Books by Herman Hanko - Best Selling

 Click PDF icon to look inside the book.

Contending for the Faith presents the history of heretics that have troubled the church over the last two thousand years, treating errors from AD 100 (Marcion) to the present day (federal vision theology). What sets this book apart is its evaluation of every heresy from a consistently and unashamedly Reformed perspective. The reader will readily grasp the significance of the early heretics as Herman Hanko demonstrates the connection between their heresies and the errors arising later in history. The vibrant writing style brings the heretics—ancient and modern—to life. This trustworthy guide to the heretics equips believers today to "contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3).

Contending for the Faith is a companion volume to Hanko's Portraits of Faithful Saints, a book of short biographies of the defenders of the truth from as far back as AD 100.

Today the central doctrine of the Reformation—justification by faith alone—is under attack, even by many in historically Reformed and Presbyterian denominations. Under the guise of a “new perspective on Paul,” revisionist theologians are resurrecting the old heresy of justification by faith and works. They give this a new name—the federal vision. But it is nothing else than the error of the Judaizers that Paul condemns in the Epistle to the Galatians.

In direct contradiction of this heresy, the author stands squarely in the tradition of Luther and Calvin. From an uncompromisingly Reformed perspective, he clearly and positively expounds the epistle, emphasizing the truth of justification by faith alone, as well as the liberty this truth gives to God’s people.

• 448 pages
• hardcover
• ISBN 978-1-936054-04-6

ebook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

 Click PDF icon to look inside the book.

The parables form a substantial part of our Savior's ministry, and this is ample reason for us to give good attention to them. With simple and familiar earthly pictures, Jesus tells us what the kingdom of heaven is like.

"The author takes each parable and by careful exegesis opens up its rich seam of spiritual instruction, and gives a faithful and solidly Reformed interpretation. He shows us gospel mysteries of immense beauty, power, encouragement, practical relevance, and everlasting worth for citizens of a kingdom that is not of this world."

• 432 pages
• hardcover
• ISBN 978-0-916206-82-6

 Click PDF icon to look inside the book.

In his first epistle Peter writes to the saints in Asia Minor from the perspective of their lives as pilgrims. As sojourners in a strange land, they are on a journey through this world toward their eternal home.

How must these pilgrims (and how must we), torn between this world and the next, walk in all the relationships of this life? Peter’s answers this question in his letter which serves as a pilgrim’s manual.

Believers will find A Pilgrim’s Manual to be full of instruction, comfort, and hope as they wend their way toward their eternal home.

• 352 pages
• hardcover
• ISBN 978-1-936054-14-5

How many Christians can confidently say that they have “mastered” the art of prayer? Probably no one.

What is blessedly refreshing about Professor Hanko’s work, When You Pray, is his admission that none of us is good at prayer—including himself—yet over the years of one’s life, the author assures us, a person can make progress in praying.

Professor Hanko shares with his readers homely yet highly meaningful lessons he learned from growing up in a covenant family and covenantal church community. He also tells the specific benefits of praying to the sovereign God of the universe, who knows our sins and weaknesses but loves us still. Valuable is the professor’s clear explanation of how God can be likened to the father of an earthly family, loving and caring for his own dear children.

An eye-opening and very helpful part of his book is the author’s pinpointing of misconceptions people have about God and prayer that bar them from praying in a God-honoring way.

If you have found your devotional life to be frequently barren, reading what the author has learned the hard way—over fifty years in the ministry—will not discourage you further, but will give you a renewed desire to fellowship with your Father in prayer.

• 192 pages
• hardcover
• ISBN 978-0-916206-94-9

ebook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

When You Pray audiobook

 Listen to a sample

How many Christians can confidently say that they have “mastered” the art of prayer? Probably no one.

What is blessedly refreshing about Professor Hanko’s work, When You Pray, is his admission that none of us is good at prayer—including himself—yet over the years of one’s life, the author assures us, a person can make progress in praying.

Professor Hanko shares with his readers homely yet highly meaningful lessons he learned from growing up in a covenant family and covenantal church community. He also tells the specific benefits of praying to the sovereign God of the universe, who knows our sins and weaknesses but loves us still. Valuable is the professor’s clear explanation of how God can be likened to the father of an earthly family, loving and caring for his own dear children.

