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Harvest House Publishers, Inc. - Bruce Bickel , Stan Jantz

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158 pages

English

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Why are there so many religions? Do they basically teach the same thing? Bruce and Stan address these questions and more as they take a close look at some of the world's major religions and belief systems. From Islam to Jehovah's Witnesses and from New Age Spirituality to Atheism, Darwinism, and Naturalism, World Religions and Cults 101 featureskey teachings of each religionquick-glance belief chartsbrief biographies of leadersstudy questions for group or individual usesuggested readingReaders will also discover why spiritual searching is universal, how each religion compares to Christianity, the characteristics of cults, and what makes Christianity unique.Formerly titled Bruce & Stan's Guide to Cults, Religions, and Spiritual Beliefs

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Harvest House Publishers, Inc.
Date de parution	01 mars 2005
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780736968621
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0692€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved.
CHRISTIANITY 101 is a registered trademark of Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz. Harvest House Publishers, Inc., is the exclusive licensee of the federally registered trademark CHRISTIANITY 101.
Cover by Left Coast Design, Portland, Oregon
Cover illustration Krieg Barrie Illustration
WORLD RELIGIONS AND CULTS 101
Formerly titled Bruce Stan s Guide to Cults, Religions, and Spiritual Beliefs
Copyright 2002 by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bickel, Bruce, 1952-
[Bruce Stan s guide to cults, religions, spiritual beliefs]
World religions and cults 101 / Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz.
p.cm.-(Christianity 101)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7369-1263-1 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-6862-1 (eBook)
1. Religions. 2. Cults. I. Title: World religions and cults one hundred one. II. Title: World religions and cults one hundred and one. III. Jantz, Stan, 1952-IV. Title. V. Series.
BL80.3.B53 2005
200-dc22
2004020038
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
Contents
About the Authors
About Our Adviser
A Note from the Authors
Introduction
Part I: One-God Religions
1. Christianity: All About Jesus
2. Judaism: A Chosen People, Place, and Purpose
3. Islam: It s All About Allah
Part II: Blended Beliefs
4. Mormonism: The One True Church?
5. Jehovah s Witnesses: A View from the Watchtower
6. The Mind Sciences: A New Way of Thinking
Part III: Philosophical Religions
7. Hinduism: All Is One
8. Buddhism: From Ignorance to Enlightenment
9. Eastern Philosophies: Much More than Just Religious Stuff
Part IV: No-God Beliefs
10. New Age Spirituality: A Little of This and a Little of That
11. Atheism, Darwinism, and Naturalism: Imagine a World Without God
Part V: Practicing Your Religion
12. What Do You Do with What You Believe?
Additional Resources
About the Authors
Bruce Bickel is an attorney who specializes in estate planning and trust law. He is also a corporate motivational speaker whose ministry involvements include preaching and speaking at Christian conferences.
Stan Jantz managed a chain of Christian retail stores for more than 25 years. Currently he is a marketing consultant and a partner in a community-building software company.
Together Bruce and Stan have written more than 50 books with more than 2 million copies sold.
About Our Adviser
Dr. Craig Hazen, associate professor of comparative religion and Christian apologetics at Biola University, is the adviser for World Religions and Cults 101. Throughout this book you will find Dr. Hazen s comments and insights, which are marked with the heading, Dr. Hazen Adds He received his Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara. As the founder and director of the Master of Arts program in Christian apologetics at Biola, Dr. Hazen has lectured worldwide on the historical reliability of Scripture, religion and science, and Christianity among world religions. He is the author of numerous articles and books, and is the editor of the scholarly journal Philosophia Christi.
A Note from the Authors
L et s get it out in the open, right up front. We are fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. In the spectrum of world religions and spiritual beliefs, that puts us smack-dab in the middle of Christianity. There. Now we said it. No one can accuse us of pretending to be objective while surreptitiously concealing an innate bias.
Perhaps you are a reader who has a different spiritual point of view (or none at all yet). If so, you might be worried that our prejudice will affect our objectivity. We don t blame you for being worried at the outset. But let us assure you that while your opinions may differ, our purposes are aligned with yours:
