
>> “No mention of it any where in Scripture.” <<

To the spiritually blind, I’m sure that is so.
.


837 posted on 04/24/2017 9:45:40 AM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 818 | View Replies]

To: editor-surveyor

Then provide the references.

For once.


838 posted on 04/24/2017 10:16:01 AM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 837 | View Replies]

To: metmom

.
I lack the power to drag you over the threshold of the New Jerusalem.
.


839 posted on 04/24/2017 10:35:36 AM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 838 | View Replies]

To: imardmd1
Verse 14 does not describe nicolaitans.

Then just what verse does?

840 posted on 04/24/2017 3:20:12 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 830 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 801-820821-840841-860 ... 881-890 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson