Challenge of the Cults and New Religions, The [Hardcover]

Ron Rhodes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001

Cults and New Religions Aren't Hard to Find They're in your neighborhood . . . your workplace . . . your school . . . maybe even your family. Cults are flourishing across America. Chances are, you've encountered one, perhaps even know someone who is involved in a cult. Can you discuss knowledgably the critical differences between Christianity and the teachings of Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, the New Age movement, Hindu-based cults, and other prominent groups and religious movements? In this essential resource, preeminent cult authority Ron Rhodes explains what cults are, why they are cause for concern, and why in the 21st century, as never before, their numbers and memberships are exploding nationally and worldwide. Drawing on his extensive experience as a cult researcher, Rhodes offers to-the-point, cutting-edge information on twelve major cults and new religions: Mormonism Jehovah's Witnesses Mind Sciences New Age Movement Church of Scientology Hindu-based Cults Unification Church Baha'i Faith Unitarian Universalism Oneness Pentecostalism Masonic Lodge Satanism Learning the distinctives of these groups will equip you to deal with any of the thousands of other less significant cults you may encounter. The Challenge of the Cults and New Religion includes Color photos Scripture Index Subject Index Glossary Bibliography And your resources don't end at the last page. You can supplement your knowledge whenever you choose by visiting the author's Web site at www.ronrhodes.org for free, thorough, up-to-the-minute information on each cult discussed in the book. If you're concerned for the temporal and eternal welfare of others, The Challenge of the Cults is a must. It will help you confront the deception of false Christs and lying doctrines with the clear, well-grounded truth of biblical Christianity.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Even though cults do not make the news these days as they did some years ago, they are still of concern to many people. Rhodes, an author, radio personality, and president of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries, addresses this concern from the viewpoint of an evangelical Christian. His thrust is to show where these groups go wrong for Christian ones, how they twist Scripture and how to counter them. He writes very clearly and does an excellent job of defining cults and new religions as well as introducing the 12 groups with which he has chosen to deal. Even readers not sharing the author's viewpoint can learn a good deal about these groups. However, one might wonder why some were included, for example, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarian Universalism, and Freemasonry. They are certainly not new, and few would categorize them as cults, but perhaps their inclusion is justified by their evangelical approach. A good addition to the literature on cults, in particular for evangelical Christians. John Moryl, Yeshiva Univ. Lib., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

Cults and New Religions Aren’t Hard to Find

They’re in your neighborhood . . . your workplace . . . your school . . . maybe even your family.

Cults are flourishing across America. Chances are, you’ve encountered one, perhaps even know someone who is involved in a cult. Can you discuss knowledgably the critical differences between Christianity and the teachings of Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientology, the New Age movement, Hindu-based cults, and other prominent groups and religious movements?

In this essential resource, preeminent cult authority Ron Rhodes explains what cults are, why they are cause for concern, and why in the 21st century, as never before, their numbers and memberships are exploding nationally and worldwide. Drawing on his extensive experience as a cult researcher, Rhodes offers to-the-point, cutting-edge information on twelve major cults and new religions:

Mormonism Jehovah’s Witnesses Mind Sciences New Age Movement Church of Scientology Hindu-based Cults Unification Church Baha’i Faith Unitarian Universalism Oneness Pentecostalism Masonic Lodge Satanism

Learning the distinctives of these groups will equip you to deal with any of the thousands of other less significant cults you may encounter. The Challenge of the Cults and New Religion includes

Color photos Scripture Index Subject Index Glossary Bibliography

And your resources don’t end at the last page.If you’re concerned for the temporal and eternal welfare of others, The Challenge of the Cults is a must. It will help you confront the deception of false Christs and lying doctrines with the clear, well-grounded truth of biblical Christianity.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310232171
• ISBN-13: 978-0310232179
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #432,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Ron Rhodes received his Th.M. and Th.D. degrees in systematic theology from Dallas Theological
Seminary, graduating with honors. He is currently the president of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries, an apologetics organization located in Texas.