An eye-opening and very helpful part of his book is the author’s pinpointing of misconceptions people have about God and prayer that bar them from praying in a God-honoring way.

If you have found your devotional life to be frequently barren, reading what the author has learned the hard way—over fifty years in the ministry—will not discourage you further, but will give you a renewed desire to fellowship with your Father in prayer.

• Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
• Narrated by: Christopher Boucher
• ISBN 978-1-944555-52-8

When You Pray hardcover book

When You Pray ebook

Read about old favorites, such as Augustine and Luther, and learn about the obscure, though equally influential Christians, such as Cocceius and Olevianus. This collection of short biographies details the lives of fifty-two professing believers who lived and died for Christ. Not sentimental or fictionalized, these accounts tell what Christians actually said and did during difficult times, and they prepare the reader to face opposition today.

REVIEWS
"While Portraits of Faithful Saints may not make the official textbook lists in some seminaries, students are going to latch on to Hanko's latest as an indispensable cheatsheet on the biography of theologians—the Halley's Handbook of its field."—Christian Observer

• 464 pages
• hardcover 
• ISBN 978-1-944555-24-5

• 272 pages
• ISBN 978-1-944555-11-5

ebook version is available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices)

 Click PDF icon to look inside the book.

Does the eternal, unchangeable, all-powerful, and sovereign God really have a temporal, changeable and weak desire to save those whom he has unconditionally reprobated (Rom. 9:22), for whom the Son did not die (John 12:31) and whom the Holy Spirit will not regenerate, sanctify or glorify (John 3:8)?

Pelagianism, semi-Pelagianism, Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Anabaptism, Arminianism, Amyraldism, and Marrowism say yes to the well-meant offer of the gospel. The biblical, Augustinian, Reformed, and creedal position is no!

Emeritus professor of church history, Herman Hanko, guides us through fascinating doctrinal controversies in the early, Reformation and modern eras of the church, taking us to North Africa, Switzerland, France, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, and America, and emphasizing the teaching of the great theologians, such as Augustine and John Calvin, on God’s particular grace, which is always irresistible and never fails or is frustrated.

In dealing with the historical perspective of God's absolutely sovereign grace versus the well-meant offer, this book fills a gap in the literature, and does so in a way that is warm and easily understood.

• 272 pages
• hardcover
• ISBN 978-1-944555-10-8

ebook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

 Click PDF icon to look inside the book.

Reviews:

Seminarian Matt DeBoer review

The believers James is writing to faced many problems as they made the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament. James addresses these issues that the early Christians faced, including trials and temptations, true religion, wisdom, the use of the tongue, the judgment of the rich, patience, and spiritual help in trouble.

This eminently practical book gives instruction for living the Christian life in many of its aspects. A salient feature is the relation between justification and works, which James explains by the examples of Abraham and Rahab.

• 304 pages
• hardcover
• ISBN 978-1-936054-86-2

The author lived through much of the history he writes about and taught church history for more than three decades. This fascinating study shows how the battle for truth and the history of Christ's church are inseparably connected. Historical facts are woven through doctrinal history as the author tells the story of a denomination that has fought hard to hold to the Reformed truth.

• 592 pages
• hardcover
• ISBN 978-1-944555-61-0

ebook version is available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

"We" (the elect people of God) and "our children" are and should be inseperably linked because they both belong to the covenant of grace. Many Baptists deny this beautiful truth when they refuse to baptize their children. Using scripture as his guide, the author develops the truth of God's covenant as it relates to the baptism of the infants of believers.

• 184 pages
• paperback
• ISBN 978-0-616206-79-6 

Click on the PDF icon to look inside the book.

