Bible Answer Man on Oneplace.com

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On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank encourages all that are listening in to enjoy their time on Thanksgiving Day with family members and friends to the extent that they can, given current social distancing guidelines. Thanksgiving is a day that Hank looks forward to every year. Yet thanksgiving is not just a day; it is a daily manner of life. It is a key that opens the gate of Christ and allows Christians to enter and gain access to all of His wonderful provisions and even more profoundly into all of the splendor of His Being. Open for me the gates of the righteous, wrote the Psalmist, and I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. In the Wisdom of Solomon, we read that the hope of an unthankful man will melt like the wintry frost and flow away like useless water. Thus, we are exhorted to arise each morning and thank our heavenly Father for the abundance of His mercies, for the blessing of the Lord will melt like iceevaporate like worthless waterat the appearing of the first rays of sunshine.

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On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank dives deep again into St. John Chrysostoms sermons on the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, collected in the book On Wealth and Poverty. Unlike so many sermons today, St. Johns are not feel-good sermons for a feel-good generation. Rather, they are sermons laden with truths that transformhis words thunder from the past with prophetic urgency. Chrysostom writes, For the righteous, both the life hereafter and this life provide great pleasure. But the wicked and greedy are punished both here and hereafter. They are punished even here by the expectation of the retribution hereafter, and by the evil suspicion of everyone, and by the very fact of sinning and corrupting their own souls. After his fourth sermon in the series, an earthquake struck the city of Antioch. As such, his next sermon is rife with references to the earthquakes catastrophic effects. The earthquake, says St. John, manifested the power of God; its cessation showed His mercy. Nonetheless, it should make us mindful of Gods judgment, which the Antiochians had escaped for the time being. But judgment is coming, and that for all of us. Perhaps we should not fear the earthquakeor the current pandemicbut the cause of each. Fear the anger of God on account of our sins. When we rightly fear the Maker of heaven and earth, we are led from the wide road and seek the entrance of the narrow gate. Our Master is loving and filled with compassion. He knows the weakness of our nature. He seeks only one thingthat we might leave the way of transgression and enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and those that enter by it are many.

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On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank dives deep into John Chrysostoms third sermon on the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. In explicating the parable, St. Chrysostom continues to stress the importance of reading and studying the Scriptures, for the Scriptures are replete with wisdom that transforms. Consider a request the Rich Man makes of Father Abrahamthat Lazarus return from the dead to warn his brothers so that they do not experience a torment such as what he was even then experiencing. Father Abrahams reply is profound: They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. Yet the Rich Man responds: No, Father Abraham, but if someone rose from the dead, they will believe him. In truth, however, they will not. Father Abraham replies again to the Rich Man, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they listen if someone rises from the dead. The Jewish leaders living at the time of Christ proved that this is so, for they neither heeded the words of Scripture nor were convinced by Christs resurrection from the dead. In fact, after Christ had resurrected Lazarus (brother of Mary and Martha), they tried to kill him (John 1112). So, shows St. Chrysostom, even if a dead person rises, even if an angel descends from heaven, the Scriptures are more worthy of belief than any of them. For the Master of the angels, the Lord of the dead and of the living Himself, has given the Scriptures their authority. Hank contends that Chrysostoms sermons on Lazarus and the Rich Manfound in the book On Wealth and Povertyare the most poignant and profound in the annals of Christian preaching.

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On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank remarks that he often thinks of recommending books and is often told that people dont read anymore. Not wanting to capitulate to that reality, Hank discusses the benefits of reading. Reading improves discipline, vocabulary, memory, creativity, reasoning, relaxation, and it can even stave off diseases such as Alzheimer's. More importantly, reading engages us with another mind. And when it comes to reading Scripture, the implications are simply staggering. By its words, we are brought into direct communication with the mind of God. But we also have access to the minds of writers directly inspired by the Divine. Thus in the pages of the inspired text, we have mind-to-mind communication with minds that were awash in uncreated energy.

Hank also answers the following questions:

How do you deal with a demon-possessed person?