The author of more than 50 books, Dr. Rhodes is a keynote speaker at conferences across the United States and Canada. He also teaches cult apologetics at a number of seminaries, including Dallas Theological Seminary and Veritas Evangelical Seminary. He has been a guest on many national and regional radio and television programs produced by CNN, CBN, Trinity Television, FamilyNet Television, Cornerstone Television, Worship Television, Crossroads Christian Communications, LeSea Broadcasting, Salem Communications, USA Radio, Moody Radio, and others. He and his wife, Kerri, live in Texas with their children, David and Kylie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit simplistic, missing some important info, October 10, 2001

By 

E. Johnson (El Cajon, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Challenge of the Cults and New Religions, The (Hardcover)

Ron Rhodes has attempted to write a user-friendly book aimed at overviewing the major cults found in the United States. Certainly this has been done a number of times, including Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults which, despite its recent revision, is a little dated. Rhodes writes on such topics as the Mormons, JWs, Scientology (note the paragraph placed at the beginning of this chapter to prevent getting sued by the suit-happy cultists), and even Satanism.

One flaw is that much of the information he presents is from second-hand resources. While it is certainly OK to get some information from Christian experts, I'm not quite sure why the author doesn't look up and list the information himself from original sources. It would mean so much more. The bibliography itself is also limited, as I believe he misses out on some very important books written by both Christians as well as those from the individual cults.

Rhodes does give easy-to-use charts to illustrate his points, and he includes good, accurate information that appear basic to the individual cult. (I didn't read closely, but what I did look at was fair, honest, and correct.) The book contains two glossy picture sections, which is nice, but I wonder how much this added to the cost of the book. Instead of these pictures, I would have rather had conclusions to each section as well as possible witnessing scenarios and glossary tables. He did this in his other books ("Reasoning With..."), and these ideas seemed to work well. The reader is left hanging at the end of each chapter, and I think Rhodes would have better served his audience by taking this one additional step.

Finally, and while not wanting to sound too critical, I'm wondering why he ignored the Boston Movement, which is the International Churches of Christ (not affiliated with the Church of Christ denomination), since it is so prevalent on the college campuses. I would think that information on this contemporary group would have been so much more crucial than anything he wrote on "the New Age Movement" (is this a cult?) and the Unification Church (as far as I am concerned, the Moonies are pretty much non-influential in today's America). I also question whether Freemasonry or Satanism are "cults," and it appears these chapters were saved to the end to fill out the book. While I don't agree with either group, they certainly are not "cults" in the evangelical sense of the word.

I would temper my above comments by saying that a person with no knowledge of these groups would be fine with this book, but those who have studied these groups will do better finding works that more concentrate on the individual group. There is nothing new here that could not be discovered in other more detailed sources.

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cults, Cults, and More Cults, October 4, 2002

By 

K.H. - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Challenge of the Cults and New Religions, The (Hardcover)

Ron Rhodes has written a succesful primer on the topic of non-Christian cults. The book is very easy to understand, matched with colorful photos and a reader friendly format. Johnson (another reviewer) is correct when he says Rhodes misses some information, however, I think in this case, it is a stregnth of Rhodes' book.

Rhodes accuractly portrays the major teachings of churchs like the 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints'(Mormons), Jehovah Witnesses, and Unity School of Christianty, just to name a few. He also deals with other religions and their teachings, but here he is a little less effective.

This text is written for the 'layman' and as such, it succeeds for those individuals who have not read any information about these unquie religions but need some basic information. For those of us who have studied many of these sects in-depth, the book is quite boring and one would be better off purchasing something with more theological depth.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Challenge of the Cults (and New Religions), February 14, 2010

By 

Gail W. Thomas (Conley Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Challenge of the Cults and New Religions, The (Hardcover)

This like most of Ron Rhodes book was an excellent book. It selects a few of the organizations that people attempt to pass off as religions and exposes them as cults. It gives the history and the doctrines that these organizations originated from and believe and then Rhodes who seems to be an expert in this area exposes them and not only does he expose them, he backs his exposition up with scripture. This is a must read and will help you to confront the deception of false Christs and lying doctrines with clear and well-grounded truth of biblical Christianity.