The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues by John P. Kildahl

Inside the Front Flap

"In the dimly lit fireside room of the First Presbyterian Church, a small circle of members quietly listen to their pastor say, 'The Lord is in your presence...Empty yourself of all other thoughts...let all your anxieties flow out of you...Open your mouth, and He will give you utterance.'" Witnessed by the author, this and many other examples of speaking in tongues form the basis of his examination of the phenomenon of glossolalia.

A spoken but unintelligible form of prayer described in the New Testament, speaking in tongues was confined to a few isolated sects until recently. Now it has found a way into mainline protestant and Roman Catholic churches, bringing spiritual exuberance to an increasing number while offending others.

Spurred by the controversy surrounding tongue-speaking, Dr. Kildahl, a psychotherapist, conducted interviews with tongue-speakers in depth over a period of ten years. Sponsored originally by the American Lutheran Church and later by the National Institute of Mental Health, he travelled coast to coast listening to tongue-speakers describe their practice, recording their utterances and observing their groups.

From Inside the Back Flap

From the most intensive firsthand study of the subject ever undertaken, he has written this account of the psychology of speaking in tongues.

Hearing tongue-speakers report their enhanced feelings of well-being, Dr. Kildahl investigated the relationship of the practice to mental health. Here he describes the crucial role of the tongue-speaking leader in the lives of those who adopt the practice from him, as well as the relationship of speaking in tongues to anxiety and spiritual crisis. He tells what he found about the interpretation of tongues and about the connections between tongue-speaking and hypnosis.

In this book Dr. Kildahl also surveys the historical background of speaking in tongues, beginning with biblical references and continuing to the current generation. Perspective is added through summaries of what other contemporary writers have said about the practice.

For observers of the religious scene, as well as for those familiar with tongue-speaking, Dr. Kildahl has written this sensitive and scientific account of an increasingly frequent religious experience.

Contents

Ch. 1 - A DESCRIPTION OF GLOSSOLALIA -- OR SPEAKING IN TONGUES: What is it?

The Sound of Glossolalia

How the Experience is Initiated

Ch 2 - HOW TONGUE-SPEAKERS DESCRIBE WHAT THEY DO

Eighteen Questions Answered

• How did you receive the gift of tongues?
• What was the first occasion of your speaking in tongues and who was with you at the time?
• What are the factors which must be present in order for you to speak in tongues?
• Is your tongue-speaking expressed in public or private? Is there any difference in what happens when speaking in tongues in solitude, in contrast to a group setting?
• Is there any particular sequence of thought or action which usually precedes speaking in tongues?
• Are there any physical, bodily movements connected with the experience of speaking in tongues?
• Please discuss the part of laying on of hands in tongue-speaking.
• Can you do this "at will"? Is it "accidental" at times?
• Can you shed any light on the question of how and/or why some people are able to speak in tongues and others are not?
• Is your tongue-speaking in another language spoken somewhere in the world or does the speaking consist of words and sounds which are not a part of any known language?
• Please comment on the part which the interpretation of tongues plays in your experience.
• Have there been changes in your personal and family life since you have spoken in tongues?
• What part does tongue-speaking play in your congregation?
• How has the congregation reacted to this gift?
• What can be done to ensure that tongue-speaking be used for the greatest possible mutual edification of all members of the church, both tongue-speakers and non-tongue-speakers?
• Are you aware of any abuses of the gift of tongues? Is it possible to differentiate between the gift of the Spirit and so-called 'false prophecy'?
• What is the relationship between tongues and other charismatic gifts, e.g., prophecy, healing, interpretation, etc.? What other gifts of the Spirit do you have?
• Is there anything you can add which will help us understand the gift of tongues?

Ch. 3 - HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: How much has glossolalia been practiced?

Biblical References

Early Church Fathers

The Middle Ages

Post-Reformation Era

The Twentieth Century

The Current Generation

Ch. 4 - SEVEN THEORIES

This chapter summarizes the views of seven authors on the spiritual and psychological factors related to glossolalia.

Ch. 5 - AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

Ego Psychology

Hypnosis

Five Research Hypotheses

The Research Procedure

Results of the Research

Interpretation and Discussion -- First Hypothesis

Second Hypothesis

Third and Fourth Hypotheses

Fifth Hypothesis

Ch. 6 - ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCES: Are Glossolalists Mentally Healthier Than Others or Less So?

