About Marsha West

Marsha West is the owner and managing editor of Christian Research Network, Apprising Ministries (the late Ken Silva’s blog) and On Solid Rock Resources. She is also co-founder of Berean Research. For two decades Marsha was the owner and managing editor of Email Brigade website as well as the EMB News Report, a bi-weekly email report for conservative people of faith. For many years Marsha was a regular contributor to several blogs including CRN, RenewAmerica, News With Views and Web Commantary as well as popular websites she no longer endorses: American Family Association, Worldview Weekend, Stand Up For The Truth, The Christian Post and Christian Headlines. Although Marsha still blogs, her primary focus is CRN. Marsha also writes Research Papers (White Papers) on various topics that are published on CRN, Berean Research and On Solid Rock Resources. Visit Marsha’s other sites: On Solid Rock Resources https://www.onsolidrockresources.com/ Apprising Ministries http://apprising.org Marsha’s RenewAmerica Column http://renewamerica.com/columns/mwest Marsha’s Facebook Page http://facebook.com/marsha.west.77

Lawsuit sparks debate on West Virginia public school bible classes

Fox News reports:

A school district in West Virginia has been thrust into the national spotlight after a lawsuit filed by two county residents accused the district of violating the Constitution over its weekly Bible study courses.

Supporters of the Mercer County public school class, which is offered during school time for 30 minutes at the elementary level and 45 minutes in middle school, maintain that it’s optional.

They also say that the content of the classes are worthy, intended to explore the history and literature of the Bible and not geared toward promoting religion.

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Here’s What Can Hurt Us Even More Than Smoking

According to LifeZette:

It is no secret that Americans have an obesity problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than one third of U.S. adults — or 36.5 percent of us — are classified as obese.

Now a new study has found that obesity is responsible for shortening the lifespan of humans more than smoking.

A team of researchers from Cleveland Clinic and New York University School of Medicine found that obesity led to “as much as 47 percent more life-years lost than tobacco,” noted Science Daily — “and tobacco caused similar life-years lost as high blood pressure.”

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Mormon Leader: More Dead People Should be Baptized

According to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints governing body, baptizing the dead “saves not just the dead; it saves all of us.” These are “proxy baptisms” and Mormons do them on behalf of the dead. In The Briefing, Albert Mohler points out that “No historic Christian church has ever observed the baptism on behalf of the dead. But it does make perfect sense in Mormonism, where spirits are created beings, God himself is a created being, where God is, spirit beings may one day be, and where very clearly there is the opportunity for those on the other side of death to embrace their own Mormon baptism and thus to receive the blessings the church teaches come along with that baptism.”

Now to TIME magazine’s report:

Mormon leaders reminded church members Saturday about the importance of performing ceremonial baptisms on dead ancestors who didn’t receive the ordinance while alive.

Henry Eyring told a worldwide audience during a twice-yearly Mormon conference that God wants all his children to come “home again.” He encouraged listeners to use the religion’s massive genealogical database to trace their roots.

Ceremonial baptisms occur when a member brings an ancestor’s name to a temple. Mormons believe the ritual allows deceased people a way to the afterlife if they choose to accept it. The belief that families are sealed for eternity is one of the faith’s core tenets.

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See our Research Paper on Mormonism

Woman Who Identifies as Man Sues Catholic Hospital for Disallowing Uterus Removal at Facility

Christian News reports:

A California woman who identifies as a man has filed a lawsuit against a Catholic hospital and its parent company for prohibiting her surgeon from performing a sex change-related hysterectomy at the facility because of the organization’s religious convictions.

The 35-year-old woman, who goes by the name Evan Minton, had been scheduled to undergo a complete hysterectomy at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael last August. She believed the procedure was necessary to comport with her preferred identity.

However, the day before her appointment, after she noted to a nurse that she identifies as “transgender,” the surgery was canceled.

“In general, it is our practice not to provide sterilization services at Dignity Health’s Catholic facilities,” said spokeswoman Melissa Jue in a statement at the time.

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Liberty University Gets A Digital Detox Through Center For Digital Wellness

According to the University Herald:

The rapid growth of technology has transformed many aspects of day-to-day life, including social behavior. Liberty University launched the nation’s first Center for Digital Wellness to promote a healthy use and biblical view of technology.

Dr. Sylvia Hart Frejd, founder of the Center for Digital Wellness, housed in a Wi-Fi-proof room at Liberty University. It is part of her mission to help students balance tech time and face time, to train their eye on fellow humans instead of smart screens.

Dr. Frejd promotes 24-hour digital fasting and counseling for students and how to thrive in real life, not just in their digital lives. She said students would first need to overcome the fear of a real conversation.