You don t want to read a one-sided, intolerant, discriminatory tirade against other faiths. And we don t want to write a book like that.
You are interested in an impartial, unbiased explanation of various religious viewpoints. So are we.
Is it possible for two guys who strongly believe in one faith to write objectively about other religions? We think so, and we have done our absolute best to maintain our neutrality so you can evaluate the various religions for yourself. (Hey, Bruce is a lawyer, so his career is all about presenting the good points of a case he doesn t necessarily believe in. And Stan s background is in retail marketing, so he knows the benefits of comparative shopping.)
But rather than trying to impress you with our efforts to maintain a neutral perspective, perhaps you will be most relieved if we just tell you why we wrote this book. Here is our purpose, plain and simple: to provide an understandable overview of predominant religions and spiritual beliefs (with a little sense of humor thrown in along the way). That s it. We are not attempting to convert, cajole, or coax you into Christianity. Yes, we think that you ought to give the spiritual dimension of your life serious consideration. But no, we don t want to force or trick you into what we believe. We are proponents of information, but we oppose indoctrination. The choices you make ought to be your own.
We might get a little flak from the Christian community for suggesting that you consider other religions along with Christianity. (It won t be the first time we have invited a little criticism upon ourselves.) But there are already too many books that try to force a certain religion on you. This isn t going to be another one of them.
If your purpose in reading this book is to find a faith of your own, that s great. We re glad that we could help you get started. But don t stop here. Use this book as a springboard to further investigation and analysis. Our goal is to get you thinking about spiritual matters. We hope we accomplish that.
Introduction
What s Ahead
Every single person thinks about God. Now, he or she may picture God as-
an impersonal force that infuses every part of the universe, or
a spirit that inhabits every person like a kind of divine light, or
a powerful Creator who made the universe and then took a long vacation, never to return, or
a personal spirit being who made the universe and then stayed very involved, or
something that doesn t exist at all.
But in one way or another everyone has a God idea. We don t know you very well (yet), but we suspect that you probably fall somewhere into one of those categories. It s also likely that when God comes to your thoughts,
you already know what you believe, but you would like to know more; or
you aren t really sure if your belief in God is the right one, but it s working, so you re going to stick with what you believe (for now); or
you are open to beliefs about God other than your own because you ve been told that one God idea is as good as another; or
you are very sure you have the right belief, but you would like to know more about what other people believe so you can relate to them.
Notice that each of these God idea descriptions contain the word believe or belief. There s a reason for that. All people accept the fact that something is true or real, even if they aren t sure what that something is. That s what belief is. So far that sounds pretty ordinary, but believe us, belief can get pretty exciting because it goes to the heart of who you are. As a human being, you don t just believe in the obvious, such as your own existence. You think on a much higher level. You want to know
Why are you here?
How did you get here?
How do you fit into the world?
When your life is over, where do you go?
That s what belief is all about-answering these questions about life and what it means. Somewhere in the process of finding the answers to these questions, most people hope they will find some kind of ultimate reality, otherwise known as God. And that s why religions exist in the first place. They are human attempts to sort out and answer those questions every person asks, and then to put the answers into some sort of belief system.
What This Book Is All About
This is a book about the world s most important cults, religions, and spiritual beliefs.
Since four-fifths of the people living on earth today practice some kind of religion, we figure there is a pretty good market for a book like this. Of course, we re just two ordinary guys from California, so you may wonder how our book is going to relate to someone practicing Zen Buddhism in the Himalayan foothills. Not to worry! We don t have to relate to the Buddhist in China. We ve got plenty of Buddhists right here in our home state, along with a number of Hindus and Muslims and people who practice hundreds of other religions and belief systems.
The Religious Population of the World * (In thousands)
Christians (total)
1,955,229
Roman Catholics
981,465
Protestants
404,020
Orthodox
218,350
Anglicans
69,136
Other Christians
282,258
Muslims
1,126,325