II Peter 2:1 warns of false teachers introducing destructive heresies. Like an intelligence agency, the Church must gather information on its opponents in order to protect its members and to devise strategies on how to extricate those held hostage to these competing systems. Some Serious, Popular False Doctrines Answered From The Scriptures by John R. Rice serves as an excellent briefing.
Garnished from Dr. Rice’s decades of ministry, False Doctrines is an introduction to many of the heresies and aberrant beliefs plaguing the modern religious scene ranging from the esoteric such as spiritualists and fortunetellers, to the obscure such as Anglo-Israelism, to the downright socially dangerous such as Socialism/Communism. In an era characterized by an overemphasis on tolerance, some Evangelicals might object to Rice’s stance criticizing Catholicism, Seventh Day Adventism, and the Church of Christ.
Yet despite Rice’s confrontational brand of militant Fundamentalism, this work is written in a spirit of kindness, love, and understanding as portions of the book are responses to actual letters received by Dr. Rice from adherents of the various doctrines under consideration.
False Doctrines also provides insight into the Fundamentalist position on issues debated within the broader Evangelical community such as Calvinistic predestination and the legitimacy of tongues.
Rice served as founder and editor of the Sword of The Lord, which is still published to this day as a primary source of news and views within the Fundamentalist movement, until his passing in 1980. Some Serious, Popular False Doctrines Answered From The Scriptures remains an excellent guidebook through which to survey the vibrant American religious landscape from a conservative Christian perspective.
by Frederick Meekins
