What Is a Cult?

The Standard of Judgment (General)

According to dictionary.com, the first meaning of the word “cult” is “a particular system of religious worship.” Thus, the most basic meaning of the word “cult” is neutral and applies to all religious groups.

It is not until definition #6 that we read, “A religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist.” It is this definition, of course, that we are concerned with in a section such as this.

If you are a person who reads a lot of anti-cult literature, it may seem strange to you that a false, unorthodox, or extreme sect is the sixth definition of “cult,” rather than the first. It is important to remember that it is really only fundamentalists that use the term in this way. Fundamentalists, for our purposes, would be those who believe the Bible is inspired and that it is the “sole rule for faith and practice.” Groups like the Roman Catholics and Anglicans, who ascribe some authority to tradition, and groups like the United Methodists, which tend toward a less literal or less strict view of the inspiration and role of Scripture, would usually only speak of communes with controlling leaders, like the Branch Davidians in Waco or the Moonies, as cults.

Groups that are called cults by fundamentalists include the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the Way International, the Family of God, and many others. The criterion that marks these groups as cults is that they have deviated from “orthodox” interpretations of the Bible far enough to be considered non-Christian or unsaved.

The Standard of Judgment (Specific)

Two of the larger fundamentalist apologetic ministries are CARM (Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry) and CRI (Christian Research Institute). CARM currently shows 30 million hits on its site, and CRI has boasted up to a million listeners a week to their daily radio program, The Bible Answer Man.

CARM says that the Bible teaches that there are four essential doctrines: the Deity of Christ, salvation by grace, the resurrection of Christ, and the Gospel. A cultist, they say, “will deny one or more of these essential doctrines.” CRI teaches something similar, saying, “A cult is any group that deviates from the orthodox teachings of the historic Christian faith being derived from the Bible and confirmed through the ancient ecumenical creeds.” They add, “These groups deny or distort fundamental Christian doctrines such as the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and salvation by grace through faith alone.”

As you can see, there is relative agreement among these apologetic groups on what is the mark of a cult. If you were to research smaller apologetic organizations, you would find that they are in substantial agreement as well. Some very specific doctrines, mainly the Trinity, especially in reference to the deity of Christ, and salvation by faith alone, are the main markers of a cult to the fundamentalists.

The Frightening Truth

How do we know that CRI and CARM are right and the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are wrong? If you have read much of the rest of this site, then you will probably know already that I don't agree with CRI and CARM any more than I agree with the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. But how are you supposed to know who's telling you the truth? Why should you trust me more than CRI, or CRI more than the Jehovah's Witnesses?

Jesus himself answered that question for us. After telling us to beware of false prophets, he says, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16, NASB). Every good tree, he tells us in the same passage, bears good fruit, and the bad tree bears bad fruit.

Is fundamentalist Christianity bearing good fruit? I would like to submit to you that the Christianity espoused by CRI and CARM is failing miserably at fruit production. Let's look at some reasons why:

This may all seem rather judgmental, but Jesus said that false prophets will be known by their fruit, not by their doctrinal arguments from the Bible. The fact is that we can all see that fundamentalist Christianity in America is failing miserably as a representative of the teachings of Jesus Christ. They are known for their political involvement and for their opposition to homosexuality. Are these the things Jesus was known for? Though Jesus taught sinners to “go and sin no more” (Jn. 8:11), he was also known as the friend of sinners, not as their enemy (Matt. 11:19).

The frightening truth, then, is that the very people that have declared themselves defenders of the faith and who write off others as being unscriptural or heterodox (not orthodox), are proven by the first and most basic test of Scripture to be false teachers themselves. With that established, I would like to show you that they are not any more doctrinally accurate than they are behaviorally accurate.

The Doctrinal Truth

CRI loves to talk about “the historic Christian faith,” but one of the prime doctrines that they propose as belonging to the historic Christian faith, salvation by faith alone, has only been taught for about a quarter of the church's history and even then by no more than a quarter of Christian churches.

Please understand that the idea that men are saved by faith, apart from works, is an idea as old as the Christian faith, but the Reformation teaching of salvation by faith alone is only 500 years old, contradicts numerous Scriptures, and has been associated since its invention in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century with immorality and nominal Christianity.

Did you know that the only occurrence of the phrase “faith alone” in the Bible is in James 2:24, where the Bible tells us that we are not justified by faith alone? Look it up. It is the only occurrence of that phrase in the Bible. You would think that a doctrine that is listed by two major apologetic ministries as one of only four essentials of the faith would be mentioned positively in the Bible on occasion and certainly never mentioned negatively!

Not only is it directly contradicted by James 2:24, but even the great “faith” letters of the New Testament—Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians—repeatedly say things that are completely unexplainable by the fundamentalist version of salvation by faith alone. For example:

These are just the few I can think of from just three letters, and these are the three letters that are most noted for teaching the doctrine of salvation by faith alone! There are many more in the other books and letters of the New Testament.

It is important to explain here what is true, because Paul does say that “a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law” (Rom. 3:28, NASB) and “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8,9, NASB). Such statements seem to contradict with the ones we have given above, and the fact is that when fundamentalists and Jehovah's Witnesses debate each other on this issue, they each throw their respective verses at one another, neither of them giving any sort of sensible explanation to the verses of the other.

