We have dealt with Hank Hanegraaff before in this publication.#1 The following is an excerpt from a conversation that he had with one of his listeners,

Caller: If , say someone who does not believe, if their sins are paid for, I’m trying to understand, cause, how? Or, or, or, I don’t know if they were or not. And then if they pay for them throughout eternity in hell. Which is obviously clearly taught. Were they paid for effectively or on the cross. That’s what I’m mainly wrestling with, right now.

H. H.: Yes, in other...

Caller: And I know you’ve done an excellent job and I’ve obviously learned a lot already on the phone.

H. H.: Well Jesus did objectively pay for people’s sins on the cross. Even those who are going to be in hell. But because the unbelievers lack faith they do not receive the benefits of Christ’s work. Since scripture says that faith is necessary for salvation. Faith is the instrumental cause of our salvation. While Christ’s death is the effectual cause of our salvation.#2

In saying that Christ paid for the sins of those who will be in hell. It is clear that Mr. Hanegraaff does not believe that salvation is by Christ’s work alone.
The Implication is more than obvious. Christ’s part - His atoning sacrifice. Plus man’s part - his free-will faith. Equals salvation.
While the atonement according to free-will may leave people in hell. We get quite a different result when we consult the scriptures,

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.#3

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;#4

Those for whom Christ died will not experience wrath. On the contrary, they have been given redemption, the forgiveness of sins. All to the praise of the glory of God’s grace.#5 His people will in no wise fail to receive the benefits of Christ’s work.#6 The Lord is indeed a perfect Savior.

There was also in the nature of this salvation an accomplishment of victories that none but Jesus could perform and therefore, it was written concerning Him that He was to spoil, and did spoil, principalities and powers, and to make a show of them openly. He was to bruise the old serpent’s head, and He did it effectually; and he will never forget the bruise. He was to conquer and vanquish, and destroy death, and him that had the power of death—that is, the devil. The Victor over sin, death, hell, and the grave, is Christ. He defeated it and His own triumphant language runs thus, "O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction;" (Hos. 13:14) and He hath swallowed up death in victory. (1 Cor. 15:54)

"When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3)--the Father saying to Him, "Sit Thou on My right hand until I make Thy foes Thy footstool." His sitting fully indicates and proves the perfection of His atonement, the efficacy of His sacrifice, and the fullness of His salvation. But see! "The stoned Stephen, calling upon God." Oh, blessed be His holy name, every murderous stone, in the decree of our God, was a messenger of mercy to help him out of this cold world of sin and misery. "But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." Standing ready to receive His poor, persecuted, and despised one to His home and to His heart. O troubled and tried ones, "tossed with tempest and not comforted," thou whom Satan delights to worry "with a malicious glee," he may taunt and insinuate that thy hope is the hope of the hypocrite, that thy faith is no better than his own, that thy love, faint as it is, is all a delusion; but, mark, He who from the mountain-top sees thy distress will hasten to thy relief, and give thee to know, in the experience of thy heart, that "The day and the night are both alike to Him." He will cause His light to shine upon thee, and His secret to rest upon thy tabernacle, giving thee to rejoice in the blessed fact that the days shall shortly be accomplished when, "Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting Light, and the days of Thy mourning shall be ended." (Isa. 60:20) O glorious Prince! O gracious Priest! O precious Provider! O powerful Protector! "He stands and feeds in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God." He receives His poor trembling ones to His breast, and ministers to the necessities of all those whom His love has saved. This is the Christ I love! This is the Christ whose arms I fly to, and whose loving bosom nestles my ofttimes weary soul. Ay, "He shall stand!"

