World Religions In A Nutshell: A Complete Guide To Reaching Those Of Other Faiths

I do not understand all those who are giving this book low ratings because it has a Christian slant and discusses how to convert those from other faiths to Christianity. The subtitle of the book is “A compact guide to reaching those of other faiths” for goodness sake!The book surprised me by being smaller than I expected. I realized this was not going to be an all-encompassing volume but it is quite small and truly does just give each religion in a nutshell. The book covers 9 different religions (if you consider Catholicism and “Modern Christianity” their own religions). Each chapter has the same layout, containing three themes.First is basic beliefs. Comfort gives a very brief overview of the religion to which the chapter is dedicated and then goes on to detail the religion’s view of God, Jesus, Heaven & Hell, Salvation, etc. Since I bought this book mainly to help me prep to teach a world religions series, I found this information quite useful.The second phase of a chapter would include the testimony of someone who had converted to Christianity from the religion covered by the chapter. At this point the author would also cover some tips for witnessing to those in this religion. This was also helpful information as the author may point out terms not to use because of the different meaning in that religion or certain passages of the Bible that would carry more wait to them.The third theme of the chapter was an example conversation the author made up to show you how to talk with someone from this faith. This is where the author turned me off as I felt these examples were often demeaning, unnatural, and in one case even racist.On top of that there is the recurring theme of Comfort using the Ten Commandments to lead someone to Christ. I’ve come to realize Comfort has a ministry called Way of The Master in which he has coined this method for witnessing so no wonder he wants to market his product throughout the book but it seemed really forced and unnatural. I think this is a dangerous method that could be interpreted as works-based salvation. Comfort instructs you to teach people they are going to hell because they don’t keep all of the Ten Commandments. So does this mean someone who keeps them (or thinks they do – which may be the case for Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses or Seventh Day Adventist) are going to heaven and don’t need salvation? And how would comfort explain that salvation is never linked to the Ten Commandments and heaven is not even mentioned in Exodus 20?The chapter on atheism was the most intriguing to me and I respected that for listing their beliefs he copied and pasted quotes from actual atheists who had submitted them through his website. It’s easy to misrepresent a group you don’t agree with and this was a safe way of making sure not to do that. However, Comfort would give occasional responses to the atheist quotes and I think those could be misleading. It seems his opinion is that atheists know there is one true God but are so in love with their sin that they deny him relentlessly. Almost all the atheists I know used to be Christians so they used to believe the Christian doctrine. Most of them simply do not see evidence for God or did not hear from Him when they honestly sought him. Their atheism is not an excuse for drug use or serial murder.In most of the situations Comfort’s examples and illustrations are very one-sided. Since he believes those in other religions are wrong I guess he sees no point in listening to them or showing respect for their beliefs. I understand this is a small volume and does not provide room for all he may have wished to include, but I think a relationship approach is much more likely to help us impact someone when it comes to something so big as changing their entire belief system.I give it three starts because some of the content of this book is very helpful and laid out in a way that does not require wading through a theology-type textbook. However, I would only recommend the book to mature believers who can spit out the bones and overlook the disrespect shown to other religions.

Help for sharing the truth with the misguided who are unsaved whether they know it or not. Good read and reference.

The content of this book was truly phenomenal! I have longed for a brief synopsis of world religions for the purpose of understanding them and reaching people given over to these fables. Ray has provided this valuable resource for everyone without the countless hours of reading and decoding the main points from these religions main texts. Thank you!I do wish however that the format of this e-book would be reconsidered. It seems like the print copy of the book was formatted digitally. Since there are no table of contents, it proves difficult to go back and reread or refresh on the various religions. It would be nice to see that change.

I wanted to know highlights of world religions, notably differences in the spiritual (why and how) part as well as differences in various customs. I was a little fast on the trigger and did not notice that this book was a missionary book until I started reading. As such I am probably not in the inner target zone for this book, and my review can be judged accordingly.For each religion there is a brief description along the lines I was looking for. To my taste the description of each religion is good but a little too brief, but that is of course a matter of preference and purpose. Specifically, I would have liked more details of Islam given the impact this religion has on the world today (such as touching upon differences within Islamic branches, such as Sunnism and Shiism). There are also quite a few important beliefs which are omitted in full.After the brief description of each religion the author starts his missionary reasoning and brings forward a lot of amusing "proofs" and "disproofs". The pseudo-scientific arguments are more or less repeated in each section, supplemented by attempts to ridicule and impeach brighter people who have different views, including the great Richard Dawkins.I now realised that the author is a celeb in the U.S., also known as "The Banana Man" (see you-tube)./Carsten

Good information. I wish it was just facts, but hell, I have fuel for the next religious debate. If you are a different religion (non-christian) you might get offended. I am Roman Catholic, but I enjoyed the authors harsh opinion of Catholicism. I enjoy learning about different religions. In regards to God, I believe there is only one way to believe which religion is right (death). I know that makes me a bad Catholic.

Dr. Richard Bushman has written the very best biography of Joseph Smith to date. Written from a neutral point of view, this book gives an open, honest, straight forward, and unbiased recounting of the LDS prophet's life. It took eight years to write and has been researched extremely-well. Richard Bushman, a retired Columbia University history professor, has done an excellent job of presenting an easy-to-read, yet scholarly account of Joseph's Smith's history. It has been thoroughly vetted by prominent LDS and non-LDS historians, academics, and people well-acquainted with biases for and against Joseph. For all of these reasons, I rate it with a full five stars.

In this little book Ray Comfort gives a clear, succinct explanation of the similarities and differences between Christianity and the major religions of the world. He does a good job of pointing out the particular areas of concern for the Christian sharing the gospel with adherents of these faiths and how best to present the good news of Jesus Christ. One of the best things about it is that he draws attention to some of the more sensitive subjects and suggests ways to be considerate along with warnings about what could be especially offensive to others. I really like Ray's style of keeping things simple and to the point.

I've bought this book to study and pages are missing it jumps from page 5 to 11 and other pagers missing

Just what I was looking for!

Theologically sound and essential reading in regards to really understanding the Gospel of Jesus. Very glad to have for this book!

This book is excellent. Gives you a clear and concise view on world religions; it's also an awesome evangelism tool.