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Sufficiency of Scripture

Does the Christian need additional revelations, visions, words of prophecy, or insights from modern psychology?  Some people think so.  No, says Berean Research. Scripture is sufficient.  Here’s why:

Did you know that the Bible is all we need to equip us for a life of faith and service? It’s true! And in fact the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture is a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith. Sadly, it’s a tenet that has long been under viscous attack from within our own visible, modern churches.

But be assured that no other writings are needed for the Gospel to be understood, nor are any other writings required to equip us for a life of faith. Everything else – entertainment, extra-biblical revelations, mysticism, spiritual deliverance ministries and some forms of psychological counseling all declare that the Bible and its precepts are not enough. But Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me” (John 10:27). His voice is found in every word of the Word; the Scriptures are His voice, completely and utterly sufficient.

Consider 2 Timothy 3:15–17:

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Official Harvard Guide: Gender Can ‘Change From Day to Day’

The bastion of liberalism, Harvard University, wants students to believe that a person’s gender is “fluid.”  Fox News Insider has the story:

The office of BGLTQ Student Life at Harvard University has released a guide that says for some people, gender identity can “change from day to day.”

The school-sponsored flier, which was distributed to students on the elite Ivy League campus, said for some “gender is fluid and changing,” and it “can be affirmed and/or expressed in many ways.”

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7 Reasons Church is Not Optional and Non-Negotiable for Christians

According to author, speaker and Bible teacher Michelle Lesley, for Christians, being joined to a local church is not optional — it’s a must! Why? “Well, Jesus founded the church,” says Michelle. Moreover, “Jesus is the head of the church. Jesus loves the church. Jesus died for the church. Jesus is the Savior of the church. Jesus nourishes, cherishes, and sanctifies the church.” So she wonders how any Bible believing Christian could claim to love and follow Jesus “and yet cavalierly toss aside something He values so much that He laid His life down for it?” Ever considered that, brethren?

Michelle concludes: “If you really love Jesus, you’ll value the things He values, and, clearly, He values the church.”

Now listen as Michelle Lesley offers 7 reasons Christians must not forsake the assembly:

It’s a disturbing trend that’s spreading like the plague, especially among women who claim to be believers:

“I’m a Christian but I refuse to attend church.”

These aren’t women who can’t attend church due to health reasons, caring for an ill or disabled loved one, who have no other choice but to work on Sundays, or who live in an area with no reasonably doctrinally sound church to attend. They’re women who could get plugged in to a decent local church, but intentionally shun the body of Christ.

Usually, the decision to opt out of church boils down to one of two scenarios: a) a believer who was hurt by a previous church and yet isn’t ready to risk being hurt again or b) someone (often a false convert) who doesn’t grasp the concept that being joyfully joined to a local body of believers is part of what defines someone as a Christian.

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LGBT movement’s other goal: Lower age of consent to 10 years old for psychiatric therapy – without parents’ knowledge or consent!

MassResistance reports:

Fresh from the recent victory stopping the LGBT movement’s “anti-therapy” bill in the Colorado Legislature, pro-family people are up against an equally frightening bill that has been filed and just passed its first hurdle toward becoming law. It’s the latest among similar laws that are being quietly passed across the country.

The LGBT lobby is quietly but forcefully pushing for laws to allow children as young as 10 years old to “decide” they need psychiatric therapy – without their parents’ knowledge or consent. LGBT-allied “therapists” could push vulnerable children to affirm and accept homosexual and transgender “identity” and behaviors as “normal.”

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Christian Marching Orders

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth; go, therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:18)

While I was meditating in private upon this text I felt myself carried away by its power. I was quite unable to consider its terms calmly, or to investigate its argument. The command with which the text concludes repeated itself again, and again, and again in my ears, until I found it impossible to study, for my thoughts were running here and there, asking a thousand questions, all of them intended to help me in answering for myself the solemn enquiry, “How am I to go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?”

The practical lesson seemed to me to overwhelm in my mind the argument of which that lesson is only a conclusion, “Go and teach all nations.” My ears seemed to hear it as if Christ were then speaking it to me. I could realise his presence by my side. I thought I could see him lift his pierced hand, and hear him speak, as he was accustomed to speak, with authority, blended with meekness, “Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the all glorious God.”   View article →

Calls Grow to Use National Guard to Protect Coulter, Free Speech at Berkeley

According to Breitbart:

A growing number of conservative commentators are calling on President Donald Trump to use the California National Guard to escort author Ann Coulter onto the University of California, Berkeley campus when she speaks next week.

