PHILOSOPHY 104: Supplemental Notes to Lecture and Reading

LESSON TEN:

THE WORLDVIEW OF CULTS:

Cults that Attempt to Correct Christianity

READING FOR THE LESSON:

These Notes

THESES FOR THE LESSON:

The true definition, from a Christian perspective, of a cult, is a group that
attempts to “correct” biblical Christianity, either with new sacred texts or a
realignment of Christ’s person and work.

TERMS AND CONCEPTS YOU MUST KNOW

Please note: These supplemental notes are prepared to enlarge upon the concepts and teachings found
in the two required textbooks, as well as the video lectures. Some lessons will require more
elaboration than others, but the normative supplemental notes will be a short summary of the
teachings, and an aid for the student’s preparation for testing.
 Prepared exclusively for Liberty University DLP by Dr. Ergun Mehmet Caner 2

WESTERN CULTS TAXONOMY CHART

CORRECT CHRISTIANITY REPLACE CHRISTIANITY

Believe Christianity needs to be FIXED Believe Christianity is FALSE.

Anti- Anti- Anti- Liberal / Sexual Mind Science

Messiah Body Trinity Syncretist Cults Science Fiction
Cults Cults Cults Sects Cults Cults
“Evil is
Deny Jesus “No one Deny “Evil is a Salvation” “Evil is “Evil is
is final Lamb else is Jesus Myth” Illusion” Extra-
of God saved” is God terrestial
----------------- -------------- ----------------- ----------- -------------- -------------- --------------
In History- In History- In History- In History- In History- In History- In History-
Ebionites Catholicism Islam Humanism Hedonism Hinduism Gnosticism

NEW Roman LDS Mainline Satanism Christian Scientology

MESSIAH Catholicism (Mormons) Sects Science
Children Star Trek
Unification Greek Jehovah’s Church of God (Berg) Religious
Church Orthodox Witnesses of Science Apocalyptic
(Moonies) England Occult Groups
Church of Oneness Mind Science
Baha’i Christ Pentecostal Universalism Swedenborg- UFO cults
ianism Unity School
Nation of Born-Again Unitarianism Heaven’s
Islam Jesus Rosicrucianism Spiritism Gate
Movement MCC
Goth/Wicca Deepak
NO Rastifarian (Dark Energy) Chopra
MESSIAH
YET New Age Theosophy
(Light Energy)
Modern Kabbalah
Judaism
th
12 Imam
Shi’ites
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THE DIFFERENCES IN DEFINITIONS

Please study the chart on page two. A taxonomy is a chart of categories- an
attempt to understand various things in terms of distinction. In regard to apologetics, it is
important to understand the difference between a world religion, a sect, a cult and the
occult.
A world religion is a movement that offers another means of salvation other
than Jesus Christ by using different sacred texts, different vocabulary and different rites
and rituals. Hinduism, for example, is a world religion because it speaks of different
gods (Vishnu, Brahman, Shiva, etc.), uses different sacred texts (The Four Vedas), and
different means of salvation (moksha).
A sect is a sister group, that differs from other subgroups, but as a whole is in
agreement with the movement. These differences can be theological, but usually they
are ethical. As an example, a Presbyterian and a Baptist may not agree on issues such
as polity (elders versus congregational rule) and worship style. They view each other,
however, as brothers in the faith. Neither would condemn the other to damnation, since
they both agree on the nature of God, salvation and man. Jesus Christ is the God-man
and the Atonement in each system, so they are sects. They agree on the fundamentals,
even if they disagree on many other minor points.
An occult movement is an inversion of the biblical understanding of God and
man. The occult embraces evil, and often reassigns it as “good.” It views this evil either
as an energy, a person (usually Satan) or a force, and does not view it as sinful. Occult
movements such as Satanism would reclassify God as evil, since He is at war with
darkness. Darkness, in this instance, is acceptable and good.
In Christian apologetics, a cult is a movement that either attempts to correct
Christianity or replace Christianity. It is a new movement, and traditionally has found its
strongest support in the western world. A cult usually offers new sacred books that
rectify perceived failings in the Bible, or adds a new chapter to the finished work of
Jesus Christ. Obviously a cult does not believe that Jesus Christ was, or did, what the
Bible states He did. Thus, a cult alleges to tell the full story, or correct the
misunderstanding.
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As the chart notes, cults can be divided into two major categories: those that
attempt to replace the work of Jesus Christ and offer a new way, and those who attempt
to correct the work of Jesus Christ. In this lesson, we shall study those movements in
the context of their denials of biblical Christianity.

