For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" Eph. Simply stated, in these and other Bible passages the equation is: Faith equals salvation plus works. In cultic thinking the equation is: Faith plus works equals salvation. Scripture is clear that good works are the result of God's grace; they do not earn salvation Gal.
Does the organization claim to be the only one that has the truth? Does it claim it is God's sole channel or only true church? As a result, are all other religious organizations to be rejected as false? If a person leaves the group is salvation lost?
LDS members believe they belong to "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" Doctrine and Covenants, JW believe that since their organization has served as Jehovah's "sole visible channel, through whom alone spiritual instruction was to come" Watchtower , October 1, , p.
Are the teachings of the group characterized by doctrinal ambiguity or uncertainty? Are doctrines presented as revealed by God, or as "due- time" light, later rejected or replaced by new understandings? Does a study of the group's history reveal that its leaders have pronounced or promoted false prophecies? This was done either by new revelations or by speculations based on erroneous interpretations of Scripture. Joseph Smith and his successors assumed the title of "prophet," but more than fifty of Smith's prophecies failed, as have those of his successors.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are notorious for promoting prophetic speculations that have failed , , , , , etc. I still remember when JW were speaking of "the remaining months before Armageddon" in According to the Bible, these failures clearly identify a false prophet Deut.
After naming several contemporary cults, Dr. James Sire asks, "how can these very different religious movements claim Scripture for their own? They can only do so by violating the principles of sound literary interpretation" Scripture Twisting , Intervarsity Press, , p. The subtitle explains the book's focus: 20 Ways the Cults Misread the Bible. Are biblical terms used but given a different meaning? To be aware of this redefinition of terms is essential if one is to understand how LDS doctrine differs from biblical Christianity.
Consider the following with a Scriptural response. Mormonism views sin as specific acts, not as man's basic nature Rom. The Gospel is explained as the teachings and church ordinances restored by Joseph Smith 1 Cor —4.
While there are many reasons for the growth of cults, one obvious reason is the lack of biblical understanding and spiritual discernment.
Christians must understand the challenge of cults and dedicate themselves to "being prepared to make a defense" 1 Peter , and "to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" Jude 3. Besides, accusations of cultism have been levelled at secular or semi-secular organisations as well as metaphysically inclined ones. If the boundaries between cult and religion are already slippery, those between religion and culture are more porous still.
Everything about how we see the world and ascribe meanings to symbols, at a linguistic as well as a spiritual level, is mediated by the semiotic network in which we operate. Religion, too, functions within culture as a series of ascriptions of meaning that define how we see ourselves, others, and the world.
Geertz writes :. Take, for example, the cultural pervasiveness of ideals of female thinness. Likewise, the no less culturally pervasive failure of mainstream institutions — from the healthcare system to mainline Protestant churches — to address the needs of their members gives rise, with equal potency, to individuals susceptible to conspiracy theories, or cultish behaviours: to anything that might provide them with meaningfulness.
The very collapse of wider religious narratives — an established cultural collectivism — seems inevitably to leave space for smaller, more intense, and often more toxic groups to reconfigure those Geertzian symbols as they see fit. Even Christianity itself proliferated most widely as a result of a similar vacuum: the relative decline of state religious observance, and political hegemony, in the Roman Empire. And to be in a community of people who can help reinforce that truth, whose rituals and discourse and symbols help not only to strengthen a sense of meaningfulness but also to ground it in a sense of collective purpose, then that meaningfulness becomes more vital still: it sits at the core of what it is to be human.
To talk about religion as a de facto abuse-vector of hierarchical power in other words, a cult writ large is a meaningless oversimplification. Every time we repeat a ritual, from the Catholic Mass to a prayer circle on a farm compound to a CrossFit workout, it defines us — and we define the people around us.
If God did not exist, as Voltaire said, we would have to invent him. The same is true for cults. Space exploration. Instead of treating Mars and the Moon as sites of conquest and settlement, we need a radical new ethics of space exploration. Ramin Skibba. Modern biomedicine sees the body as a closed mechanistic system. But illness shows us to be permeable, ecological beings. Nitin K Ahuja. They are spreading like branching plants across the globe.
Should we rein cities in or embrace their biomorphic potential? Josh Berson. Thinkers and theories. Some see Plato as a pure rationalist, others as a fantastical mythmaker. As Nana Boakye-Yiadom reports from Accra, the church has dwindled in numbers due to its unorthodox interpretation of Christianity in the modern era. Daily newsletter Receive essential international news every morning.
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