Reviews:

Prof. Doug Kuiper, The Standard Bearer June 2021 

For many, the term “ancient” implies drudgery and irrelevance. However, the outset of this book will dispel any such notions. The ancient age brims with interest, instruction, and encouragement for today’s readers. This was an age of miracle-working apostles, fearless martyrs, and stalwart church fathers; an age that preserved the scriptures, prescribed the creeds, and produced timeless Christian classics; an age when the church was buffeted by fierce waves of persecution and assailed by heresies of every sort. Through this volume and the ones that follow, the Lord Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of the church, sovereignly shepherded his beloved church by his word and Spirit.

In this first volume of Christ and His Church through the Ages, author and historian Herman Hanko tells the fascinating story of the ancient church during the first six centuries of the New Testament dispensation. He relates how Christ faithfully guided the church from the ministry of the apostles through the fall of the Roman Empire. Highlights of this history include the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles, the persecution of the church under Roman emperors, the deliberations of the ecumenical councils, and the battle for the truth of sovereign grace.

Through this and future volumes, students of church history and interested readers alike will surely grow in their love and appreciation for the saga of Christ’s church. They will find church history to be, as the author once affectionately described it, “the exciting adventure of the marvelous work of grace.”

Herman Hanko served as professor of church history at the Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches from 1965 until his retirement in 2001. He is the author of several books, including Portraits of Faithful Saints, Contending for the Faith, and For Thy Truth’s Sake: A Doctrinal History of the Protestant Reformed Churches.

Dan Van Uffelen is a church history teacher at Covenant Christian High School in Walker, Michigan. He has taught church history for almost two decades.

• 272 pages
• hardcover
  
• ISBN 978-1-944555-75-7

ebook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

How many Christians can confidently say that they have “mastered” the art of prayer? Probably no one.

What is blessedly refreshing about Professor Hanko’s work, When You Pray, is his admission that none of us is good at prayer—including himself—yet over the years of one’s life, the author assures us, a person can make progress in praying.

Professor Hanko shares with his readers homely yet highly meaningful lessons he learned from growing up in a covenant family and covenantal church community. He also tells the specific benefits of praying to the sovereign God of the universe, who knows our sins and weaknesses but loves us still. Valuable is the professor’s clear explanation of how God can be likened to the father of an earthly family, loving and caring for his own dear children.

An eye-opening and very helpful part of his book is the author’s pinpointing of misconceptions people have about God and prayer that bar them from praying in a God-honoring way.

If you have found your devotional life to be frequently barren, reading what the author has learned the hard way—over fifty years in the ministry—will not discourage you further, but will give you a renewed desire to fellowship with your Father in prayer.

• 128 pages
• ISBN 978-1-936054-84-8

Today the central doctrine of the Reformation—justification by faith alone—is under attack, even by many in historically Reformed and Presbyterian denominations. Under the guise of a “new perspective on Paul,” revisionist theologians are resurrecting the old heresy of justification by faith and works. They give this a new name—the federal vision. But it is nothing else than the error of the Judaizers that Paul condemns in the Epistle to the Galatians.

In direct contradiction of this heresy, the author stands squarely in the tradition of Luther and Calvin. From an uncompromisingly Reformed perspective, he clearly and positively expounds the epistle, emphasizing the truth of justification by faith alone, as well as the liberty this truth gives to God’s people.

• 448 pages
• ISBN 978-1-936054-37-4

ebook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

Reviews:

Rev. Martyn McGeown review

Seminarian Matt DeBoer review

The believers James is writing to faced many problems as they made the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament. James addresses these issues that the early Christians faced, including trials and temptations, true religion, wisdom, the use of the tongue, the judgment of the rich, patience, and spiritual help in trouble.

This eminently practical book gives instruction for living the Christian life in many of its aspects. A salient feature is the relation between justification and works, which James explains by the examples of Abraham and Rahab.

• 304 pages
• ISBN 978-1-936054-87-9

eBook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

Contending for the Faith presents the history of heretics that have troubled the church over the last two thousand years, treating errors from AD 100 (Marcion) to the present day (federal vision theology). What sets this book apart is its evaluation of every heresy from a consistently and unashamedly Reformed perspective. The reader will readily grasp the significance of the early heretics as Herman Hanko demonstrates the connection between their heresies and the errors arising later in history. The vibrant writing style brings the heretics—ancient and modern—to life. This trustworthy guide to the heretics equips believers today to "contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3).