Overall Mental Health

Personality Types

The Dependency Syndrome

Reliance on External Authority

The Pressure of the Leader

Regression

Hypnotizability

Ch. 7 - PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS IN THE GLOSSOLALIA EXPERIENCE

Anxiety Over a Life Crisis

Regression

The Maturity of the Person

The Magical Quality

The Place of the Irrational

Interpretation of Tongues

Feelings of Worthlessness

Jung's Theory

Ch. 8 - GROUP BEHAVIOUR AND THE GLOSSOLALIA EXPERIENCE

Divisiveness

Projection of Anger

Histrionic Display

Preoccupation with Glossolalia

Ch. 9 - UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Further Hypnotic Studies

Life Crises and the Onset of Glossolalia

Persons Who Cease Speaking in Tongues

The Group Dynamics of the Movement

Non Religious Glossolalia

Children's Use of Glossolalia

Neurological Questions

Ch. 10 - SUMMARIZING: Is it a Spiritual Gift?

A Subjective Sense of Well-Being

The Criticisms of the Non-Glossolalists

Is it a Spiritual Gift?

Just So You Know!

This book contains a 20 page bibliography with both books and articles written on this subject. Any and all information you would need about the practice of glossolalia is available to you. GET IN THE KNOW. Do a little research on your own. The information is out there. This book is available at www.amazon.com.

May God fill you with the Spirit of Truth so that you do not lie, believe lies, nor spread them.

DIVINE APPOINTMENTS

The above product was purchased at a Home Hardware. It was on display at the cash desk where I was making a purchase before leaving the store. I no longer live in Barrie but was in town on business for one day and happened to see this product for sale. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the name of the product because I had just finished my latest blog which was on the Psychology of Speaking in Tongues. I felt that this was a divine appointment and as you can see, I am putting it to good use.

Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steven Hassan

From the Foreword

The phone was frighteningly loud. The clock read 4:30 a.m. It was difficult to take in what a reporter from the Berkley Gazette was saying on the phone: "Margaret, I hate to bother you this early, but we have just learned that Jim Jones has decided to pull the trigger in Guyana. I've been here all night at a house in Berkley talking with ex-members of People's Temple and with relatives of persons down in Jonestown. There's a mother here whose husband and twelve-year-old son are down there and she is desperate. It is not known if everyone's dead or if there are survivors. I know I have told you not to work with ex-members of People's Temple because of the dangerous harassment that Jones' so-called "Angels" direct against former members. But these people need to talk with you and get some help with what has happened."

As daylight was breaking, I passed up the steps guarded by somber Berkeley police, as it was feared that Jones had left "hit orders" for members still in the area to wipe out defectors when he ordered the final "White Night," his term for the often rehearsed moment when he would have all his followers drink poison.

The reporter, my son (also a reporter), and a few police officers had warned me not to give my usual gratis consultation services to ex-People's Temple members, even though I had long given these services to former cultists. Jones allegedly used his "angels" to wreak vengeance against members who left and against their supporters as well.

The woman whose husband and young son were eventually identified as dead in Jonestown was only one of many. I spent hours and days meeting and talking with various survivors as they returned from Guyana to the Bay area and attempted to get their lives going again after the Guyanese holocaust. There were attorney Tim Stoen and his wife Grace, whose young son had been held captive by Jones and died in Jonestown. There were the members of the basketball team who missed the mass suicide-murder. There was a nine-year-old girl who had survived having had her throat slit by a woman who then killed herself in Georgetown, Guyana as part of Jones' mass death orders. There was Larry Layton, who faced courts in two countries, for allegedly carrying out Jones' orders at the airport in Guyana where Rep. Leo J. Ryan and others died.

I began to work with ex-cultists about six years before Jonestown and continue to do so til this day. I have provided psychological counselling to more than three thousand persons who have been in cults. I have written about some of this work and have talked with lay and professional groups in many countries about thought reform programs, intense indoctrination programs, cults, and related topics.

My interest in the effects of thought reform programs began when I worked at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research after the Korean War. At that point I met and worked with Edgar H. Shine, PH.D., Robert J. Lifton, M.D., and Louis J. West, M.D., pioneers in the study of the effects of intense indoctrination programs. I was involved in the follow-up studies of former prisoners of war, interviewed long-term prisoners of the Chinese, and participated over the years in much of the work on conceptualizing thought reform programs. As Steve Hassan does in this volume, I have repeatedly described the specific needs of persons who have been subject to such and have emphasized the lack of knowledge that most citizens as well as mental health professionals have about the processes, effects, and aftermath of being subjected to thought reform programs.

