William Carleton Irvine (3 June 1871 – 5 September 1946) was a missionary, writer and the founding editor of the ''Indian Christian'' magazine.

Biography

Irvine was a superintendent of

Belgaum Belgaum (ISO 15919, ISO: ''Bēḷagāma''; also Belgaon and officially known as Belagavi) is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located in its northern part along the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous ...

Leprosy Hospital at Hindalga for 25 years. He came to India from New Zealand. His best known work is ''Timely Warnings'' (1917), also known as ''Modern Heresies Exposed'' in its second edition and as ''Heresies Exposed'' subsequent to the 1921 edition. His books ''25 Years' Mission Work Among the Lepers of India'', ''Riches of the Gentiles'' and other works also received wide distribution. ''Heresies Exposed'' was one of the first widely available books to critically review new religious movements such as Christian Scientists,

Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...

Seventh Day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...

, Cooneyites, Christadelphians, Pentecostals, Theosophists and other non-mainstream groups that came to increasing prominence during the 20th century. It has seen multiple editions and printings, and remains in print today.The encyclopedic handbook of cults in America J. Gordon Melton - 1986 "In 1917, William C. Irvine published his ''Timely Warnings'', the first of the modern countercult books. ... Under its new title, ''Heresies Exposed'', Irvine's book went through twenty-nine printings by 1955 and remains in print in the 1980s."

Publications

*''Heresies Exposed'' 1st Edition 1917, (published as Timely Warnings), 2nd edition 1919 (published as Modern Heresies Exposed), 3rd edition 1921 (as Heresies Exposed), 4th edition 1923 (ditto), fifth edition 1927 (Rewritten and Enlarged), 6th edition 1929 (again enlarged), 7th edition 1930 (again enlarged), reprint 1932, 8th edition 1935 (Revised and Enlarged), 9th edition 1937, 10th edition 1935 (reprinted in USA), 11th edition 1941 (reprinted in India), 12th edition 1942 (reprinted in India), 1955, 1985 *''25 Years' Mission Work Among the Lepers of India'' (1938)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irvine, William C 1871 births 1946 deaths Critics of new religious movements New Zealand emigrants to India New Zealand Protestant missionaries People from Belgaum Protestant missionaries in India New Zealand Christian writers 20th-century male writers Christian apologists

Biography

Publications

See also

References