A cult is a group of people, which claiming to be Christians embraces a particular doctrinal system taught by an individual or group of leaders, which denies one or more of the central doctrines of the Christian faith.

The term cult comes from the latin cultus which literally refers to worship or to give reverence to any god in view. The Vulgate Bible also used the term cultus in reference to worship of the true God or any deity.

A cult is a deviant group from orthodox Christianity that deviates from one or more of the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith.

A cult is professing Christianity but denies and rejects the major doctrines of the Bible. The cults are professing Christians. Islam and Buddhism for example are not cults because they never claimed or called themselves as Christians.

A cult of Christianity is a group of people, which claiming to be a Christian, embraces a particular doctrinal system taught by an individual leader, group of leaders, or organization, which denies either explicitly or implicitly  one or more of the  doctrines of the Christian faith as taught in the Bible.

 

There are 8 major categories of cults:

  • The esoteric cult groups which involve occultism and spiritism
  • The mystical cult groups involve supernatural and secret things known only to its members
  • The dangerous cult groups involve physically harmful rituals
  • The pseudo-Christian groups – the fake Christianity
  • The hyper-faith cult groups which spiritualize everything
  • The Bible-based cult groups which use the Bible but reject it doctrines
  • The suicidal cult groups which involve violence and mass suicide
  • The satanic cult groups which involve the worship of Satan and demons

The cults deny intensely or cleverly some or all of the doctrines of the Christian faith while at the same time profess themselves as Christians. The most dangerous among these cult group is the Bible -based pseudo-Christianity (or BBPC) which can easily deceive, distract and destroy people. They are always begging for many in ther name of God, expert of fund raising without shame and blasphemy without fear.

The cults normally have a dogmatic and legalistic leadership structure with a closed ecclesiastical system.

The cults have some secrecy about their leadership personalities and people behind, organizational system, dogmatic teachings, and meetings.

The cults openly or clandestinely deny salvation by grace through faith alone.

They undermine the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ by requiring additional works or co-operation effort.

The cults are reducing the absolute authority and sufficiency of Scripture. They expressly accuse the Bible of containing errors.

The cults are using the Christian vocabulary-but they mean different things. The cults redefined biblical terms with different meaning for their own gains and benefits.

The cults have their own exclusive belief system and practices.

The cults by large, rejects and denies the doctrine of eternal punishment.  Some says that hell and its fire is not literal fire or punishment. Some are teaching universalism that all will be saved at the end. Some are teaching annihilation that God will destroy into nothing. They teach that there is no conscious eternal suffering.

The cults emphasis on direct revelation or vision from God and that God spoke to their leaders.

The cults claimed signs and wonders in various forms. Some claims that they have raise a large numbers of genuine Christians from the death.

The cults put strong appeal to the false knowledge of the future. Because of widespread ignorance of the Bible, many are attracted to the one who seems to know what is ahead and are able to convincingly promote it. The cults thrive on their inaccurate prophecies of the future events.

According to the record of the major cults groups, majority of their converts are from mainline denomination churches who are ignorant of the Christian doctrines.

Let us take the warning of Hosea 4:6 seriously and take the radical steps to prepare for spiritual battle ahead of us [Ephesians 6:10-18]. We must be vigilance and discerning [1 Peter 4:7-8] proving all things related to our faith [1 Thessalonians 5:21].

The list below is a tool for determining if your church or organization is a cult or genuinely Christian. Use the list without bias or prejudice. Do not attack the leader personally but attack his doctrine or teaching and practices.

These criteria might serve helpful in identifying the cults. For some, just one or two items (for example No. 1, 2 and 3) of the listed criteria is enough to categorized a group as a cult. For  other cult groups, most of these criteria are present.

 

 No.

  Description

 Check

  1   Rejection of the Godhead or doctrine of the Trinity and replaced by their invented ism  
  2   Rejection of the Deity of Christ or Christ as God including His virgin birth  
  3   Rejection of Christ's true humanity or the doctrine of the Hypostatic Union  
  4   Rejection of Christ and replaced by their leader as the "new christ"  
  5   Rejection of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone  
  6   Rejection of God's plan of grace and replaced with their religious legalism.  
  7   Rejection of Christ as the only Savior and introduced their co-redeemer.  
  8   Rejection of the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the Cross for all men (Rejection of the Unlimited Atonement doctrine)  
  9   Rejection of the spiritual death of Christ on the Cross  
  10   Rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ's bodily resurrection  
  11   Rejection of Christ's bodily ascension  
  12   Rejection of the absolute authority of the Bible and replaced or combined  with their source of authority as books, publications, or writing and words of their own leaders  
  13  Rejection of Bible doctrine and replaced or combined  with their religious doctrines.  
  14   Rejection of the Bible and replaced  with extra-biblical revelation.  
  15   Rejection of the Universal Church and claiming that they alone are saved or to be saved.  
  16   Rejection of the doctrine of eternal punishment and the reality of hell fire.  
  17   Rejection of the major biblical doctrines and majoring on the minor doctrines.  
  18   Rejection of Christ and replaced Him with their leader as the messenger of God.  
  19   Rejection of Bible doctrine and putting emphasis on emotional experiences.  
  20   Rejection of doctrinal study and giving emphasis on direct revelation or vision from God.  
  21   Rejection of biblical dispensations and insisting on the historical sign gifts.  
  22   Rejection of Bible doctrine as the believer's priority and are antagonistic against those who communicate Bible doctrine.  
  23   Rejection of the fact that no one can determine the Return of Christ until the fulfillment of the Rature but making calculation of Christ's return and of the end times.  
  24   Rejection of the doctrines that edify the Church and inventing ministries that expand only the church numerically.  
  25   Rejection of proper Biblical interpretation and depending on mystical and supernatural revelation through anointing, prayer and fasting.  
  26   Rejection of Bible doctrine and accepting spiritism, occultism, extra-biblical beliefs, para-normal and adaptation of paganistic rituals or practices.  
  27   Rejection of the fact that no biblical prophecy is bound for fulfillment during the Church age and putting emphasis on prophecy.  

What are you going to do if your organization or church is a cult?


 

 

 

 

©2005-2009  J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries