# Memorial Day 2026

An episode of [Bible Answer Man Podcast with Hank Hanegraaff](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/569236334), 25 May 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72089246/bam20260525.mp3

On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (05/25/26), Hank welcomes you to a special Memorial Day edition of the broadcast. In the midst of battling the evil of Nazism, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Churchill's words ring true today as we celebrate Memorial Day in the United States. A day to honor those who, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “gave the last full measure of devotion” in their sacrifice for freedom. We here at the Christian Research Institute offer our deepest respect, honor, and thankfulness to those who have sacrificed all to protect and defend the freedoms we enjoy in this country. But we are also committed to preserving freedoms that are definitively being compromised in the present generation. As history demonstrates, we must ever remain vigilant. Which leads to a quintessential question: “Under what conditions is war justified?”

## Transcript

[0:07] Speaker 1: Heard all across the United States, Canada, and around the world.
[0:11] Speaker 1: This is the Bible answer Man Broadcast with Hank Hannagraph.
[0:15] Speaker 1: Hank is President of the Christian Research Institute at CRI.
[0:19] Speaker 1: Our desire is to equip you to not only defend
[0:22] Speaker 1: the historic Christian faith, but become an apprentice of Jesus Christ,
[0:27] Speaker 1: because life and truth matter. To learn more or to
[0:31] Speaker 1: find resources to help you grow in grace, call eight
[0:34] Speaker 1: eight eight seven thousand CRII that's eight eight eight seven
[0:39] Speaker 1: thousand two seven four, or go to our website at
[0:42] Speaker 1: equip dot org. The following program was pre recorded. Now
[0:48] Speaker 1: here's Hank Hanagraph.
[0:50] Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much, Randy, and welcome to a
[0:52] Speaker 2: special Memorial Day edition of the Bible Answerment Broadcast. You know,
[0:57] Speaker 2: within the midst of battling the e of Nazism, British
[1:02] Speaker 2: Prime Minister Winston Churchill said this. He said, never in
[1:11] Speaker 2: the field of human conflict was so much owed by
[1:17] Speaker 2: so many to so few. Church Hill's words ring true
[1:24] Speaker 2: at this very moment, while we're celebrating Memorial Day right
[1:31] Speaker 2: here in the United States of America. This is a
[1:35] Speaker 2: day to honor those who, in the words of Abraham
[1:41] Speaker 2: Lincoln gave the last full measure of devotion, devotion to
[1:48] Speaker 2: their country. They did it in their sacrifice for freedom.
[1:56] Speaker 2: In the wake of the Civil War, all of this
[1:59] Speaker 2: became memorialized. A tradition came into being known as Decoration Day,
[2:07] Speaker 2: and on that day, mourners would pray and they would
[2:12] Speaker 2: they would plant flowers or lay flowers on the graves
[2:16] Speaker 2: as soldiers, And that of course evolved into the day
[2:21] Speaker 2: that we're commemorating right now, Memorial Day, which became a
[2:25] Speaker 2: federal holiday back in nineteen seventy one, and that established
[2:31] Speaker 2: the final Monday of every May as the day our
[2:36] Speaker 2: nation pays homage to our fallen veterans, to heroes of
[2:44] Speaker 2: our nation. And we at the Christian Research Institute are
[2:50] Speaker 2: committed to offering our deepest respect, to offering honor and
[2:59] Speaker 2: thankfulness to those who have sacrificed all to protect and
[3:05] Speaker 2: defend the freedoms that we continue to enjoy in this country.
[3:12] Speaker 2: We are also deeply committed to preserving freedoms which are
[3:20] Speaker 2: definitively being compromised in this present generation. We must, ever
[3:27] Speaker 2: be vigilant in opposing a cancel culture replete with a
[3:34] Speaker 2: militant predilection to silencing viewpoints which are clearly the heritage
[3:43] Speaker 2: of Western Christian civilization. Make no mistake, radical voices in
[3:52] Speaker 2: America are pressuring committed Christians to cease to cease communicating
[4:00] Speaker 2: essential Biblical positions, positions on marriage, on sexuality, on gender,
[4:08] Speaker 2: on abortion, on justice, as well as on the exclusivity
[4:15] Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ is the only means for humanity salvation.
[4:23] Speaker 2: As Joe Dallas puts it the Christian Research Journal, this
[4:28] Speaker 2: demand for Christian silence indicates the culture's attempt to tell
[4:35] Speaker 2: the Church which sins we may condemn and which ones
[4:41] Speaker 2: need to be revised, taken out of the category of
[4:48] Speaker 2: sinful and placed in the category of acceptable. The point
[4:55] Speaker 2: here is simply that, as history has demonstrated again and again,
[5:00] Speaker 2: we must ever remain vigilant, a warning that seems to
[5:06] Speaker 2: have fallen on deaf ears and today's America. Western politicians
[5:12] Speaker 2: seemed blithely unaware of the warnings from the past. Think
[5:19] Speaker 2: about this. Less than three hundred and fifty years ago,
[5:26] Speaker 2: the Ottoman Empire continued its maniacal advance on Europe, and
[5:34] Speaker 2: had it not been for the leadership of Poland's King
[5:38] Speaker 2: Jan Sobieski, who in September eleventh, sixteen eighty three, halted
[5:46] Speaker 2: the Muslim menace at the Gates of Vienna, Europe might
[5:50] Speaker 2: already have been renamed Arabia. September eleven, two thousand and one,
[6:00] Speaker 2: the Western world faced yet another such moment of truth.
[6:06] Speaker 2: At this time, no young Sobieski arrived on the scene
[6:10] Speaker 2: fully understanding that the destiny of the West was hanging
[6:16] Speaker 2: in the balance. Instead, well, instead, obsessively self loathing Western
[6:24] Speaker 2: elites seem unwilling to stand tall in the face of
[6:31] Speaker 2: evil aggressors. And that leads to to what I would
[6:36] Speaker 2: call a quintoessential question, under what conditions do we justify war?
[6:46] Speaker 2: And I would argue that that true love protects the
[6:51] Speaker 2: innocent against the evil of an aggressor, and that this
[6:56] Speaker 2: kind of love sometimes leads leads inevitably towards war. For example,
[7:04] Speaker 2: among other things, our love for the Jewish people, who
[7:08] Speaker 2: were being systematically exterminated by Hitler's nefarious socialist Republic mandated
[7:17] Speaker 2: it mandated that the US enter an alliance of nations,
[7:22] Speaker 2: nations determined to expunge the Nazi menace. Just as governing
[7:31] Speaker 2: authorities have a duty to protect citizens from mob aggression.
[7:37] Speaker 2: So too, a government's military is justified in thwarting evil
[7:44] Speaker 2: aggressors that seek to foice their mayhem upon the human race.
[7:51] Speaker 2: And that's why in Romans thirteen, the Apostle Paul says,
[7:56] Speaker 2: rulers do not bear the sword in vain. In his
[8:02] Speaker 2: classic monograph The Crusades, Christianity and Islam, Jonathan Riley Smith
[8:11] Speaker 2: explains that there are three criteria of just war theory,
[8:18] Speaker 2: and these have been embraced in Western theology. This is
[8:24] Speaker 2: how he puts it. He says that for more than
[8:32] Speaker 2: two thousand years two thousand years of Western history, violence,
[8:41] Speaker 2: whether expressed in warfare, armed rebellion, or employment of force
[8:47] Speaker 2: as a state sanction, and whether holy or merely listed,
[8:55] Speaker 2: has always required three criteria. There are three things that
[9:01] Speaker 2: we have to consider. First, war must not be entered
[9:07] Speaker 2: into lightly. Nor must war be entered into for adrandizement,
[9:16] Speaker 2: but only for a legally sound reason, and that has
[9:22] Speaker 2: to be a reactive reason. Second, it must be formally
[9:29] Speaker 2: declared by an authority recognized as having the power to
[9:33] Speaker 2: make this kind of declaration. And third, as we should
[9:39] Speaker 2: all know, it must be waged justly. Just war theory
[9:46] Speaker 2: serves as justification for defensive warfare in very specific circumstances.
