Edited by Eric Mason, this book is a collection of essays written by church leaders to address the rise of modern-day cults. A useful apologetic tool, the contributors highlight issues that primarily apply in Western nations, such as the US and UK. It touches on how cults use cultural familiarity or a sense of identity to draw in certain communities, specifically the Black community.
The main premise of the book is this: with the rise of Bible-based cults and online fellowships, more discernment is needed to distinguish between a biblically faithful, gospel-preaching church and a cult that twists the scriptures away from their true meaning.
To achieve this, Urban Apologetics splits the groups that it addresses into different categories, ranging from those that have cult-ish tendencies to traditional cults, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, the prosperity gospel and white nationalism. The one thing they all have in common, however, is that they misuse the Bible (or a version of it) to preach a counterfeit gospel.
On top of identifying different cults and cultish groups, the book also shares ways to evangelise and communicate the true gospel message to people involved in such organisations with “gentleness and respect”, as encouraged in 1 Peter 3:15.
The book’s layout helpfully compares the cult beliefs discussed in each chapter against the orthodox Christian perspective, so readers can see what the Bible says for themselves.
Given that this is a work of theology, the book does employ some technical terms such as ‘eschatological’. But it is not filled with incomprehensible terminology, instead it is a thorough approach to dealing with modern-day cults.
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