Cults and Heresies
By Charles and Cindy Meek

The Challenge Introduction Orthodox Christianity, Essential Beliefs "Christian" Cults Heresies, Unorthodox Beliefs Heterodoxy Biblical Interpretation What Next

The Challenge

   An unexamined belief is not worth holding. But religion and spirituality can be a touchy subject even so. There is often a great deal of emotion wrapped up in religion. Your reaction to this article may be favorable, or it may not be, based on an emotional reaction. Whatever your initial reaction, our challenge to you is for you to set aside the emotional aspect of your perspective for the moment, and examine whatever you believe about God in light of the actual available evidence.

   There is an old saying that we should not discuss religion or politics in polite company. We disagree with that idea! Americans, especially, have a tradition of open dialogue and debate. It is through legitimate civil discussion that we can grow intellectually and spiritually.

   Sometimes we shy away from discussions of serious issues with friends for fear of offending them or embarrassing ourselves. We believe, however, that it is important and meaningful to discuss tough issues with friends. Our experience has been, that when we discuss significant issues with people we care about, in a manner that respects the other's views, those friendships are deepened. Issues of theology are very interesting and can lead to great discoveries and friendships. The very process of truth-seeking is a marvelous experience in itself.

   We hope this article will encourage dialogue among friends. Of course, it is important to approach such discussions with an attitude of sincerity and vulnerability. The most productive plane for these discussions is to base them on reason and evidence rather than dogma.

   No religion is held on the basis of pure blind faith—otherwise it would be superstition rather than faith. Certainly most folks have what they think are valid reasons for their beliefs about God. So there really should be no logical reason why someone would be reluctant to discuss his or her religious views!

   The only potential problem is the way that such discussions take place. There is a wrong way to go about it. An attitude such as the following is as unproductive as it is unreasonable:

   A more rational and productive attitude is:

    It is in that spirit of love and truth-seeking that we offer the thoughts in this article.

Introduction

    The Bible is a document that is really not that hard to understand. And yet many groups twist it this way and that, giving it different interpretations. God must look down on us humans and "shake his head." How could we so badly mess up what He has clearly given us?

    One of the objections to Christianity is that there are many different groups all claiming to be Christians. And yet we all give different messages. How could there be so much disagreement? It is an embarrassment to the faith. Why can't we get together?

    Well, the simple answer is sin. It is man's sin that spoils it. We are all subject to it (Romans 3:23). The real problem with doctrinal divides is not what the Bible says or does not say. The Bible is a collection of 66 books written in 3 languages over some 1500 years. The amazing thing is how consistent it is. The problem is that man cannot resist putting his own twist to it to suit his own design or pre-conceived notions.

    The purpose of this article is to give a foundation of understanding about what cults and heresies are. Rather than get into the details of the various cults or heresies (other good web sites do that), our purpose is to give the reader enough information to know if the group he is in is a cult or is otherwise outside the bounds of orthodox Christianity. In fact, we will not even mention the names of various groups so as not to give the reader a pre-conceived conclusion.

Orthodox Christianity, Essential Beliefs

    Over the centuries, Christian leaders have agreed on certain elements that are key to the faith. While this is not necessarily all-inclusive, below is a list of the essential beliefs that are consistent with "being a Christian."

• There is one God. While there is only one God, he exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus, these three manifestations of God exist in one divine being or essence.
• God, the Father, made everything that exists, visible and invisible, and continues to sustain it.
• God the Son, Jesus Christ, is true God as well as true man. That Jesus was born of a virgin is supporting evidence of his dual nature of both man and God. He lived a perfect life while on earth, having come to suffer and die for mankind as a ransom for our sins. After he died on the cross and was buried, he came back to life on the third day after his death (was resurrected), an event which had been predicted in the Bible. He then returned to heaven until the time he will come again in final judgment of every person to heaven or to hell.
• God, the Holy Spirit, is also true God and is to be worshipped and glorified as such. The Holy Spirit invites each person to partake of Christ’s blessings which are offered to us, and to experience a personal relationship with Christ. The Holy Spirit gives us the saving knowledge of Jesus, our Savior, so that we can trust and believe and rejoice in Him. The Holy Spirit also comforts, guides, and sustains us in the faith.
• Mankind, from Adam on, has separated himself from God by sin and thus deserves death and eternity in hell. Nobody is good enough to meet God's standard of holiness. But God has a plan of salvation for every person. Salvation is the condition of being saved from sin, death, and God's wrath. Because Jesus overcame death with his bodily resurrection, believers can confidently look forward to eternal life in heaven. Salvation is given by grace; that is, it is a free gift from God to all who trust in Christ as Lord and Savior.
• God, through the Holy Spirit, uses baptism as a way that He imparts His saving grace to forgive our sins. Baptism is thus a means or instrument of His grace.
• The Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God.
• All believers in Christ are members of one spiritual body, the Church.