Steve Hassan has clearly and convincingly described how mind control is induced. He integrates his personal experience in a cult, and his practical skills developed in twelve years of exit-counselling of persons who have been in mind control situations with theories and concepts in the scientific literature. The book comes alive with real-life examples.

For the first time, an experienced exit-counsellor outlines step by step the actual methods, sequence, and framework of what he does and how he works with families and the person under mind control. He draws on the various scholarly works in the fields of thought reform, persuasion, social psychology, and hypnosis to offer theoretical frameworks for how mind control is achieved.

Exit-counselling is a new profession, and Steve Hassan has spelled out here a type of ethical, educational counselling which he and others have developed. He has devoted the time and has the literary skill and educational background to make this volume a major contribution. The reader is taken from Steve's first telephone contacts with desperate families to the final outcome of his interventions. These counselling techniques and tactics are socially and psychologically well worked out. They are ethical and growth-enhancing. While the need is great, there are few really adequately prepared and experienced exit-counsellors. They do not offer what psychologists and psychiatrists offer, nor can they be replaced by these or other mental health professions. Exit-counselling is a special field, one that demands specific knowledge, special techniques and methods and a high-level of skill.

This book should have a wide appeal. Anyone with a relative or friend who has become involved with a group using mind control procedures will find it useful. Any citizen can profit from seeing how vulnerable to influence we all are and learning that mind control exists -- that it is not a myth.

We must heed the potentially destructive and frightening impact that the use of mind control by selfishly motivated groups can have on the very fabric of a society. This book fills a need and deserves a wide audience.

Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D

Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychology

University of California, Berkeley, California

Recipient of the Leo J. Ryan Memorial Award

From the Back Cover

Cults are on the rise today, with recruitment practices targeting all segments of society, including the elderly. A former cult member and one of America's leading experts in counselling people involved in cults, Steven Hassan, exposes the troubling facts about destructive cults . . . and shows you how to:

• recognize the signs of a destructive organization
• protect yourself from psychological manipulation
• rescue a friend or loved one from a destructive cult -- without coercion
• overcome the residual problems of former cult membership

Steven Hassan has been involved in educating the public about destructive cults in America for more than fourteen years. He holds a master's degree in counselling psychology from Cambridge College.

What the Experts are Saying About Cult Mind Control

"Combatting Cult Mind Control combines superb research with authentic personal experience. The result is a remarkable achievement."

Rabbi A. James Rudin

Co-author of Prison or Paradise: The New Religious Cults

"Steve Hassan has demonstrated his openness and ability to bring a broad range of knowledge and scholarship to bear on vexing questions of cult methods and alternatives for intervention. The result is a significant contribution to public understanding of the modern reality of mind control and the widening dimensions of the cult experience."

Flo Conway & Jim Siegelman

Authors of Snapping and Holy Terror

"I strongly recommend Combatting Cult Mind Control. Cults are a major problem that affects more than a few people...Steve Hassan is a bright and superior person who has authored an important book..."

Steve Allen, Entertainer, Comedian, Songwriter

Creator of the original Tonight Show

Parent of an ex-cult member

Author of Beloved Son: A Story of the Jesus Cults

"I can think of no one more qualified than Steve Hassan for writing a book that explains in understandable and compelling terms what a truly serious and growing threat destructive cults pose for all of us. I only wish my family had known about the problem before it was too late. Steve's book should be required reading for every family in America [and Canada]."

Patricia Ryan, Lobbyist

Daughter of Congressman Leo J. Ryan (killed at Jonestown)

"The author probes beyond doctrine to uncover the thought control techniques common to many cults. Without this insight into the mental processes involved, a Christian worker can expend great effort trying to reach trapped individuals with no positive results."

David A. Reed

Christian Research Journal

"This book's practical value is enhanced by the author's extensive experience as a counsellor to concerned families following his own involvement in a well-know cult. It is both readable and informed by scholarship."

Ronald M. Enroth, Ph.D.

Author of The Jesus People, Why Cults Succeed Where the Church Fails,

A Guide to Cults & New Religions, and A Guide to Cults

"A valuable, well written book on a topic of genuine importance. Steve Hassan explains precisely how cults operate to control minds and, in the process, he provides sharp insights into how the influence process works in every day situations as well."

Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D.

Author of Influence

"...it is my hope that this book will reach many readers including parents of children in cults, ex-members, and the public at large...this work is a most crucial contribution to the understanding of cults and the prevention of their further destructive influence on our society."

Dr. Philip Abramowitz,

Director Interfaith Coalition of Concern About Cults

"Hassan is a master in the difficult task of opening closed minds. Anything he writes is on my book list concerning destructive religious practices."

Robert Watts Thornburg

Dean of Marsh Chapel

Chaplain to Boston University

"Anyone who has witnessed a loved one rapidly slip into the emotionally insulated and distant world of a cult, knows the extent and swiftness of its catastrophic effects. Few people understand the mechanisms by which these devastating seductions are systematically engineered by cult leaders. Steve Hassan knows from experience. Through his examples and analyses, we finally witness how cults work and learn how we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from them."

Stephen Josephs, Ed.D.

Psychologist

Founder of Massachusetts Institute of Neuro-Linguistic Programming

This book is available through www.amazon.com

Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies by Dave Breese

From the Introduction

There is a form of satanic activity that is more deadly than witchcraft. Serious damage has been done in naive personalities because of overt spiritualist activity, but far greater havoc has been wrought by another kind of satanism, the covert production and propagation of false doctrine. The enemy has produced a significant triumph when he can spread in our society a broad set of false views about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, sin, the purpose of life, and other imperative parts of Christian doctrine. For every one person who is subverted by Satan worship, thousands are enmeshed in Satan's more deadly trap: doctrinal error. People who are otherwise perfectly rational, who would not dream of attending a seance, are, nevertheless, the more thoroughly undermined simply because they believe the wrong thing.

Satan's trafficking in false doctrine is more dangerous than spiritism. Few inquiries could then be more helpful than to examine the doctrines of Satan in the hope of deliverance from his mind-destroying theology.

From the Back Cover

Satanic activity on earth takes many forms. His overt activities -- witchcraft, sorcery, and related occult practices -- are well-known in many circles. But more devastating may be his covert attacks on unsuspecting victims. While Satan's public activity has deceived millions, he has led astray other millions with false doctrine.

Satan's Ten Most Believable Lies describes ten of the enemy's false doctrines. Each chapter defines a satanic lie and compares it to the truth found in Scripture. Learn to avoid falling into the pit of deception, as well as how to fight each lie. Author Dave Breese reveals the truth about these ten satanic lies:

• God Is a Cosmic Sadist
• God Is a Liar
• Man Is God's Slave
• Man Serves God Only for Human Rewards
• Adversity Results in Turning from God
• This Life Is Everything
• God Is a Magician Working Miracles on Demand
• God's Promises Are for Our Worldly Profit
• Satan's Way Is the Best Way
• God Has No Purpose for Your Life

Active, strong resistance is the way to defeat Satan. Strengthen your faith and put on the armour of God to resist the pervading influence of false doctrine from the prince of darkness.

From Chapter 12 - The Question That Remains

...while evangelical Christianity has grown commendably in these years, it still possesses a major problem, spiritual vulnerability. Dozens of well-promoted cults and sects are experiencing a field day, in that they are able to beguile thousands of immature and naive Christians into their simplistic and pseudo-authoritarian religions. Spiritual carnage has resulted in the lives of multiplied thousands of babes in Christ, for want of a development in the use of the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. They have been subverted by Satan into sweet-sounding but false religions, only because of their lack of biblical knowledge.

Indeed, this is becoming a most serious problem within the church. Ours has been a generation of evangelism...today's media have made it possible for the eternal message to be brought to major segments of the population of the world...the problem is that the wide dissemination of seed sowing evangelism has been but fractionally matched by an equally wide teaching of sound, biblical doctrine. The consequence is that among the masses who claim to know Christ, there are relative few who are able to give a reason for the hope that is in them.

The presence of spiritual quickening along with the absence of strong doctrine has created the great problem in the church of our present age, cultic vulnerability. Like the Galatians, who began well in the faith but soon became re-enslaved to the law of Moses, Christians today are in danger of being victimized by one of the many clever systems that claim to be the full or the complete version of Christianity. Only a solid program of Bible study can prevent the spiritually naive from being beguiled away from the simplicity that is in Christ...