He is all righteousness. And here let me bring in this, that a newborn soul is created after the image of Him that created Him, and the image of God is righteousness; that is, here he is righteous. And if you are born of God you are. There are two words to be said about this. First, there is righteousness imputed, and this makes the person beautiful in God's sight, because it makes him just. Sinner, this must be your title. This is you title to bliss. This must be your perfection, and if you have any desire after Christ, may I say this to you. Do entreat the Lord to reveal in you the righteousness of Christ, for true salvation, vital godliness, is more than a matter of idea. There must be this, shall I say this substitutionary thing, perfect righteousness, and this is Christ. Hence the name that is given Him: "This is the name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness." (Jer. 23:6) If you want thorns in your dying pillow, live carelessly, live as your natural mind dictates, be careless of your profession. If you want comfort and peace on your dying bed, beg of God to reveal in you Jesus Christ as your righteousness, and if you get that revelation it will make you very careful about your walk. You will want to please Him who has made you acceptable to Himself, made you beautiful even as He Himself if. "For as he is, so are we in this world." This is His righteousness; this is the sinner's righteousness, this is His beauty. All in all. No thread of human goodness will ever be added to this. Not a single deed that a child of God does, however holy, will ever be added to this righteousness. By the help of God, I will shut the creature out as much as I can; yea, the Scripture does it. He is all righteousness. Here is our plea, here is our title, here is our beauty, here is our comfort.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:7

I. These words are represented#7 as a promise of pardon, on condition of forsaking sinful ways and thoughts and turning to the Lord; which, if not in man’s power to perform, is to promise on an impossible condition, and that is, indeed, to promise nothing. To which may be replied,
1. That forsaking sin, and turning to the Lord at first conversion, or returning to him after backslidings, which perhaps may be here meant, are not owing to the power of man, but to the efficacious grace of God. None can truly forsake sin, or heartily turn to the Lord, but such who are influenced by the Spirit of God; hence says Ephraim, Turn thou me, and I shall be turned (Jer. 31:18).
2. That the promise of pardon is free, absolute, and unconditional, not depending on any condition whatever to be performed by men; forsaking sinful ways and thoughts, and returning to the Lord, are not here proposed as conditions of obtaining mercy, and receiving pardon; but the declarations of pardoning grace and mercy here made, are made on purpose to encourage souls sensible of the wickedness of their ways, and unrighteousness of their thoughts, to return to the Lord, who is a God of grace and mercy,
3. Though faith and repentance are not conditions of pardon, nor in the power of man, of himself, to perform; yet as pardon is promised to such who repent, believe, and turn to the Lord, so all such, to whom God makes the promise of pardon, he gives the graces of faith and repentance; hence his promise is not vain, empty, and delusory.
II. It is said,#8 that "if conversion is wrought only by the unfrustrable operation of God, and man is purely passive in it, vain are the promises of pardon, such as this; for no promises can be means proper to make a dead man live, or to prevail upon a man to act, who must be purely passive." To which I answer,
1. That these words contain no promise to dead men, but a declaration of pardoning grace to sensible sinners; who were wicked and unrighteous in their own apprehensions, being represented as thirsty (v. 1), seeking after the way of life and salvation; though they took the wrong way, and had their thoughts wrongly turned to spend money for that which is not bread, and their labor for that which satifieth not, (v. 2), and therefore remained oppressed with a sense of sin; hence they are here encouraged to quit their own way of salvation, and all thoughts of their own righteousness, and alone to seek the Lord for mercy and pardon; since his thoughts were not as their thoughts, nor his ways as their ways.
2. Admitting them to be a promise of pardon made to dead men; it may be thought to be a proper and sufficient means in the hand of God, under the mighty influences of his Spirit and grace, to make dead men live; since the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, the ministration of life, yea, the savor of life unto life (Rom. 1:16; 2 Cor.2:16; 3:6); and especially when it is observed what is said in verses 10, 11. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud. that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, now at this present time delivered, in verses 7-9; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
3. Though man is passive in regeneration, yet he is active in forsaking sin and turning to the Lord. Promises of pardon may, through the grace of God, prevail on such to act in these instances, who have been passive in the work of regeneration; for regeneration antecedes these; forsaking sin, and turning to the Lord, follow upon, and rise from regenerating grace. No man can truly do these, until he is regenerated by the Spirit of God. It follows, then, that men may be prevailed upon, by the promises of pardon, to act, who have been passive in regeneration.
III. It is intimated, that such who are in the "Calvinistical" way of thinking, say, that God promises pardon and life to the non-elect, on condition of their faith and repentance:#9 and it is asked, "How can a God of truth and sincerity be said to promise to them pardon and salvation, seriously and in good earnest, who are, by his own act of preterition, infallibly and unfrustrably excluded from it?" I answer,
1. Who the men are that say so, I do not know, and must leave them to defend their own positions, who only are accountable for the consequences of them; for my own part, I utterly deny that there is any promise of pardon made to the non-elect at all, not on any condition whatever. The promise of pardon is a promise of the covenant of grace, and which is made to none but to such who are in that covenant, in which the non-elect have no share; to whom the blessing of pardon belongs, to them only is the promise of it made: the blessing of it only belongs to such for whom Christ died, whose blood was shed for the remission of sin; and these are the elect of God only: and though the gospel declaration of pardon is made in indefinite terms, to every one that believes; the reason is, because all those who are interested in the covenant of grace, and for whom Christ died, God does in his own time, give faith and repentance, and along with them forgiveness of sins.
2. This passage of Scripture now under consideration, is no promise of pardon to the non-elect; for the words wicked and unrighteous, are not peculiar to them; God’s elect are so in their state of nature, and in their own sense and apprehension, when the Spirit of God convinces them. Besides, the persons spoken to, appear from the context, to be such towards whom God’s thoughts had been from everlasting (vv. 8, 9); and who were to partake of the blessings of joy and peace for ever (vv. 12,13).

