Hendrik "Hank" Hanegraaff is an American author, radio talk-show host and advocate of evangelical Christianity. He is an outspoken figure within the Christian countercult movement where he has established a reputation for his criticisms of non-Christian religions, new religious movements or cults and perceived heresies within conservative Christianity. He is also an apologist on doctrinal and cultural issues. For other uses, see Talk Radio. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The word evangelicalism often refers to... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is... The Christian countercult movement, also known as discernment ministries is the collective designation for many mostly unrelated ministries and individual Christians who oppose non-mainstream Christian and non-Christian religious groups, which they often call cults. ... A new religious movement or NRM appears as a religious, ethical or spiritual grouping that has not (yet) become recognised as a standard denomination, church, or body, especially when it has a novel belief system and when it is not a sect. ... This article does not discuss cult in its original meaning. ... Look up Heresy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Christian apologetics is the... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

He was born in the Netherlands and raised in the United States since childhood. He is married with nine children.

Hank Hannegraff in St. Louis, Mo. August 30, 2007.

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 282 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Hank Hanegraaff in St. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 960 pixel, file size: 282 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Hank Hanegraaff in St. ...

Career

Prior to becoming a leading figure in the Christian countercult movement, Hanegraaff was closely affiliated with the ministry of D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian church in Florida. During his association with Kennedy in the 1980s, Hanegraaff applied memory-based techniques (such as acrostic mnemonics) to summarise strategies, methods and techniques in Christian evangelism. His work bears resemblances to memory dynamics techniques developed in speed-reading courses and in memory training programs used in some executive business courses. Dennis James Kennedy, Ph. ... Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ... An acrostic (from the late Greek akróstichon, from ákros, extreme, and stíchos, verse) is a poem or other writing in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each verse, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message. ... A mnemonic (AmE [] or BrE []) is a memory aid. ... Look up evangelist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

During the late 1980s Hanegraaff became associated with Walter Martin (1928-1989) at the Christian Research Institute (CRI). CRI, the conservative Protestant countercult and apologetic ministry which Martin founded in 1960. Dr. Walter Ralston Martin (September 10, 1928 – June 26, 1989), was an American Evangelical minister, author, and Christian apologist who founded the Christian Research Institute in 1960 as a para-church ministry specialising as a clearing-house of information in both general Christian apologetics and in countercult apologetics. ... The Christian Research Institute (also popularly known as CRI) is one of the largest Evangelical Christian apologetics ministries of the world. ...

After Martin's death from heart failure in June 1989, Hanegraaff became president of CRI. As part of his role as ministry president, Hanegraaff assumed the role from Martin of anchorman on the radio program The Bible Answer Man. Hanegraaff also became a conference speaker and itinerant preacher in churches, pursuing the general ministry charter of CRI. Shortly after the release of Dan Brown's fiction novel, he co-authored "The DaVinci Code: Fact or Fiction?" with Lutheran apologist Dr. Paul Maier. His most recent publication to date is "The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible REALLY Says About the End Times...and Why It Matters Today", from Thomas Nelson, 2007.

Word-Faith movement

In his 1993 book Christianity in Crisis, Hanegraaff charged the Word-Faith movement with heretical teachings, saying that many of the Word-Faith groups were "cults", and that those who "knowingly" accepted the movement's theology were "clearly embracing a different gospel, which is in reality no gospel at all."^[1] Image File history File links Hanegraaff1. ...

In the best-selling book, Hanegraaff addressed five areas of doctrine under the following headings:

• Faith in Faith - a critique of Faith teaching on faith as a "force"
• Little Gods or Little Frauds? - the charge that the Faith movement teaches promotes man (and Satan) to godhood and demotes Christ
• Atonement Atrocities - a critique of the supposed teaching that Christ became "satanic" on the cross was "born again" in Hell
• Wealth and Want - a critique of the movement's teachings on prosperity
• Sickness and Suffering - a critique of the movement's teachings on healing

He also made much of the Faith teachers' alleged tendencies to rely on visions and other experiential phenomena rather than Scripture alone. This article is about the concept of Satan. ... For other uses, see Hell (disambiguation). ... Many religions and spiritual movements hold certain written texts (or series of spoken legends not traditionally written down) to be sacred. ...

Counterfeit Revival

Hanegraaff revisited some of the same issues in his 1997 book Counterfeit Revival, in which he rejected the claims of many Pentecostal and charismatic teachers such as Rodney Howard Browne concerning what became known as the Toronto Blessing. The Toronto Blessing was associated with the Vineyard church located at Toronto airport, and was characterized by spontaneous and sustained outbursts of bodily phenomena such as laughing, crying, animal noises, and dancing. The proponents of this blessing believed this was a special time of refreshing bestowed on churches by the Holy Spirit. A different set of phenomena and claims subsequently emanated from churches in Brownsville, Pensacola, Florida, and became known as the Brownsville Revival. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Pentecostal can... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Wycliffe Tyndale · Luther · Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The charismatic movement began... Rodney Howard-Browne is a South African Charismatic preacher and evangelist. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      In mainstream Christianity, the... Nickname: Location in Escambia County and the state of Florida Coordinates: , Country State County Escambia Government  - Mayor John Fogg Area  - City 39. ... The Brownsville Revival (also known as The Pensacola Outpouring) was a widely reported religious phenomenon that began within the Pentecostal movement in 1995. ...