However, if CRI were really following the historic Christian faith, they would have no problem explaining the verses that the Jehovah's Witnesses use. Though the church made a drastic downhill slide after they had to let in most Roman citizens when the emperor converted to Christianity in the early 4th century, until that time they displayed the incredible unity, love, holiness, and separation from worldly wealth that the Scriptures describe (see The Unity of the 2nd Century Church for references from that time period). The Christian writers of that time made the same seemingly contradictory statements that Paul, Peter, and the other apostles did, indicating that they understood the thinking of the apostles. Anyone who reads those writers enough will see that they did understand.

Those early writers understood clearly that when Paul said that justification was by faith, he was speaking of our initial justification, our entrance into Christ. Our past sins are forgiven and grace comes to us, delivering us from the power of sin as well (Rom. 6:14). In that state of grace, we are “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph. 2:10, NASB). Then, as the verses we read above indicate, we are expected to walk in that grace by the Spirit of God, thus continuing in good works without growing weary, so that we may reap eternal life at the judgment. While our entrance into Christ is apart from works, because we are in condition to do good works anyway, being slaves to sin, our entrance into heaven after the judgment is not apart from works; it is by works, as every Scripture on the judgment in the New Testament indicates (e.g., Matt. 25:31-46; Jn. 5:28-29; 2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Pet. 1:17).

With this sort of understanding, it is no surprise that the apostles and early Christian writers spoke both of justification by faith and entrance into heaven by works. It is what they believed! Having the fear of God that Peter spoke so clearly of (1 Pet. 1:17), they walked by the Spirit, obeying Christ's commands, and in this way they remained in him and bore much fruit. Anyone who looks at the life of the early churches will see the abundant fruit that they bore until the day they opened the door to the crowds of Roman citizens who wanted to follow the emperor into the church.

It probably will not surprise you to find out that CRI and CARM don't agree with the historic Christian faith on the other doctrine that they call essential, the Trinity and the deity of Christ. Let me say at the outset, because this is as much an emotional issue as it is a doctrinal one, that while the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible, it is a word that the early church used in reference to God, and I believe it is a doctrinally sound word. I also completely believe the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed that are considered the standards of orthodoxy on the subject of the Trinity.

Again, I believe that the word “Trinity,” despite not being a Scriptural term, is a valid term to use in reference to God, and I believe the Nicene and Apostles creeds on the subject of the Trinity.

However, I'm writing this because neither CRI nor CARM believes the Nicene and Apostles creeds; nor do the churches that recite those creeds every week as part of their liturgy. Let me prove that to you.

The Nicene and Apostles creeds are virtually the same creed. The Apostles Creed is a just a modern version of the Nicene Creed, which came from the council of Nicea in AD 325. Very little has changed except some minor wording. Both creeds, however, contain the following wording:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty...
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God

Let me ask you, is that what you believe? It is not what CRI and CARM believe, despite their claims to hold to those creeds. They believe in one God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Creed, however, says we believe in one God, the Father Almighty. We also believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ. Not only is this Scriptural, but it is practically a Scripture quote. 1 Corinthians 8:6 reads, “For us there is but one God, the Father...and one Lord, Jesus Christ” (NASB).

Does this mean that Jesus is not God? Surprisingly, no, it does not. Jesus is called God in many places. Being the divine Son of God and not a mere creation, he has every right to be called God. However, when the Scriptures (and the creeds and the early church) say that there is one God, it always says that one God is the Father (e.g.; Jn. 17:3; 1 Tim. 2:5).

CRI does not want to admit that the Father is called the one God. The Jehovah's Witnesses do not want to admit that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can be called God as well, so once again they throw Scriptures at one another and neither can explain the other's verses. Once again, if CRI was really open to the historic Christian faith, they would be able to explain the Jehovah's Witnesses' verses. Tertullian, a Christian of the 2nd century, does a fabulous job explaining.

If the Father and the Son are alike to be invoked, I shall call the Father God and invoke Jesus Christ as Lord. But when Christ alone, I shall be able to call him God, as the same apostle says: ‘Of whom is Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.’ For I should give the name of ‘sun’ even to a sunbeam, considered by itself, but if I were mentioning the sun from which the ray emanates, I certainly would at once withdraw the name of sun from the mere beam. For though I make not two suns, still I shall reckon both the sun and its ray to be as much two things and two forms of one undivided substance as God and his Word, as the Father and the Son. (Against Praxeas 13, c. AD 200)

Conclusion: What Is Not a Cult

Just as the real mark of false prophets is not their theological system, but their fruit, so the real mark of true teachers is not their doctrinal purity, but their good fruit. The true Gospel will produce disciples who obey Christ, love one another, and are united in holy service to the Lord God Almighty, taking care of one another and caring nothing for the things of this world. Thus, true teachers will produce that result as well.

It is possible to do, and it is being done at Rose Creek Village in west Tennessee. Just because there are so many counterfeits does not mean that the real thing does not exist. God is drawing more and more real disciples together into a rich fellowship with one another, displaying the unity and separation from the world that mark his servants.

I don't ask you to take my word for these things. You should see for yourself, for the sight could change your life forever and bring you into the church of Jesus Christ for the first time. Follow the link above to see what God is doing in west Tennessee. There you will also find what he's doing in other parts of the world that we know about, though of course we cannot know about everywhere. After you look at the web site, come visit and see if what is being built is really what you see described in the Scriptures. We think you will be amazed at the kindness, love, and mercy of God towards those who have abandoned everything in accordance with his command, so that we can follow him together.

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Apologetics: How to Answer Cults

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