We like Issues, Etc. Really. They seem like good eggs. They seem like good Protestant and Lutheran eggs. While we at Pulpit & Pen hold to the Second London Baptist Confession, we appreciate our Lutheran friends who would still fight tooth-and-nail for a Sola Fide Gospel. But while we’ve been thinking about how to best celebrate the 500th year of the Reformation, the Lutherans over at Issues, Etc. have invited an Eastern Idolater and non-Christian to come speak at their upcoming conference.
Issues, Etc . is broadcast by our Lutheran friend at Pirate Christian Radio, Chris Rosebrough. Terrestrially, the program can be heard on stations in Missouri, Nebraska, California, Wyoming and Nevada. The program is hosted by Todd Wilken. For many years, Issues, Etc. has been a Gospel-centered podcast, even as it addressed cultural and sometimes political issues. Wilken is the associate pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Millstadt, Illinois. In June of this year, Issues, Etc. will be hosting the Making the Case Conference…
Okay, okay. I cut and paste those two paragraphs from “Did the Lutherans Forget the Reformation,” which we wrote last year about Issues, Etc. having Rod Dreher speak. Dreher is an Eastern Orthodox idolater who denies Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura and Penal Substitution. So consider this Part II. I just have to ask as a good Baptist, “Are the Lutherans overdoing it on the alcoholic wine?” This year, Issues, Etc. is inviting another Greek Orthodox believer, Hank Hanegraaff.
Hanegraaff left the Christian Faith for Eastern Orthodoxy last year, and we wrote about it in The Bible Answer Man, Hank Hanegraaff, Leaves the Christian Faith.
On Palm Sunday, April 9th, 2017, Hanegraaff was apparently received into the Greek Orthodox church through a rite known as Chrismation, at St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. A well-known Orthodox priest, Thomas Soroka, from St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in McKees Rocks, PA, stated on his Facebook page,
Many years to Hank Hanegraff (aka “The Bible Answer Man”) and his wife Kathy, newly Chrismated Orthodox Christians as of this morning in Charlotte, NC.
Since then, Hanegraaff has shown himself to have been in full alignment with the teaching of Eastern Orthodoxy, which denies essential elements of Christianity including – again – Penal Substitution, Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura. Confessional Lutherans clearly should not be recognizing Hanegraaff as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ or a part of the Universal Church. The man has, unfortunately, anathematized himself. Hanegraaff will be presenting “Making the Case Against the Prosperity Gospel,” and “Making the Case Against Islam.” While Lutherans should certainly reject the Prosperity (non)Gospel and Islam, it makes absolutely zero sense to have a non-Christian make these points.
Might we suggest that Issues, Etc. find a Lutheran who can present on both these topics? Is their own Chris Rosebrough not astute enough to handle a polemic homily on the Prosperity Gospel? After all, if someone believes in the Prosperity Gospel or Islam, it’s not like they go to a different hell than Hank Hanegraaff for being an idolater and trusting in his own righteousness. In an incredible, incredible irony, Hanegraaff will be speaking before Hans Fiene, who is speaking on the “Centrality of Justification.” Hopefully, if Hanegraaff is in the room, he’ll hear and be saved.
Let’s stop inviting lost people to present theological treatises at our conferences, shall we? Lutherans are especially susceptible to the guiles of Eastern idolatry. This isn’t smart, isn’t smart at all.
Come on, Lutherans. You can do better than that.