Hanegraaff accused the leaders of the movement of using hypnosis and manipulation. For the novel by Lucas Hyde, see Hypnosis (novel). ...

Despite its warm reception by evangelicals, the book (as well as Christianity in Crisis) was harshly criticized by many Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders such as Don Williams,^[2] William DeArteaga^[3] and Michael L. Brown.^[4]

Counterfeit Revival was criticized in Christianity Today magazine's review of the book. The review, while acknowledging that Counterfeit Revival "exposes some real excesses and imbalances" in the Toronto Blessing, also states that Counterfeit Revival is a "misleading, simplistic, and harmful book, marred by faulty logic, outdated and limited research".^[5] Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Worldwide Church of God

Throughout the 1990s, Hanegraaff engaged in dialogue with Joseph Tkach, Jr. and other leaders of the heterodox Worldwide Church of God (WCG). The WCG was founded in the 1930s by Herbert W. Armstrong, and had long been regarded as a cult by evangelicals, primarily for its denial of the Trinity and other traditional Christian doctrines. Following Armstrong's death in 1986, the group re-evaluated many of its teachings, including the British Israel doctrine and various eschatological predictions. Joseph Tkach Jr. ... Heterodoxy includes any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position.[1] As an adjective, heterodox is used to describe a subject as characterized by departure from accepted beliefs or standards (status quo). ... The Worldwide Church of God (WCG), formerly the Radio Church of God, is a Christian church currently based in Glendora, California, USA. Founded in 1933 by Herbert Armstrong as a radio ministry, the WCG under Armstrong had a significant, and often controversial, influence on 20th century religious broadcasting and publishing... Herbert W. Armstrong (July 31, 1892) – January 16, 1986 (aged 93)) was the founder of the Worldwide Church of God and an early pioneer of radio evangelism, taking to the airwaves in the 1930s from Eugene, Oregon. ... This article is about the Christian Trinity. ... For other uses, see Christian (disambiguation). ... British Israelism (sometimes called Anglo-Israelism) is a Christian theology based on the premise that many early British people, Europeans and/or their royal families were direct lineal descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel and in some cases of the Tribe of Judah. ... For the book by Pope Benedict XVI, see Eschatology (book). ...

Hanegraaff was one of a handful of evangelical apologists (along with, e.g., Ruth Tucker, and The White Horse Inn) who assisted in the reforms. The biggest changes, and certainly those most necessary to ensure their acceptance among evangelicals, were in accepting the doctrine of the Trinity and Salvation by Grace through Faith. This article is about the Christian Trinity. ... For other uses, see Salvation (disambiguation). ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      In Christianity... Sola fide (by faith alone), also historically known as the justification of faith, is a doctrine held by some Protestant denominations of Christianity, which asserts that it is on the basis of their faith that believers are forgiven their transgressions of the Law of God, rather than on the basis...

The story is told in the 1997 book Transformed by Truth by Joseph Tkach, with a foreword by Hanegraaff. The book, now out of print, is posted chapter by chapter on the WCG Web site.^[6]

Other apologetic works

Hanegraaff has also defended the historicity of the Resurrection of Christ in print and on radio, and has been outspoken against the theory of Evolution, in favour of creationism. According to the New Testament, especially the Gospels, God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... Creationism is a religious belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their original form by a deity or deities (often the Abrahamic God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam), whose existence is presupposed. ...

Hanegraaff is noted for his belief that Biblical inerrancy can be proven on a rational basis. He has also followed his predecessor, Walter Martin, in opposing what he describes as "pseudo-Christian" cults, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormons. In recent times he has co-authored three novels with Sigmund Brouwer. Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      Biblical inerrancy is the doctrinal position... For other uses, see Reason (disambiguation). ... The term Mormon is a colloquial name, most-often used to refer to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). ... Sigmund Brouwer is a well-known author in evangelical Christian circles. ...

Controversies

Hanegraaff has been a figure of controversy since he assumed the presidency of CRI. Several staff members who worked under Martin quit CRI shortly after Hanegraaff's ascension. Reportedly, thirty former staff formed a lobby-support network known as the Group for CRI Accountability, and the group tried to meet with Hanegraaff in the spirit of Matthew 18 [2]. Hanegraaff reportedly refused to meet. Those involved in this network leveled a number of claims against Hanegraaff's administration of CRI, alleging misuse of funds and plagiarism in his books. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ...

In the mid 1990s a wrongful dismissal law suit by an ex-CRI staff worker was settled out of court. More recently the Evangelical periodical Christianity Today has carried news items concerning allegations about CRI's financial management, and of a looming law suit against a Christian critic of the ministry. One accountant at CRI reportedly attempted to confront Hanegraaff regarding wrongful use of ministry funds for personal use. The accountant was released, allegedly because of the confrontation. The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability temporarily removed CRI from their approved list, but later, after CRI promised to clean up their act, reinstated CRI without public comment. The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) is an accreditation agency that claims to promote fiscal integrity and sound financial practices among member organizations. ...

