World Renown Bible Answer Man Hank Hanegraff Realizes That Protestantism Is A False Religion, And Accepts Orthodox Christianity

Countless Evangelicals Are Now Leaving Protestantism And Accepting Roman Catholicism And Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Major Protestant theologian Hank Hanegraaff, the well-known talk show host, and evangelical apologist known as “The Bible Answer Man,” after decades of deciphering the Bible is now Eastern Orthodox.

Of course his departure from Protestantism caused some to state:

“The Bible Answer Man, has left the biblical Christian faith for Greek Orthodox tradition”.

In other words, to some, Christianity is exclusively Protestant, that unless someone is ‘Protestant’, they are no longer Christian. Talk about the criticism that when Catholics and Orthodox state that “only through an apostolic succession church” that one becomes ‘Christian’ to only encounter a Protestant insisting that Luther is the only way truth and the life.

So when 1 Timothy 4 stated: “Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils” this is departing from Protestantism.

So prior to Luther, were Christians “in” or “out” of the faith for fifteen centuries?

Known to millions as the “Bible Answer Man,” 77-year-old Hank Hanegraaff and his wife were received into the Orthodox Church this year on the great feast of Palm Sunday, at St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, NC.

Mr. Hanegraaff can be seen kneeling with a lit candle under a priest’s epitrachelion in the picture to the right. His wife’s hands can be seen as well. The picture originates from the Facebook page of the parish, but has been removed after an influx of comments, including negative remarks from those who appreciated Hanegraaff’s work as a Protestant.

The Bible Answer Man addressed his conversion to the Orthodox faith on his program yesterday, in response to a caller who had seen remarks claiming that, in becoming Orthodox, Mr. Hanegraaff had “left the Christian faith” in which Hanegraaff responded:

I am now a member of an Orthodox Church, but nothing has changed in my faith. I have been attending an Orthodox church for a long time—for over two years, really, as a result of what happened when I went to China, many years ago. I saw Chinese Christians who were deeply in love with the Lord, and I learned that while they may not have had as much intellectual acumen or knowledge as I did, they had life. And so I learned that while truth matters, life matters more, and I remember flying back from China after spending time with just common people who had a deep, intense love for the Lord, and wondering, “Was I even a Christian?”

I was comparing my ability to communicate truth with their deep and abiding love for the Lord Jesus Christ… One man, by the way, said to me, truth matters but life matters more. In other words, it is not just knowing about Jesus Christ, it is experiencing the Resurrected Christ. As a result of that I started studying what was communicated by the progeny of Watchman Nee with respect to theosis and that drove me back to the early Christian Church.

And I suppose over that period of time I have fallen ever more in love with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s sort of like my wife—I have never been more in love with my wife than I am today, and I’ve never been more in love with my Lord Jesus Christ than I am today. I’ve been impacted by the whole idea of knowing Jesus Christ, experiencing Jesus Christ, and partaking of the graces of Jesus Christ through the Eucharist or the Lord’s Table. And that has become so central in my life, but as far as the statement that you mentioned, that I’ve left the Christian faith—nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact I believe what I have always believed, as codified in the Nicene Creed, and as championed by mere Christianity.

Indeed. I can relate. Knowing the truth is one major issue, but living it is completely another. Just having knowledge made me too wonder “was I even a Christian?” How many amongst the protestants even emphasize on “theosis” or the early Christian Church? Being Catholic is what made me understand marriage as a ‘sacrament’, my love for my wife and the necessity to understand sacraments.

But this is also countered with the necessity of ‘having a personal relationship with Jesus’.

Indeed, but it is the ancient church is what defines ‘personal relationship’.

Only the apostolic succession Christian can understand this by comprehending the corporate as described in Matthew 25:

“you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me”.

It is the verse that haunted me for decades. Dealing with other Christians, as if they are Christ Himself, is a form of ‘personal relationship’.

Forgiving sin is just as corporate:

“And to whom you [the priest] have pardoned any thing, I also. For, what I [as a priest] have pardoned, if I have pardoned any thing, for your sakes have I done it in the person of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:10)

“I have done it in the person of Christ”. Nothing can be more personal than this.

So if aiding Christians is done in the person of Christ forgiving sinners is also done in the person of Christ by a priest.

Nothing can be more ‘personal’ in this relationship with Christ than this which the Protestant doesn’t have.

Once a true Christian understands this concept, then Scripture becomes a breeze to comprehend as far as our limited capacity can understand the matters of God and His Temple.

The Protestant, by redefining Christ’s mediation as something abstract, without it ever being conduced in any incarnational manner or personal, portraying it as only man directly asking God for forgiveness, in which there is no human authority confirming absolution, this becomes the sort of teaching that Islam has. Paul was clear “I done it [forgiving sin as a priest] in the person of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:10)

After reciting the entire Nicene Creed, Hank concluded, “In other words, I am as deeply committed to championing mere Christianity and the essentials of the historic Christian faith, as I have ever been.”

