what do you think about Hank Hanegraaff?

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Hank Hanegraaff is a Protestant radio host who hosts a daily Q and A talk show. Although he is no Catholic Answers Live, his show is one of the better Protestant shows. His moral views correspond pretty closely to Catholic moral views, so in this regard he is good to listen to.

He is a Sola Scriptura man, but seems to think that if the reader of the Bible is well educated enough then they will come to a “correct” reading of scripture.

He talks about the “essential doctrines” of Christianity, which he believes are Biblical and Christians should assent to, but sometimes it’s hard for me to tell what the essential beliefs and practices are and what beliefs and practices are considered non-essential (optinonal?). He does a good job refuting cults however.

Although he has said some charitable things about Catholics, he speaks against the Catholic Church in most points of theology and doctrine.

Just wondering if anyone has any comments or feelings about him one way or another.

thanks and God bless.
 
Hank put alot of his efforts in putting people down. He likes to point untruth in all denominations. Personally I like builing up the church rather than knocking it down. 👍
 
Tom:
Just wondering if anyone has any comments or feelings about him one way or another.
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Hank was impartial to a fault in the Bible Answer Man debate between Jimmy Akin and James White. The debate lasted for three programs and is available from Catholic Answers at:

Bible Answer Man Debate

It may be a bit presumptious to call yourself The Bible Answer Man when you’ve “mastered” the condensed version of 66 books of scripture, rather than the full version of 73 books.

Peace in Christ…Salmon
 
Too many darn cliches. I used to like him over 10 years ago when I was half-Fundy, now he’s boring. 😛 Just about every sentence that comes out of his mouth on the air is a “cliche” – he has his pat phrases and sayings down, after saying them over and over for the decade or so he’s been on the air. His shows are most interesting when he has a guest on, like William Lane Craig, Gretchen Passantino, or other evangelical scholars.

I still enjoy the occasional crazy clips he plays of Benny Hinn or other pentecostal / TBN style preachers. His “Fatal Flaws” and “Farce” anti-evolution books are quite poor scholarship. His books on what he considers “Counterfeit Christianity” are useful (Christianity in Crisis, Counterfeit Revival).

I don’t think he would do very well in a debate on Catholicism against Jimmy Akin, or even Karl Keating for that matter. 😃 Yeah, and he was fair both to Jimmy Akin and Tim Staples when he moderated those BAM debates against James White. And he seems to disagree with White on the 5-point Calvinism issue.

Phil P
 
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PhilVaz:
Too many darn cliches. I used to like him over 10 years ago when I was half-Fundy, now he’s boring. 😛 Just about every sentence that comes out of his mouth on the air is a “cliche” – he has his pat phrases and sayings down, after saying them over and over for the decade or so he’s been on the air. His shows are most interesting when he has a guest on, like William Lane Craig, Gretchen Passantino, or other evangelical scholars.

I still enjoy the occasional crazy clips he plays of Benny Hinn or other pentecostal / TBN style preachers. His “Fatal Flaws” and “Farce” anti-evolution books are quite poor scholarship. His books on what he considers “Counterfeit Christianity” are useful (Christianity in Crisis, Counterfeit Revival).

I don’t think he would do very well in a debate on Catholicism against Jimmy Akin, or even Karl Keating for that matter. 😃 Yeah, and he was fair both to Jimmy Akin and Tim Staples when he moderated those BAM debates against James White. And he seems to disagree with White on the 5-point Calvinism issue.

Phil P
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Phil, is that CD above, in the link given by Salmon, is the one you said to be the best debate?
 
beng << Phil, is that CD above, in the link given by Salmon, is the one you said to be the best debate? >>

Yeah that’s it, still offered by Catholic Answers, it’s “The Bible Answer Man Debate” recorded Oct 1995 if memory serves. That’s #2 of all time. The best Cath-Prot debate of all time though is the Ankerberg Show with Fr. Mitch vs. Walter Martin, the original Bible Answer Man. About 5 hours of grueling video. 😛

Phil P
 
Interesting topic. 🙂

Hank has done a lot of good work on cults and aberrant Christian movements. My husband was actually on staff at CRI at the time of our conversion to the Catholic faith. (He works for Catholic Answers now.) If anyone is interested, our story can be found on the Coming Home Network website. Here’s the link…

chnetwork.org/cbconv.htm

God bless!

Cindy
 
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PhilVaz:
beng << Phil, is that CD above, in the link given by Salmon, is the one you said to be the best debate? >>

Yeah that’s it, still offered by Catholic Answers, it’s “The Bible Answer Man Debate” recorded Oct 1995 if memory serves. That’s #2 of all time. The best Cath-Prot debate of all time though is the Ankerberg Show with Fr. Mitch vs. Walter Martin, the original Bible Answer Man. About 5 hours of grueling video. 😛

Phil P
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The debate that made Tim Staple converted.

Where to get?
 
I like Hank for several reasons:
  1. He does not make the mistake of calling Catholicism a religious cult, but simply says it is a different religion than, what he calls, orthodox Christianity.
  2. He has an amazing knowledge of the Bible (he has memorized every word of Proverbs, for example).
  3. The Christian Research Institute for which he works is staffed with Protestants from many different denominations, all of which contribute to the information that is available at www.equip.org.
  4. He has had extremely good Catholic apologists on his radio program who have participated in lively, yet respectful, live debates.
  5. He & his wife have a family that rivals the size of some Catholic families!
 
