Hank Hanegraaff : Spokesman for the Devil
May 5th, 2008 by Carl Thomas.There is another move of God afoot so that is sure to bring out all the people who hate God. Sure enough, Hank Hanegraaff has checked in on the Lakeland Revival. Hank Hannegraaff sees that people are having their faith restored in God, are getting saved, and healed and here is how he views the events,
“We’re in desperate times, and we’ve got desperate people. And they’re looking for a quick fix,” Hanegraaff said in an interview from Charlotte, N.C. “But all they’re getting is false hope.”
There you have it folks. Hank has played his final hand. Faith in Jesus is a false hope. There is no salvation. Jesus never heals. God does not deliver. To believe in the God of the bible is to put your trust in fables.
Jesus warns the church repeatedly to beware of false teachers. In fact, we know that the anti-christ will try to divert attention from Jesus to himself. Surely this is the foundation for the end time deception. If the devil can convince enough people that sickness is from God and healings are from him then he can set the world up for the anti-christ.
edit: I have made corrections based on the response by Michael.
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Hank is definitely a ‘Spokesman for the Devil’ in this case and in the past when he criticized Brownsville and Toronto.
What he said about a bunch of Vineyard conferences that I actually attended was so slanted that I could hardly recognize that he was talking about the same group of meetings. Particularly what he said about a conference with John Arnott at my home church which was hard to accept for anyone who actually was there.
However, Hank Hanegraaff can not be properly classified as a cessasionalist. I have personally talked to him on at least one occasion. Also, he attended and taught a Sunday school class in a very good Assembly of God church in Newport before he moved on and attended and taught at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (Chuck Smith’s church and Calvary Chapel HQ). He is theologically a ‘classical continualist’ that does not appreciate what he considers to be radical ‘misuse of the gifts’.
Also, Hank can not be lumped in with “the liberals who follow you and believe in gay marriage, a gender neutral bible”. I can stand up for him in that regard.
On one hand, he puts me on the verge of ‘righteous’ anger and even sometimes unrighteous anger when I read or hear what he has to say about revivals, conferences and a whole bunch of very fine ministers and ministries including John Wimber, Bennie Hinn, and in this case, Todd Bentley and Lakeland.
On the other hand I have also been extremely blessed by several of his books, particularly his writing on evangelism and that little book he wrote on ‘The Da Vinci Code’ was masterful. He is obviously inspired at times and is gifted in some of his writing.
Even if we are offended by what he says, and many times I certainly am. Even though we are pretty sure that he is wrong. We need to be careful not to make the same mistake that he makes and throw everything he has ever written or done (even the good stuff)out with the trash and call him a ‘false brother’ like some of the liberals, even if he is a ‘Spokesman for the Devil’ in this case.
Michael
Brethren, let’s not stoop to these levels and accuse Hanegraaff of being a spokesman for the devil. My advice is to take the Matthew 5:10-12; Acts 5:38-39; Romans 12:14-21; Ephesians 5:25-32; 2 Timothy 2:24-26 approach and leave the judgments to God (1 Peter 4:17). Let us pursue peace and holiness (Hebrews 12:14) and pray for Hank Hanegraaff. I believe God is much bigger than Hanegraaff and if you believe this is a genuine move of God than pray for Hank to be touched by the Spirit and his eyes to be opened. Hank has done good for the kingdom by revealing the many errors of the cults and while I don’t agree with him on some issues, I do believe he wants to exalt Jesus.
Yeah the Devil could be detracting you guys by focusing on the miracles and the excitement and not on Christ.
Interesting thoughts here. While I agree that we should pray for Hank and be in a spirit of love toward him, I grieve for the damage that he does to the sheep who look to him. When I’ve made the mistake to read his criticisms in the past, I have had the closest experience I can recall to being slimed by a religious spirit–fear, confusion, doubt…yuck! I’m not one to throw that label around much (it’s too easy to use it to label and discount someone you disagree with), but it was a sensation almost close to nausea and sure felt like a demon.
My thoughts are that Todd Bentley’s style, dress, and antics ARE part of the message: humble yourselves, accept that Jesus does not come in the educated middle class rationalistic package you are expecting, stop looking at the surface of things and make a right judgement after the Spirit, not the flesh.
It is also interesting the exact parallels between the Pharisees in the NT and the naysayers of every revival…it is so clear in the word, why do they not see? My heart breaks for those who in the name of religion oppose the true anointing of God. Anti-Christ means anti-anointed one, so that spirit will always oppose the overt manifestation of the Spirit–the more powerful the move of God, the more violent the resistance we can expect.
Wow! – This post got me to thinking about how far I’ve come in my own personal walk with Jesus – getting to know Him, wanting more of Him, and also importantly – understanding the meaning of the Kingdom of God. I say all of that because when moved to NYC in 98 at some point during my time there, I started listening to Hank’s radio show. I returned to the city I currently live in back in 2001, I often tuned into to a conservative Christian radio station here in town often listening his program on my way home from work. I often heard him criticize and malign moves of God and mentioned several ministers by name.
I hate to say that at one time, I use to agree agreed with some of what he said – but at some point his words started to sound hate-filled to me. Add to that the fact that many of the ministries that this station plays are cessationist in view, it wasn’t too long (maybe a year or so) before I stopped listening completely.
Now I wonder, what did I get out of it in the first place? Often times I think he’s too intellectual to allow the supernatural to affect his spirit. He talks as if he doesn’t have a problem with a move of God — but then blasts contemporaries and deflates the faith and hope of anyone who listens that might have even the slightest curiosity about what is happening in Florida.
It’s a shame, because another blog I subscribed to wrote not one, but two articles about the revival, except this minister put quotes around it, as in “revival”, which already let me know which side he was on. The first time, it sounded like he was trying to be open-minded about it, and said he would attend to judge for himself. The thing I hated was that he mentioned a past scandal that apparently involved the host pastor – I wanted so badly to post a comment about being judged by the sins of our past – but decided to leave it alone.
In the second article, he says “I would encourage those outside of Lakeland to watch what they see on the webcast…and then search the Bible for Scriptural backing for what is taking place” which confirms for me the view he is taking. I decided to unsubscribe from his blog (using Google Reader) after that. (If anyone wants a link — just let me know — if that is OK with you Carl)
This all reminds me of something that I heard an apostle from Minnesota say back in 2002: “The previous move of God always persecutes the next move of God.” His words have rung true over and over and the backlash and criticism of the Florida revival are a current, living proof.
When babies are born they are covered with slimy, bloody afterbirth…sorry for the gore…
I will gladly take the baby…and leave the slimy bloody stuff……
Give me revival or give me death!