[9:55] Speaker 2: And it does so to protect the innocent and to
[9:59] Speaker 2: fulfill the command to love one's neighbor. Christ himself put
[10:05] Speaker 2: it this way, greater love as no one than to
[10:12] Speaker 2: lay down his life for friends. And as I'm going
[10:17] Speaker 2: to explain when we come back from the break, our
[10:21] Speaker 2: Lord here is alluding to his own eminent death on
[10:26] Speaker 2: the cross. I want to give my deepest thanks to
[10:35] Speaker 2: all of you who remember the Christian Research Institute in
[10:40] Speaker 2: its outreaches around the world. Thank you for standing shoulder
[10:45] Speaker 2: to shoulder with us in the battle for life and truth.
[10:47] Speaker 2: Will be right back with more.
[10:50] Speaker 1: If you were going into combat, what would be more
[10:53] Speaker 1: important the number of those who were for you or
[10:56] Speaker 1: the number of those who were with you. Now apply
[10:59] Speaker 1: that question to today's battle for the hearts and minds of
[11:02] Speaker 1: literally millions of people at home and abroad. That's what
[11:06] Speaker 1: makes members of CRI's support teams so vital. They're not
[11:11] Speaker 1: simply for CRI's critical mission. They're standing with CRI each
[11:16] Speaker 1: and every day. If you want your voice and your
[11:19] Speaker 1: values to be heard twenty four to seven through the
[11:21] Speaker 1: outreaches of the Christian Research Institute become a member of
[11:25] Speaker 1: CRI's support team today. Just call eight eight eight seven
[11:29] Speaker 1: thousand CRII to stand with CRII daily in the battle
[11:33] Speaker 1: for life and truth, and as our thanks, Hank Canagraph
[11:38] Speaker 1: will personalize to you a copy of his Complete Bible
[11:41] Speaker 1: answer Book Collector's Edition Revised and Expanded. Call eight eight
[11:45] Speaker 1: eight seven thousand CROI or visit our website at equipp
[11:50] Speaker 1: dot org. Hank will be back right after this. The
[12:00] Speaker 1: Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection
[12:05] Speaker 1: of the most often asked questions Hank Hannigraph has received
[12:09] Speaker 1: throughout his four decades as host of The Bible answer
[12:12] Speaker 1: Man broadcast. With more than half a million copies already
[12:15] Speaker 1: in print, this newly revised and expanded Collector's Edition helped
[12:20] Speaker 1: seekers and skeptics alike sort through the truth on topics
[12:24] Speaker 1: such as reliability of the Bible, religions and cults, the
[12:28] Speaker 1: resurrection and afterlife, and many more issues vital to a
[12:32] Speaker 1: better understanding of God in Christ and our relationship to Him.
[12:36] Speaker 1: To receive your copy of the Complete Bible answer Book
[12:39] Speaker 1: Collector's Edition Revised and Expanded, call eight eight eight seven
[12:44] Speaker 1: thousand CRII and make a gift to support the Christian
[12:48] Speaker 1: Research Institute's Life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand
[12:53] Speaker 1: CRII or visit us at equip dot org.
[13:01] Speaker 3: Truth Matters, Life Matters More details Hank Hanigraff's personal pilgrimage
[13:06] Speaker 3: from his long defensive truth to his discovery that life
[13:09] Speaker 3: matters more. Essentially, two books in one. Part one equips
[13:13] Speaker 3: Christians to defend the essential truths of the historic Christian faith.
