Hendrik "Hank" Hanegraaff also known as the Bible Answer Man is an
American author, radio talk-show host and advocate of evangelical Christianity.
Karl Kemp of Karl Kemp Bible Teaching Ministries rambles a bit. Perhaps I missed something from earlier postings by him in Faith Writers. Anyway, Shall We Write Off Kenneth E. Hagin? Dave Hunt? How About E. W. Kenyon?, Part 12 makes for some interesting reading:
I want to comment on what Hanegraaff says on page 335. He is quoting from Hagin’s "I Believe in Visions" (Kenneth Hagin Ministries, 1981), page 51. I have the 1972 edition of the book by Fleming H. Revell, page 50. He says, "Hagin claims that Jesus appeared to him in 1950 and gave him a special anointing to minister to the sick." I believe it is true; Hanegraaff clearly doesn’t. During this encounter Hagin was able to see Jesus’ hands. Hagin says, "I saw in the palms of his hands the wounds of the crucifixion – three-cornered, jagged holes. Each hole was large enough so that I could put my finger in it. I could see light on the other side of the hole." I know that the Romans sometimes used four-sided nails (with four corners); I don’t know about three-sided.
Hanegraaff says "…Jesus could never have shown Hagin the alleged holes in His palms. As any student of Scripture and history knows, the nails were driven through Christ’s wrists as opposed to His palms." I have always wondered about this. I wouldn’t expect Hagin to miss it on a detail like this, but it’s certainly possible. In his endnote 33 Hanegraaff shows that the Greek noun ("cheir") that is translated "hand" can include the arm, and therefore can include the wrist.
Then there is this from Kemp: “I have always believed that the Shroud of Turin could be the actual burial cloth of the Lord Jesus Christ.” This statement is followed by eight or nine paragraphs of why he thinks so. Kemp is current and aware.
From his website:
Karl Kemp received BS and MS degrees in engineering from St. Louis University, and he worked on various space projects throughout the 60s. He became a born-again Christian in 1964, and he left engineering behind toward the end of 1969 so he could go to seminary, etc. He received an MA degree in Biblical studies from Covenant Theological Seminary in 1972. He has been a Bible teacher in the greater St. Louis area for about forty years. He has also taught quite a few classes in New Testament Greek. Most of his teaching has been verse-by-verse teaching of books, chapters, or passages of the Bible. The topic that he has studied and taught the most has always been holiness and victory over sin, but he has done a lot of teaching on topics like the end times, and on many key words like faith, grace, redemption, righteousness, and holiness.
Genuine visions are peculiar phenomena. Not only may they be a divine revelation, but their purpose is a private communication, so that there have to be elements reflecting the psychology and understanding of the recipient, for the revelation to be effective. Thus if Hagin believed that Jesus was nailed through his palms, even with three-sided nails, then that is what he might very well see, and that would not necessarily nullify the vision. The test of the vision would be how effective Hagin was in his ministry to the sick. “By their fruits shall you know them!” A similar situation applies in the case of stigmatists. It seems that it is usual for genuine stigmatists to receive the imprints of Christ’s wounds, on their bodies corresponding to where they believe they occurred.
We can blame St Jerome for the tranlation of “cheir..” as “manus” rather than “carpus”. Precisely the same noun “cheir..” is used in Peter’s release from prison, Acts 12:7. Jerome also tranlates this as “manus”, so that most English tranlations have “And the chains fell from his hands”. Whereas a moment’s reflection would conclude that in fact the chains would have been around his wrists. This is acknowledged in a number of modern translations, including the US Conference of Catholic Bishops translation. Thus USCCB Acts 12:7 has:
‘Suddenly the angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and awakened him, saying, “Get up quickly.” The chains fell from his wrists.’
http://www.usccb.org/bible/acts/12