Did you hear what Hank said?

Ever listen to Hank Hanegraaff on his radio broadcast, The Bible Answer Man? In particular, did you hear his show on 22 April? Here's the Real Audio link; the portion starts at about 22:00 minutes. Andrea from Lakewood, FL., called in around mid show and asked about the relationship between our evangelistic commission and God's omniscience and sovereignty (in a few different words, but that was the gist). Following Hank's initial response, Andrea asked for clarity, wondering if God knows who will be saved and who will be lost, why does He have us evangelize?

If you listen to the portion, you'll notice how Andrea (bless her heart) caught a problem in Hank's logic and doctrine, asked for clarity, and received a response that really threw me. Not that he gave such an astounding argument that I had to crumble at the feet of the Arminians. But, more like, "What in the world did he just say!?! Does he believe that? Really?"

In text, here is what Hank said:

The fact that He knows does not mean what He knows is fatalistically determined.

He went on to talk about we humans being able to know the past, and how that does not mean that our knowledge made the past be fatalistically determined. But, God also knows the future. Following the same logic, he stated

The fact that God knows does not in any way necessitate that the future is fixed.

Andrea asked the same question I did: "How so?"

And Hank's response?

There is nothing about knowing that the future is going to be a certain way that demands philosophically that the future is fixed or will be a certain way.

So, God knows the future. God is omniscient and sovereign. He sees and knows, from the beginning, what will happen next Monday. He actually knows what will happen at 8:00 AM next Monday morning. Yet, according to Hank Hanegraaff, what will happen next Monday morning is not fixed. So, what God knows will happen...may not happen? Does God know that something might change?

In a debate he and George Bryson had with James White in December 2003, Hank brought up this idea that because we know that Sonny and Cher were married doesn't mean we caused that marriage to occur. This latest statement goes along those lines. How is our human knowledge of past events at all related to God's omniscience and foreknowledge, as well as His sovereignty?

This is a huge problem Hank Hanegraaff has to deal with. I just hope the next person that calls into his show and asks a question related to predestination has the guts to push him a little further. All Andrea had to do was ask a few more questions and I think we would have really heard some interesting argumentation.