THE KINGDOM OF THE CULTS (REVISED) by WALTER MARTIN HANK HANEGRAAFF, GENERAL EDITOR BETHANY HOUSE PUBLISHERS Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55438 A Division of Bethany Fellowship, Inc. COPYRIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Copyrights The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised) Copyright © 1965, 1977, 1985, 1997 The Estate of Walter Martin. Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 1997, Parsons Technology, Inc., PO Box 100, Hiawatha, Iowa. All rights reserved. License Statement This book is licensed for the exclusive use of the original purchaser (“you”) for use on one computer only. This book is not copy protected. Parsons Technology authorizes you to make backup copies of the software for your archives only, for the sole purpose of protecting your investment from loss. You are free to move this book from one computer location to another, as long as there is no possibility of it being used at two locations at one time. 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Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God Jehovah of the Watchtower Jehovah’s Witnesses The Maze of Mormonism Mormonism New Age Cults The New Cults The Riddle of Reincarnation Screwtape Writes Again Walter Martin Speaks Out on the Cults Walter Martin’s Cults Reference Bible ABOUT THE AUTHOR WALTER MARTIN was fondly and respectfully known as “the father of Christian cult apologetics.” Many current professional and academic cult apologists credit him with their introduction to the field. He held four earned degrees, having received his Doctorate from California Coast University in the field of Comparative Religions. Author of a dozen books, a half-dozen booklets, and many articles, he was known nationwide as “The Bible Answer Man,” host of one of the oldest and most popular nationally syndicated call-in radio programs. He was founder and director of the Christian Research Institute, located in Southern California, which continues to provide cult apologetics information and to sponsor the ever-popular Bible Answer Man daily broadcast. ABOUT THE GENERAL EDITOR HANK HANEGRAAFF, author of Counterfeit Revival, is president and chairman of the board of Christian Research Institute International, the oldest and largest organization in the world specializing in the study of cults and fringe religious movements, contemporary religious controversies, and related issues. Hanegraaff is heard live daily as host of the nationally syndicated Bible Answer Man radio program. His bestselling book Christianity in Crisis, was awarded the Gold Medallion by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. His other books include Personal Witness Training: Your Handle on the Great Commission and Memory Dynamics: Your Untapped Resource for Spiritual Growth. He contributes regularly to Christian Research Journal. Hanegraaff lives in Southern California, with his wife, Kathy, and their eight children. ABOUT THE MANAGING EDITOR GRETCHEN PASSANTINO, co-director of Answers in Action, is an award-winning author and investigative journalist who has spent more than two decades in cult apologetics team ministry with her husband, Bob. She helped the late Dr. Walter Martin establish Christian Research Institute in California in 1974, and was his senior research consultant during the ministry’s formative California years. She worked with Dr. Martin on various book projects, including The New Cults and previous editions of The Kingdom of the Cults. She is best-known for Answers to the Cultist at Your Door, When the Devil Dares Your Kids, and Satanism, as well as for her investigative work regarding contemporary Satanism. ABOUT THE RESEARCH CONTRIBUTORS Each of the contributors to this updated and expanded edition have years of experience understanding, explaining, and defending the Christian faith, and each is thoroughly competent in the areas for which they provided revising, updating, editing, and/or content for this edition. Richard Abanes, Alan Gomes, Bill McKeever, Richard Mendoza, Bob Passantino, Gretchen Passantino, Cecil Price, and Kurt Van Gorden have remained faithful to the vision of Walter Martin while bringing The Kingdom of the Cults to the cutting edge of cult apologetics and scholarship today. Most of the contributors regard the late Dr. Martin as their mentor, and all look to his example as an able defender of the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). PUBLISHER’S INTRODUCTION While contemporary treatments of multiculturalism evoke images of a tossed salad rather than a melting pot, the proliferation of new religious movements with at least a veneer of Christianity was never greater. From the iconoclastic Branch Davidians of Waco, Texas, to the quiet secrecy of the Soldiers of the Cross, religious pluralism in competition with historic Christianity is at an all-time high. This thirtieth-anniversary edition of The Kingdom of the Cults proves the almost prophetic vision of the late Dr. Walter Martin, who warned that the cults were “the great mission field on the Church’s doorstep.” Today, more than ever, we need the insight of a mature Christian, master apologist, and comprehensive theologian to guide us into cult evangelism at the end of the century. Dr. Walter Martin died in 1989, after a ministry of almost forty years in cult apologetics. Holding four earned degrees, Dr. Martin was recognized as the leading authority in America on American cults. He was the author of a dozen books, many booklets, and uncounted articles. His Kingdom of the Cults is the standard reference work on American cults. He was founder and host of the internationally syndicated, live call-in radio talk program The Bible Answer Man, and founder, director, and president of the internationally recognized and acclaimed Christian Research Institute, which continues his vital work today. Dr. Martin taught at various seminaries and Bible colleges through the years and mentored many who have since become leaders in the counter-cult ministry field. He was deservedly called “the Father of cult apologetics.” This edition of The Kingdom of the Cults is both old and new. It epitomizes the best in classic cult apologetics pioneered and refined by Dr. Walter Martin. At the same time, it includes the best contemporary information about the onslaught of the cults in America and around the world today. Every effort has been made to maintain the integrity of the original volume. The eternal verities of Scripture are as central to this edition as in Walter Martin’s previous editions. The enduring heresies of the traditional cults are reinforced in this edition with contemporary references and documentation. Current statistics, practices, and beliefs are carefully explained and refuted from God’s Word. New cults not addressed in previous editions are fully examined and countered in this new edition. This volume reflects the godly spirit and scholastic brilliance of the late Dr. Walter Martin. His clarion call of thirty years ago should ring even louder today as the Christian church faces the new century with evangelistic urgency. GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION The revised, updated, and expanded thirtieth anniversary edition of The Kingdom of the Cults could not have been released at a more strategic time in church history. More than three decades ago, Walter Martin warned that cultism would have a devastating impact on the culture. Today cultism is having an equally devastating impact on the church. The line of demarcation between the kingdom of the cults and the kingdom of Christ is not only being blurred, it is being obliterated.