Martin's widow, Darlene Nesland Martin, and eldest daughter Jill Martin-Rische have made public calls for Hanegraaff's removal from CRI[3]. Martin's daughter and son-in-law run a ministry that perpetuates Martin's ministry known as Walter Martin's Religious Information Network. The public nature of this dispute between Hanegraaff and Martin's family was reported in April 2000 in the Los Angeles Times (see the "Other Relevant Sources" section), and is evidenced by the fact that in 1997 Hanegraaff was general editor of a posthumous edition of Martin's book, The Kingdom of the Cults. However, in 2003 an entirely different edition of the book was released that had Ravi Zacharias as general editor with editorial supervision from Jill Martin-Rische. Ravi Zacharias (full name Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias, born 1946) is an Indian-born, Canadian-American evangelical Christian philosopher, apologist and evangelist. ...

Hanegraaff detractors cite the "unauthorized" takeover of the presidency of CRI and a decided change in the direction of the ministry as their primary grievances. Others challenge his ethics of citing old quotes out of context to brand other ministers as heretical, even when the quotes have since been retracted and the ministers have changed their views.

On August 14, 2006, Hank Hanegraaff filed a Friend of the Court brief on behalf of the Local churches - a move [4] seen as controversial by a number of Christian apologists and countercult ministers, most of whom consider the Local Church to be a heretical sect or, in some cases, a cult. This article is about the local churches movement associated with the teachings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, not about the common use of the term to refer to any collection of Christian congregations in a local area. ...

Recent developments

Hank Hanegraaff is still President of the Christian Research Institute, which had been located in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. But in mid-2005 Hank and his family moved the institute to Charlotte, North Carolina. The reason given for the move was lower operating costs. “Charlotte” redirects here. ...

Books

• Hank Hanegraaff (1993). Christianity in Crisis. Eugene: Harvest House Pub. ISBN 0-89081-976-9. 
• Counterfeit Revival (Dallas: Word, 1997).
• The FACE That Demonstrates the Farce of Evolution (Nashville: Word, 1998).
• (General editor), The Kingdom of the Cults (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1997).
• Millennium Bug Debugged (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1998).
• Resurrection (Nashville: Word, 2000).
• The Prayer of Jesus (Nashville: Word, 2001).
• Fatal Flaws (Nashville: Word, 2003).
• Bible Answer Book (Nashville: J. Countryman, 2004).
• (with Sigmund Brouwer) The Last Disciple (A Novel), (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2004).
• (with Sigmund Brouwer) The Last Sacrifice (A Novel), (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2005).
• The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible REALLY Says About the End Times . . . and Why It Matters Today (Thomas Nelson, 2007)
• (with Sigmund Brouwer) Fuse of Armageddon (A Novel), (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2007)

This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

See also

• Christian countercult movement
• Category:Cults
• List of anti-cult organizations and individuals
• Partial Preterism

The Christian countercult movement, also known as discernment ministries is the collective designation for many mostly unrelated ministries and individual Christians who oppose non-mainstream Christian and non-Christian religious groups, which they often call cults. ... The following section may stray from the articles topic. ... Partial preterism is a form of Christian eschatology that holds much in common with but is distinct from Full preterism (or consistent or hyper preterism) in that it places the events of most of the Book of Revelation as occurring during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD (and/or...

References

Other Relevant Sources

• "Apologetics Ministry Resolves Wrongful Termination Suit," Christianity Today, September 11, 1995, p. 88.
• Marshall Allen, "Christian Research Institute accused of naive bookkeeping" Christianity Today, July 14 2003 p 19.[5]
• Stan Guthrie, "Christian Research Institute sues Longtime Critic," Christianity Today April 11 2005.[6]
• "Casting Stones: Questions About Radio's 'Bible Answer Man' Are Coming From Within," Los Angeles Times, April 15, 2000.
• Letter to Editor by Darlene Nesland Martin, "Hanegraaff Wasn't Handpicked," Los Angeles Times, (Orange County Edition), April 30, 2000.
• Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1965; revised in several editions published by Bethany House in 1967, 1977, 1985, 1997 and 2003).
• J. Gordon Melton, "The counter-cult monitoring movement in historical perspective," in Challenging Religion: Essays in Honour of Eileen Barker, edited by James A. Beckford & James T. Richardson, (Routledge, London, 2003), pp. 102-113.
• Larry Nichols and George Mather, Discovering the Plain Truth: How the Worldwide Church of God Encountered the Gospel of Grace (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1998).
• Joseph Tkach, Transformed By Truth (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah, 1997).

External links

• Christian Research Institute
• CRI breaches three of the ECFA's seven standards of responsible financial stewardship
• Archive of Bible Answerman shows
• Financial critique of Hank Hanegraaff
• Criticism of Hanegraaff by the Walter Martin estate
• CRI employees fired for questioning Hanegraaff's lavish lifestyle