Spiritual Counterfeits Project (or SCP) is an apologetics ministry that focuses on “confronting the occult, the cults, and the New Age movement and explaining why they are making an impact on our society.” They publish a newsletter about once a month and a journal about twice yearly. (I say “about” because I can’t tell from the website or from the publications themselves exactly what the publishing schedule is.) The SCP newsletter is sent to those who contribute at least $10.00 annually to help offset publication, printing, and postage costs. The SCP Journal plus the Newsletter are sent to those who contribute at least $25.00 annually.

I received my copies of SCP Journal and SCP Newsletter free via Mind and Media in return for my review. So here goes.

The newsletter is sixteen pages of current events commentary from a Christian perspective. The one I received, Volume 29:4 Summer 2005, featured a front page article by the president of SCP, Tal Brooke, comparing the themes and impact of the first movie version of War of the Worlds, made in 1953, with the Stephen Spielberg version released earlier this year. This same newsletter also has a “Letters to the Editor” section, a timely article on the battle of the appointment of judges, and an index to past articles in both the newsletter and the journal. I see lots of potentially useful stuff for Christian apologists in the index: book reviews, interviews, and scholarly articles featuring such authors as Gene Veith, Philip E. Johnson, Ron Rhodes, Ted Baehr and Brian Godawa (just some of the names I recognized). You can order past issues of both the newsletter and the journal via the SCP website.

SCP JournaL is a seventy-five page magazine, no ads except for ads for the ministry and its literature, full color cover, and seventy plus pages of meaty content. SCP Journal, Volume 28:4-29:1, features three articles. The first called “Soul Under Siege II” is obviously a continuation of an extended examination of the War on Terror and global politics. Although I’m not sure the New World Order is quite as threatening or as organized as the author of the article, Lee Penn, states, this advice is well taken:

In the face of these long-standing national and global trends, it is difficult to formulate a promising political counter-strategy. Nevertheless, if we each turn away from sin, seek God’s guidance and wisdom, discern the signs of the times, do not cooperate with evil or join in the prevailing deceit, and pray for God to have mercy on our foes (and to grant them the grace of amendment of life), we will be doing what Christians are called to do.

The second journal article is by Alan Morrison on a history of gnosticism. Heavily footnoted and subtitled “an historical analysis of the impact orders and mystery religions from the 6th century to the modern era,” the article attempts to define gnosticism and tie together such disparate elements as the Albigneses, the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, Freemasonry, Darwinism and Theological Liberalism. He then goes on to talk about political movements such as Marxism and religious movements such as Theosophy and mind sciences, and again he attempts to bundle these together as different manifestations of modern gnosticism. I say “attempts” because although these movements are all united in their opposition to Orthodox Christianity, they are all very different from one another and deserve to be engaged on a case-by-case basis. That said, I’m not doing justice to the author’s arguments nor his research in this brief review. You really need to subscribe to SCP Journal and read the article yourself.

The third article is called “The Suicide Option: When Life Has Lost Meaning” by Josh Ong, office manager for SCP and a student at UC Berkeley. Mr. Ong tells in this article about his own struggles as a teenager with depression and attempted suicide. It’s a testimony piece with excerpts from Josh Ong’s high school diary, but it’s also a detailed and in-depth look at suicide and the philosophical elements in our culture that can lead to despair and the hope and meaning that Mr. Ong found nowhere outside of Jesus Christ. I highly recommend this article for anyone who is working with young adults or students especially.

I found much to engage my mind and give me impetus for further thought and research in these two periodicals, and I would recommend both for apologists and serious Christians who are confronting spiritual counterfeits and lies daily.