In whatever circumstances, the Christian watches and prays, for he knows that he is being relentlessly stalked by Satan, his determined foe. Transforming himself into a roaring lion, an angel of light, a grievous wolf, or even a loving friend, his enemy is the fateful hunter so long as this human life shall last -- which is not forever. We are taught that the day is coming in which Satan and his cohorts shall be cast into the lake of fire, forever banished from the presence of God and from the possibility of plaguing the steps of the Christian...

This book may be purchased at www.amazon.com.

The Health and Wealth Gospel by Bruce Barron

From the Back Cover:

"Name it and claim it!"

"God wants you rich!"

"God wants you well!"

These are the voices of a movement that is shaping the faith of millions of people today. Where did the faith teachers come from? What are they saying? Is it biblical? Is it dangerous?

Bruce Barron probes the teachings of prominent preachers like Charles Capps, Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland. Can we have whatever we ask from God? Can we see a hundredfold return on our kingdom investments? Is sickness a sign of lack of faith? These and other claims are examined fully and fairly. The story Barron tells is one of both triumph and tragedy, insight and error -- a movement that has ignited the faith of some and provoked the ire of others.

Here's a book that is sure to spark debate and disagreement about this controversial movement.

Bruce Barron is an independent researcher, writer and observer of the charismatic movement in addition to his work in the publications department of the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Contents:

Ch. 1 - First Encounters

Ch. 2 - A Twist of Faith: The Hobart Freeman Story

Ch. 3 - The Roots of the Health and Wealth Gospel

Ch. 4 - Faith or Fancy?

Ch. 5 - Does God Want You Healthy?

Ch. 6 - Does God Want You Wealthy?

Ch. 7 - Name and Claim It

Ch. 8 - Does the Bible Really Say That?

Ch. 9 - The Faith Teachings in Real Life

Ch. 10 - Seeing What is Really There?

The book is available at www.amazon.com.

Why Does God Allow Suffering? by Dr. Brad Burke

Introduction - Were You Away Then?

I stood motionlessly by her graveside, asking the inescapable question: Why?

When life hurts, helplessness often takes over the helm and routine and pleasure jump ship. The loss of a beloved child, a soul mate, a sacrificing parent, or an endeared grandparent abruptly halts the mellow voyage of life, transforming the shimmering waves of happiness into towering waves of sorrow. Nothing we do, nothing we say, nothing we possess can bring our loved ones back. Memories both comfort and pain us. Questions both flee and haunt us. Answers both calm and anger us.

Often it isn't long before we find ourselves overboard, fighting to stay afloat amid the dark and foreboding waters of despair. Sometimes the waters are familiar to us, but no friendlier. We've survived them before. We've gone down time and again ... and somehow found the strength to resurface -- gasping for answers. But each time is a little different. Every crashing wave of grief pounds us into the ocean floor a little differently, contorting, spinning, and tumbling us head over heels, stopping just long enough to allow us to resurface so it can pound us again.

Perhaps you've never experienced the heart-rending loss of someone close to you. But make no mistake, in life's game of hide-and-seek, suffering will eventually find you; it's only a matter of time. The only place one can safely hide is in the grave. And for those who have rejected God, even this is an illusion. Your unutterable suffering may be a devastating divorce, a child with cerebral palsy, an unrelenting ache deep in your back, abandonment by your mother or father, the ruinous loss of your cherished possessions in a fire, or the painful memories of abuse suffered as a child. Professor and author, Dr. Edward Kuhlman, (no connection to the faith healer Kathryn Kuhlman), who lost his sixteen-year old son to cancer, bared his soul in his book An Overwhelming Interference. " No one escapes life without experiencing pain," wrote Kuhlman "although many become preoccupied with attempts to alleviate it. Pain is the overriding, inexplicable condition of life."

Indeed, pain and adversity hold no prejudices. A good friend of mine, in his capacity with the Canadian government, had the rare opportunity to meet Princess Diana on one of her last visits to Canada. Shielded from the press, he met with the Princess and described her as personable, shy, soft spoken, down-to-earth, -- yet restless. She asked my friend and his fiance about their upcoming wedding plans, making the comment about how expensive weddings are these days (a bit funny considering the cost of her own wedding). And she laughingly joked about sneaking away from the press outside to get a few beers with him and his officers. My friend said she came across as a "very normal person," and he remarked, "In hindsight, I wonder if at some level in her genuine desire to discuss our 'boring plain lives' she wasn't longing for that." Maybe the Princess really was just like the average person in many ways. The world's favourite Princess battled bulimia, wrestled with feelings of insecurity, experienced family feuds, and lived through a broken marriage. And at the age of thirty-seven her seemingly "fairy-tale life" reached the final line in the final chapter in a tragic Paris car crash. Even the most popular of England's royal family -- the most popular and well-loved person in the world at that time -- could not escape the vice-grip of pain, suffering, and death.

