christianitymainchristiancult
Christianity: Main Christian Cult
False teaching or cult is not a new phenomenon in our church today. It is as old as the church history itself. We can read about them throughout the Bible. Jesus himself warns to watch out for the false prophets in Mt. 7:15. Paul pointed out to the Corinthians that such men are false apostles, masquerading as apostles of Christ. John too recognized them as wicked man who claim to be apostles but are not in Rev. 2:2.
In the second century Christianity, we had the Gnostic teaching that were bred up within the church. Gnostic Christian systematically distorted the Biblical teaching to the point that the ultimate God is not the creator of this cosmos.
Marcion Christianity came later and developed a Christian faith of two Gods system. He saw God in the Old Testament as harsh, inconsistent, and even tyrannical. But God in the New Testament is a God of love and mercy. Marcion’s teaching that combined with Gnosticism had created “Montanism”. Montanus, a converted Christian, proclaimed to his fellow believers that he was a prophet and the mouthpiece of God
Children of God twisted God’s Agape (pure) love to mean all kinds of other lustful loves. David Burk, the founder of Children of God, came up with a technique to witness Christ and win soul by Flirting Fishing. God so loved the world and gave his body to die for the world, so Christian should do the same to offer love and the body to win faith.
Mary Baker Eddy and her basic Christian Science cryptic teaching sounds more like the mystic Hinduism than straight forward Christianity. It says, “God is all-in all. God is good, God is mind. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil sin, disease. – Disease, sin, evil, death, denies good, omnipotent God, Life.”
Charles Taze Russel is the official founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower. He miss interpreted the Bible to compute the return of Christ in the year 1874. Later Russell changed the date to 1914. The return is a spiritual one and can not be seen. But the danger is the denial of the deity of Jesus Christ, the person and work of the Holy Spirit and many other vital Biblical teachings.
Mormonism. On the night of September 21, 1823, a praying boy of 17, looked up, and found the angel Moroni standing by his bed. Moroni told the boy to find a set of gold plates – a book containing the “fullness of the everlasting Gospel” from the Savior to America. He found the next day the plates that become an addendum as the last book of the Bible.
The New Age derives its belief in the inherent divinity of man that forms the divinity of all things. New Age says, “The Christ is not God, he is not coming as God. He is an embodiment of an aspect of God, the love aspect o f God ……….”
In our modern days, these died hard Christian heretics are still very active among us. Pastor Edward Irving who started the New Apostolic Church and later Hermann Niehaus started to teach in 1890 that the work of the present day disciples is more important than that of the Biblical Apostles.
Lafayette Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, claims his teachings as an “applied religious philosophy” and be a “church”. They advocate gods, deny Christ, self attain salvation, and hell is a myth created by man to deter evil doing.
Spiritists repeatedly attempt to prove that the Bible endorses Spiritism. They cite Biblical characters including the apostles and our Lord Himself as mediums and encourage such practice.
The Theosophical Society has its name from the Greek theo-sophia, literally divine wisdom. Theosophical Society has its root back to the first few centuries Christianity era of Gnosticism. Theosophy speaks in glowing term of Gnosticism which thrived and almost succeeded in doing irreparable damage to early Christian faith.
Transcendental Meditation has been teaching that TM is the core of all religions. Christians should no longer be confused and lost in the Biblical teaching. What Jesus says “the Kingdom of God is in you” or “Who ever sees me has seen the Father too” are meant for meditation.
Unification church or the Moony was established by a Presbyterian believer Sun Myung Moon. In 1945, Moon claimed he received a vision that Jesus paid a respect by bowing and praising him as the greatest teacher in the world. He interpreted the Bible to suit his own wish from the first book to Revelation.
I will not include Seven Days Adventist in the list because they have made some changes and accommodate vital Biblical teachings in to church recently.
False teachings will never go away and will not come from outside. It always originated within the church. Many cult leaders were actually genuine Christians in the beginning. Jim Jones and his People Temple that led many to the suicidal tragedy was a conservative Baptist Pastor. Henry Drummond of New Apostolic Church was a devoted Pastor. David Burk, Moon, and many other church Ministers too were all respectful Pastors before turning to be cult leaders.
What had gone wrong? One single, common and major cause is the miss interpretation of the Bible. It is true that God can review Biblical truth to an individual He likes. But more often God does it in the Church, Bible studies, and Seminary where groups of God’s people share and learn the Truth together.
No one will deny that God can heal you personally. But more often He will heal you through His chosen Physician. Seeking God’s healing and refusing medicine help is the same as reading and interpreting Bible without the Church, Bible studies, and Seminary. You may die physically in the former case and spiritually in the later.