Heavenly Deception
Heavenly Deception

Author: Chris Elkins

Publisher:

Published: 1980

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 9780842314022

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"One man's spiritual descent into the very core of the moonies"--Cover page.

Unmasking the Cults
Unmasking the Cults

Author: Alan W. Gomes

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2009-12-15

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 0310864550

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In this introduction to the Zondervan Guide to Cults and Religious Movements, Dr. Gomes defines the characteristics of a "cult of Christianity" and why such a group subverts the search for spiritual truth. He explains the emotional and spiritual appeal of cults, who is susceptible, and the techniques cult leaders use to attract members. This book, in dealing with a wide range of issues relating to cults and religious movements in general, complements the other books in the series, all of which focus on specific religious groups. -- Why this series? This is an age when countless groups and movements, old and new, mark the religious landscape in our culture, leaving many people confused or uncertain in their search for spiritual truth and meaning. Because few people have the time or opportunity to research these movements fully, these books provide essential information and insights for their spiritual journeys. Except for this book, each book in the series has five sections: - A concise introduction to the group - An overview of the group's theology -- in its own words - Tips for witnessing effectively to members of the group - A bibliography with sources for further study - A comparison chart that shows the essential differences between biblical Christianity and the group -- The writers of these volumes are well qualified to present clear and reliable information and help us discern religious truth from falsehood.

Unification Church
Unification Church

Author: J. Isamu Yamamoto

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2016-09-06

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 0310534992

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The Unification Church and its founder, Dr. Sun Myung Moon, have been in the center of controversy because of their recruiting practices, their financial holdings, and their authoritarian style--including arranged, mass marriages. Most controversial in terms of its teachings in Dr. Moon's claim to be a new Messiah who will finish what Jesus left "undone." Is he the Messiah, and is his Diving Principle the third testament of the Bible? Why this series? This is an age when countless groups and movements, old and new, mark the religious landscape in our culture, leaving many people confused or uncertain in their search for spiritual truth and meaning. Because few people have the time or opportunity to research these movements fully, these books provide essential information and insights for their spiritual journeys. All books but the summary volume, Truth and Error, contain five sections: -A concise introduction to the group being surveyed -An overview of the group’s theology — in its own words -Tips for witnessing effectively to members of the group -A bibliography with sources for further study -A comparison chart that shows the essential differences between biblical Christianity and the group -Truth and Error, the last book in the series, consists of parallel doctrinal charts compiled from all the other volumes. -Three distinctives make this series especially useful to readers: -Information is carefully distilled to bring out truly essential points, rather than requiring readers to sift their way through a sea of secondary details. -Information is presented in a clear, easy-to-follow outline form with “menu bar” running heads. This format greatly assists the reader in quickly locating topics and details of interest. -Each book meets the needs and skill levels of both nontechnical and technical readers, providing an elementary level of refutation and progressing to a more advanced level using arguments based on the biblical text. The writers of these volumes are well qualified to present clear and reliable information and help readers to discern truth from falsehood.

The Sequence
The Sequence

Author: Steven R. Bates

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2024-08-30

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13:

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Sometimes the best way to let one know what something is, is to let one know what it isn't. Today's typical academic book in eschatology provides the reader with a brief history of the various positions in the field followed by why certain positions should be considered the better options. This is not that book. Over the course of twelve chapters, six sequences will be presented from the three major sources in the New Testament regarding the subject, i.e., Paul's letters to the Thessalonians, the Olivet Discourse, and John's visions in Revelation. Through a careful reconciliation of those six sequences, Dr. Steven R. Bates will show that there's only one sequence of end-times, which he has labeled "The Post-Armageddon, Premillennial Resurrection." He asserts that had any other sequence of end-times been correct, whether pre-tribulationism, pre-wrath, mid-tribulationism, historic pre-millennialism, post-millennialism, a-millennialism, preterism, or any other sequence that one could possibly imagine, then the proponents of that postulation should be able to take the same six sequences from Scripture and reconcile them precisely with one another, sentence by sentence, and prove whatever sequence they propose. But, of course, no one will ever attempt such an endeavor because it's theoretically impossible. Scripture's six sequences only confirm one sequence, and it is the one which has been presented in The Sequence.

The Power of Persuasion
The Power of Persuasion

Author: Robert Levine

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2006-01-23

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0471763179

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"An engaging, highly readable survey of the sophisticated methods of persuasion we encounter in various situations. From television to telemarketing and from self-deception to suicide cults, Levine takes a hard look at all the ways we attempt to persuade each other--and how and why they work (or don't). . . . The next time you wonder what possessed you to pay $50 for a medallion commemorating the series finale of Friends, you'll know where to turn." --Slashdot.org "If you're like most people, you think advertising and marketing work--just not on you. Robert Levine's The Power of Persuasion demonstrates how even the best-educated cynics among us can be victimized by sales pitches." --The Globe and Mail "Levine puts [his] analysis in the service of his real mission--to arm the reader against manipulation." --The Wall Street Journal "This wonderful book will change the way you think and act in many realms of your life." --Philip Zimbardo former president, American Psychological Association

Minority Religions and Fraud
Minority Religions and Fraud

Author: Amanda van Eck Duymaer van Twist

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-22

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1317095731

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Analysing both fraud and religion as social constructs with different functions and meanings attributed to them, this book raises issues that are central to debates about the limits of religious toleration in diverse societies, and the possible harm (as well as benefits) that religious organisations can visit upon society and individuals. There has already been a lively debate concerning the structural context in which abuse, especially sexual abuse, can be perpetrated within religion. Contributors to the volume proceed from the premise that similar arguments about ways in which structure and power may be conducive to abuse can be made about fraud and deception. Both can contribute to abuse, yet they are often less easily demonstrated and proven, hence less easily prosecuted. With a focus on minority religions, the book offers a comparative overview of the concept of religious fraud by bringing together analyses of different types of fraud or deception (financial, bio-medical, emotional, breach of trust and consent). Contributors examine whether fraud is necessarily intentional (or whether that is in the eye of the beholder); certain structures may be more conducive to fraud; followers willingly participate in it. The volume includes some chapters focused on non-Western beliefs (Juju, Occult Economies, Dharma Lineage), which have travelled to the West and can be found in North American and European metropolitan areas.

The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life
The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life

Author: Roy Wallis

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-03-19

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 0429678401

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This book, first published in 1984, examines the whole range of new religious movements which appeared in the 1960s and 1970s in the West. It develops a wide-ranging theory of these new religions which explains many of their major characteristics. Some of the movements are well-known, such as Scientology, Krishna Consciousness, and the Unification Church. Others such as the Process, Meher Baba, and 3-HO are much less known. While some became international, others remained local; in other ways, too, such as style, belief, organisation, they exhibit enormous diversity. The movements studied here are classified under three ideal types, world-rejecting, world-affirming and world-accommodating, and from here the author develops a theory of the origins, recruitment base, characteristics, and development patterns which they display. The book offers a critical exploration of the theories of the new religions and analyses the highly contentious issue of whether they reflect the process of secularisation, or whether they are a countervailing trend marking the resurgence of religion in the West.