The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions: The Essential Guide to Their History, Their Doctrine, and Our Response is a non-fiction

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...

 book on cult

Cult

The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

s and new religious movement

New religious movement

A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...

s, written by Ron Rhodes, Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

  The book was published by Zondervan

Zondervan

Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association .- History :...

 on September 1, 2001. The book defines cults and new religions by examining case studies of twelve groups chosen by Rhodes. The book includes a foreword by Lee Strobel

Lee Strobel

Lee Patrick Strobel is a writer, creationist, former journalist and former megachurch pastor. He is the author of several books, including four which received ECPA Christian Book Awards and a series which addresses challenges to a Biblically inerrant view of Christianity...

, author of the book The Case for Christ.

Reception

In his review of the work, John Moryl writes that the book addresses the topic of cults from the viewpoint of an evangelical Christian. Moryl questioned Rhodes' inclusion of certain groups in the book, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...

, Unitarian Universalism

Unitarian Universalism

Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...

, and Freemasonry

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

, and attributed this to a unique evangelical perspective.

The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions has been used as a reference work in college courses at Emmanuel Bible College

Emmanuel Bible College

For the Methodist theology school affiliated with the University of Toronto, go to Emmanuel College, Toronto.Emmanuel Bible College is a small Bible college located in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada...

, Lincoln Christian College and Seminary

Lincoln Christian College and Seminary

Lincoln Christian University , formerly Lincoln Christian College and Seminary , comprises a School of Undergraduate Studies, a Seminary, and the Hargrove School, all located in Lincoln, Illinois...

, and Valley Forge Christian College

Valley Forge Christian College

Valley Forge Christian College is a four-year, residential college centrally located in southeastern Pennsylvania, minutes from Valley Forge National Historical Park. Nestled in the small town of Phoenixville, major metropolitan areas are within easy driving distance...

.

Cited by secondary works

Strobel cites Rhodes's work in his book, Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage, as does Saliba in his textbook, Understanding New Religious Movements, in his section on new religious movements in contemporary culture. The work is also cited by Walters' Off Center Off Course How Satans Lies Disrupt Christian Living, and by Douglas Cowan's Bearing False Witness?. The book was also cited by Velarde and Johnson in the Christian Research Journal

Christian Research Institute

The Christian Research Institute is an Evangelical Christian apologetics ministry. It was established in October 1960 in the state of New Jersey by Walter Martin . In 1974 Martin relocated the ministry to San Juan Capistrano, California. The ministry's office was relocated in the 1990s near Rancho...

, in describing what the authors refer to as a "revisionist line of thinking", with regard to new concepts put forth by Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith was founder of what later became known as the Latter Day Saint movement or Mormons.Joseph Smith may also refer to:-Latter Day Saints:* Joseph Smith, Sr. , father of Joseph Smith...

.

External links

• Ron Rhodes, Web site of author
• Interview with Ron Rhodes, at publisher's Web site