How Hank Hanegraaff Helped My View of The End Times

I discovered Hank Hanegraaff and CRI while browsing christian channels about 18 years ago.   Just a few years prior, my pastor had died.   I had been raised in a pentecostal assembly where we adhered to  a strict set of rules of can't dos.  You can't smoke, you can't drink wine, you can't drink coke, you can't go to movies, you can't go to parties, you can't take medication, you can't swim in a bathing suit.   We might as well said you can't live.

The new pastor had been in place for maybe two or three years.   He was and is a dynamic person who was and is intent on elevating the name of Jesus above all other names.   He challenged us to study the scriptures for ourselves.   I had a hunger for the word that had been held in check by fear.   In our organization the prevailing attitude was that understanding the scriptures is reserved for the pastor.  The new pastor was willing to allow us seek understanding for ourselves, believing that the Holy Spirit would teach us.

I was reinvigorated to study and began to study my Bible daily.   I acquired many translations and began to buy books and listen to various programs that expounded christian views.   One area of particular interest to me was the study of eschatology (end times).   I noticed most preachers including the ones I had known most of my life avoided any in-depth teaching of Revelations.

Like many Christians in America, my curiosity eventually lead me to the popular left behind series.  The series pretty much agreed with the eschatology that I had been taught.  I accepted it although I could not get how the eschatology harmonized with Jesus, the apostles and the New Covenant.

Although, I had been listening to Hank Hanegraaff for a few years, somehow I was not aware of  the spectrum of end time views that were considered within the pale of orthodoxy by Hank.  I had found Hank's program refreshing and liberating from the usual bonds of traditional religion and I had grown through his program along side the growth I experienced from the teaching of my pastor.

And then that fateful day I tuned in and I heard Hank expounding the view of a guest on his program that day.    The guest was advocating a view of eschatology, that I had heard of but had dismissed as ludicrous.   I was surprised to hear that Hank Hanegraaff was receptive to this view which is known as amillenial.

I was appalled.  I agreed with Hank Hanegraaff on many doctrinal issues, but this was not one of them.  I saw this view as dangerous and possibly anti-Semitic.  I said to myself "I will study the subject thoroughly and write a book expounding the errors of this view."  "I will prove the amillenial view to be erroneous."

The approach I took was to first study the New Testament and get a thorough understanding of how Jesus and the apostles taught the end times.  This is where I first began to see a problem with my pre-millenial view.    The new testament teachers focus was a people born of the spirit and Jews according to the spirit, but the eschatology of pre-millenialism focus is about a people born of the flesh and Jews born of the flesh who would enjoy the fruits of a 1000 year reign with Christ in Palestine.

I began to see the evidence stack up against my pre-millenial view and stack up for the amillenial view.  After some time, I don't know how long it was but maybe it was months or years, but my view began to change  until it was no longer pre-millenial and I totally dismissed the view of the left behind series and what I had been taught as not consistent with the teaching of The New Covenant.

I did write my book.   Thanks to Hank Hanegraaff.  But the book ended up defending the view taught by Hank Hanegraaff's guest rather than proving him wrong.  A preview of what I will be blogging about and the journey that led me to the view I now have  can be read at amazon.com.  I made every effort to base the interpretations on Christ and his New Covenant for I see Christ as the true revelation of scripture.  I would encourage you to test and challenge the things you have been taught about the end times and see if they can stand the test of scripture.

D.E. SMITH