Hank Hanegraaff succeeded Dr. Walter Martin at the North Carolina-based Christian Research Institute (CRI) since 1989, when he also took over previous-president’s radio talk-show “The Bible Answer Man.” Martin used to debate Catholics like Fr. Mitchell Pacwa.

Source

— Hank Hanegraaff (a.k.a. “the Bible Answer Man”) Received Into the Orthodox Church

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Easter: Fixed and Moveable Christian Feasts

I remember some years ago, during a flight from Amsterdam to England, two ladies sitting next to me were talking about “how wonderful it would be if there was some snow on Christmas day”, and I was jokingly telling them as the plane started ascending into the clouds, “yes! we do have a white Christmas, can’t you see the beautiful clouds below the plane?” It was around 15° Celsius! People in Europe permanently wish for a white Christmas, but, they don’t get it. Lately, snow during Christmas has become a very rare phenomena. This season, we have no white Christmas, instead white Easter, no Easter Bunny, but Easter Bear.

The Ethiopian calendar (and other Orthodox Churches) differs from that of Europe and the countries that Europeans influenced through colonization or occupation and so on

While the Catholic and Protestant world celebrates Easter this weekend, almost all Orthodox Churches continue to celebrate Easter/Pascha/Fasika according to the Julian Calendar

The Old Calendarists and the Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Ethiopia, Egypt, India, Russia, Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine continue to use the Julian Calendar.

The Gregorian calendar is the calendar that is used nearly everywhere in the world. A modification of the Julian calendar, it was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and was decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, for whom it was named, on 24 February 1582 via the papal bull Inter gravissimas. Its years are numbered per the perceived birth year of Jesus Christ, which is labeled the “anno Domini” era. This era was created in the 6th century by Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus.

The motivation of the Catholic Church in adjusting the calendar was to have Easter celebrated at the time that they thought had been agreed to at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Although a canon of the council implies that all churches used the same Easter, they did not.

The dates “5 October 1582” to “14 October 1582” (inclusive) are still valid in virtually all countries because even most Roman Catholic countries did not adopt the new calendar on the date specified by the bull, but months or even years later (the last in 1587)

Both Eastern and Western Christianity use the same calculation. However, they use different calendars! Western Christianity uses the Gregorian Calendar (circa 1582). All of Eastern Christianity continues to use the older Julian Calendar for the determination of the paschal date even though some Orthodox jurisdictions use the newer calendar for the celebration of their fixed feasts (e.g., the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America uses the “new” calendar for fixed feasts, but the “old” calendar for the determination of Pascha).

The difference between March 20/21 on the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar is around 13 days.

In essence, Orthodox Easter (Pascha) will always occur on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Vernal Equinox after Passover. This can lead to a divergence of celebration that may see both East and West celebrating the Lord’s Resurrection on the same date, to as many as five weeks difference, like this year.

During the Middle Ages 1 January was given the name New Year’s Day (or an equivalent name) in all Western European countries (those with predominantly Catholic populations), even while most of those countries began their numbered year on 25 December (the Nativity of Jesus), then 25 March (the Incarnation of Jesus), and even Easter, as in France.

This name was the result of always displaying the months of the medieval calendar from January to December (in twelve columns containing 28 to 31 days each), just like the Romans did. Furthermore, all Western European countries (except for a few Italian states) shifted the first day of their numbered year to 1 January while they were still using the Julian calendar, before they adopted the Gregorian calendar, many during the sixteenth century.

Eastern European countries (most of them with populations showing allegiance to the Orthodox Church) began their numbered year on 1 September (since about 988) just like in the Ethiopian calendar that begins New Year on Meskerem/September 1/11(12)

In 2014, the moon will be “ecumenical”. Therefore, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches will celebrate Easter together on April 20th.

Concerning Easter 2015 and following, a decree will be submitted by the AOCTS to the Holy See for approval. It should establish the final adoption of the Julian calendar for the celebration of Easter, by all the Catholic Churches of the Holy Land, “resulting in the adapting of the liturgical calendar for the beginning of Lent and the Feast of Pentecost.” This is what we read in the Directives of the AOCTS, which states, “This decision will be accepted, respected and implemented by all Catholics of Eastern and Latin rites, as well as by all the foreigners living in our diocese.