CORRECTING THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST: He is not Messiah Groups

Cults that attempt to correct the finished work of Jesus Christ will always begin
by attacking the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. One subgroup (see chart in these
notes) specifically questions Jesus as the One, Only and Final Messiah. This would
include those who do not believe Jesus was the Messiah at all, and also those who
believe that Jesus was a Messiah, but not the final Messiah. They usually present their
founder as the final Messiah. Salvation, therefore, is not complete, and their books
teach this additional method of atonement.
These groups would include the Unification Church (known as the Moonies), the
Baha’I, and the Nation of Islam. The Unification Church teaches that its founder, Rev.
Sun Yung Moon, is the final Messiah. The Baha’I accept Jesus as an exalter Messiah,
but that Bahu’allah (in the 19th century) is the final coming.
In the Nation of Islam, this teaching takes an interesting turn. They teach that their
leader, Wallace Fard, was actually Allah incarnate! This is a violation of the central
teachings of two major groups, since Jesus (in Christianity) was the only-begotten (John
3:16, meaning only time God ever put on flesh) and Allah (in Islam) never incarnates
(see Surah 112). However, the Nation of Islam’s major publication, The Final Call, it
notes, “According to Elijah Muhammad, (Wallace) told him, ‘My name is Mahdi; I am
God."’”1
Secondly, there are groups that teach that the Messiah has not yet come.
Specifically, modern Judaism fits this category. Modern Jewish scholars are actually
looking for the “Moshiach,” which points to a great political leader descended from King
David. Though this is a biblical concept ("moshiach ben David" in Jeremiah 23:5 and
Isaiah 11: 2-5), it is incomplete. In any case, all sects of Judaism fervently deny that
Jesus was the Messiah.
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CORRECTING THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST: We are not a Body Groups

A second group fits the description of a cult by denying that all believers,
regardless of denominational affiliation, are saved. These cults believe that salvation
can only be found in their church or group. This would include such groups as the
Church of Christ and Roman Catholicism. During the Second Vatican Council, this
teaching was reiterated: “For it is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the
universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be
obtained.2'"

CORRECTING THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST: Jesus was not God Groups
The final category, and largest numerically, of “correction” cults are the groups that
teach that Jesus was not God, and thus God is not Triune. In this group we can find the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses (officially known as the Watchtower Society) teach
Jesus Christ was the first created being of God, known as Jehovah. Jesus was created
as a spirit with divine traits, but he was created. Their official doctrine states, “this
means that (Jesus) was created before all the other spirit sons of God, and that he is
the only one who was directly created by God.3
The conclusion of this teaching is also stated emphatically:

The Son's share in the creative works, however, did not make him a Co-creator
with the Father. Rather than a Co-creator, then, the Son was the Agent or
instrumentality through whom Jehovah, the Creator worked4.

Mormonism inverts this method. They deny Christ as God, but believe that every
believer in Mormonism will become gods. Founder Joseph Smith himself said,
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned
in yonder heavens!... I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have
imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute this idea,
and take away the veil, so that you may see.... It is the first principle of the gospel
to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse
with Him as one man converses with another, and that He was once a man like us;
yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus
Christ Himself did; and I will show it from the Bible . . . Here, then, is eternal life--to
know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods
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yourselves, and be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done
before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small
capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you
attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings,
and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.5

REPLACING THE WORK OF CHRIST CULTS

Please consult the video lecture of the four groups of cults that desire to replace
Christianity. These groups desire to replace Christianity with a new form of religious
thought. Some, such as the “Liberal Syncretist” groups, believe that biblical Christianity
is antiquated and dated. The emphasis in Scripture on soul winning and the absolutes
of Christ as Lord and Savior are not as important as our present need for social justice
and universal peace. They replace soul winning with activism. They seek new ways to
bring peace to the earth, other than through faith in Christ.
The “Sexual Cults” are not necessarily given to orgiastic compromise, but rather
they believe that by indulging the flesh one finds salvation. New Age groups that believe
in the power of the flesh, embrace the energy forces of the universe.
The final two groups (“Mind Science” and “Science Fiction”) either hold to a cosmic
warfare (Science Fiction) or a cosmic illusion (Mind Science). Mind Science groups
believe that all sin, disease and evil is an illusion, much like Hinduism. They often deny
the use of medical help (Christian Scientists) because one can defeat any disease by
simple confession of truth and denial of evil. The founder of Christian Science, Mary
Baker Eddy, wrote in 1875,
The only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities
seem real to human, erring belief . . . They are not true, because they are not of
God. The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief
or conviction of the necessity and power of ill-health6"

1
Elijah Muhammad, The Fall of America, 236, as reprinted in "The Mother Plane," The
Final Call 15, no. 25, (July 16, 1996): 19.
2
Roman Catholic Catechism, 1994 edition, 215.
3
You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, (Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract
Society of New York, 1982), 58.
4
Aid to Bible Understanding, (Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New
York, 1971), 918.
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5
Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 vols.,
introduction and notes, B.H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: The Deseret Book Company,
1978), 6:305-306.
6
Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston, CCS,
1996), 472.