Posted on 07/06/2005 7:28:43 AM PDT by sionnsar
If you have been looking for an online resource text to help you with apologetics--specifically that branch of apologetics dealing with the cults--here is an excellent resource: Dr. Walter Martin's renowned work The Kingdom of the Cults is now online. This is well worth your time and I think you will find it most helpful; Dr. Martin was known as "the father of Christian cult apologetics," and was founder and director of the Christian Research Institute in California. In our day when cults have become ever more prominent in the Western countries, this is truly a valuable resource.
This site also has the Handbook on Apologetics by Josh McDowell available as well, and if you are thinking about more general issues in apologetics, this may be helpful also.
Father Divine (who the heck is that????)
WHAT! You haven't seen the photos of black people in the 1930's and 40's holding posters saying 'FATHER DIVINE IS GOD"?
Repost due to my incompetent spelling.
""Walter Martin was a vicious anti Catholic bigot!""
Didn't you see his elequent debate with a Fr. Paqua back in the 1980's on the John Ankerberg Show?
Could you name four or five leading scholars who, through their study of the Bible and, by contrast, Roman Catholic dogma, have become convinced that the Roman Catholic Church is a false church with a false gospel, but whom you would not categorize as "vicious bigots"?
huh? Where did I ever say that?
He was a protestant.
I suspect you feel that anyone who rejects Catholic Theology or teachings and publicly states his reasons is a viscious anti-Catholic bigot.
I have a very strong suspicion that this site does not have the publisher's permission to post these works.
Hmmm...
I can find no statement on the site which enjoins readers to obtain permission before posting excerpts. So, this is really a non-issue. How about dealing with the content?
Undoubtedly. However many of the works posted on this site are by living authors with publishing contracts, such as Dave Hunt, Josh McDowell, Norman Geisler and John MacArthur, not to mention deceased authors who still have open copyrights such as Loraine Boettner and J. Vernon McGee. The copyright on Walter Martin's book was recently renewed with the Ravi Zacharias Edition.
This site apparently "Acknowledges" the copyrights, but does not claim permission to post them nor do many of these works contain the publisher's copyright notices.
While it would be nice if the publishers granted permission to post these works on-line, I suspect that they did not. I hope I am wrong, as this site contains many works which would be valuable, but I really do believe that many of these works are not being posted legally.
How about the commandment "Thou shalt not steal"?
Seeing that the OP of this thread does not actually quote any of the works, but only links to them, no harm, no foul.
No harm for FR, but what of that site?
Beyond our control, and it's their problem. We can control whether or not we quote or otherwise excerpt copyrighted works with or without permission on this site, but it is not our responsibility to ensure that they do so on their website.
My concern is not with the person who posted the thread, but with the person who posted the works on the internet. If these works are now in the public domain, then I would be tickled pink. I'd like nothing more than to use these works to start up some interesting discussions here on Free Republic. But I suspect that we would get into trouble if we did.
Then I suggest that you contact them and ask them directly.
Letter to Walter Martin's family:
I discovered a site on the internet that has the entire book Kingdom of the Cults posted. I suspect this is in violation of copyrights and if left alone could impact the revenues for the Estate of Dr. Martin.
Here is the link:
http://www.biblecentre.net/cults/koc/contents.htm
I would appreciate it if you could let me know if this is in violation of any copyrights owned by the estate or if they have permission to publish it.
Thanks
I'll have to look him up, I never heard of him until I picked up Martin's book. I used to take out a copy from the Library once in awhile but it must have been a reprint because it didn't have Father Brown in it.
There are non-public domain books there that I paid big bucks for. I doubt if they're supposed to be there. I suspect major copyright infringement is going on there.
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