How to cope with the cults? There are so many of them ... all different. Who has time to study all their weird doctrines in order to refute them? Here is a better way. No need to get bogged down in the details of this or that cult. No need to debate fine points in the original Greek and Hebrew. No need to fight over the interpretation of obscure passages of scripture?
Each cult is guilty of one or more certain characteristic doctrinal errors. Once you know what these typical errors are, you can know what's basically wrong with a cult, whatever weird or seemingly rational form it may take. Awareness of these characteristics can help you spot creeping errors among true Christians too...and maybe save you from going astray.
How has God revealed Himself?
The Christian answer to that question is that God has revealed Himself "on many occasions in diverse manners" in days gone by. In these last days however He has revealed Himself fully and finally to us in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, the Word of God (see Hebrews 1:1-2).
The Word of God is, therefore, God's final and complete revelation, and this revelation can be supplanted by no other. The cults have no such commitment, believing in the heretical doctrine of extra-biblical revelation. They claim that God has spoken and recorded words, through whatever medium since He gave us the New Testament Scriptures. They assert that God speaks or has spoken outside or apart from the Bible.
The first and most typical characteristic of a cult is that it claims for its authority some revelation apart from the clear statements of the Word of God. Most cults claim to respect the teachings of the Bible. Many even attribute divine inspiration to Holy Scripture. They then quickly announce their real confidence in some subsequent revelation that in effect cancels the teaching of the Bible in favour of a more authoritative new thing which they claim God has spoken subsequently. They are therefore claiming that the Bible is only a part of the verbal revelation of God and that He has spoken or does speak in a manner that is extra-biblical, apart from Scripture.
Sometimes this extra-biblical revelation comes in the form of a "divinely inspired leader." Many religions have invested divine authority in the person of a visible individual who speaks infallibly, his words have the same or higher authority than Holy Scripture. Some of these religions have made their leaders equal with God.
From "Brother Julius" in Brooklyn to a spiritual temple in Los Angeles, the cults continue to press for a better revelation than the Word of God. William Branham, in his Word to the Bride, said, "One night as I was seeking the Lord, the Holy Spirit told me to pick up my pen and write. As I grasped the pen to write, His Spirit gave me a message for the church. I want to bring it to you...It has to do with the Word and the bride."
The God of the Bible, knowing that this would be the case in the future of the Church, very clearly declares His Word, the Scriptures, to be final and unsupercedable revelation. After giving us 66 books in the Old and New Testaments, the Holy Spirit directed the Apostle John to categorically close the verbal revelation of God at the conclusion of the Bible, saying, "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophesy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man should take away from the words of the book of this prophesy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life" (Rev. 22:18-19).
Clearly then, we have in Scripture a dreadful curse placed upon anyone who presumes to present a new verbal revelation from God.
In a frantic attempt at rationalization, some cultists say, "Well, our revelation did not come from the word of man but from a higher source." The Mormons' claim to the coming of an angel is an illustration of this.
As if foreseeing this the Apostle Paul wrote, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again. 'If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed'" (Galations 1:8-9).
It is true that in biblical times the Word was carried to man by angels (Hebrews 2:2). We are told, however, that the revelation of Jesus Christ supersedes this. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:1-2).
Christ is better than the angels, and all of the angels of God are commanded to worship Him. The final words of Scripture, therefore, "the revelation of Jesus Christ," can never be superseded by the ministry of angels. This is why Jesus Christ advised His disciples and us to "continue in My word" (John 8:31). Our present age is also well advised to heed the words of the Father, "This is my beloved Son...hear ye Him" (Matthew 17:5).
It is a cardinal doctrine of Christianity that final truth, the ultimate word is resident in Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Scripture is itself even stronger than that, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).
Final truth therefore is the Person, the Word, and the work of Jesus Christ. No subsequent revelation as to the nature of truth can supecede the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is simply impossible for there to be a greater revelation than that of Christ in this universe or any other under the God who made this and all possible universes.
One frequent device of a cult is to lend creedance to its own writings by placing them parallel to the Scriptures and then moving them up to a greater authority. The Krishna cult, the modern followers of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, grasp for authority in the minds of the foolish. They place their arcane and mysterious writings on a par with the Word of God.
A word of admonition is therefore in order. The Christian believes the Bible to be the final and only verbal revelation of God. Believing this, he must give himself to the study of the Word of God with a higher degree of intensity than ever before. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17)
(from Know the Marks of Cults - The 12 basic errors of false religion by Dave Breese)
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