[13:17] Speaker 3: Part two explains why truth is necessary but hardly sufficient.
[13:21] Speaker 3: That the map is not the territory, the menu is
[13:24] Speaker 3: not the meal. We are created to experience life to
[13:28] Speaker 3: the full through union with God in Christ. Is there
[13:31] Speaker 3: more to the Christian life than what you are experiencing?
[13:34] Speaker 3: Truth matters, Life matters More unveils the unexpected beauty of
[13:38] Speaker 3: an authentic Christian life. To receive Truth Matters, Life Matters
[13:42] Speaker 3: More for yourself or as a terrific gift to a
[13:44] Speaker 3: friend or loved one, call eight eight eight seven thousand
[13:47] Speaker 3: CRI and make a gift to support the Christian Research
[13:50] Speaker 3: Institute's Life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand CRI
[13:55] Speaker 3: or visit us online at equipp dot org.
[14:00] Speaker 1: The number of wolves surrounding the Christian flock is growing,
[14:04] Speaker 1: and they relish nothing more than docile's sheep, utterly incapable
[14:08] Speaker 1: of defending themselves from militant secularists at home to militant
[14:12] Speaker 1: Islamists abroad. The assaults on biblical Christianity are growing dangerously,
[14:18] Speaker 1: but Christian Research Institutes Support Team members aren't in favor
[14:22] Speaker 1: of feeding these wolves. Instead, each day they're making possible
[14:26] Speaker 1: an array of outreaches that defang these wolfpacks with solid
[14:30] Speaker 1: arguments and evidence that have stood the test of time.
[14:33] Speaker 1: What's more, Support Team members are equipping themselves with criis
[14:38] Speaker 1: Equipping Essentials, a handpicked collection of the best apologetics tools around.
[14:43] Speaker 1: Your selection of resources are just our way of saying thanks.
[14:47] Speaker 1: To learn more about the benefits of membership, simply visit
[14:51] Speaker 1: equip dot org. Once again, that's equip dot org. Now
[15:07] Speaker 1: back to the Bible answer Man broadcast and your host
[15:11] Speaker 1: and canigraph.
[15:12] Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Randy. Before we went to break,
[15:15] Speaker 2: I was talking about just war theory, which serves his
[15:20] Speaker 2: justification for defensive warfare in very specific circumstances, and that
[15:27] Speaker 2: in order to protect the innocent and to fulfill the
[15:31] Speaker 2: command to love one's neighbor. And I mentioned what Christ
[15:36] Speaker 2: himself said, which is that greater love has no one
[15:43] Speaker 2: than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,
[15:49] Speaker 2: and so many valiant Americans have done that very thing.
[15:56] Speaker 2: Of course, our Lord is eluding in this statement to
[16:01] Speaker 2: his own eminent death, a death on the cross, a
[16:07] Speaker 2: death which involves excruciating pain. In fact, the very word
[16:13] Speaker 2: excruciating was coined to codify the horror of the cross,
[16:20] Speaker 2: a horror that Christ submitted himself to, so that we
[16:27] Speaker 2: might find redemption not only in this life, but in
[16:33] Speaker 2: the life that is to come. The point of our
[16:38] Speaker 2: Lord is that self sacrifice is evidence of love in action,
[16:47] Speaker 2: and therefore has universal application. In fact, it was Saint
[16:54] Speaker 2: Paul who reiterated this very point when he said when
[17:00] Speaker 2: he said, at just the right time, while we were
[17:04] Speaker 2: still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will
[17:13] Speaker 2: anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good
[17:17] Speaker 2: man someone might possibly dare to die. But God God
[17:25] Speaker 2: demonstrates his own love for us in this that, while
[17:31] Speaker 2: we are still sinners, Christ died for us. There was
[17:37] Speaker 2: an excellent article in the Christian Research Journal You can
[17:40] Speaker 2: find this article on the web at equipped dot org.
