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What Is A Cult?
Open the
Bible Question Form to send your own question.
Q:
Would you give me a definition
of the word cult?
A : Cults
are defined by different people in different ways. I suppose that
most everyone is in a cult in the eyes of someone. So, I just have to
give you what I mean when I say that something is a cult--and I refer
specifically to Christian cults. I do that by giving you the
characteristics of a cult as I understand them.
- A cult claims to be Christian. For instance, Buddhism is a false
religion, not a cult.
- A cult, though it claims to use the Bible, is built
on extra-biblical
teachings. These teachings usually come from a person or small number
of
people and they usually are centered in a book or a small number of key
books. The main distinction is that these teachings, in practice, take
authority over the teachings of the Bible. These extra-biblical teachings
have become the true authority.
- A cult, because of its acceptance of extra-biblical
authority for
truth, teaches doctrines so opposed to scripture that they cloud the
truth of salvation and damn souls to hell. They match the practice of
the
Pharisees in Matthew 23:13 - "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye
neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to
go
in."
Although I would not say that this is an absolute record, the cults tend
to err in many of the same doctrines. Here are some of the errors they
are most likely to teach:
- They deny the sufficiency of scripture - by adding to it and
lording
over it with new authoritative books and teachings.
- They deny the deity of Jesus Christ.
- They deny the reality of a literal hell or relegate
it to an
incidental use for the extremely wicked.
- They deny the sufficiency of God's grace for
salvation - requiring
works for salvation.
- They deny that people can please God apart from
being in their group.
They often carry this to mean that salvation itself is found exclusively
in their group. In some cases, God may save others, but they will have
a
lower position than those in the select group.
Till He comes,
Pastor David Reagan
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