"Christian" Cults

   While there may be several kinds of cults, we are interested in the "pseudo-Christian cults." These are the groups that call themselves Christians, but really are not.

   There are several characteristics of a cult. Here is a partial list of characteristics that are common to them. Every cult does not necessarily have all these characteristics, but all cults have some of them.

• Typically, there is a central human character who has a controlling influence over the cult members even years after his death.
• Behavior is cliquish to the extreme. They teach that if you are not a member of their particular group, you will not go to heaven.
• They participate in the esoteric, i.e. they claim to have a specialized and secret knowledge that can only be apprehended by those in the group. A tactic is to withhold aspects of their theology until you are well entrenched within the group. You may not learn about the strange and aberrant aspects of their teachings up front.
• They put extreme pressure on their members to stay in the group. They may teach, for example, that to leave their church body condemns the person, sometimes even to a hell even worse than if they had never been part of their church in the first place. In some cases, leaving the church also ostracizes you from your own family and friends.
• They overbearingly warn you against reading religious materials that are not published by their group. This tactic is a method of mind control. God wants us to seek Him freely (2 Corinthians 3:17). Intellectual honesty begins with a willingness to consider evidence contrary to ones current view. A forced adherence to a belief system is artificial, thus not honoring to God. Any group that discourages you from reading other materials in order to seek the truth is almost certainly a cult.
• Cults typically use Christian terminology, but pour different meanings into the words. This is why they so easily trap people. For example, heaven, hell, salvation, Jesus, faith, gospel, etc., may have very different meanings than those of the historic orthodox Christian faith (Galatians 1:6-9).
• Thus, cults usually have a different Jesus than the one of the historic Christian faith (2 Corinthians 11:4). One such cult uses Jesus in the name of their organization but has constructed a Jesus far different from the one in the Bible. For example, they say that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer (the devil). They also say that Jesus is merely the "god" of planet earth, and that there are many gods— one for each planet. This group thus really teaches polytheism, which is contrary to the God of the Bible. The Bible teaches that there is only one God (who appears to us in the three persons of the trinity).
• Cults teach that salvation is by your good works. But what makes Christianity unique versus all other religions is the teaching that salvation (entry into heaven) is by faith, not by works. While orthodox Christianity teaches that nobody is good enough to earn their way to heaven, every cult has developed some system of good works that the member must follow in order to get to heaven. While biblical Christianity teaches the importance of good works in the life of the believer, good works come as a result of faith, not as a requirement for eternal salvation. (See http://www.faithfacts.org/quest_good_life.html.)
• Pseudo-Christian cults typically use the Bible as one of their source texts. But they emphasize other materials— books or pamphlets— published by their own group, as being on par with the Bible or as the last word in biblical interpretation. When you study these other works, you will find that they conflict with the Bible in key areas. (A basic law of logic says that if two things contradict each other, both cannot be true.) Such contradictions discredit these teachings. Truth is internally consistent, not contradictory.
• One major cult has their own version of the Bible. This is another tip-off that something might be amiss. (Scholarly examinations of this version of the Bible have shown it to be filled with purposeful errors designed to mislead the reader.)

Heresies, Unorthodox Beliefs

    Heresies are viewpoints of professing Christians that, while not qualifying as a cult, differ from those of the Bible. Unfortunately, the word heresy is an inflammatory word. We prefer to think of such beliefs simply as unorthodox.

   There are two versions of beliefs that are outside of orthodox Christianity— left wing (liberalism) and right-wing (legalism). Those of the left-wing persuasion tend to interpret the Bible in such a broad way as to include views contradictory to orthodox teaching. These contradictions violate logical consistency. Those of the right-wing persuasion tend to interpret the Bible in such a narrow way as to exclude reasonable interpretations that do not agree with their ultra-strict views.

   Both viewpoints have teachings that are outside the bounds of the historic orthodox Christian faith. The confusing thing is that they can come from within denominations that are recognized as mainstream. Unorthodox beliefs have crept into the midst of some mainstream denominations.

   Both extremes may be motivated by the best of intentions. Liberalism is often motivated by a heart-felt desire to be inclusive; thus liberals are marvelously people-oriented. Legalism is often motivated by a sincere desire to be faithful to God; thus legalists are zealously committed to their doctrine.