Now, some curios stuff:

English Month	Ethiopic Month	Ethiopic Meaning	English Meaning
September	Meskerem	ማስታወሻ	Remembrance
October	Teqemt	ጥቅም	Benefit/Usefulness/Value
November	Hidar	ማደሪያ	Habitation/Lodging Time
December	Tahisas	መፈለጊያ	Searching/Seeking/Needing Time
January	Tir	መሰብሰቢያ	Gathering/Collecting Time
February	Yekatit	ጐተራ	Granary/Crib/Storehouse
March	Megabit	ግብዣ	Invitation/Reception/Feast
April	Miazia	መዓዛ ሺት	Fragrance/Odor/Aroma
May	Ginbot	ግንብ	Stone Wall/Tower/Castle
June	Sene	ያማረ	Beautiful/Handsome/Pleasant
July	Hamle	ልምላሜ	Fertility/Exuberant Vegetation
August	Nehassie	ሥራ	Work/Building/Performance

A lot of languages, including English, use month names based on Latin. Their meaning is listed below. However, some languages (Czech and Polish, for example) use quite different

names. Month	Latin	Origin
January	Januarius	Named after the god Janus.
February	Februarius	Named after Februa, the purification festival.
March	Martius	Named after the god Mars.
April	Aprilis	Named either after the goddess Aphrodite or the Latin word aperire, to open.
May	Maius	Probably named after the goddess Maia.
June	Junius	Probably named after the goddess Juno.
July	Julius	Named after Julius Caesar in 44 B.C.E. Prior to that time its name was Quintilis from the word quintus, fifth, because it was the 5th month in the old Roman calendar.
August	Augustus	Named after emperor Augustus in 8 B.C.E. Prior to that time the name was Sextilis from the word sextus, sixth, because it was the 6th month in the old Roman calendar.
September	September	From the word septem, seven, because it was the 7th month in the old Roman calendar.
October	October	From the word octo, eight, because it was the 8th month in the old Roman calendar.
November	November	From the word novem, nine, because it was the 9th month in the old Roman calendar.
December	December	From the word decem, ten, because it was the 10th month in the old Roman calendar.

Read it in PDF

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Congratulations to Egyptian Christians

Axios! Axios! Axios!

Bishop Tawadros’s name is announced as the new pope of Egypt’s 18 million-strong, and persecuted Coptic Christians on November 4, 2012 in Cairo, Egypt.

Bishop Tawadros, 59, an aide to the acting pope, was selected to become Pope Tawadros II, replacing the charismatic Pope Shenouda III who died earlier this year after 40 years at the helm of the church.

Tawadros II is The 118th Coptic Pope

May God guide him to lead his flock amid tough days of suffering and persecution from Islamic extremists.

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Russian Patriarch Who Saw End Of Communism, Dies

 

 

The Christian world has lost one of its principal advocates.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II, who revived the nation’s main religion after decades of Soviet atheism and healed an 80-year rift with a branch of the Russian Orthodox church in the West, died on Friday. He was 79.

Enthroned in 1990 a year before the Soviet Union’s collapse, Estonian-born Alexiy II was relieved of the state ideological control that weighed on his predecessor in the ancient chambers of Moscow’s Danilovsky Monastery.

In one of his biggest achievements, the patriarch signed a pact in May 2007 with Metropolitan Laurus, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, ending an 80-year split begun by White Russians who fled Soviet Russia to set up a rival faction.
Alexiy II made the most of Russia’s spiritual vacuum after the long-held Communist beliefs crumbled.

But he was also criticized for supporting measures to restrict the freedom of other confessions, including Roman Catholics, to work in Russia.

He stood in the way of a visit to Russia by the Polish-born former leader of the Catholic church, Pope John Paul II.

And although he expressed similar views on same-sex marriage, euthanasia and abortion as Pope Benedict XVI, this never resulted in a meeting.

Addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last year, Alexiy II denounced homosexuality as a sin, an illness and “a distortion of the human personality like kleptomania”. He also said European civilisation was threatened by a divorce of human rights from Christian ethics.

POLITICAL CIRCLES

Alexiy II moved the Orthodox Church closer to the centre of political power, despite repeatedly voicing support for Russia’s constitutional separation of church and state.
He was a frequent visitor to the Kremlin, and then Russian President Vladimir Putin was often seen at key church services held at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, demolished by Soviet ruler Josef Stalin and rebuilt in the 1990s.

Alexiy Mikhailovich Ridiger was born on Feb. 23, 1929, in the Estonian capital Tallinn, into the family of a Russian Orthodox priest.

He later said his family’s many pilgrimages to the then Soviet Union’s key religious sites were crucial to moulding his future path.

In 1953 he graduated from the St Petersburg Spiritual Academy as a priest. He served in Estonia and Russia before becoming a monk in 1961, taking the vow of chastity necessary for any orthodox clergyman seeking a top position in the church.

In 1961 he was appointed Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia and in 1986 was consecrated Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod.

In 1990 he became the 15th patriarch to lead the Orthodox Church since the position was established in 1589. The patriarchate was abolished between 1721 and 1917.

God Bless His Soul!