To be raised from a state of death in sin to a divine and spiritual life; to be brought out of darkness into marvelous light; to be delivered from guilt and condemnation; to be justified freely by the riches of grace, displayed in the redemption which is by Jesus Christ; to have welcome access to God; to be treated by him as his adopted children: and to be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life; these are some of the benefits which we receive by Jesus Christ; benefits which result from his mediation, and hand clustering on his cross. And as they are of infinite value in themselves, they must be precious to those that believe. While the Christian contemplates these favors, he is often ready to say with the Psalmist, "What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me!" In the day of his glorious appearance, he will receive us with acclamation of joy and triumph into his own palace in the new Jerusalem, where we shall have the bright vision of his face, and be made partakers of such exalted felicity as it cannot now enter into our hearts to conceive. There are no benefits like those which our divine Redeemer bestows; there are none to be compared with them. "How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them!" (Ps. 139:17)

It has been said, `That Christ died for sin, for all sin, and not for persons in particular.' This is a very convenient loop-hole for the bringing in of universal invitations, and human conditions for the personal acquirement of eternal life; but is this the truth of God that endureth for ever? Death is the wages of sin, and if Christ died for all sin, then is there now no more death for sin to any one. Death is the full penalty of sin, and so much of sin as Christ hath died for, so much of death that came by sin hath Christ for ever destroyed. And if Christ died for all sin, then hath he forever abolished, swallowed up in victory, and destroyed all death, that came by sin, or by dying he hath not destroyed death at all, and in that case what has he done by dying? But according to the truth of the word of God, so far as Christ hath died for sin, so far death that came by sin, and is the wages and penalty of sin, is destroyed, so as to have no more power or existence in relation to the sin for which Christ died; and as far as sin was condemned in the flesh of Christ, so far is condemnation forever ended on the sin for which Christ died, Rom viii 1,3. For wherein Christ by dying for sin is death's destruction, there, and to that full extent, is he life's sure, full and happy fountain forever, John xi 25,26; and to this truth the Holy Ghost leads the convinced heirs of salvation for the hope of eternal life, and to realize, by humble persuasion under his divine testimony, that on the ground of this truth, `the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made and doth make them free from the law of sin and death,' Rom viii 2; with the happy, `Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died,' verse 34. Sin is called a debt, and that Christ should pay off that debt by dying, without an immediate regard to the debtor, appears to me most senseless. Sin is an offence, and that Christ should suffer death, which is the utmost penalty for the offence, without an immediate regard to the offender, and his sure escape too, appears to me to be anything but divine truth, reason or common sense; because we might just as well say, that Christ died to pay debts and to suffer penalties without any regard whatever to either debtor or creditor, offender or offended; or without any real design.

