A Woman Rides the Beast

Rating:
Summary: Many Catholics will be saved
Review: I recommend this book if you wish to witness to a Catholic loved one. Hunt makes an excellent case in showing the heresy of Catholism. The Catholic church has murdered christians for hundreds of year, and God will punish her for her wickedness.

Rating:
Summary: Conspiracy Theories and Bogeymen
Review: Popular fundamentalist author Dave Hunt has always been prone to quickly forming opinions on religious topics based upon his theological presuppositions (frequently without regard to actual evidence) and offering these views in ill-conceived publishing efforts. In A Woman Rides the Beast, Hunt once again tackles bible prophecy and defends the idea that the Roman Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon prophesied in the Book of Revelation.

Such a thesis is certainly not unique in the history of Protestantism but is rarely endorsed today in the face of evaporating Catholic-Protestant hostilities. Yet all is not lost for the remaining fans of anti-Catholic rhetoric as Dave Hunt seems more than willing to take up the slack. In this book he displays all the usual signs of poor scholarship, innuendo, and baseless speculation that make the following of fundamentalist prophecy experts an amusing though frustrating pastime. However, if one seeks a serious challenge to the beliefs and practices of the Roman Church, it is not to be found here. Hunt attacks - but very little of his effort can be taken seriously.

Hunt is led to conclusions by his presuppositions of a flawed dispensational hermeneutic and a virulent parochialism predisposed to think the worst of any Christians who fall out of the bounds of his particular religious subculture - even though his own beliefs are a peculiarly American phenomenon and have no basis in historical Christianity. In the end, his own prejudices prevent him from assessing data correctly and he fails to demonstrate any of his major points.

However, one thing Hunt demonstrates thoroughly is his own ignorance of exchanges between Catholic and Protestant apologists for over a century and the current state of this debate. Hunt often relies on refuted accusations of a bygone era (there were many on both sides) and is blissfully unaware they were based in bigotry and ignorance. When he does respond to the refutations of his positions by Catholic apologists, he cites as "evidence" books written by other authors who cite the same faulty evidence. The reliance upon friendly secondary sources (and even anti-Christian sources who happen to be aiming at Rome for the moment) is typical of the shoddy scholarship within anti-Catholic fundamentalism.

Throughout the book, Hunt fails to verify his claims from relevant primary source documents. There is simply no effort put forth to see if the information he quotes from secondary works are accurate or placed in context. The overriding methodology seems to be if it makes Rome look bad it must be true! That Hunt has little interest in encountering Catholicism (or any opponent) in anything but a hostile light reflects a trait all too common in his writing. Even though opponents have challenged him, he has never corrected his numerous factual errors. After all, why should a lack of corroborating evidence get in the way of a good yarn?

Adding to this debacle is the manner in which Hunt attempts to tie together his "evidence" to support his thesis. Even if the Roman Church were utterly despicable it would not necessarily make it the whore of Babylon. In order to bolster his argument (or better to lead gullible readers where even Hunt's contrived evidence doesn't go), he must resort to the inane "could it be..." conjectures typical of conspiracy theorists. For example, when considering excesses of Marian piety among some Catholics, Hunt culminates his attack on such devotions with the following question: 

"It is a woman who John saw astride the beast. Does that fact include intimations of the strategic role that Rome's fraudulent Mary will play in the preparation of the world for Antichrist?"  
     
Sure...or maybe it just means some Catholics are almost as wacky as the Protestants who take Dave Hunt's drivel seriously.  

It is quite telling that in sections dealing with the Church Tradition, Hunt never cites any writings of the Church Fathers. Of course, given his poor understanding of Church history and liturgy (the ignorance displayed in his chapter on the Mass is sufficient evidence), it is unlikely he has ever read them. This is not terribly surprising given he has admitted to never having read the writings of the Protestant Reformers. If this supposedly staunch defender of the Reformation cannot bother to read the founding documents of his own movement, it would be quite a leap to expect him to study the writings of those outside his own ecclesial tradition. Furthermore, if his ignorance of the Reformers did not stop him from accusing others of betraying the Reformation (or from writing a book critical of Calvinism), we could hardly expect his lack of patristic knowledge to prevent him from lecturing on the evils of Constantine, St. Augustine, and various other bogeymen of fundamentalist lore.  

Many Christians express sharp differences with Roman Catholicism without spewing the hysterics Dave Hunt puts forth in A Woman Rides the Beast. As with all of Hunt's attacks on those who do not share his peculiar worldview, it is long on bluster and short on evidence. As a means of solidifying support with anti-Catholic bigots, I suppose it succeeds. As a proper exposition of prophetic passages in Holy Scripture, it is an abysmal failure.

Rating:
Summary: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you...
Review: I first read this book a little under a year ago and at that time I thought it was great. I believed ever word written by Hunt, an author I have read and admired for quite a while. Now, incredibly, it is almost a year later and I have decided to convert to Catholicism and will start RCIA classes in September. How could I have read and agreed with this startling anti-Catholic tome and just a few months later begun the process of converting to Catholicism? On the road to Damascus the Lord asked the future Apostle Paul, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" I can imagine how Saul must have felt.