Though California Governor Jerry Brown commands the California National Guard, President Trump has the power to federalize it — just as President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard in 1957 to integrate public schools. (The same Arkansas troops who had once blocked black students then escorted the students to school.)

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UK Teachers: Children As Young As 2 Should Be Taught About Gay And Transgender Issues

Evening Telegraph reports:

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) have demanded that toddlers receive “age-appropriate” content on LGBT+ matters.

Ministers have announced that all children from the age of four be taught about relationships, while sex education will become compulsory for all secondary pupils.

But teachers at the NUT conference in Cardiff want the new measures, which will be introduced into schools from September 2019, to go further and urged ministers to introduce a curriculum that was inclusive of LGBT+ issues.

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Kong Hee apologises for ‘unwise decisions’, to begin jail term on Apr 21

Kong Hee is on his way to jail for his “unwise decision” to line his pockets with money that belonged to City Harvest Church (CHC). So Pastor Hee released an apology. Channel News Asia reports:

City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee has issued an apology to his church and the public for “unwise decisions” he had made in the past.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday night (Apr 19), Kong said: “I am truly sorry … I am filled with grief and regret over my mistakes and I sincerely ask for your forgiveness.”

For the rest of the story and to read Hee’s apology, visit CNA.

Now this from Churchwatch Central (CWC), a group of “churchwatchers” who have done some excellent reporting on Kong Hee and his leadership’s pilfering of church funds; likewise the church’s ties to the New Apostolic Reformation. CWC and Chris Rosebrough of Fighting for the Faith have exposed Kong Hee’s church (here) as “a dangerous cult that threatens the Christian faith and the well-being of citizens of Singapore.”

CHC Management Board reacts to Kong Hee’s sentence

“We pronounce deliverance in Jesus name. Not one night will this fair head spend behind bars.” Prophet Phil Pringle, CHC Advisory Pastor – Photo credit Churchwatch Central

From CHC Management Board, we read Aries Zulkarnain’s media release in which he states:

“We put our trust in God that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

This statement is a paraphrase of Romans 8:28

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Sadly this scripture barely resembles the lives of Kong Hee, or his leadership. However it does reflect the lives of those who have left CHC after clearly questioning CHC’s teachings and practices.

What Zulkarnain quoted is exactly what CHC has not done.

If CHC put their faith in God, why is their founder, and his senior leaders, going to jail?

This is why things have NOT worked out for the good of CHC and why it has NOT worked for the six accused. If “God works for the good of those who love Him,” why are six leaders from CHC  going to jail?

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We Are Now Offering Mentoring to Lifeway Executives

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that high-profile Christian business men would “leverage their ‘success’ as executives to project themselves as expert advice-givers to pastors,” as Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer are doing. What is surprising, though, is that pastors would be interested in receiving advice on pastoring from business executives. According to Gideon Knox, both Stetzer and Reiner are into career coaching.  The term for this is “life coach.” For those who don’t know, life coaching has its roots in the “Human Potential” movement which blends secularism and religion to help people achieve their goals. The aim is to cultivate “extraordinary potential that its advocates believe to lie largely untapped in all people.” This movement is New Age at its core.

Gideon Knox of Pulpit & Pen shares why he thinks Christian leaders have adopted secular humanistic philosophy and are promoting what is clearly an anti-God philosophy to the Body of Christ. He writes:

Thom Rainer, President of Lifeway ‘Christian’ Resources, believes so much in the principle of Biblical mentorship that he has offered to indiscriminately mentor people for the low low price of only $249.47 per month. To be fair, that price is for the Platinum Mentorship Program, in which you’ll actually be entitled to having a video conference call with Rainer (not one-on-one, obviously). But if you would settle for being put on his email list (there’s a disclaimer that he doesn’t guarantee he’ll respond to an email), you can enroll in the Premium Package for only 49.97 per month.

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Fox Bets on Humor and Conflict as It Enters a New Era

According to Eddie Zipperer of LifeZette, with Bill O’Reilly’s exit, Fox News will focus on a new generation of viewers — and will deploy a lot more humor.  Zipperer writes:

He was there when Fox News was born 21 years ago. For 15 years, he dominated the 8 p.m. time slot. Now, in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal that scared away advertisers, Fox News is Killing Bill O’Reilly, so to speak — or his show, anyway. The move is the crescendo to what has already been a year of musical anchor chairs at the cable network. Just a few months ago, it was Greta Van Susteren at 7 p.m., Bill O’Reilly at 8 p.m., and Megyn Kelly at 9 p.m. Roger Ailes was still the head honcho, and Tucker Carlson was an irregular contributor to the Fox & Friends weekend jayvee team.

