Ron Rhodes - The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions: The Essential Guide to Their History, Their Doctrine, and Our Response

ZONDERVAN

The CHALLENGE of the CULTS and New Religions
Copyright 2001 by Ron Rhodes

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ePub Edition July 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-82906-5

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rhodes, Ron.
The challenge of the cults and new religions : the essential guide to their history, their doctrine, and our response / Ron Rhodes.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-310-23217-1
1. Apologetics. 2. Cults. I. Title.
BT1240.R48 2001
239'.9dc21

2001026583

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Scripture quotations designated NASB are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE. Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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To the students and faculty of
Southern Evangelical Seminary
Charlotte, North Carolina

CONTENTS

O n January 20, 1980, God cracked my wall of atheism. After hearing the message of Jesus Christ explained in a way I could understand, I began to ask a question that once had been unthinkable to me: Could Jesus really be the Son of God? I decided to use my legal training and journalism experience to investigate whether there was any credibility to Christianityor any other world religion, for that matter.

At first the process was pretty easy. The more I would look at various other faith systems, the more I would see their internal contradictions and lack of evidentiary support. One by one their credibility collapsed under the weight of scrutiny.

However, as I narrowed down my investigation to the Christian faith, matters became increasingly murky. While the contrast between Christianity and other world religions was stark and clear-cutfor instance, there was no confusing the Koran and the Bibleinvestigating Christianity was maddeningly confusing. Is Mormonism just another species of Christianity? What about Oneness Pentecostalism? How about the Jehovahs Witnesses or Unitarian Universalism? Is Freemasonry Christian-based? And what should I think of the claim of Reverend Moon of the Unification Church that he had been chosen to complete Jesus mission in the world?

It soon became clear that many groups claim they fit under the Christian umbrella. But do they really? As I delved into Mormonism, for example, I quickly encountered beliefs that run contrary to historic Christian theology. Not only that, but archaeology fails to corroborate the Book of Mormon in the same way that it substantiates the Bible. It took me a lot of time and effort to evaluate each one of these pseudo-Christian faith systems one by one.

Ultimately, I found that Christianityand Christianity alonewithstood my scrutiny. Moreover, I discovered there are many counterfeit gospels that claim to be consistent with Christianity when they really arent.

I wish I had had Ron Rhodess excellent new book The Challenge of Cults and New Religions back then. If you would like to separate the truth of Christianity from the fiction of cults and new religions, you will find this book an invaluable resource. Ron has used his impressive theological skill to carefully analyze a dozen different faith systems, providing a concise and well-documented assessment of how they differ from Christianity. He focuses on the most important issues so readers dont get bogged down in extraneous details. And his tone is authoritative without being derogatory or inflammatory, which is consistent with the Bibles admonition to defend the truth with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

I heartily recommend this balanced and helpful volume to all sincere seekers and Christians who are determined to test everything so that they can hold on to the good, as 1 Thessalonians 5:21 encourages us to do.

Lee Strobel
Author, The Case for Christ and
The Case for Faith

I want to express deep appreciation for my wife, Kerri, and our two children, David and Kylie, for their sacrificial commitment to my work. As well, I want to give thanks in a general way to all the cult and world religion specialists, apologists, theologians, and researchers I have had the pleasure of interacting with over the years. This interaction has sharpened my thinking considerably in many areas related to cultic studies. I also want to give thanks to the thousands of individuals who have contacted me for information on cults and cult apologetics over the past decade. This continued, heavy demand for reliable information has caused me to stay current on the ever-emerging kingdom of the cults. Finally, Kurt Goedelman and Jack Roper deserve special mention for the wonderful photographs they have made available for this book.

E very American is guaranteed the free exercise of religion. This is one of the things that makes America so great. The First Amendment, ratified in 1791, affirmed that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

In keeping with this, James Madison, who became the fourth president of the United States (180917), wrote, The religion... of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man.... We maintain, therefore, that in matters of religion no mans right is [to be] abridged by the institution of civil society.Such religious freedom is cherished by every American.

Yet to say that every man and woman is free to choose his or her religion is not the same as saying that beneficial every religion is equally true or equally healthy or equally for people. Nor is it the same as saying that every religion yields equal eternal resultsthat is, living eternally with the one true God in heaven. One of my life passions is to help educate people on cults and new religious movements so they can use their cherished religious freedom to choose rightly and avoid belief systems that will damage themtemporally or eternally.

An obvious natural consequence of the First Amendment is that there never has been, nor will there ever be, a Theological Federal Communications Commission, or a Spiritual Pure Food and Drug Administration. Today, in the midst of such freedom, America