Contending for the Faith is a companion volume to Hanko's Portraits of Faithful Saints, a book of short biographies of the defenders of the truth from as far back as AD 100.

ebook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

The parables form a substantial part of our Savior's ministry, and this is ample reason for us to give good attention to them. With simple and familiar earthly pictures, Jesus tells us what the kingdom of heaven is like.

"The author takes each parable and by careful exegesis opens up its rich seam of spiritual instruction, and gives a faithful and solidly Reformed interpretation. He shows us gospel mysteries of immense beauty, power, encouragement, practical relevance, and everlasting worth for citizens of a kingdom that is not of this world."

• 432 pages
• ISBN 978-1-936054-82-4

ebook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

In his first epistle Peter writes to the saints in Asia Minor from the perspective of their lives as pilgrims. As sojourners in a strange land, they are on a journey through this world toward their eternal home.

How must these pilgrims (and how must we), torn between this world and the next, walk in all the relationships of this life? Peter’s answers this question in his letter which serves as a pilgrim’s manual.

Believers will find A Pilgrim’s Manual to be full of instruction, comfort, and hope as they wend their way toward their eternal home.

• 352 pages
• ISBN 978-1-936054-18-3

eBook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

Read about old favorites, such as Augustine and Luther, and learn about the obscure, though equally influential Christians, such as Cocceius and Olevianus. This collection of short biographies details the lives of fifty-two professing believers who lived and died for Christ. Not sentimental or fictionalized, these accounts tell what Christians actually said and did during difficult times, and they prepare the reader to face opposition today.

REVIEWS
"While Portraits of Faithful Saints may not make the official textbook lists in some seminaries, students are going to latch on to Hanko's latest as an indispensable cheatsheet on the biography of theologians—the Halley's Handbook of its field."—Christian Observer

• 464 pages
• ISBN 978-1-944555-31-3

ebook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

NOW AVAILABLE!

The author lived through much of the history he writes about and taught church history for more than three decades. This fascinating study shows how the battle for truth and the history of Christ's church are inseparably connected. Historical facts are woven through doctrinal history as the author tells the story of a denomination that has fought hard to hold to the Reformed truth.

• 592 pages
• hardcover
• ISBN 978-1-944555-62-7

ebook version is available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices).

 Click on the PDF icon to look inside the book.

Reviews:

Prof. Doug Kuiper, The Standard Bearer June 2021

For many, the term “ancient” implies drudgery and irrelevance for many. However, the outset of this book will dispel any such notions. The ancient age brims with interest, instruction, and encouragement for today’s readers. This was an age of miracle-working apostles, fearless martyrs, and stalwart church fathers; an age that preserved the scriptures, prescribed the creeds, and produced timeless Christian classics; an age when the church was buffeted by fierce waves of persecution and assailed by heresies of every sort. Through this volume and the ones that follow, the Lord Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of the church, sovereignly shepherded his beloved church by his word and Spirit.

In this first volume of Christ and His Church through the Ages, author and historian Herman Hanko tells the fascinating story of the ancient church during the first six centuries of the New Testament dispensation. He relates how Christ faithfully guided the church from the ministry of the apostles through the fall of the Roman Empire. Highlights of this history include the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles, the persecution of the church under Roman emperors, the deliberations of the ecumenical councils, and the battle for the truth of sovereign grace.

Through this and future volumes, students of church history and interested readers alike will surely grow in their love and appreciation for the saga of Christ’s church. They will find church history to be, as the author once affectionately described it, “the exciting adventure of the marvelous work of grace.”

Herman Hanko served as professor of church history at the Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches from 1965 until his retirement in 2001. He is the author of several books, including Portraits of Faithful Saints, Contending for the Faith, and For Thy Truth’s Sake: A Doctrinal History of the Protestant Reformed Churches.

Dan Van Uffelen is a church history teacher at Covenant Christian High School in Walker, Michigan. He has taught church history for almost two decades.

• 272 pages
• hardcover
  
• ISBN 978-1-944555-92-4

ebook version available in .mobi format (for Kindle users) and .epub (all other devices)