Hank Hanegraaff - The Bible Answer Book, Volume 2

AN ANSWER BOOK FOR

FROM

DATE

May this exploration bring you into deeper knowledge,
appreciation, and love of the Word.

Copyright 2006 by Hank Hanegraaff

Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee 37214.

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scriptures are from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV) 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. The New American Standard Bible (NASB) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, and 1977 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. The King James Version of the Bible (KJV). The New King James Version (NKJV) 1979, 1980, 1982, 1992, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publisher. Used by permission.

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ISBN13: 978-1-4041-0303-1

Printed and bound in Belgium

TO ADAM PELSER AND STEPHEN ROSS

Without you this book likely would have
remained an unfinished monument.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

The book you hold in your hand is the second volume of The Bible Answer Book. In the first, I addressed the most common questions I have been asked over almost two decades of hosting the Bible Answer Man broadcast. Questions such as: "What happens to a person who has never heard of Jesus?" "Can God create a rock so heavy that he cannot move it?" "Will there be animals in heaven?" "Who made God?" and seventy-seven additional questions on Christianity, cults, and culture.

In the present volume, I tackle the really tough questions! Questions such as: "How can Christians legitimize a God who orders the genocide of entire nations?" "If we can't see God, how can we know He exists?" "How could the Bible command a rape victim to marry her rapist?" "What is the meaning of 666?" as well as seventyeight more, including questions on world religions such as Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, and bioethical issues such as euthanasia, birth control, and embryonic stem cell research.

As with volume one of The Bible Answer Book, I have chiseled each answer until just the gem emerges. I have also used alliteration to make the answers more memorable and have included such acronyms as D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E to aid you in internalizing essential Christian beliefs and Z-E-N to help you remember where Zen Buddhism deviates from the historic Christian faith. Additionally, I have recommended resources for further study and have highlighted Scripture passages that specifically address the subject matter for each entry.

It is my prayer that you will use these answers as opportunities to share the truth and love and peace that only Jesus Christ can bring to the human heart and that your conversation will always be "full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone" (Colossians 4:6).

HANK HANEGRAAFF
Charlotte, North Carolina

The word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the
goodness of the LORD.
By the word LORD
the heavens were made,
And all the host of them
by the breath of His mouth....
The counsel of the LORD stands forever;
The plans of His heart to all generations.
PSALM 33:4-6 11 NKJV

The importance of essential Christian doctrine can hardly be overstated. First, these are the very doctrines that form the line of demarcation between the Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the cults. While we may debate nonessentials without dividing over them, when it comes to essential Christian doctrine there must be unity. Hence, the maxim: In essentials unity, nonessentials liberty, and in all things charity.

Furthermore, essential Christian doctrine is the North Star by which the course of Christianity is set. Just as the North Star is an unchanging reference point by which sailors safely guided their ships, so essential Christian doctrine has safely guided the Church through the doctrinal storms that have sought to sink it. Shooting stars light the sky for a moment; following them, however, leads to shipwreck.

Finally, essential Christian doctrine is the foundation on which the gospel of Jesus Christ rests. From his deity to the eschatological certainty that he will appear a second time to judge the living and the dead, essential Christian doctrine is foundational to the gospel. All other religions compromise, confuse, or contradict these essentials. Muslims, for example, dogmatically denounce the doctrine of Christ's unique deity as the unforgivable sin of shirk. They readily affirm the sinlessness of Christ, but they adamantly deny his sacrifice upon the cross and his subsequent resurrection as the only hope of salvation.

I am so passionate about inscribing the essentials on the tablet of your heart that I've organized them around the acronym D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E . It is my prayer that you will become so familiar with essential Christian doctrine that when a counterfeit looms on the horizon you will know it instantaneously.

DEITY OF CHRIST The Biblical witness is clear and convincing that Jesus Christ is the eternal Creator God (John 1, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1, Revelation 1). Throughout his earthly ministry Jesus claimed to be God in word and deed (Mark 14:61-62; John 5:18, 20; 8:58; 10:30-33) and vindicated his claims to deity by living a sinless life (John 8:46; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5; 1 Peter 2:22), by manifesting his power over nature (Mark 4:39), over fallen angels (Luke 4:35), over sickness (Matthew 4:23), and even over death itself (John 4:50; 11:43-4; 1 Corinthians 15), and by accurately prophesying Gods judgment on Jerusalem through the destruction of the Temple that occurred in A.D. 70 (Matthew 24:1-2, 32-35). (See The Bible Answer Book Volume 1 pp. 183-189)

ORIGINAL SIN Sin is not just murder, rape, or robbery. "Sin" is a word that describes any thought, word, deed, or state of being that fails to meet God's standard of holiness and perfection. The Bible unambiguously proclaims that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). While the notion of generational curses and spirits is foreign to the text of Scripture, there is a sense in which all people are cursed as a result of an ancestors sin. Adams rebellion brought death to us all and tainted every aspect of our being (Genesis 3; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22; cf. Ephesians 2:3). God, however, has provided redemption through the atoning work of the "second Adam," Jesus Christ (Romans 5:12-21). (See The Bible Answer Book Volume 1, pp. 18-21.)

CANON The thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures along with the twentyseven books of the Greek New Testament are divine rather than merely human in origin and constitute the entire Christian canon (meaning "standard of measurement"). In addition to the internal testimony of the Bible about itself (2 Timothy 3:16), the divine inspiration and preservation of the Bible can be demonstrated by the early dating and consistency of the many available manuscripts, the corroboration of archaeology, and the fulfillment of predictive prophecy. (See The Bible Answer Book Volume 1, pp. 157-159.)

TRINITYThough the word "Trinity" is nowhere found in the Bible, it aptly codifies the essential Biblical truths that 1) there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10); 2) the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God (1 Corinthians 8:6; Hebrews 1:8; Acts 5:3-4); and 3) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are eternally distinct (Matthew 28:19; John 15:26; 17:1-26). It is important to note that when Trinitarians speak of one God they are referring to the nature or essence of God. Moreover, when they speak of persons they are referring to personal self-distinctions within the Godhead. Put another way, Trinitarians believe in one