As I stood by my grandmother's graveside, staring blankly at her suspended coffin, the question was grinding through my head: Why? Toward the end of her life, my grandmother's final dream was to hold in her arms her first great-grandchild. When my sister became pregnant for the first time, you can imagine just how excited my grandmother became. She knew that her dream would be realized in a matter of months. But less than two weeks before my sister gave birth to her first baby boy, Joshua, my grandmother, at the age of seventy-two, died of cancer.

The minister at her funeral remarked that one life was ending and in a short time another would be beginning. The words left an indelible mark on my consciousness and I wondered to myself, Why? God? My grandmother faithfully served and worshipped You for decades, and You couldn't give her just two more weeks to see her first great-grandchild? You allowed Simeon, the righteous and devout saint, to live until he could hold the Messiah (see Luke 2:25-35). Why, God, couldn't you have spared her life for fourteen more days? It would have meant so much to her. We weren't demanding a miracle -- just two weeks. How hard would that have been?

But, as in Job's situation, God never answered our questions. My grandmother courageously battled breast cancer undergoing a mastectomy and the painful aftermath of radiation --only to find later that she was filled with more cancer from an unknown source. The explosively dividing cancer cells finally won out. The pain and abdominal bloating grew intense. And she spent her final days on morphine in the hospital where I had trained during medical school.

She was my last living grandparent and there was nothing she wouldn't do for me. But in the end, I couldn't even be there for her. I was isolated three thousand miles away in Los Angeles, working day and night in my surgery residency. One summer evening, my uncle called to tell me she had passed away. The director of the Cedar's Sinai Medical Center surgery program kindly allowed me some time off and I flew back to Canada for her funeral.

When one life is suddenly cut short, unanswerable questions inevitably surface. When millions of innocent lives are suddenly snuffed out -- as in a holocaust -- someone has to be blamed. I remember visiting the site of the World War II Nazi Mauthausen concentration camp in the Austrian countryside where an estimated 120,000 - 180,000 men, women and children died in one of history's ugliest scenes. I walked up the 186 stone steps known as "The Stairs of Death," where undernourished prisoners were forced to march up with huge granite blocks on their backs, some weighing more than seventy-five pounds, sometimes the blocks would slip off their backs crushing the bones of those struggling behind. The tortured prisoners were forced to climb up and down the steps until they died. I gazed down into the rock quarry where many prisoners were pushed to their deaths from the jagged cliff 100 - 150 feet above. Even Auschwitz captives were horrified at the thought of ending up at Mauthausen.

I stood in the basement gas chamber where the SS had herded 120 at a time to be gassed to death. I ran my hands over the dissecting table where SS doctors performed grotesque "experiments" on live patients. I gazed into the crematorium where tens of thousands of bodies were disposed of. I stood on the roll-call square where men, women, and children were shot and clubbed to death -- some mauled by dogs. Selected individuals were stripped naked, doused with icy water and left to freeze to death in the bitter cold.

Most of those who died at the hands of the Nazis were Jews, numbering approximately six million in total. Since the holocaust, convicting fists have been shaken at God for allowing one of the most heinous crimes in history to unfold. The Jews were God's chosen people -- His selected ambassadors to the world; but where was God in their suffering? Where was God in these horrible, unimaginable atrocities? Where was Jehovah when the SS officers were clubbing, gassing, shooting and torturing millions of Jews to death -- exterminating them like ants with the goal of developing a "Master race"? No wonder little Cindy Ellen wrote to God in her letter, "Did you know about this? Were You away then?"

Most of us probably have never sat down to write an actual letter to God. But if we did, I think a good number of us would pour out our hearts to the Almighty like the patriarch Job telling God how much we are suffering and that we've done nothing to deserve it. And like Cindy Ellen, we might ask God the very same questions: "Did You know about this? Were You away then?"

Where is God in my suffering? Perhaps no other question has bewildered, disheartened and angered saints more. Maybe this is the one unanswered question you've been asking all along on your journey. How can we reconcile in our minds an all-powerful, loving heavenly Father who would allow His children to suffer to such awful extremes? Why would God take the life of my loved one? And why does God seem so distant when I need Him the most? These tough questions could very well have been the catalyst that led you to pick up this book.