[17:44] Speaker 2: This article is titled just War Tradition. It's an article
[17:49] Speaker 2: by Michael mackenzie and this article offers compelling military stories
[17:56] Speaker 2: of self sacrifice, sacrifice to save others, and these stories
[18:03] Speaker 2: are well worth reflecting upon. Think back to one of
[18:11] Speaker 2: these stories, which takes place February seventh, nineteen forty three.
[18:18] Speaker 2: There was a submarine skipper. His name was Howard Gilmore
[18:25] Speaker 2: and he was on a routine patrol in the South Pacific.
[18:30] Speaker 2: What happened was the ramming of a Japanese ship, and
[18:37] Speaker 2: with that ramming, his submarine suffered heavy damage and it
[18:44] Speaker 2: was well rightly destroyed in many ways by the ship's
[18:50] Speaker 2: machine gun fire that was taking place in the battle.
[18:55] Speaker 2: Two seamen were immediately killed and Gilmore or was badly
[19:01] Speaker 2: wounded himself. As he stood on the observation tower, unable
[19:08] Speaker 2: to make it to the hatch, Gilmore he did the
[19:13] Speaker 2: only thing he thought he could do to save his crew.
[19:18] Speaker 2: Despite their protests, officers saying don't do it, crew saying please,
[19:26] Speaker 2: don't do this, he ordered the sub to dive. He
[19:31] Speaker 2: left himself to die on the surface of the ocean.
[19:37] Speaker 2: After the sub had dived, and there he died in
[19:43] Speaker 2: order to save his sixty nine men. This an incredible
[19:49] Speaker 2: example of self sacrifice, and for that self sacrifice he
[19:54] Speaker 2: received the Congressional Medal of Honor, which of course, is
[19:59] Speaker 2: America's highest military honor. Criteria for the medal are very,
[20:07] Speaker 2: very strict, So the acting question has to be reported
[20:14] Speaker 2: by at least two eyewitnesses, it has to be distinguishable
[20:19] Speaker 2: above other acts of gallantry, and it must involve the
[20:24] Speaker 2: risk of one's own life. And point of fact, nearly
[20:30] Speaker 2: two of every three men who so far have received
[20:37] Speaker 2: this medal didn't even live to see their award. According
[20:44] Speaker 2: to a revered military custom, every officer generals included, must
[20:52] Speaker 2: rise and salute any winner of the medal. The salute
[20:58] Speaker 2: shows the endearing respect for the man, for the metal
[21:06] Speaker 2: as well as for the deed. But why do we
[21:11] Speaker 2: respect this kind of heroism? Why do we respect this
[21:16] Speaker 2: kind of self sacrifice? Why is it so incredibly moving
[21:23] Speaker 2: to read the story of Howard Gilmour And there are
[21:26] Speaker 2: many many others On the article that I alluded to.
[21:30] Speaker 2: McKenzie suggests that God's creating humanity in his image, creating
[21:36] Speaker 2: humanity as icons of himself includes a connection between that
[21:44] Speaker 2: image and the ultimate act of giving one's life. We
[21:51] Speaker 2: respect this kind of courage because we know that to
[21:56] Speaker 2: give one's all, to give of all that a person
[22:02] Speaker 2: holds dear, is to act outside of oneself. It is
[22:12] Speaker 2: a pointer, however humanly, toward our creator, a creator who
[22:21] Speaker 2: expressed himself in the ultimate act of self sacrifice on
[22:27] Speaker 2: Calfrey's Hill. This, this is a courage that transcends even
[22:36] Speaker 2: the horrible carnage of war. Human awe in the face
[22:45] Speaker 2: of bravery is nearly universal. Despite the killing, despite the terror,
[22:57] Speaker 2: despite the horror of war, there can yet emerge an
[23:03] Speaker 2: inexplicable yet undeniable transcendence. And this transcendence is not simply
[23:13] Speaker 2: a function of zealous patriotism. Rather, it remains a pointer
[23:22] Speaker 2: to the God, whom even stark tragedy cannot drive away.