In the strict and proper sense of the word, this is Christ; for He, and He only, as the prophet as described Him, "is the Hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof." (Jer. 14:8) And, indeed, this view must be uniformly preserved and kept up, because without an eye to Christ, there can be no such thing as hope, for all our whole nature is in its universal circumstances," without God and without hope in the world." (Eph. 2:12) And it is very blessed to turn over the Scriptures of God, and behold the Lord Jesus Christ set forth under this endearing character, in a great variety of figures and representations throughout the Bible. Jesus was the grand hope of the Old Testament believers before His incarnation. They all, like Abraham, "saw His day afar off," rejoiced, and were glad; (John 8:56) and, like him, amongst all the discouraging circumstances they had to encounter, "against hope, they believed in hope." (Rom. 4:18) Hence, though the longing expectation of the Church, as Solomon expressed it, was like "hope deferred, which maketh the heart sick;" (Prov. 13:12) yet, as Jeremiah was commissioned to tell the Church, there was still "hope in the end, saith the Lord, that the children of Christ should come to their border." Christ, therefore, being held up to the Church's views as the hope of His redeemed, is set forth under various similitudes corresponding to this character. His people are called "prisoners of hope." (Zech. 9:12) And the apostle Paul, under the same figure, calls himself the Lord's prisoner, and saith, it is for "the hope of Israel I am bound with a chain." (Acts 28:20) And elsewhere he describes it under the strong metaphor of "an anchor to the soul, both sure and stedfast." (Heb. 6:19) In short, Christ the only hope of eternal life, to which we "are begotten, by His resurrection from the dead." (1 Pet. 1:3) In Him our flesh is said to "rest in hope," (Ps. 16:9; Acts 2:26) when returning to the dust; and all our high expectations of life and immortality are expressed, in "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:13) As Christ then is the only true hope the Scriptures speak of, it is very evident that every other hope, not founded on Christ, is and must be deceitful. The world is full of hope, and the life of carnal and ungodly men is made up of it. But what saith the Scriptures of all such? "The hope of the hypocrite," (Job 27:8) saith Job, "shall be cut off, and his trust shall be as a spider's web." (Job 8:13,14) So that the hope of the faithful, which is Christ Himself, affords the only well grounded confidence for the life that now is, and that which is to come. And "this hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost." (Rom. 5:5) It is founded in Christ, and is, indeed, Christ formed in the heart, "the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27)

VA: Please send me the free magazine "The GTM Rock Of Grace Exalter"

IN: This sure sounds like a good combination of messages [The GTM Precious Truth Journal] . I would sure hate to miss out on them. So would you please send this magazine to me?

A Fallen Giant - Indian laborers used drills yesterday to break up a 108-foot statue of the Hindu god Lord Krishna that fell Monday as it neared completion outside New Delhi. A poor foundation was blamed for the collapse, in which three workers were killed. The statue had been under construction for six years.#10

1 "The Bible Answer Man’s" Reasoning, Is It Biblical Or Blasphemous?, #20, October 2002.
2 The Bible Answer Man, June 23, 2003.
3 1 Thessalonians 5:9, 10.
4 Ephesians 1:7.
5 Ephesians 1:6.
6 Matthew 1:21, Ephesians 2:8, 9, etc,.
7 Whitby, p. 242; ed. 2. 236.
8 Whitby, pp. 237, 242; ed. 2. 231, 236.
9 Whitby, p. 243; ed. 2. 237.
10 The New York Times, National Edition, Thursday, January 9, 2003, A1.