tuesday, december 25, 2001

reasoning from the scriptures

by dan wooding
assist ministries

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA (ANS) -- An intriguing interview with Ron Rhodes, who went from a show business career to defending the Scriptures. As president of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries, Ron has written numerous books to help people answer questions about the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, sin, salvation, angels, demons, prophecy, apologetic issues and ethical issues. One of: his main focuses is how to help people challenge the errors in the biblical teaching of cults and sects like the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons. (Pictured: Dr. Ron Rhodes).

Dan Wooding: How and when did you become a Christian? What difference did this make in your life?

Ron Rhodes: During the late 1960s and early '70s, my brothers and sisters and I formed a musical group. My mother, a master musician, started all of us in musical training at a very early age. Since we all enjoyed music, we decided to form a band.

We ended up doing numerous national TV shows, including The Mike Douglas Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Dinah Shore Show, The Jerry Lewis Telethon, The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, American Bandstand with Dick Clark and others.

It was during this time that I became a Christian. One benefit of working with major celebrities is the first-hand observation hat even though they were rich and famous, they didn't have all the answers to life, and many of them coped in appropriate ways - some drank heavily; others got involved in strange New Age religions and others engaged in immoral lifestyles.

After encountering a number of Christians in the show-biz industry (including Pat Boone, his wife and four daughters), I started to think seriously about Christianity. To make a long story short, I soon trusted in Christ, and one my one my brothers and sisters and parents trusted in Christ as well.

Interestingly we had attended church all of lives. But mere church attendance doesn't make you a Christian. It is only a personal relationship with Christ that brings the salvation of which Scripture speaks.

Soon after my conversion, my interests began changing. Instead of wanting to remain in show-biz, I had a yearning to go to seminary and engage in a life of ministry. So I went to seminary and never looked back. I have no regrets. In fact, I know that God has led me every step of the way.

DW: When did you first become interested in "reasoning" from the Scriptures?" Was there a particular incident that caused you to start looking for answers in the Bible?

RR: Well, of course, "reasoning from the Scriptures" is not original with me. We read in the book of Acts that the apostle Paul would go from town to town "reasoning from the Scriptures" with the people he encountered. In my situation, I found that I had many questions that caused me to go to the Scriptures for answers. I learned to "reason from the Scriptures," and I have been able to find the answers I'm looking for.

During my days at Christian Research Institute (CRI - founded by Walter Martin), my skills at "reasoning from the Scriptures" continued to be sharpened. Several of my books contain this phrase, including Reasoning from the Scriptures With Jehovah's Witnesses and Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Mormons.

DW: How did you first get involved in the Bible Answer Man program?

RR: Walter Martin hired me to work in the publications department at Christian Research Institute, and I spent most of my time working on the Christian Research Journal, and maybe a few hours a month working on the Christian Research Newsletter. Six months after he haired me, Walter went to be with the Lord.

Hank Hanegraaff, who took over as president o f CRI after Walter died, requested me to participate on the Bible Answer Man along with some of the other CRI researchers. At first I had some hesitation in doing this. After all, who wants to go on national radio every day and be asked very hard questions? But after a while, I became comfortable in doing it, and in fact, came to enjoy it. I was a regular participant on the Bible Answer Man from 1990 to 1995. In 1995, I sensed that my work at CRI was complete and felt God was leading me to the next phase in my life of ministry. It was at that time I founded Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries.

Hank has invited me to do the Bible Answer Man show in the near future, regarding one of my upcoming books. I look forward to that.

DW: How and when did you start Reasoning from Scriptures Ministries? What does the ministry do and what kind of tools do you provide Christians?

RR: I founded this ministry in 1995 and have been working with it ever since. Our ministry helps people literally "reason from the Scriptures" on all kinds of issues. We try to help people learn to reason from the Scriptures with cultists, atheists, agnostics, skeptics, humanists, evolutionists and all the others who hold views that go against Christianity in some way. Our website (www.ronrhodes.org)  has many materials that are freely downloadable.

Our ministry holds a unique philosophy. 0ur goal in to not only help Christians grow strong in their understanding of God's Word and become equipped with Scriptural answers (apologetics), but to help strengthen them in their relationship with the Lord. Indeed, we believe that a powerful apologetic (or defense) if Christianity is a man or woman who truly walks with God. This is the kind of person that others notice. This is the kind of person whose opinion becomes respected.

DW: Can you single out two or three of your books and explain why you wrote them? Do you have a favorite book?

RR: I wrote Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses to teach Christians how to lovingly turn the tables on a Jehovah's Witness at their doorstep and lead them to Christ. You see, the Jehovah's Witnesses are extremely well-trained to argue for their heretical position. In fact, Walter Martin used to say that the average Jehovah's Witness could make a doctrinal pretzel out of the average Christian in about 20 seconds. I wrote this book not only to prevent Christians from being "pretzeled," but to help them show a Jehovah's Witness their errors and lead them to the true Jesus of whom Scripture speaks.

Another book is The Complete Book of Bible Answers, a detailed listing of the most frequently asked questions I developed and periodically updated over the five years or so that I was on the Bible Answer Man.

My all-time favorite book that I wrote is Christ Before the Manger: The Life and Times of the Preincarnate Christ. It just went out of print recently, but I'm working on a new publishing arrangement. Hopefully, later this year it will be back in print.

DW: How would you describe the state of Bible literacy in the United States at this time? How can it be rectified?

RR: The lack of biblical literacy in this country is at epidemic levels. One poll indicated that 35 percent of born-again Christians do not read the Bible at all. Let's put that into the context of a church. If your church has 500 members, then statistically, about 175 of them do not read the Bible at all. If you attend a megachurch with 5,000 people, you can count on the statistical fact that 1,750 of them do not read the Bible at all.

Among those Christians who do read the Bible, the majority of them only read it during the one hour they attend church each Sunday morning. That is not enough to become biblically literate. Such statistics make it more than obvious why many Christians are easy prey for spiritual deception. Statistics show that over 25 percent of cultists formerly attended an evangelical church. This means that many churches are not doing the job of training their members in the Bible.

There is only one way to rectify biblical illiteracy- read the Bible. We must not forget that the Scriptures are God preaching, God talking, God telling, God instructing and God setting before us the right way to think and speak about him. To not read the Bible is to miss out in a big way.

Ron Rhodes is President of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries (nonprofit ministry).  He is also Adjunct  Professor of Theology at Biola University, La Mirada, California; at Southern Evangelical Seminary, Charlotte, 
North Carolina; and at Golden Gate Seminary, Southern California.

Note: Ron Rhodes can be contacted by e-mail at ronrhodes@earthlink.net. His website is: www.ronrhodes.org.  His address is: Reasoning from the Scriptures, PO Box 80087, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92888, USA.

* This interview first appeared in the January/February 2002 issue of PLAIN TRUTH magazine

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dan wooding is an award winning british journalist now living in southern california with his wife norma. he is the founder and international director of assist (aid to special saints in strategic times). wooding is also a syndicated columnist, and was for ten years a commentator on the upi radio network in washington, dc. wooding is the author of some 39 books, one of which is "blind faith" which he co-authored with his 93-year-old mother anne wooding, who was a pioneer missionary to the blind of nigeria in the 1930s. copies of this book are available from the assist usa office at po box 2126, garden grove, ca 92842-2126. his writings are on the assist website at: www.assistnews.net

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