Summary Of Kingdom Of The Cults By Walter Martin

In 1966, Walter Martin wrote a book called the Kingdom of the Cults which detailed major cults and their belief systems, including ‘Christian’ cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. One of the more interesting takeaways from the book was that every cult that exists today finds a way to effectively and knowledgeably explain away and deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Their faith is based on hearsay, experiential ‘wisdom,’ wrong knowledge, bad scholarship, or no scholarship at all. Since humans are created as rational beings with brain function and thought processes, real faith in any deity – especially Jesus Christ - is not blind, but involves rational mental assent, achieved physically through a neurological brain interface akin to a connect-the-dots

For all intents and purposes, a Christian’s rational faith is based on the written word – the text – that originated in the ancient near east. Therefore, a proper understanding of the text, how we parse it, how we understand variants, the effect of Semitic languages, and a multitude of other things is of the utmost importance. Otherwise, similar to a cult, it’s a lot easier to hug our own delusions unto our own damnation. Indeed, for cult members, the delusion is just as powerful in its effect as the truth. And effective truth dictates conduct. To quote Neil Lightfoot, “The end of all knowledge is conduct.” Therefore,

These are: (1) The older reading is to be preferred, because it is closer to the original. Put another way, a manuscript or fragment of a document dated 200 years earlier than a later manuscript is closer to the original thought patterns, worldview, and intentions of the original ancient writer. (2) The more difficult reading is to be preferred, because scribes were more apt to smooth out difficult readings. In other words, human beings have the tendency to harmonize harder concepts to be inclusive of and capture the mind of all readers. The idea was that if a text was a more difficult read, it had probably not been modified. (3) The shorter reading is to be preferred, because copyists were more apt to insert new material than omit part of the sacred text. The reading that best explains the other variants is to be preferred. In other words, the quality of the text is much better than a ‘wordy’ quantity. (4) The reading with the widest geographical support is to be preferred, because such manuscripts or versions are less likely to have influenced each other. The Gospels are an example. Matthew wrote to the Jews. Mark wrote to the Romans. Luke wrote to the Greeks. Different