I started attending a new church after a long time away. I have people praying for me who tell me that they see all these different colors around me. Is this normal?

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On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, we pick up where we ended on our previous broadcast and present more of an episode of the Hank Unplugged podcast. Hank is talking with Professor James K. A. Smith, author of You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Hank and James K.A. Smith discuss the power of spiritual formation through repetition, the transcendent strangeness of historic Christian worship as a key element to discipleship and evangelism, how Christians cannot hope to recreate the world if we are constantly trying to recreate the church, and the transformative power of practice and habituation in sanctification.

To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/207/29

On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, we pick up where we ended on our previous broadcast and present more of an episode of the Hank Unplugged podcast. Hank is talking with Professor James K. A. Smith, author of You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Hank and James K.A. Smith discuss why James believes worship is at the heart of discipleship, the importance of the church in the Christian life and as a means of sanctification to experience union with Christ, why knowing Church history is so important to our growth as Christians, the spiritual power of habit and the spiritual power of bad habit, what it means to have a proper understanding of worship, and the disenchantment of the Church and the power of spiritual formation through repetition.

To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/207/29

On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, we present an episode of the Hank Unplugged podcast. Hanks guest is Professor James K. A. Smith, author of You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Hank and James K.A. Smith discuss how historic examples of the Christian faith were lost as Christianity remade itself in the image of the Enlightenment, the spiritual power of habit, regaining a perspective of the heart according to biblical language, the significance of liturgy in the Christian life and the way that disordered or rival liturgies negatively impact our lives, and why James believes worship is at the heart of discipleship.

To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/207/29

On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank discusses an article he wrote for the current edition of the Christian Research Journal on free will. In the article, Hank answers the question, does free will affect faith? The answer is, absolutely! And it does so in three dramatic ways. It provides a proper perspective on the goodness of God, heightens our perception of God as the personification of love, and provides a proper perspective on the promise of an eternity in which we will be free to be what God designed us to be.

Hank also answers the following questions:

Do you think that the things that are happening in the world today are some type of fulfillment of Revelation?

When we die, do we go to heaven as it is now or will we all be raised up for the second heaven?

When people say that there is no proof of God, I think of how scientists cant explain some things, like the creation of DNA. What are your thoughts?

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On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank talks about an article he read in the Wall Street Journal by Rabbi Soloveichik on the death of Lord Jonathan Sacks, a former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. Rabbi Sacks died at the age of 72, but while he lived, he was a spell-binding orator, an orator who combined science, sociology, and the wisdom of Scripture with an eloquence that made him famous worldwide. He spoke often about the family. He said that the familyman, woman, and childis not one lifestyle choice among many. It is the best means we have yet discovered for nurturing future generations and enabling children to grow in a matrix of stability and love. At present, two communities are heading toward each other with blinding speed: one that finds its life in biblical truth and the other comprised of activists who are pushing for a radical redefinition of marriage and gender, a church remade in the image of the culture, and greatly expanded government filling the void of a once-vibrant church.

Hank also answers the following question:

Can you define Muslim?

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On todays Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank discusses the life and teachings of St. John Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed preacher. St. John Chrysostom preached at a crossroad in the history of Christianity. He was born in 350, which was around the time that St. Constantine established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. This was before the Church had an officially ratified New Testament canon and only 25 years after the first ecumenical council. At age 36, John was privileged to speak in the most popular church in Antiocha church founded by St. Paul and visited by St. Peter. Although St. John was the golden-mouthed preacher, he was careful to warn the faithful against listening to his sermons as a substitute for participation in the liturgy and in Holy Communion and was well-known for urging people to read and study the Bible regularly. It is Hanks personal belief that Chrysostoms sermons on Lazarus and the Rich Manwhich are contained in the book On Wealth and Povertyare the most poignant and profound in the annals of Christian preaching. Over and over again, he returns to a strand in the triple-braided cord made famous by his Lord: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. St. John looks beyond earthly externalities to those things that are truly good, namely virtue and heavenly reward.