The Centers are a unique international network of evangelical cult research and
education agencies. Our main goal is to equip Christians in the developing world
for discernment, the defense of the faith, and cult evangelism. While a number of
ministries seek to fulfill this biblical mandate in North America, there are next
to none in the developing world, where many cultic movements are growing most quickly
and with the least resistance; it is this need that the Centers were founded to meet.
Our main emphasis is threefold:
- To warn God's people about the dangers and deception of the cults, occult, and aberrant Christian movements.
- To train God's people to discern between truth and error and defend the faith.
- To mobilize God's people to resist the advance of the cults and win cultists to Jesus Christ
By God's grace, Paul has devoted over 40 years of his life to cult-related research and outreach in Latin America, Africa, eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. In 1980, Paul joined the Christian Research Institute (CRI) under its founder, Walter Martin. For six of his fifteen years at CRI Paul served as a missionary in São Paulo, Brazil, and for six years he co-hosted the live, nationwide “Bible Answer Man” radio broadcast alongside Ron Rhodes, Robert M. Bowman, Jr., Kenneth Samples, and other noted apologists. During his time at CRI he was also the ministry's director of international outreach and a senior editor of the Christian Research Journal (1989-1995).
Ron Rhodes, Th.D.
President
Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries
Having dedicated the past 15 years of my life to cult apologetics, I have grown increasingly
aware of the threat the cults pose to the cause of Christ worldwide. The major cults have
committed HUGE budgets to infiltrating foreign fields, and they are drawing truckloads of
unsuspecting people into their folds daily. It is against this sobering backdrop that I voice
(indeed, shout) my strong support for The Centers for Apologetics Research. This citadel of
truth is led by a man I've known and respected for years, Paul Carden. Paul not only has many
years of experience in cult apologetics, but has spent many of those years on foreign fields.
I am convinced God has raised up Paul and his organization for the specific purpose of assisting
believers in foreign fields (where resources are scarcest) to stand against cultic intruders,
wherever they may be found. With strong conviction, I urge Christians everywhere to prayerfully
and financially support this strategic ministry.
ANCIENT STATEMENTS
> Apostles' CreedAthanasian Creed Niceno-Constantinopolitan CreedDefinition of Chalcedon
- I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
- And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:
- Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:
- Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:
- The third day he rose again from the dead:
- He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:
- From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:
- I believe in the Holy Ghost:
- I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints:
- The forgiveness of sins:
- The resurrection of the body:
- And the life everlasting. Amen.
- Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;
- Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
- And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
- Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
- For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
- But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
- Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
- The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
- The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
- The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
- And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.
- As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
- So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.
- And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.
- So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;
- And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
- So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;
- And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.
- For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
- So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.
- The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
- The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
- The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
- So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
- And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another.
- But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.
- So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
- He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
- Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.
- God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.
- Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
- Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.
- Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten from the Father, God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God, begotten, not made, of the same substance as the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father (and the Son).
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
(Note that, while this version is in the plural, the original Greek is in the first-person singular.)
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one
and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood,
truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with
the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his
manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father
before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of
Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized
in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the
distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics
of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as
parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word,
Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus
Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.