I followed up my reading of this book with a mission; to do more research, not to prove Hunt wrong, but rather to prove him right. I couldn't. In my desire to point fingers like Hunt and make accusations at Catholicism, the Holy Spirit confronted me with the question the Lord asked Saul. I had no answer to give, other than my own vanity. Instead of trying to be meek and humble like Jesus, I found myself indulging in the practice of falt-finding in others, particularly Catholics. Even worse I realized I was becoming a false prophet and practicing divination by trying to read the future using Biblical prophecy. I thank the Lord for putting me back on the straight and narrow.

I'll give Hunt's book at least two stars because it did set me on the road to discovering the true historical Church which was founded by Jesus and is today called Catholicism. Remember what the Lord himself said, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake."

Rating:
Summary: Think About It!
Review: Dave Hunt has done a servicable job of presenting his view that the "Woman" of Revelations is the catholic church and her hierarchy in Rome. Had he not tried to be as inclusive of counterarguments and had written more succintly only on the major chapter headings,the book would have had more cohesiveness. Catholics will be so threatened by the assault on their belief systems that they will "trash" this book without exploring the validity of its main points. As an ex-catholic who spent years learning catholic doctrine but who came to know God and the grace of Jesus as my personal savior only after reading the Bible, the antitheses of catholic doctrine and Biblical Word as presented in the book are both accurate and undeniable. I cannot attest to every reference but can attest to the accuracy of the main points presented when Biblical word and catholic doctrine are opposed and compared. Those who would be so threatened as not to contrast the two from as neutral and nonpersonal a point as possible would miss the benefit of the arguments put forth in the text. A difficult but enlightening read for the Christian non-catholic and a distressing but possibly life changing read for the catholic who can objectively and undefensively read the text and concommitantly read a copy of the Bible. (I recommend The New Living Version for modern syntax but original Biblical accuracy and intent.) The text contrasts faith in God through Biblical understanding and acceptance of Jesus as a personal savior, the faith of a protestant, and catholic faith, faith as good works,indulgences and purgatory mediated through Mary and administered by the church in Rome and its designees. It unearths the core differences between catholic and protestant religions, including the reliance on the Bible as basis of religion for the protestant versus the reliance on the institution of the catholic church for the catholic. A church, which the text contends, purposefully kept the Bible from the hands of its members and made its members feel unworthy and ill-advised to read themselves. The book may, for the first time, make the typical catholic by birth aware of and questioning of the unbiblical principles and practices of the religious institution of the catholic church.

Rating:
Summary: I Will Pray
Review: Those of you who found this book to be accurate, well-researched, and wonderful will have my prayers. When you say that you have Jesus' truth, what you really have is Satan himself deceiving you. Open up your minds! You are the ones that need to let go of your "traditions of men", not Catholics. Do you know how old your beliefs are? If you are a fundamentalist like Dave Hunt, they are about a hundred years old. Otherwise, they only date back to Luther's time. This is a fact of history. All of you who accept Hunt's book need instruction in history, as well as prayers. This novel is a joke, nothing more. I pity those of you who think differently.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: The truth often hurts, as is obvious with this book. Being a born-again Christian, I can understand that this is a hard pill to swallow when you've been taught your whole life that the Catholic Church is the 'only' religion. I was raised around all the Catholics, and even went to church with them sometimes, and never heard a moving, life changing sermon. I saw a lot of rituals, dipping fingers into 'holy water', bowing before entering the pew, puppeting various phrases in response to the priests' words. Even the Bible writes to be careful of saying the same words over and over like a parrot so that it becomes meaningless. I got saved when I was 16 yrs old, I heard the truth and I knew that accepting Jesus in my heart was what I needed. Our family never went to church when I was a kid, though mom taught us about right and wrong from a Godly perspective. There are many faulty doctrines in Catholocism, especially when you can do 'penance' to get into heaven, or 'pay' someone to pull you out of the fires of purgatory (which is totally unbiblical) "It is appointed unto man once to die, then the judgement" Hebrews 9:27 Why did Jesus have to come and suffer a horrible death if we could get to heaven BY OUR OWN WORKS!!!!!! If we could "pay", or we can 'confess', or say prayers to an earthly woman (Mary) and expect her to hear us all as if she were a god, this all gives Christ a slap in the face. The info in this book is well documented, and has been verified through many authors. A great read is '50 years in the church of Rome' by Charles Chiniquy, he's an ex-priest who was TRYING to serve God in the midst of a religion that never addressed the priests getting drunk, sleeping with the nuns or the priests own confessors, as you can see whats happening now with the pedophilia that the church never addresses, only takes the guilty priests and puts them across the country. They don't inform them that it's against Gods law to hurt young children like that???? How can anyone call that a Christian institution. This book speaks for itself when you look at the state of the Catholic church today. It's a 'feel good' religion, live like you please, then come to church, do your confession, say your penance, make a few signs of the cross on your body and you FEEL like everything is OK, think again!!. Also go to the website chick.com. It was started by Alberto Rivera, an EX-JESUIT PRIEST that tells you what he was taught, and their mission here on earth, and it certainly wasn't Peace and Love. They eventually killed him for his defection. When you read Chiniquy or Rivera's account, you see that they give all the glory to God, and don't focus on themselves. the Bible states in 1 Cor 2:14 'For the natural man receives not the things of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned'. You have to re-awaken your spirit, it's naturally dead from our sin nature passed from Adam, then you will understand God, for He is spirit. Read this book!

