Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Hank Unplugged podcast, reads portions of the latest letter from his sister Jobje, who is battling pancreatic cancer. She writes, “First and foremost, I want to wish you all a very blessed Christmas in our adoration of our Savior and Lord, the King of all Kings, for His indescribable gift of a Savior!....My adoration for my Savior has increased during this year of ‘blessings and affliction’ for all His supplied grace. Let each of us come in quietness and humility this Christmas season, and let us adore Him with our whole heart and soul.” Jobje goes on to say, “The Christmas season has not always been my favorite holiday to celebrate.” Why? Because of “the commercialization of Christmas, frantic shoppers, insane traffic, and then hearing the precious carols and the name of Jesus dragged through the mud by the stores‘ merchandizing audio systems, which always make me squirm with discomfort. I just wanted to get the Christmas season over and get back to some kind of normalcy….I am sure that you all can relate to this very busy time of year where we forget to be still, forget to ponder in amazement, forget to adore Him and to thank Him for making our Christmas celebrations with church and families possible….For me in view of this past year, Christmas has taken on a new meaning. The Christmas season is here one more time. With me being more housebound, it has made me stop and ponder the joy of my Salvation — soon to be completed. And this all is made possible, because a holy God chose to send His holy only Son to a sinful foreign, war-torn soil. He left His Home in Glory, born as a helpless baby, laid in a manger, destined to live through an exhausting ministry, being admired by some, nevertheless despised, rejected, and then to be crucified on a cruel cross, all for our salvation. Stop and think of the magnitude of this indescribable gift! The capstone for me was when (just last night) the young people, their leaders and our pastor…came Christmas caroling in our home. What a joy it was to see them and hear them sing with joy those familiar carols, showing their love and kindness to just another ‘shut in.’ As I sat on the couch I heard those familiar songs, and my adoration for my Savior increased with new meaning! Let us come and adore Him in all His holiness in this Christmas season with a new awareness. The greatest Christmas gift for me will be when I, sinless!, can finally adore Him sinlessly in His holy presence and in the splendor of the heavens. I look forward to that day!”

The Christian Research Institute would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy this special message from Hank Hanegraaff on the incarnation of Jesus Christ as an opportunity to celebrate the great exchange—Christ taking on our humanity so that we might become partakers of the divine nature.Listen to Hank’s podcast and follow Hank off the grid where he is joined by some of the brightest minds discussing topics you care about. Get equipped to be a cultural change agent.Archived episodes are on our Website and available at the additional channels listed below.You can help spread the word about Hank Unplugged by giving us a rating and review from the other channels we are listed on.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, meditates on the amazing ant and the brilliance of creation. Hank’s wife, Kathy, was lightly attacked by ants while hanging up Christmas lights, reminding him of the proverb, “Go to the ant, observe its ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer, or ruler, prepares its food in the summer and gathers its provision in the harvest” (Proverbs 6:6–8). Weaver ants build nests that are about the size of soccer balls—and they do it through team work. After trimming leaf edges smooth, they sew them together, gluing them with silk—all the while the leaves are still attached to the tree, permitting photosynthesis. And in the process, they not only utilize tools but they cooperate one with another. How could such extreme behavior have evolved by unguided, purposeless natural processes? If you consider the “specified complexity” involved, it is highly unlikely that blind evolutionary processes explain it all. Indeed, Neo-Darwinian random mutation and natural selection (and accompanying processes) cannot produce the “complex programmed behaviors” of the ant. We’re told over and over that we are to follow the science. Indeed, following the science where it leads in terms of the complex programmed behaviors of the ant culminates with an Intelligent Designer! See the remarkable new book by Eric Cassell, Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts (Discovery Institute Press, 2021).

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, exhorts us to pause for a moment in the midst of our busy-ness and ponder the majesty of the word Immanuel. It is simply incredible to consider that when Isaiah, the holiest man in ancient Israel, prophesied, “the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), he was literally predicting that in the future the One who spoke and the limitless galaxies leapt into existence would tabernacle in flesh among us. Indeed, that is precisely what the word Immanuel means—“God with us.” O Come let us adore Him—Christ the Lord! Merry Christmas to all!