<< 5. He & his wife have a family that rivals the size of some Catholic families! >>

Yep, he obeys the Pope on birth control, but not on justification by faith alone. You win some, you lose some. :eek:

BAM was the best call in show on religious radio in the 1990s, then Catholic Answers Live came along. 😃 Another biggie I used to listen to a lot was “Moody Open Line” and the Pastor Donald Cole call in show, he is quite ecumenical. Hank is ecumenical as well, but he’ll answer the occasional Catholic who calls in with your typical fundamentalist flair. 😉

Phil P
 
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Cindy:
Interesting topic. 🙂

Hank has done a lot of good work on cults and aberrant Christian movements. My husband was actually on staff at CRI at the time of our conversion to the Catholic faith. (He works for Catholic Answers now.) If anyone is interested, our story can be found on the Coming Home Network website. Here’s the link…

chnetwork.org/cbconv.htm

God bless!

Cindy
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Cindy, that’s an amazing story. I read it and was so touched by the Lord’s love for you. I am convinced that our Church is so much richer because of people like you who have sought the truth…I thank Him for you!

Mary
 
Hank was instrumental in my coming back to faith over the past couple of years. Of course, I am Catholic so I do not agree with all that Hank states on his program.

As Hank so often states on his program (I paraphrase),
“Over these differences we can vigorously debate but we need not divide”. I have much respect and admiration for Hanks commitment, energy and true love of Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity.

One thing I have noticed (I may be reading something that isn’t there but I’ll state it here anyway). Hank seems a tad uncomfortable with callers asking him about Catholicism. He seems to brush them off quicker then callers asking questions about Mormonism, Jehova Witness etc. Oh well.
 
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Cindy:
Interesting topic. 🙂

Hank has done a lot of good work on cults and aberrant Christian movements. My husband was actually on staff at CRI at the time of our conversion to the Catholic faith. (He works for Catholic Answers now.) If anyone is interested, our story can be found on the Coming Home Network website. Here’s the link…

chnetwork.org/cbconv.htm

God bless!

Cindy
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That’s a great conversion story. Karl should provide a place for people to post their conversion stories. It would make for very interesting and inspirational reading.

I’m glad some people have found this topic “interesting”–my previous attempt at a poll…well let’s say the results were less than stellar:rolleyes: .

God Bless
 
Hank was impartial to a fault in the Bible Answer Man debate between Jimmy Akin and James White.
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I thought Hank was giving James White a helping hand every once in a while!

What bugs me the most about HH is that I have heard him say more than once that a Catholic who converts to being “born again” could stay in the Catholic Church & still be saved, but “why would he want to?” To me, this implys that one would have a hard time being Christian & Catholic.

I’ve written to him about this comment but the reply is always “Hank loves Catholics”. I’m not stupid enough to call his show - he’d shred me to ribbons! I think slow so I prefer to write.
 
I listened to Hank for years and thought he did have most of the right answers - then I read a debate (on sola scriptura) between James White - who was on his program many times - and a Catholic Apologist - I think it was Robert Sungenis. It was no contest for me. I became a Catholic soon after. Hank no longer had the answers. 😃
 
I think Hank means well but is a little confused about the catholic faith and the doctrines she adheres to. Also, understanding that he is limited by time on his show, he generally gives very simplistic answers to some very involved and deep subjects. I do however marvel at the amount of sacred scripture that he has memorized. Sure wish I had the time to even come close.
 
I haven’t listed to Hank in about 5 years, but I remember him, when getting in a sticky situation with a caller, saying, “your disagreement is not with me, but with God.” I gave a cheer for that but now I see such a response as more like him being so convinced of his view that that is all he could say. One thing I noticed about Catholic Answers Live is that when a caller’s question has been answered, Jerry goes straight to the next caller. Hank used to allow the caller to continue on and this often resulted in so much brow beating. Jerry’s approach allows the show to move more smoothly since I am sure that both shows get very irate people with a major bone to pick.
 
I’m neither like or dislike Hank Hanegraaff. One of the things I get out of his program is the need for a teaching authority, magisterial authority. Someone is always calling him and asking what does he think about this preacher or that preacher. He gives his opinion, which is usually negative. I always wander who gave him the authority to judge the theoligy of someone else. The Holy Spirit? I’ll bet if you ask the person he is judging where they received their authority I’ll bet he will aslo respond the Holy Spirit. Do we have more than 1 Holy Spirit giving differant preachers differant messages?
 
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Socrates4Jesus:
The Christian Research Institute for which he works is staffed with Protestants from many different denominations, all of which contribute to the information that is available at www.equip.org.
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It was precisely because of this that Kerry and I became disillusioned with Protestantism. The doctrinal confusion among the staff was disheartening. We all claimed the Bible as our sole authority, but there was simply no way to determine who had the correct interpretation of Scripture. How were we to know who had the Truth? In a sense, our experience at CRI actually led us to the Catholic Church.

God bless!

Cindy

P.S. Mary and Tom: Thank you for the kind words. I’m so glad you enjoyed our conversion story.
 
I know there’s a lot of protestant resources and people out there with some good information, but when there’s places like Catholic Answers and all the other Catholic resources that are at your fingertips these days, I just don’t want to spend my time listening to or reading someone who I know is not going to have the right answers on issues important to me. If I know that someone doesn’t have the fullness of truth, then they just sort of bore me.

I suggest you all drop a few bucks on a Sirius satellite radio so you can listen to EWTN whenever you’re in the car. 🙂 Give me CA Live or Fr. Mitch Pacwa over Hank any day of the week.
 
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