Rating:
Summary: One side of an interesting contrast
Review: I must admit that I bought this book because it piqued my interest on the book rack. I had been looking for a good read on Revelations for some time; something that would offer an interesting prospective on the mysteries contained in that wonderful Book of Scripture.

Upon reading Hunt's book, I discovered that it was actually not what I thought it would be, and that I would have to look elsewhere for a comprehensive analysis of Revelations. However, the book did offer something else that I have been wanting to dig into for some time: Church history.

After reading the entire book, I did what I do so often: I ran to the computer to look at Amazon.com reviews. And as I suspected, there is a wide and varied opinion on the book. This is not surprising given the rather strident tone of Hunt's book and its disjointed presentations and conclusions. I am not going to say that Hunt is intellectually dishonest, but some of his conclusions and sequences are -- "unusual." So I was not surprised to find harsh critics and gushing admirers.

Wanting to have a counterpoint to this book, I decided to buy another that might give a difference prospective to the Church history content of this book. So I purchased "Triumph", by H.W. Crocker III. Why did I chose this counterpoint? Well, frankly, it comes glowingly recommended by two American intellectuals that I admire: William F. Buckley, Jr. and Sean Hannity.

I must now say that anyone that has read Hunt's book must read "Triumph" as well. Only then will you have a balanced approach to the topic of Church history. Anyone that does not wish to be merely a puppet to propaganda for one side or the other owes it to him/herself to read both opposing views of this topic.

However, "Triumph" does not address Revelations, so I tried to find a good alternative viewpoint to that topic, as well. The much villified Scott Hahn has provided such a read in his book "The Lamb's Supper," which deals at length with the Book of Revelations. I similiarly challenge any prospective reviewer of Hunt's book to read "The Lamb's Supper" before posting your positive or negative review of Hunt's book.

I like to think that the customer reviewers on Amazon are a discerning bunch, and not enslaved to ideology, political or religious. A broader prosective, gained by reading all three of the books I have described, will aid your understanding of these subjects, and make for a better and more well-thought out review of each.

Rating:
Summary: A correction and a sincere apology
Review: I wrote a review a few hours ago, and only came to realize I made a few careless mistakes. I am sorry about those mistakes and think that it should be rectified. First off, the Salem Witch Hunt was carried by Puritans who were nevertheless Protestants. C.S Lewis chose Protestanism by his own free will, but nonetheless got to know about God through Tolkien. This one wasn't a mistake. It's just that it could have been phrased better to avoid misunderstanding. Once again, my sincere apologies.

Rating:
Summary: Good Points but Unprofessionally Presented
Review: This is a very interesting book. As an 'evangelical' missionary planning on working in a predominantly Roman Catholic country (the Philippines), this book was very good for me to read. But I would only recommend this book to anyone who was extremely interested in the topic (like myself).

The first six chapters are devoted to prophecy and the author's belief that the Roman Catholic Church will be the 'woman' who rides the 'beast' (antichrist) in Revelation 17. Though I am not entirely persuaded that this is going to be the case, the author makes a good argument, and his interpretation is not ridiculous.

Here are the pros of the book-

1.) There is a lot of historical information that sheds a lot of light on the Roman Catholic Church's past. If I was banking my salvation on an organization that has been accused of doing the things that the Roman Catholic Church has done, I would really seriously evaluate my situation.

2.) There are a few good chapters- the intro (about the relationship between Evangelicals and Catholics), chapter 17 (about the great number of martyrs who were killed for standing up against the Roman Catholic Church), chapter 22 (about salvation), and chapter 23 (about Sola Scriptura). The five appendices are also helpful.

3.) The author shows very clearly that there is a BIG difference between Roman Catholicism and Biblical Christianity. Today all Christians want to hold hands and kiss, but there are obvious differences between the gospel of the Bible and the gospel that Roman Catholics teach. This distinction needs to be made in evangelical circles today.

Here are the cons of the book-

1.) Though the author writes in an easy-to-read style, the chapters are jumbled around for no apparent rhyme or reason. The book has no 'flow'. After a while the book gets hard to read (boring). There is a lot of repetition. I think the editor could have done a better job in trimming the book down (520 pages was too much).

2.) The author is not very 'sensitive' to the Roman Catholic reader. He feels very strongly that the Roman Catholic Church is false, but he makes his argument in a very offensive way. The title of this book is catchy, but offensive. I would never recommend this book to a Catholic friend even though I feel there are truths in the book that my friend should know. A better book for the subject is James McCarthy's book, The Gospel According to Rome.

Rating:
Summary: The best book on the subject
Review: A very powerfull book, not for the timid or those who just follow and ask no questions about why you should follow.