​There is no such thing as religious neutrality. Dr. Scott Hahn joins Hank Hanegraaff to discuss why Christians simply cannot compartmentalize our beliefs as if reality and religion are not intrinsically and existentially related. The privatization of faith has been perilous for the public square and as the world continues to become increasingly anti-Christian, it is imperative that Christians snap out of our “Spiritual Stockholm Syndrome” and claim the culture for Christ. The future of civilization depends on it. For more information on receiving the book, It Is Right and Just: Why the Future of Civilization Depends on True Religion, for your partnering gift, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-it-is-right-and-just-why-the-future-of-civilization-depends-on-true-religion/Topics discussed include: Salvation and deification—too often we focus on what we are saved FROM and overlook what we are saved FOR (5:20); the context of the famous quote by Karl Marx that “religion is the opium of the people” and why religion is the roadblock to revolution (9:20); contrasting Marxism and materialism with true religion—Christianity and what the social duty of Christians is (18:30); the cross is a mystery and metaphor that defines our reality (27:50); how should we keep the Sabbath? (38:00); the importance of liturgy and recognizing forms of secular liturgy in our lives (44:10); the two wings of faith and reason (49:25); is there any such thing are religious neutrality? (56:20); the Eucharistic encounter of St. Thomas Aquinas that changed his life—and how the Eucharist can empower us to change the world (1:03:00); the real presence of Christ should be a uniting reality for all Christians (1:12:45); the relationship between justice and love (1:18:50); where have we gotten marriage wrong? (1:26:05); why the future of civilization depends on true religion (1:33:10). Listen to Hank’s podcast and follow Hank off the grid where he is joined by some of the brightest minds discussing topics you care about. Get equipped to be a cultural change agent.Archived episodes are on our Website and available at the additional channels listed below.You can help spread the word about Hank Unplugged by giving us a rating and review from the other channels we are listed on.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, reflects on another precious note from his older sister Jobje, who is battling pancreatic cancer. The suffering she endures is almost beyond imagination, yet in the midst of her pain, she again and again extols God’s mercy and grace—and says how unworthy she feels in the midst of His abundant blessings. Jobje writes, “Even this morning’s travel to the cancer center was breathtakingly beautiful. Once again God’s mighty breath dusted His grace on this sinful world, with the beauty of the adorning snow reflecting His majestic power.” Later in this post she says, “While I was in the hospital, I needed a blood transfusion. And in the midst of that I was thinking on a spiritual level of how all of us desperately need the blood of Jesus Christ. All of us need His spiritual transfusion. It’s a matter of life and death.” Then she writes, “One of my dear friends called me this week saying those sweet words: ‘He giveth more grace as the burdens grow deeper.’ Yes, that’s precisely where it’s at, isn’t it. His saving grace dusting my life, transfusing through my veins and covering my many inadequacies. Oh, how I long for that Day when my salvation is complete. By His overflowing grace I will enter my eternal home—His home for His redeemed. I look forward to that Day.”

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, reflects on a recent note from his sister Jobje, who is battling pancreatic cancer. Jobje exemplifies gratitude—in the midst of suffering and exhaustion. Picture Jobje laying in a hospital bed, looking out the window. As she does, a hymn is going through her mind—“Beneath the Cross of Jesus”—capturing both her heart and rational mind. Looking out her window, she sees, partially blocked by other medical buildings, His golden cross on one of the spires of St. Andrews Cathedral. She writes, “Beneath the view of that cross that shimmered in the eastern sky, and later in the day glowed in the setting of the western sun, I lay on my sick bed being covered by His Almighty hand—and comforted in His precious sight. Simultaneously, I was truly being consoled and thrilled in the intensifying awareness and significance of His cross. ‘Upon that cross of Jesus,mine eye at times can see, the very dying form of One, who suffered there for me; and from my stricken heart with tears, these wonders I confess: the wonders of His glorious love and my unworthiness.’ Oh, yes, and let me add, ‘I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place; I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of his face; content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss, my sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.’ In His time, I’ll be able to kneel before His holy throne and give grateful thanks to Him in person. What a Thanksgiving Day that will be. I look forward to that Day.”

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘯 broadcast, offers a meditation on thanksgiving—the gateway to righteousness. Thanksgiving is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. Prayer without thanksgiving is like a bird without wings. Each day we ought to approach God overflowing with thankfulness. Our thankfulness flows from the sure knowledge that our heavenly Father knows precisely what we need, and He will supply it in Christ Jesus. The Psalms are a rich reservoir for daily thanksgiving—for example, Psalm 118.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and Host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, comments on Benny Hinn’s misuse of Scripture in “7 Reasons for the Rapture.”[ https://www.bennyhinn.org/podcast/7-reasons-for-the-rapture/] Hinn cites Christ’s words in John 14:3 as teaching a secret pretribulational rapture: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (KJV). In Hinn’s paradigm, the church is raptured into a safe place and then all hell breaks loose on earth—two-thirds of all Jewish people on earth die in an unfathomably brutal tribulation. Hinn also cites Paul’s great and glorious passage on resurrection in 1 Thessalonians 4 as teaching a secret pretribulational rapture. In reality, these passages do not imply, let alone clearly teach, a pretribulational rapture. There just is no biblical basis for the notion that Jesus is coming secretly to rapture the church seven years prior to His second appearing. In fact, our Lord’s own words negate the very notion: “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28–29 NIV). This event does not happen at the time of an imagined secret rapture but at the time of Christ’s second appearing. Some people are not raptured at one time and others at another time. No, all of humanity will rise in resurrection simultaneously. We ought not to be inventing theology in the 21st century (or 19th century when this whole notion originated)—reading our own odd predilections into the text. Rather, we ought to draw out of the biblical text only that which is in the text. We ought to interpret the Bible in the sense in which it was intended by the original authors (who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) and understood throughout church history. We ought not to innovate—we ought to perpetuate. For further study, see Hank Hanegraaff, The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible Really Says about the End Times and Why It Matters Today [https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-apocalypse-code-det/]

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, comments on a recent Wall Street Journal opinion article, “Are Internet Services as Good as Church?” by Paul Glader and John Semakula. The authors write about how digital worship has overtaken the Christian church, particularly among Evangelicals. Almost half of people who responded to a survey now believe that online services are as good as in-person services. Many don’t want to return to in-person worship, enjoying the opportunity to multi-task during the service or shop around for other worship experiences—dabbling in Christianity without commitment and accountability. But this constitutes a complete misunderstanding of what the Church actually is. Followers of Christ are baptized into a body—incorporated into the Body of Christ. Church is not just about holding to a corpus of intellectual precepts or listening to good TED Talks with a spiritual slant. Church, by its very nature, is a corporate, embodied experience—a sacramental experience within the Eucharistic assembly wherein we together partake of the “medicine of immortality” that transforms us. Sacraments are dispensed within—not apart from—the Body of Christ, and Christianity knows nothing of Lone Ranger experiences. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/internet-services-as-good-as-church-livestream-in-person-11634848177)