Rightly
Dividing The Word Of Truth For
the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.
Instead,
to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number
of
teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. II
Timothy 4:3
Sound Doctrine -
Bible Truth - Bible Teaching - Contending For The Faith - Biblical
Doctrine - Spiritual Discernment
When asking the
question, "So What Is A Cult? we could start by defining the term
cult. When most people think of a cult they think of groups
like
People's Temple founded by Jim Jones who moved to
Jonestown, Guyana and lead or forced over 900 people
to commit suicide. Or the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX lead
by "David Koresh." He had 80 followers who
died in a fire during a stand off with the ATF. Others think
of the 39 members of the Heavens Gate group lead by
Marshall Applewhite (aka Do) who in 1997 committed suicide,
so they could, as Applewhite taught them, could move to the "next level
above human."
In defining a group as a cult, most
people will not have a problem using the term when referring
to these groups.
But
are these extreme groups and the death of their followers
the reason they are called a cult? No!
Two of
the three groups mentioned above, the Branch Davidians and
Peoples Temple, started out as Christian denominations, but
as time pasted the leader moved from true Bible doctrine and
began to teach false doctrine and thus became a cult. So
from this we see that the reason these groups are called
Cults is based solely on the doctrine they taught. Also the
fact is they became a cult long before most people even knew
the groups existed.
So to define what a cult is we see it is a group of people,
which claiming to be Christian, embraces a particular
doctrinal system taught by an individual leader, group of
leaders, or organization. This leader or organization
denies, either explicitly or implicitly, one or more of the
central doctrines of the Christian faith as taught in the
sixty-six books of the Bible.
But can a group
that teaches doctrine that contradicts the fundamental
teaching of the Bible and is defined as a cult ever abandon
the false teachings of it's founders and come back to the
truth of the Bible and move away from the false teachings it
once embraced as true doctrine. The answer is "yes" and it
is happening now with the doctrinal shift from the past of the
"World
Wide Church of God" founded by the late Herbert W.
Armstrong, and for a time lead by his son Garner Ted
Armstrong. The changes are not complete and they have not
totally abandoned the heretical doctrines of their founder
Herbert W. Armstrong, but this move in the right direction
shows that those who were once in darkness can see the light
and turn from false doctrine to the truth of the Bible.
One group we
will look at is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints also know as The Mormons. Though the group claims to
be a Christian denomination they differ from historic
Christianity in many points. The LDS church does not believe
in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as taught by the
historic Christian church. Which is that, "Within the
nature of the one true and living God there are three
person. Who are co-equal, co-eternal and co-existent." What
the Mormon's teach is that the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit are three gods. The say that the Bible is unreliable
and can be relied on only "in so far as it is translated
correctly." They also say that when the Bible and the book
of Mormon differ, the Bible is wrong and the Book of Mormon
is correct. But when the Bible vs. The
Book of Mormonare examined you find vast amounts of
support for the Bible from archeology, history and fulfilled
prophecy. However the Book of Mormon has little or no
support from archeology and history outside the LDS church.
Just one point that the Book of Mormon teaches for history
is that the first people in North American were Israelites
who came here and the Native American Indians are the
descendents of these Israelites. But now with advancements
in science we can examine the science of DNA vs. The
Book of Mormon and learn if this is really the case.
Many people know very little about the doctrines and
teachings of the LDS church, including many Mormon's
themselves. Converts to the LDS church rarely hear anything
about the older and sometimes stranger doctrines of the LDS
church. Many people know only that they have the Book of
Mormon and that they practiced polygamy at
some point in the past. Some people even think that Mormon's
still practice polygamy with all the LDS splinter groups in
the news recently. But the truth is that the main body of
Mormon's, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
with it headquarters in Salt lake City, UT
"officially" stopped polygamy in 1880.
But many will ask,
"Do Members of the Mormon church leave and come to faith in
the Jesus Christ of the Bible?" Yes they do. I and my wife
were both converts to the LDS church and personally know
many who have come to Christ out of the LDS church. Here is
a powerful story of one very strong temple Mormon who had
fought for the LDS faith at every turn and came to a saving faith
in Jesus Christ and left the LDS church.