[23:29] Speaker 2: And it is also, at the very least an acknowledgment
[23:35] Speaker 2: of God's providence. Fighting and destruction are terrible, but are
[23:45] Speaker 2: sometimes agencies of heavenly rather than hellish powers. Something that
[23:54] Speaker 2: is not original with me, but something well said by others,
[24:00] Speaker 2: And as I allude to earlier, one hellish power that
[24:06] Speaker 2: deserves note on Memorial Day is not only Muslim aggression,
[24:12] Speaker 2: but it is also the aggression against the very principles
[24:20] Speaker 2: that made Western civilization the greatest mission sending force the
[24:28] Speaker 2: world has ever known. And therefore a Memorial Day we
[24:36] Speaker 2: honor those those who have sacrificed all in answer to
[24:42] Speaker 2: the unjust aggression of Islam from without, Nazism, communism, but
[24:58] Speaker 2: also the very kinds of systems that are tearing our
[25:05] Speaker 2: country apart from within. This has been a special edition
[25:15] Speaker 2: of the Bible answer Man Broadcast. Memorial Day is something
[25:19] Speaker 2: that we don't want to take lightly. If you want
[25:23] Speaker 2: to read about some of the great threats against our
[25:26] Speaker 2: nation in the present, read my book Muslim What you
[25:30] Speaker 2: Need to Know about the World's fastest growing religion. And
[25:34] Speaker 2: I do thank you this Memorial Day for all you
[25:38] Speaker 2: do to strengthen this nation. I hope that you will
[25:44] Speaker 2: celebrate this Memorial Day with your family and friends, but
[25:49] Speaker 2: also continue to remember those who have made the ultimate
[25:56] Speaker 2: sacrifice so that we can celebrate freedom well this very day.
[26:02] Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time with more.
[26:05] Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us for the Bible answer Man Broadcast
[26:09] Speaker 1: with Hank Hannagraph, our daily commitment here at CRI is
[26:13] Speaker 1: to defend the faith once for all, delivered to the saints,
[26:16] Speaker 1: and equip believers to become true disciples of Jesus Christ.
[26:21] Speaker 1: If you'd like to order resources or listen to the
[26:23] Speaker 1: broadcast online, visit our website at equip dot org. That's
[26:28] Speaker 1: equip dot org, or call a resource consultant at eight
[26:33] Speaker 1: eight eight seven thousand, two seven four. Of course, you
[26:37] Speaker 1: can write to CURI at Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte,
[26:41] Speaker 1: North Carolina, zip code two eight two seven one. The
[26:46] Speaker 1: Bible answer Man Broadcast is supported by listeners like you.
[26:50] Speaker 1: We're on the air because life and truth matter. The
[27:00] Speaker 1: Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection
[27:05] Speaker 1: of the most often asked questions Hank Hannigraph has received
[27:09] Speaker 1: throughout his four decades as host of the Bible answer
[27:12] Speaker 1: Man Broadcast. With more than half a million copies already
[27:15] Speaker 1: in print, this newly revised and expanded Collector's Edition helped
[27:20] Speaker 1: seekers and skeptics alike sort through the truth on topics
[27:24] Speaker 1: such as reliability of the Bible, religions and cults, the
[27:28] Speaker 1: resurrection and afterlife, and many more issues vital to a
[27:32] Speaker 1: better understanding of God in Christ and our relationship to Him.
[27:36] Speaker 1: To receive your copy of the Complete Bible answer Book
[27:39] Speaker 1: Collector's Edition, Revised and expanded, call eight eight eight seven
[27:44] Speaker 1: thousand CRII and make a gift to support the Christian
[27:48] Speaker 1: Research Institute's life changing outreaches eight eight eight seven thousand
[27:53] Speaker 1: CRII or visit us at EQUIP dot org.

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