I finished reading this book and wanted to tell you about it.

I first found "The Bible Answer Man" in 1990 or 1991 when I caught the show on KKLA 99.5 FM (Los Angeles), running in the 3 p.m. hour.  Friday shows were tapes of the late Walter Martin, the original "Bible Answer Man", who had passed away in 1989, lecturing on topics like The Watchtower (Jehovah’s Witnesses), Mormonism, Christian Scientists, the New Age movement, the Occult, Atheism, Mary, and more. I had never heard anything like it. Here was this guy detailing the methods and doctrines of the leaders of groups and movements and contrasting them with the orthodox interpretation of the Bible, and defining and defending the essential doctrines of the Christian faith in a logical, linear, researched way.*

Even though I never was able to see him in person, and to this day I've never even seen more than a couple of photographs of him, Walter Martin has had an enormous impact on my life, not only through the recordings of him teaching, but through his books, including the groundbreaking The Kingdom of the Cults.  Through his writings, his informative, entertaining lectures, and his radio talk show, he inspired countless subsequent countercult and Christian apologetics researchers, writers, and speakers.  He was extremely effective at clarifying exactly how various world religions, cults and religious movements and practices deviated from orthodox Christianity, and why we should practice Christianity and reject the others.

Now Martin is listed as the author of a new book that forms an excellent companion volume to The Kingdom of the Cult – The Kingdom of the Occult.  Now how did that happen?  Did Martin dictate this book from beyond the grave?  No.  In fact, the book will explain exactly why that isn't possible.  However, the co-authors, Kurt Van Gorden and Martin's daughter, Jill Martin Rische, used Martin’s lectures, writings, and notes and augmented them with more research and writing to coalesce everything into this timely look at the occult.

Occult practices have infiltrated pop culture, inspired what seems like half of what is found on the shelves in mainstream bookstores, and the lives of many people who identify themselves as Christians.  Some occult practices are presented today as harmless, some as enlightening, some as chic.  This book explains the difference between occult practices and the knowledge gained therein, and Biblical teachings and practices; and why they are not harmless, nor enlightening...even the ones that are chic.

The bottom line is that anything truly supernatural that is going on in occult practices is the work of evil beings.  Now, this is not one of those books that sees a demon behind every rock.  However, it does not make the opposite error and deny the existence of demons (fallen angels, including Satan), or their ability to mislead and torment human beings.  As the book explains, most of that torment is invited by human beings through voluntary involvement with the occult.

There is no need to seek special knowledge from occultic practices.  God has given us what we need: our mind and senses (and a privileged planet where we can use those in scientific inquiry to find many answers), the Bible and the ministry of Jesus, the Holy Spirit to indwell us, the Church (the entire body of all Christians), and angels.  I think it is safe to say that most people who identify as Christians who seek answers in the occult haven't exhausted the knowledge waiting to be discovered in the Bible they already have.

This is a great reference work for anyone who wants to know the difference between Biblical teachings and practices and those of the occult, or for anyone who claims to be a Christian.

The hardcover book is over 700 pages, including a Bibliography and an Index.  It it can be read straight through, or one can refer to certain chapters that are relevant to one's life – though I recommend at least reading the opening and closing chapters before putting it on your shelf for later reference.  Some of the topics covered include paganism, Kabbalah, Eastern mysticism, New Age, psychic phenomena, astrology, UFOs, Satanism, goddess worship, witchcraft, wicca, and demons (including possession and exorcism).

As I said, the book does not take the view that demons are behind every woe we face or every lie propagated.  It does make a distinction between mental illness of natural origins as opposed to demonic influence or possession, and between illusions for entertainment and actual supernatural displays.  The book also makes the case that true Christians can encounter demons and be harassed by them, but never possessed by them.

I highly recommend it as a resource.  It sure was nice to "hear" from Walter Martin again.


*Because of his work and its effectiveness and influence, Martin became a target for those he exposed.  Their attacks on him, however, do little to effectively counter his demonstrations of the errors committed in their teachings.  While it is understandable that they seek to protect the reputation of their founders by attacking Walter Martin, because without their founding "prophet" their group loses meaning and authority - Christianity is about Christ, not about Walter Martin, so attacks on Martin do nothing to change the truth about what he demonstrated.

I realize that Townhall.com is mainly about conservatism, not Christian doctrine and practice, and that we have a wide variety of participants here, some of whom are likely to want to attack my praise of Martin.  But I believe we can disagree on theology and religious practice and whether or not your religious leaders were/are right, and still work effectively together to promote conservatism in politics and governing.

The founders of our form of government deliberately adopted the First Amendment to recognize that we have a God-given (or natural) right to free speech, and to encourage the examination of ideas through public discourse.

Yet, there are many ways people with something to hide seek to thwart free speech, including abusing copyright laws meant to prevent the theft of intellectual property, not to stifle criticism of ideas communicated through media.

Jill Martin Rische has written a book called The Kingdom of the Occult to examine occultic practices and the organizations and individuals who promote them, and to compare occultic practices and the ideas derived from them to what the Bible teaches.

The book is going through the fact-checking, approval and permissions processes and so it hasn’t been published yet.  Apparently, Mrs. Rische is having some trouble thanks to those who will do anything to prevent us from having a critical reference work about their practices and teachings.  You would think people would be happy to have their own teachings distributed to a wider audience, but apparently they don’t if the person discussing them doesn’t agree with those teachings.  It is very telling that they are trying to prevent analysis of their teachings.

I am eagerly awaiting the book, based on how useful I found The Kingdom of Cults, originally written by Mrs, Rische’s father, Dr. Walter Martin.  Kingdom the Cults was a groundbreaking work examining various cults, especially their contrasts to Christian doctrine and practice.  As such, it became an important source for researchers looking for information on cults and a helpful tool for Christians who wanted to know what the differences were between Christianity and any given cult.

It is worth noting here that Dr. Martin was a skilled (and entertaining) lecturer and teacher, mentoring and inspiring countless subsequent countercult and Christian apologetics researchers, writers, and speakers.  He was extremely effective at clarifying exactly how various world religions, cults and religious movements deviated from orthodox Christianity, and why we should practice Christianity and reject the others.  Because of his work and its effectiveness and influence, Martin became a target for cultists.  Their attacks on him, however, do little to effectively counter his demonstrations of the errors committed in the teachings of the cults.  While it is understandable that cultists seeks to protect the reputation of their founders by attacking Walter Martin, because without their founding “prophet” their cult loses meaning - Christianity is about Christ, not about Walter Martin, so attacks on Martin do nothing to change the truth about what he demonstrated: that their cult’s founders and successors have mislead them.

I realize that Townhall.com is mainly about conservatism, not Christian doctrine and practice, and that we have a wide variety of participants here, some of whom are likely to want to attack my praise of Martin.  But I believe we can disagree on theology and practice and whether or not your religious leaders were/are right, and still work effectively together to promote conservatism in politics and governing.