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All of these types of websites have merit. The reader will likely find sites from each variety helpful. Even if one does not agree with the website authors’ ultimate subjective evaluation of the teachers and groups that they profile, most include accurate documentation from which one can glean useful information.

The Field Guide website and this Field Guide book take a different point of view from all of the above. As the author, I am concerned about:

•Any religious organization, any leaders of such religious organizations, and any religious teachers that in any way insert themselves, their system, or their teachings between the individual believer and that believer’s immediate access to God—and to the simple truths of the scriptures.

•Any religious teaching which subverts the basics of simple faith in the teachings of Jesus as seen in the Sermon on the Mount—and turns faith and salvation and the daily Christian walk into a complex, convoluted process, through twisting of scripture, or through requiring or encouraging extra-biblical and unbiblical gimmicks and standards.

•Any teacher or religious group that distorts the simple truths of scripture to use for an illegitimate or evil purpose—whether it be to validate their own warped views such as rabid racism, to justify oppression of one group of people over another, to excuse their own sinful actions, or any other reason.

•Any teacher or religious group that would, subtly or openly, strip from the individual believer his right and ability to think and act for himself under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

See the Web Resources and Books for Further Research chapter for recommendations of a variety of resources to aid in evaluating the potential for spiritual harm of various groups.