    Actually, both extremes tend to do the same thing— pick the passages of Scripture they like and dismiss the ones that seem to disagree with their pre-conceived notions. You might say that they tear out the pages of the Bible that they don't like. The correct way to interpret Scripture is to harmonize all of it. In this way, there should be no problematic passages. That is, there should be no passages that have to be brushed aside as not agreeing with the ones you prefer.

Liberalism

   Legalist doctrine "tears out" one set of pages from the Bible, while liberal doctrine tears out a different set of pages. In the extreme, for example, liberal-minded Christians may emphasize only one aspect of the nature of God— his mercy.

   But the Bible makes it clear that God has both a nature of judgment and of mercy. Liberalism, by accepting only the mercy side of God, suggests that almost everyone will get into heaven. While this is a nice thought, it is not biblical.

   Often, those with a left-wing view say that they are "Jesus only" Christians. This is an open admission that they omit or actually deny much of Scripture. They take this stand not because the evidence supports their view of Scripture, but because they want to construct their own theology. The obvious problem with this is if they deny the authority of Scripture, and since Scripture is the only source of information about Jesus, how do they know who the Jesus they worship is?

   The other problem with this view is that it contradicts itself at every turn. They say they are "Jesus only" Christians, but they have to disregard much of what Jesus himself says, since Jesus confirmed time after time that he considered all of Scripture to be authoritative!

   Inclusiveness and tolerance are ultimate realties in liberal theology. But this view denies the very teachings of Jesus. For example, liberal theologians may suggest that when Jesus said of himself that He is the only way to heaven (John 14:6), either Jesus did not really say that (thus the Bible is in error), or that Jesus did not mean what He said (thus Jesus was fallible). One irony of liberals is that while they preach tolerance, they certainly are not tolerant of fundamentalist Christians!

   Liberalism ultimately destroys itself in self-contradictions and nihilism (the denial of the existence of any basis for knowledge or truth). Those of a liberal persuasion are left with a theology based on what they wish was true rather than what the Bible says is true.

Legalism

    Theological legalism is particularly intransigent because it professes to accept the Bible as the sole basis for Christian truth and as the "inerranct word of God.". This, of course, is the same terminology used by the historic orthodox Christian faith. But when you examine legalist teaching closely, you find that it ignores important parts of Scripture that are a problem to their narrow view. Legalism may merely brush off these sections of Scripture as "difficult." Thus, the legalists’ attempt to be faithful to Scripture results in the very thing that they intended not to do— be unfaithful to it.

    For example, legalists may emphasize the book of James (which offers encouragement for right-living), but then gloss over the book of Romans (which many consider to be the central book of New Testament theology). A predominant theme of Romans, as well as much of the rest of the New Testament is that salvation is by grace (through faith), that is, it is a free gift from God (Romans 3:24, Ephesians 2:8-9, Revelation 22:17, etc).

   In fact, the New Testament proclaims that we are no longer under law, but under grace (Romans 6:14, Galatians 3:25) and we cannot earn God's favor by human effort (Galatians 3:3)! Legalists have to work hard to cover up the doctrine of salvation by grace.

   The purpose of the law is to make us aware of how sinful we are (Romans 3:20, Galatians 3:19-25). It can be said that the sum of theology is that, "God is holy and you are not!" Christ’s coming was a necessary event because of man’s forever sinful nature. It is Christ’s finished work on the cross that saves us, not our own meritorious works. To say that we can earn salvation cheapens the importance of Christ's death and resurrection for our sin. We have been set free by Christ (Galatians 5:1)! God's love is complete!

   Of course, the life of a person will change when he accepts Christ as his savior. But this is the result of an authentic saving faith, not a pre-requisite.

There are several identifying marks of legalism. These include:

• A critical spirit. In legalism there is intolerance of others.
• Separatism. They are forbidden to have fellowship with others who call themselves Christians.
• Undue emphasis on obedience. They look to their own efforts to gain acceptance of the Lord.
• Man-made commandments. There is a tendency in legalistic circles to mulitply God's commandments and elevate man-made rules to God's rules. For example, legalists may insist that one absolutely must attend church twice on Sunday and attend Bible study on Wednesday night. Or they may have rules against playing cards or have strict rules of dress, including a prohibition of jewelry and lipstick. In this regard, they take a scripture passage against wearing clothes of the opposite sex to apply to today. Having difficulty discriminating against man-made rules and spiritual rules, legalists fail to recognize that certain biblical rules are cultural. In Jesus' time men wore clothes close to what modern women wear.
• Majoring in the minors. They tend to be scrupulous about minor commandments and ignore are denigrate the weighty matters (such as justice, mercy, love, or faith).
• There is an emphasis on external matters rather than on internal ones.
• Failure to recognize their own sin. They may pretend to be as righteous as the Pharisees, but ignore the plank in their own eye. A self-examination would reveal that they struggle with the same flaws everyone else does—lust, selfishness, unwarranted and inconsiderate comments or thoughts to even members of their family, and failure to always their neighbor as themselves. Thus the legalist may be even more guilty of the sin of pride than those more willing to admit their faults.
• Greater concern about the letter of the law rather on the spirit of the law and Christ's teachings. (It is quite possible to follow the letter of the law while violating its spirit. For example, the letter of the law in the Bible is to show compassion to widows and orphans. But the spirit of Christ's teachings is to show compassion for everyone, even one's enemies!)

       Legalism is the Galatian heresy that St. Paul condemns. Legalists offer a brand of works righteousness. The book of Galatians warns against mixing legalism and human works into the simple gospel.

    What is tricky about legalist teaching is that it may preach salvation through faith. But in another breath it really makes it clear that if you do not live up to a prescribed standard of conduct, you are not part of the true church— and thus are probably not saved. This seems to be an inevitable result of an intense focus on obedience.

   Legalists insist that their beliefs and practices are strictly biblical. But the fact is that they clearly have certain non-biblical traditions. For example, one might ask them, "Who wrote the first book of the New Testament?" They, of course, believe confidently that Matthew wrote it, but that understanding is not in the book itself. It is a belief from tradition, not from the Bible.

    To a degree, legalist theology results from a fundamental misunderstanding of Christian baptism. The question is this: Is baptism a "work"? If so, whose work? Baptism is indeed a work, but it is a work of God. The legalist view is that baptism is a work of man. Thus since man does at least this one "work" to earn his salvation, then it is logical to say that there are other works necessary for salvation. This is contrary to the orthodox view that because of man’s inherently fleshly (sinful) nature, there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves.

    Their view of baptism is mistaken for at least two reasons:

• Baptism, in Scripture and in real life, is always a passive activity. (You were baptized; never that you baptize yourself.)
• Titus 3:5-7 makes it clear that baptism is a work of God, not of man.

   In addition, certain groups arbitrarily take another step that is not part of the historic orthodox Christian faith. In their zeal to be as precise and faithful as possible, they take the view that unless something is specifically authorized in the New Testament, it cannot be considered part of modern Christian practice. Likewise, something which is mentioned in the New Testament as being practiced by the early Christians requires that they themselves practice it as well.

   One famous example is insturmental music. They say that since instrumental music is not mentioned in the New Testament, it cannot be used in worship. They accept only "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" as acceptable music in worship, because these are specifically mentioned in the New Testament. Since this is such a mark of some legalist groups, it is worth exploring further.

   To see how they have misinterpreted Scripture, consider the etymology of the word psalm, which is a Greek word in Ephesians 5:15-20 that they believe is used in the context of worship. Psalm, according to Webster’s New Twentieth Century Unabridged Dictionary, is traced to a Greek word which means "a song sung to the harp." In other words, a psalm is a hymn set to instrumental music.

   The apostle Paul wrote the Ephesians epistle in the Greek language. Why would he use this word if it leads to something unacceptable to God? The use of the word psalm, which means instrumental music as understood by Paul, would mean that instrumental music is acceptable.

   First of all, it is not clear that the Ephesians passage refers to congregational worship in the first place. Secondly, given the meaning of the word psalm, legalistic practice breaks one of its own faith rules by not using instrumental music in worship. Thus, the errors of legalism can often be traced to important misunderstandings of Scripture arising from an incomplete methodology of the study of Scripture.

   Let us emphasize that there is nothing wrong with acapella singing in worship. In fact, it is very worshipful. It only is a problem if it becomes a necessary part of a theology that relies on specific activities for salvation.

   While all this may seem unimportant, it has significant implications. In an effort to emphasize obedience over grace, other errors consistent with an errant works-righteousness theology creep in. And, sadly, this theology also tends to provide a self-imposed separation from other Christian believers.

