Bruce Bickel - World Religions and Cults 101: A Guide to Spiritual Beliefs

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved.

CHRISTIANITY 101 is a registered trademark of Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz. Harvest House Publishers, Inc., is the exclusive licensee of the federally registered trademark CHRISTIANITY 101.

Cover by Left Coast Design, Portland, Oregon

Cover illustration Krieg Barrie Illustration

WORLD RELIGIONS AND CULTS 101

Formerly titled Bruce & Stans Guide to Cults, Religions, and Spiritual Beliefs

Copyright 2002 by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bickel, Bruce, 1952

[Bruce & Stans guide to cults, religions, spiritual beliefs]

World religions and cults 101 / Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz.

p.cm.(Christianity 101)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7369-1263-1 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-6862-1 (eBook)

1. Religions. 2. Cults. I. Title: World religions and cults one hundred one. II. Title: World religions and cults one hundred and one. III. Jantz, Stan, 1952IV. Title. V. Series.

BL80.3.B53 2005

200dc22

2004020038

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Contents

Bruce Bickel is an attorney who specializes in estate planning and trust law. He is also a corporate motivational speaker whose ministry involvements include preaching and speaking at Christian conferences.

Stan Jantz managed a chain of Christian retail stores for more than 25 years. Currently he is a marketing consultant and a partner in a community-building software company.

Together Bruce and Stan have written more than 50 books with more than 2 million copies sold.

Dr. Craig Hazen, associate professor of comparative religion and Christian apologetics at Biola University, is the adviser for World Religions and Cults 101. Throughout this book you will find Dr. Hazens comments and insights, which are marked with the heading, Dr. Hazen Adds He received his Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara. As the founder and director of the Master of Arts program in Christian apologetics at Biola, Dr. Hazen has lectured worldwide on the historical reliability of Scripture, religion and science, and Christianity among world religions. He is the author of numerous articles and books, and is the editor of the scholarly journal Philosophia Christi.

L ets get it out in the open, right up front. We are fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. In the spectrum of world religions and spiritual beliefs, that puts us smack-dab in the middle of Christianity. There. Now we said it. No one can accuse us of pretending to be objective while surreptitiously concealing an innate bias.

Perhaps you are a reader who has a different spiritual point of view (or none at all yet). If so, you might be worried that our prejudice will affect our objectivity. We dont blame you for being worried at the outset. But let us assure you that while your opinions may differ, our purposes are aligned with yours:

You dont want to read a one-sided, intolerant, discriminatory tirade against other faiths. And we dont want to write a book like that.

You are interested in an impartial, unbiased explanation of various religious viewpoints. So are we.

Is it possible for two guys who strongly believe in one faith to write objectively about other religions? We think so, and we have done our absolute best to maintain our neutrality so you can evaluate the various religions for yourself. (Hey, Bruce is a lawyer, so his career is all about presenting the good points of a case he doesnt necessarily believe in. And Stans background is in retail marketing, so he knows the benefits of comparative shopping.)

But rather than trying to impress you with our efforts to maintain a neutral perspective, perhaps you will be most relieved if we just tell you why we wrote this book. Here is our purpose, plain and simple: to provide an understandable overview of predominant religions and spiritual beliefs (with a little sense of humor thrown in along the way). Thats it. We are not attempting to convert, cajole, or coax you into Christianity. Yes, we think that you ought to give the spiritual dimension of your life serious consideration. But no, we dont want to force or trick you into what we believe. We are proponents of information, but we oppose indoctrination. The choices you make ought to be your own.

We might get a little flak from the Christian community for suggesting that you consider other religions along with Christianity. (It wont be the first time we have invited a little criticism upon ourselves.) But there are already too many books that try to force a certain religion on you. This isnt going to be another one of them.

If your purpose in reading this book is to find a faith of your own, thats great. Were glad that we could help you get started. But dont stop here. Use this book as a springboard to further investigation and analysis. Our goal is to get you thinking about spiritual matters. We hope we accomplish that.

Whats Ahead

Every single person thinks about God. Now, he or she may picture God as

an impersonal force that infuses every part of the universe, or

a spirit that inhabits every person like a kind of divine light, or

a powerful Creator who made the universe and then took a long vacation, never to return, or

a personal spirit being who made the universe and then stayed very involved, or

something that doesnt exist at all.

But in one way or another everyone has a God idea. We dont know you very well (yet), but we suspect that you probably fall somewhere into one of those categories. Its also likely that when God comes to your thoughts,

you already know what you believe, but you would like to know more; or

you arent really sure if your belief in God is the right one, but its working, so youre going to stick with what you believe (for now); or

you are open to beliefs about God other than your own because youve been told that one God idea is as good as another; or

you are very sure you have the right belief, but you would like to know more about what other people believe so you can relate to them.

Notice that each of these God idea descriptions contain the word believe or belief. Theres a reason for that. All people accept the fact that something is true or real, even if they arent sure what that something is. Thats what belief is. So far that sounds pretty ordinary, but believe us, belief can get pretty exciting because it goes to the heart of who you are. As a human being, you dont just believe in the obvious, such as your own existence. You think on a much higher level. You want to know