When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretations [Hardcover]

Norman L. Geisler (Author), Ron Rhodes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1997

Proceeds through the Bible book by book showing where cultists misinterpret passages. The authors then give the orthodox interpretation of the passage in question.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books; First Edition edition (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801011493
• ISBN-13: 978-0801011498
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,208,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Correcting misinterpretations, July 13, 2007

By 

Mike Parks - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretations (Hardcover)

Geisler & Rhodes have placed together a rock solid book with answers to some commonly misinterpreted passages. These men are scholars and their clear communication comes through. They begin by explaining what makes a cult, and the essentials of orthodoxy.

The remainder of the book (98%) is setup from Genesis to Revelation. They walk their readers through some of the most misunderstood passages. They begin with the text of scripture, explain the misinterpretation, and then correct the misinterpretation. Some of questions answered are...

Ezekiel 37:16-17--Is this passage a prophecy of The Book of Mormon?
2 Timothy 1:18--Does Paul's prayer for Onesiphorus support the Roman Catholic doctrine of praying for the dead?
Philemon 16--Does the apostle Paul approve of the institution of slavery?
James 1:5--Does this verse indicate we should pray about the Book of Mormon to see if it's true?

There are answers to hundreds of questions, you can read all the way through or just flip to the text you are questioning. I have used this book repeatedly and highly recommend it.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Book written entirely by Rhodes, not Geisler!, May 27, 2001

By 

Daniel Knepshield - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretations (Hardcover)

This book claims to be written by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes, but it clearly is not. In fact, this book is nothing but an index of the book series "Reasoning From The Scriptures" by Ron Rhodes. There is nothing original in this book. Everything was simply lifted, usually verbatim, from Ron's previous RFTS books. For some reason, Norman Geisler allowed his name to be used in the marketing of this book, but I do not believe he wrote one sentence. I have read many of Rhodes' books and I can cleary recognize his writing style and it appears unmistakably in every paragraph in this book. At best, perhaps Mr. Geisler acted as an editor or consultant to Mr. Rhodes. In that case , he should be listed as such, not as an author. Maybe the publisher thought the book would sell more copies with Geisler's name attached. In any case, I find such a practice to be deceiving and unacceptable.

This book, I am sure would have been much better if Norman Geisler had more to do with it. I like and recommend Geisler's other books, but not this one. Once again, this is really just a Ron Rhodes book with Norman Geisler's name attached. If anyone has any of Ron Rhodes' Reasoning From The Scriptures books, then this book is not needed, because it is simply the same exact material reprinted almost verbatim.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good format, but a re-hash for 'old heads'., July 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretations (Hardcover)

Norm Geisler and Ron Rhodes provide a good reference in this volume. The material is easy to read and they deal with tons of texts which everyone from the Mormons to New Age to JW's to Ken Copeland and company take out of context. If you're new to cults and counter cult apologetics, buy this book.

If you've already spent time dealing with fasle teachings on all the aforementioned groups and others, this book will be a re-hash of old information that you should already be familiar with. If you own Walter Martin's <i>Kingdom of the Cults</i>, Hank Hanegraaf's <i>Christianity in Crisis</i> or any similar books, you'll see a lot of the same material. Still, a good book!