...Many of these answers are provided for us throughout the pages of Scripture. God often shares with us in an intimate manner what He is thinking. The problem is, we sometimes behave like little children, holding our hands over our ears, pretending we can't hear Him. More often, though, we act like grown adults. The answers in God's Word are so contrary to our humanistic reasoning, we automatically assume they can't be right. But these are all reasons why God lovingly gave us the Bible. If we could intuitively figure out all the answers to the really tough questions on suffering, why would we need His supernatural revelation?

I must forewarn you that the upcoming material may be a little disturbing. You may even find yourself becoming rather irritated or even downright angry with me. I totally understand....God's truth surrounding suffering is certainly not easy to comprehend. The message of this book will be very difficult to accept...but ultimately freeing. For the truth will set you free from the guilt, discouragement, anxiety, bitterness, anger, and confusion you may be experiencing in your suffering...

The fact of suffering undoubtedly

constitutes the single greatest

challenge to the Christian faith.

--John Stott

Contents

Ch. 1 - Suffering: God's Will or the Devil's

Ch. 2 - The "Sovereignty of Satan" Lie

Ch. 3 - When Our Children Die

Ch. 4 - "You Have a Lot of Explaining to do, God?"

Ch. 5 - Is God Punishing Me?

Ch. 6 - The Ultimate Reason We Suffer

Ch. 7 - Seeing the Complete Sunset

Ch. 8 - Solomon's Clues

This book may be purchased at www.amazon.com.

Know the Marks of Cults by Dave Breese

From the Back Cover

How to cope with cults?

There are so many of them . . . all different.

Who has time to study all their weird doctrines in order to refute them?

Here is a better way.

No need to get bogged down in the details of this or that cult. No need to debate the fine points in the original Greek and Hebrew. No need to fight over the interpretation of obscure passages of Scripture.

Each cult is guilty of one or more certain characteristic doctrinal errors. Once you know what these typical errors are, you can know what's basically wrong with a cult, whatever weird or seemingly rational form it may take. Awareness of these characteristics can help you spot creeping errors among true Christians too . . . maybe save you from going astray.

Knowing the Marks of Cults.

They miss the mark.

Don't you.

Introduction

We are living in a day when many are attempting to move beyond Christianity.

Because of the myths of progress in vogue today, the word (beyond) has a certain appeal. Something that is forever fixed and changeless seems in the minds of some to be stodgy and undynamic. In this existential age, things must forever progress, engined by the dynamism of a newly discovered life-force in our time. The prevailing emotion of this civilization is not love or hate or anything so activistic; it is boredom. We demand new fascinations to feed our ever-shortening spans of interest.

This demand for new fascinations has led many to try to move beyond the faith once delivered to the saints to something newer (and therefore presumably truer) and more exciting. I will always be grateful for the words of Dr. Eastburg, my philosophy professor at Northern Seminary, who said, "If it's new, it isn't true; and if it's true, it isn't new."

Christianity should not be thought of as a stone wall behind which we cannot get. It is rather the highest mountain top beyond which it is downhill no matter which way one goes. There is nothing greater, nothing higher, and certainly nothing more magnificent than the mountaintop of divine revelation in Scripture and in Jesus Christ. To move beyond that mountaintop in the pursuit of something better is to lose one's self in the crags and crevices of the slopes that fall away from real Christianity. And beyond the crevices of heresy are the fever swamps of the cults, where the serpents and the scorpions wait. Beyond rationality is insanity, beyond medicine is poison, beyond sex is perversion, beyond fascination is addiction, beyond love is lust, beyond reality is fantasy.

Just so, beyond Christianity is death, hopelessness, darkness and heresy.

Nevertheless, people continue to be offered those side paths whose ultimate direction is downward. The increasingly complicated religious situation of our time is producing an explosion of the strangest religious concoctions ever brought to the mind of man.

This book is presented with the hope and prayer that it will be used to point out those errors most characteristic of the cults of our time. It is not really a study of the cults themselves; they are deserving of no such attention. It is rather an expression of hope that we may develop the spiritual facility to recognize instantly the marks of the cults. This will save us the bother and expense of further involvement.

We may also note that the same characteristics of religions that are out-and-out cults can have beginning tendencies within the true Church of Christ. The recognition of those characteristics which may be cultic, coupled with their early correction, may prevent future spiritual tragedy.

Writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul suggested that they examine themselves to be sure that they are "in the faith" (2 Cor. 13:15). This admonition, coupled with the warning that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1), should be cause enough for each of us to make careful doctrinal examination of himself.

The clear teaching of Scripture is that if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged by God (1 Cor. 11:31-32). When one corrects his course in time, he shortens the process of sometimes painful spiritual correction. The absence of doctrinal correction produces spiritual ruin. How many disillusioned Christians have stood amid the broken pieces of their shattered lives and said, "If only I had known. Why did not someone warn me in time?"

It is our prayer that our pages will bring a timely warning.

Contents

Ch. 1 - Why Do Cults Prosper?

Ch. 2 - Extra-Biblical Revelation

Ch. 3 - A False Basis of Salvation

Ch. 4 - Uncertain Hope

Ch. 5 - Presumptuous Messianic Leadership

Ch. 6 - Doctrinal Ambiguity

Ch. 7 - The Claim of "Special Discoveries"

Ch. 8 - Defective Christology

Ch. 9 - Segmented Biblical Attention

Ch. 10 - Enslaving Organizational Structure

Ch. 11 - Financial Exploitation

Ch. 12 - Denunciation of Others

Ch. 13 - Syncretism

Ch. 14 - What Shall We Do?

This book can be purchased through www.amazon.com

Reckless Faith by John F. MacArthur

From the Back Cover

"Unless I am convinced by

Scripture and plain reason,

my conscience is captive

to the Word of God."

- Martin Luther

Scripture and reason -- the two together comprise the formula for true discernment. Yet in many North American churches, reason has been abandoned for something more digestible: faith that feels good. It is what Pastor John F. MacArthur calls "reckless faith" -- and it leads people away from the one true God.

Because of it, numerous Christians have lost their way, they've given up absolute truth in favour of blind, uncritical trust. Replaced black-and-white, foundational doctrine with clouded belief systems. They've even come to view reason and doctrine with contempt -- as if spiritual truth were supposed to bypass the mind altogether.

In the wake of such emotion-based "faith," the church is losing its ability to discern right from wrong. And it is leaving itself defenseless against false teaching.

But there is still time for the church to turn around. Still time for a return to discernment -- if Christians will "incline their hearts to understanding" and begin to use their hearts, their minds and the unchanging Word of God to determine the truth that endures forever.

Inside the Front Cover

"...Spiritual truth is meant to be rationally contemplated, examined logically, studied, analyzed, and employed as the only reliable basis for making wise judgments. That process is precisely what Scripture calls discernment."

In a society that is hostile to anyone who declares absolutes, that tolerates faith in any form, that values emotion over reason and trendiness over conviction, it's no surprise that many North American churches have lost their ability to discern between Biblical truth and doctrinal error.

Such emotional, reckless "faith" inevitably leads to Spiritual disaster, taking its followers on a dangerous journey that leaves them defenseless against false teaching.

Reckless Faith is a plea for discernment. A plea from God's Word -- and from the heart of pastor and best-selling author John F. MacArthur -- for Christians, and the church itself, to return to the truth.

This book takes a serious historical look at where many Christians have gone wrong, and explains in-depth the point at which faith becomes "reckless." It also gives a clear prescription for how the church can return to discernment, and offers a detailed discussion of the fundamentals of Christian belief -- all of which can help concerned believers formulate a biblical response to contemporary trends like fundamentalist political activism, forging links with Roman Catholics, and the animal rights movement.

Spiritual discernment begins with God's Word. But authentic faith cannot bypass the mind. It requires that we engage our intellect as well: "As Christians, we need not fear to use our rational faculties. We need not distrust sound logic. We need not -- we dare not -- abandon reason...For when a church loses its will to discern between sound doctrine and error, between good and evil, between truth and lies, that church is headed for spiritual crisis."

Contents

Ch. 1 - The War Against Reason

Ch. 2 - The Rise of Reckless Faith

Ch. 3 - The Biblical Formula for Discernment

Ch. 4 - What are the Fundamentals of Christianity

Ch. 5 - Evangelicals and Catholics Together

Ch. 6 - Laughing Till it Hurts

Ch. 7 - Looking for Truth in All the Wrong Places

Appendix 1 - Is Roman Catholicism Changing

This book may be purchased at www.amazon.com or through John F. MacArthur's website.