   Legalism puts unbiblical emphasis on the ability of men to do enough good to satisfy God, and denigrates the work that God does for us. Thus, legalistic thinking also compromises the essential Christian doctrine of Original Sin (Psalm 51:5, Romans 5, et. al.). One consequence of this legalistic construction of Scripture is a belief that children do not sin, a view contrary to Scripture as well as plain observation. Also problematic is a denigration of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which is crucial to Christian theology.

   Both left and right unorthodox extremes also arbitrarily pick and choose definitions of words. For example, take the word justice. The word justice means that people should get what they deserve, both good and bad. The legalists only focus on the part of the definition that God will punish the wrongdoer. The liberals, on the other hand, focus on what they call "social justice." That is, justice in their view only has to do only with stopping innocent people from being mistreated. They do not want to think about judgment, hell, and so forth. A complete biblical understanding of justice includes both definitions.

   Legalists seem to see the Christian faith as a prison. Liberals seem to see it as a country club.

   The liberals should be pointed to such passages as Matthew 7:13-14 ("narrow is the road that leads to life") and 2 Timothy 3:16 ("all Scripture is God-breathed"). The legalists should be pointed to such passages as Luke 18:9-14 (the parable about the hypocritical Pharisee), to Romans 15:5-7 (a call to unity), and Ephesians 2:8-9 (salvation by grace through faith, not works).

Heterodoxy

    There is a good bit of wiggle room within the historic orthodox Christian faith. That is, there are a number of doctrinal issues that Christians can debate but not divide over. This is what is referred to as heterodoxy. Many groups and denominations make up the members of the Christian community.

    While we believe that there are correct and incorrect interpretations on these issues, we admit that they are not absolutely clear in Scripture. Some of the issues that are legitimately debatable from Scripture include: infant baptism, women in ministry, use of creeds, worship style, the precise nature of man’s free will, etc. Thus heterodoxies are beliefs that may be incorrect, but are not a crucial departure from orthodoxy.

   But, concepts such as the nature of man (his sinfulness), the nature of God (his holiness), the divinity of Christ, and the authority of Scripture are not to be compromised. The central issue for Christianity is that salvation has been attained for all who believe on Him. Since salvation is by grace through faith alone, it is crucial to have a correct understanding of the object of that faith.

Biblical Interpretation

   The historic orthodox Christian faith has accepted the Bible as the basis for faith and life. Further, the Bible is all true, even though all truth is not necessarily contained in the Bible. (For example, geometry and computer science contain truth that is not in the Bible.)

   The Reformation supposedly would unite Christians by an emphasis on "Scripture Alone." But obviously it has not done so, given the hundreds of different denominations and sects. Reason and tradition are also healthy aspects of the Christian faith so long as they do not override the Bible or contradict it. (One major Christian group relies so much on tradition that their theology has become inconsistent with the Bible. This is a severe problem for their theology.)

   Our call is for Christians to unite on the basis of harmonizing Scripture, rather than picking and choosing the passages you prefer or trying to build a theology on your own pre-conceived ideas. Disunity is a sin (Romans 15:5-7, John 17:20-23, 1 Corinthians 1:10, Ephesians 4:1-16).

   When in doubt about interpretation, perhaps we should return to studying what the Christians in the first two centuries believed. There are many writers who were only one generation removed from the apostles, or who actually knew the apostles themselves—whose knowledge we can find most helpful. One organization that offers help on this is Scroll Publishing, http://www.scrollpublishing.com.

    No other holy book is equal to the Bible. It is only the Bible that stands up to the tests of truth by evidence and history. The biggest error of the cults is to try to reconcile other books or truth claims with the Bible. They cannot be reconciled. (See http://www.faithfacts.org/quest_bible_true.html and    http://www.faithfacts.org/quest_gods_word.html.)

   
What Next

    The Bible tells us to test all things and to hold on to only the good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). If you suspect that you are involved with a group that fails the tests given above, get out now. Look for a Christian church that is part of the historic orthodox faith—one that accepts the Bible as authoritative in its entirety in its intended context.

    You may be in an errant church because your family and friends are there. You may be there because inertia is keeping you there. Whatever the reason, it is not a good enough reason to stay.

Links

    For further information on this topic, here are some good web sites:

• www.aomin.org
• www.equip.org
• www.exmormon.org
• www.watchman.org
• http://www.apologeticsindex.org/

About the Christian Information Foundation

   The Christian Information Foundation is dedicated to understanding God through reason and evidence. Through our web site www.FaithFacts.org we offer people the opportunity to ask us religious questions. We've enjoyed many interesting dialogues with people of different persuasions all over the world. We'd be happy to hear from you too.
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Charles and Cindy Meek
August 2004