Harken back to those old days in your mind. To set the scene, it was a time when progressives couldn’t decide if they would call Bill Clinton something classy like “first gentleman” or something fun like “first dude.” Back then people still thought Nate Silver could use math to see the future, and the term Brexit made progressives laugh instead of cry.

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Jimmy Carter Says He Can’t ‘Judge’ Whether or Not Man Is Christian Despite Doubts About Resurrection

Christian News reports:

Former President Jimmy Carter, a professing Christian who teaches Sunday School at a Baptist Church in Georgia, told liberal op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof that he can’t judge whether or not someone is a Christian despite their doubts about Christ’s virgin birth and resurrection.

In his April 15th piece in the New York Times entitled “President Carter, Am I a Christian?” Kristoff inquired of Carter whether he could be considered a Christian despite his skepticism over some of the biblical account of Christ’s life, including that Jesus physically rose from the grave.

“What about someone like me whose faith is in the Sermon on the Mount, who aspires to follow Jesus’ teachings, but is skeptical that he was born of a virgin, walked on water, multiplied loaves and fishes or had a physical resurrection? Am I a Christian, President Carter?” Kristof asked.

“I do not judge whether someone else is a Christian. Jesus said, ‘Judge not,’” Carter replied. “I try to apply the teachings of Jesus in my own life, often without success.”

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Visiting Hank Hanegraaff’s New Greek Orthodox Church

After attending a service at St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church, Jeff Maples of Pulpit & Pen made this observation: A lost person could not walk into this church and walk out a changed man. It was literally a Pagan practice. Like a seance. Pure witchcraft was going on in this place.

Now read about Maples experience during a recent St. Nektarios church service:

One of the biggest complaints against Pulpit & Pen we get consistently is that we somehow don’t “have all our facts,” or are “misrepresenting” someone or something. I received countless emails claiming that I “misrepresented” Greek Orthodoxy in my recent posts regarding Hank Hanegraaff and that I should do more research. Well, what better way to research than to go straight to the source in person? Saturday, April 15, known as Holy Saturday in the Orthodox tradition, I along with a couple of friends went to visit St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, NC–the church that Hanegraaff was recently chrismated in. The service began at 11:30 pm, and was still going strong showing no signs of slowing down when we decided to leave at around 2:00 am. While we hoped to have the opportunity to confront Hanegraaff in person, being that we all had to get up early the next morning to worship the living God on Easter morning, we decided to call it a night early. However, there are quite a few things that we can take away from this experience in this church.

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Almost as Many Americans Died of Drug Overdoses in 2015 as in ’12 Years in Vietnam’

Breitbart reports:

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly has largely blamed Latin American drug cartels for the unprecedented 52,000-plus drug overdose deaths in America during 2015 alone, the latest year for which data is available.

During a discussion that George Washington University (GWU) hosted about the threats facing the United States, retired Gen. Kelly noted in his prepared remarks:

It’s the highest number of drug-related deaths our country has ever seen. It’s more deaths than the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1995. In a single year, we’ve lost nearly as many Americans to drug overdose as we lost in battle in World War I. Almost as many as was lost in 12 years in Vietnam.

And that’s just overdose deaths. That number—as high as it is—says nothing about the long-term health damage to our citizens who survive, to say nothing about the human misery, the families ripped apart, and the extremes of crime and violence inherent in the illegal-drug enterprise.

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‘Bible Answer Man’ Booted From Bott Radio Network After Hank Hanegraaff Joins Orthodox Church

According to Christian Post (a site we do not recommend), Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, will replace the “Bible Answer Man”:

The “Bible Answer Man” radio show program with Hank Hanegraaff has been booted from Bott Radio Network over concerns regarding biblical accuracy, following Hanegraaff’s conversion into the Eastern Orthodox Church.

“We want to make sure that our listeners know that the programming that we have on Bott Radio Network is thoroughly biblical,” said BRN President Richard P. Bott II, a member of Lenexa Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kansas, according to Baptist Press.

BRN had reportedly been broadcasting the “Bible Answer Man” since the 1980s, even before Hanegraaff joined the show in 1989.

“We live in strategic times,” Bott told BP.

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North Carolina Lawmakers Present Bill Declaring Supreme Court ‘Gay Marriage’ Ruling ‘Null and Void’

Christian News reports:

Four Republican lawmakers in North Carolina recently presented a bill that would declare the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on “gay marriage” to be “null and void,” but the House speaker has considered it dead and won’t bring it up for a hearing.

Reps. Larry Pittman of Concord, Michael Speciale of New Bern, Carl Ford of Rowan County and Mike Clampitt of Bryson City filed House Bill 780, also known as the “Uphold Historical Marriage Act,” on April 11th.

