WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

We have all read about, or seen a movie, or watched a TV program about some "cult" enticing people to join and then not allowing them to leave.

Typically, they engage in the "brainwashing" techniques of stimulus deprivation, sleep deprivation, intense re-training, thought control and other nefarious acts that make the cult member think he/she must not leave for fear of disappointing the leader and therefore, God.

But that's not the only kind of cult in existence today.

What are some of the characteristics of a cult (not to be confused with a "sect," which is a whole different thing)?

The first and most important determination of whether a group is a cult is their answer to the question, "Who is Jesus."

Any entity that gives any answer other than: He is the Son of God; the third Person of the Trinity; co-equal with God; the payer of the sin-debt owed by all of mankind through His death, burial and resurrection, is a cult.

There are some "well-respected" cults in America today, who would take issue with that definition.

Too bad.

They need to come to the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus as Lord.

So what do cults do?

Let's let simple arithmetic inform us.

Addition:

Cults add to Scripture.

The revelation of God provided in the Bible is never sufficient for a cult. Thus they must add to the written revelation of Scripture, usually with additional scriptures or with their own translation of the Bible.

In this way we have books that contradict the Word of God. Since the Bible claims exclusivity as the written revelation of God, we must see that other books, even if the followers of cults claim that they are equal to the Bible, must actually be over and above the Word of God.

Subtraction:

Cults subtract from the person of Christ.

Cults cannot tolerate the divinity and exclusivity of Jesus and thus usually reduce Him to being a created being.

In some cases they make Jesus only a manifestation or mode of God. In either case, the role of Jesus as revealed in Scripture is diminished.

Multiplication:

Cults multiply the requirements of salvation.

Salvation, as it is presented in the Scriptures, is by God's grace through faith alone.

Cults continually add to the requirements of salvation, always adding human works as a necessary prerequisite to salvation.

No cult teaches or endorses justification by faith alone. Thus all cults reject the very heart of the gospel.

Division:

Cults divide the loyalty of believers.

Each cult believes that it has exclusive revelation and understanding of God that ensures its followers are either exclusively God's people or are somehow more blessed than others.

Cults always seek to divide believers against each other based on the previous three marks.

Thus cults are, by their very nature, divisive.

I urge you to accept the offering of God found in John 3:16 - 16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.," and Romans 10:9 & 10 - "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Then you will have life, and have it abundantly.