Some serious, popular false doctrines answered from the Scriptures,

by John R. Rice

John Rice's interpretation and presentation of Bibilical scripture.

442 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1970

About the author

John R. Rice was a Baptist evangelist and pastor and the founding editor of The Sword of the Lord, an influential fundamentalist newspaper.

Reviews

[Jeri Massi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the first edition of this book in 1974. For me, at the time, it was a treasure. And I have to admit, for a teenager determined to live as a Christian, with no church to go to and no systematic knowledge of the Bible, this book was enough to steer me clear of some of the excessive fads that abounded in the 1970's. (Then again, I skipped some of the stuff I had never even heard of. In the first edition, "Anglo Saxonism" was termed "British Israelism". I had never heard of it, and once I read the first paragraph, I knew at 14 that it was nonsense.)

Rice shows a lot of confusion about "Hyper-Calvinism," at points confusing Calvinism with Hyper-Calvinism, and never really using the Bible honestly in showing the validity of passages that tell God's people that they are elect because He has sovereignly chosen to save them. Sorry, but those statements are in there, and they have to be reconciled with the passages that emphasize free will and accountability, not dismissed or ignored.

And this book has other shortcomings, most of which are a disjointed approach to Scripture, using it as an index to discredit certain doctrines. There is no real discussion of the Bible in a book by book approach, and certainly no discussion of the dominant themes of the Bible. I'm sure, given Rice's beliefs, that there are fallacies in the text, but I don't recall any. What I take away from it now is that it is an output of a religious system that spawned a lot of the heresies it then had to then refute.

[F · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book years ago and it was very helpful in helping me avoid many errors. I read it again as a mature Christian and it has not lost its helpfulness, its warmth, and its charm.

[Tim Duff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was thorough going over different cults and religions but written from a very fundamentalist point of view that was sometimes very harsh on other religions which may include true believers in Christ.