The Kingdom of the Cults
for PC Study Bible Version 4by Dr. Walter Martin The Definitive Work on the Subject Revised, Updated and Expanded Anniversary Edition, Hank Hanegraaff, General Editor • The leading cult reference tool for decades. A classic Christian defense of the faith
• Completely updated statistics and authoritative data
• Analysis of the latest developments of ideologies and organizations
• Available electronically forPC Study Bible Version 4exclusively from Biblesoft! | The leading cult reference tool now completely updated! In an era of rapid cult growth worldwide, Christians today more than ever need the trustworthy information contained inThe Kingdom of the Cults. This comprehensive new edition equips readers to use biblical truth to counter the efforts of cults to masquerade as mainstream Christians. Included is all the authoritative data of previous editions, as well as an analysis of the latest ideological and organizational developments of cults old and new. Updated statistics and references detail the alarming spread of the cults, particularly on the mission fields of the world. This edition also recounts the startling yet welcome embrace of orthodox Christian faith by the Worldwide Church of God. | | | Major Cults & Religions Covered: • Jehovah's Witnesses
• Mormonism
• New Age Cults
• The Unification Church
• Rajneeshism
• Baha'i Faith
• ISKCON
• Hinduism
• Transcendental Meditation
• Buddhism
• The Theosophical Society
• Apocalyptic Cults
• Islam
• Christian Science
• Unitarian-Universalism |
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Readable and reliable to a wide cross-section of Christains -- from teachers and pastors to lay believers trying to understand and witness to their neighbors -- the newKingdom of the Cultsis certain to set the standard for cult reference books during the next decade. An Excerpt fromThe Kingdom of the Cults by Dr. Walter Martin Note:The excerpt below shows only an example of thecontentof this reference work, and does not display the truefunctionalityof the product when used within yourPC Study Bible library. Some of the Doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses: The Resurrection of Christ Jehovah's Witnesses, as has been observed, deny the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and claim instead that He was raised a "divine spirit being" or as an "invisible spirit creature." They answer the objection that He appeared in human form by asserting that He simply took human forms as He needed them, which enabled Him to be seen, for as the Logos He would have been invisible to the human eye. In short, Jesus did not appear in the same form that hung upon the cross since that body either "dissolved into gases or ... is preserved somewhere as the grand memorial of God's love". This, in spite of Paul's direct refutation in 1 Tim 2:5, where he calls "the man Christ Jesus" our only mediator — some thirty years after the resurrection! The Scriptures, however, tell a completely different story, as will be evident when their testimony is considered. Christ himself prophesied His own bodily resurrection, and John tells us "He spake of the temple of His body" (John 2:21). In John 20:24-26, the disciple Thomas doubted the literal, physical resurrection of Christ, only to repent of his doubt (v. 28) after Jesus offered His body (v. 27), the same one that was crucified and still bore the nail prints and spear wound, to Thomas for his examination. No reasonable person will say that the body the Lord Jesus displayed was not His crucifixion body, unless he either ignorantly or willfully denies the Word of God. It was no other body "assumed" for the time by a spiritual Christ; it was the identical form that hung on the tree — the Lord himself; He was alive and undeniably tangible, not a "divine spirit being." The Lord foresaw the unbelief of men in His bodily resurrection and made an explicit point of saying that He was not a spirit but flesh and bones (Luke 24:39-44), and He even went so far as to eat human food to prove that He was identified with humanity as well as Deity. Christ rebuked the disciples for their unbelief in His physical resurrection (Luke 24:25), and it was the physical resurrection that confirmed His deity, since only God could voluntarily lay down and take up life at will (John 10:18). We must not forget that Christ prophesied not only His resurrection but also the nature of that resurrection, which He said would be bodily (John 2:19-21). He said He would raise up "this temple" in three days (v. 19), and John tells us "He spake of the temple of his body" (v. 21). Jehovah's Witnesses utilize, among other unconnected verses, 1 Peter 3:18 as a defense for their spiritual resurrection doctrine. Peter declares that Christ was "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." Obviously He was made alive in the Spirit and by the Spirit of God, for the Spirit of God, who shares the nature of God himself, raised up Jesus from the dead, as it is written, "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you" (Rom 8:11). The meaning of the verse then is quite clear. God did not raise Jesus as merely a spirit but raised Him by His Spirit, which follows perfectly John 20:27 and Luke 24:39-44 in establishing the physical resurrection of the Lord. The Watchtowerquotes Mark 16:12 and John 20:14-16 as proof that Jesus has "other bodies" after His resurrection. Unfortunately for them, the reference in Mark is a questionable source, and a doctrine should not be built around one questionable verse. Neither verse has anything to do with the material reality of Christ's resurrection. The reason that Mary (in Mark 16) and also the Emmaus disciples (Luke 24) did not recognize Him is explained in Luke 24:16 (RSV): "Their eyes were kept from recognizing him" (RSV), but it was "Jesus himself" (v. 15). Jehovah's Witnesses also try to undermine our Lord's bodily resurrection by pointing out that the doors were shut (John 20:26) when Jesus appeared in the Upper Room. However, Christ had a "spiritual body" (1 Cor 15:50,53) in His glorified state; identical in form to His earthly body, but immortal; consequently, He was capable of entering either the dimension of earth or of heaven with no violation to the laws of either one. Paul states in Rom 4:24; 6:4; 1 Cor 15:15; etc., that Christ is raised from the dead, and Paul preached the physical resurrection and return of the God-man, not a "divine spirit being" without a tangible form. Paul also warned that if Christ is not risen, then our faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14); to us who believe God's Word there is a Man in the Glory who showed His wounds as a token of His reality and whose question we ask Jehovah's Witnesses: "Has a spirit flesh and bones as you see me have?" (Luke 24:39). The Kingdom of the Cults, Copyright © 1997 The Estate of Walter Martin Screen Shot fromThe Kingdom of the Cults
WithThe Kingdom of the Cults for PC Study Bible Version 4, Dr. Walter Martin's thorough, trustworthy research on false religions has never been more accessible. With the click of a mouse, you can find all the information you need to equip yourself to use biblical truth to counter the efforts of cults attempting to masquerade as mainstream Christians. And of course, wheneverThe Kingdom of the Cultshas something to say about a particular passage or topic you might be studying,PC Study Bible's powerful SmartReferences™ allow you to go right there with a single click. |
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Author Information: Dr. Walter Martin
 Dr. Walter Martin is internationally known as theoriginalBible Answer Man and author of the best-selling book,The Kingdom of the Cults*. He holds four earned degrees in the fields of philosophy and religious education, including a Master's degree from New York University, and a Ph.D. from California Western University. He has authored twelve books, six booklets, and scores of articles. His tracts have been translated into a number of languages and circulated in the millions around the world. Dr. Martin is an authority on religions having their origins in the United States, and is widely recognized as the "father" of the Christian Counter-cult Movement. He founded the Christian Research Institute and dedicated his life to the defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Dr. Martin went home to be with the Lord in 1989. * This title is currently available as an add-on toPC Study Bible 4and can be purchased through this website. |
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