It notes that the U.S. Constitution does not give power to the federal government to create laws surrounding the institution of marriage, and that the issue is rather reserved to the states. The bill also outlines that the courts have no right to overrule the laws of God.

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Does God Condemn Debate?

Jeremiah Johnson of Grace to You asks: Should we or shouldn’t we debate our doctrinal differences?

Many believers argue that our focus should be on what we agree on, and that we must set aside anything we disagree on. So does that mean we should ignore our differences with those who teach universalism?  What about those who teach the word-faith prosperity gospel…NAR/dominionist theology…Eastern mysticism…ignore these folks, too? Should we let slide sins such as fornication, adultery, homosexuality and abortion for the sake of unity?

Johnson argues that we must do as Paul instructs us in 2 Timothy 2:14 and hold fast to sound doctrine.  He includes the following quote from Dr. John MacArthur:

Paul’s purpose was to motivate and encourage Timothy to keep a firm grasp on that truth himself and to pass it on to others who would do likewise … It is only with a thorough knowledge of God’s truth that falsehood and deceit can be recognized, resisted, and opposed. . . .

So back to the question at hand: Does God condemn debate? Let’s find out…

Almost twenty years ago, during Moody Bible Institute’s Founder’s Week conference, I heard Jim Cymbala make the following plea for unity:

Think of the division right now in the Body of Christ. We have all these names that don’t exist to God: Baptist, Presbyterian, Nazarene, Pentecostal, Charismatic. God doesn’t have any idea what any of them mean, because He only has one Body. . . . He has one Body—the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Evangelical—evangelical doesn’t even exist to God. We’re using words that aren’t in the Bible. We’re thumping the Bible and being unbiblical while we’re thumping it. He only has—there’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Body. And He doesn’t like us dividing up His Body. 

In the moment, it struck me as nonsense. Of course God knows what our denominational titles mean; of course He understands where the doctrinal lines have been drawn in the sand.

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Entire Faculty Senate Resigns After LGBT Activist Professor Denied Promotion

Gordon College, a private evangelical Christian college in Massachusetts, made the news when the entire faculty senate resigned in a “show of solidarity” for a professor who says the administration denied her a promotion because of her criticisms about the school’s policy on homosexuality. Gordon’s student newspaper The Tartan has the story:

Photo credit: John Phelan

All seven faculty members of Gordon College’s Faculty Senate resigned from senatorship on Wednesday, citing ongoing disagreement with the administration over shared governance, specifically in the processes of approving faculty promotion.

Professor Ivy George, the Senate chair prior to the resignations, read a letter outlining the decision at an all-faculty meeting. Also resigning were fellow professors Tim Sherratt, Bruce Herman, Bryan Auday, Irv Levy, Steve Hunt and Jonathan Senning.

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Cannabis Church in Denver to Offer ‘Sacred Flower’ Sacrament

According to Leah Jessen of LifeZette, “An organization of pot smokers is in pursuit of a ‘love, create and elevate’ religion.”

Photo credit: Fox 13

It’s come to this: Pot smokers in Denver have formed their own church “religion,” all based on the “high” of the marijuana lifestyle.

The International Church of Cannabis is set to open April 20. Steve Berke and Lee Molloy founded the “church” with a small group of people who were, and still are, “unsatisfied with the outdated organized religions” available.

“There are rumors that this is a rasta smoking lounge or a nightclub,” Berke told Westword, a Denver newspaper. “It’s not. It’s a safe place to congregate and consume.”

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Why We Can’t Assume Hank Hanegraaff is Saved and We Should Evangelize Him

As previously reported (here and here), Hank Hanegraaff shocked many in the evangelical community by converting to Greek Orthodoxy.  When the news hit, Jeff Maples wrote a piece for Pulpit & Pen entitled “The Bible Answer Man, Hank Hanegraaff, Leaves the Christian Faith?” Not surprisingly, Hank’s fans were put out with Maples for suggesting that he had left the faith.  Following is Maple’s response to his critics:

In the recent controversy surrounding Hank Hanegraaff, the ‘Bible Answer Man,’ and his conversion to Greek Orthodoxy, I received numerous, literally hundreds upon hundreds, of emails and messages, asking me to retract my claim that Hanegraaff has departed the Christian faith and telling me that I went too far by saying this. Pulpit & Pen has been accused of being “always cantankerous” to “using a bazooka” against Hanegraaff and “judging his heart.”

The issue here, however, is not of judging Hanegraaff’s heart. This is not something we, as Christians, can do. We can, however, judge them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16-20), and this is what we have done.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.2 Corinthians 4:1-2

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