Got thinking about the world of cults today and immediately
though back to Jim Jones cult who all committed suicide with Kool-Aid. It’s
amazing how one man can control others to the point of killing oneself to
follow a path. I think of the San Diego cult who many committed suicide waiting
for the alien ship to pick them up. Then I think of how Christianity is called
a cult by those who are detractors. And then I think of how many denominations
point to others saying they are a cult. Then I think to Matthew 7:1 which is
simple:
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Now judging the practices of a cult which uses mind control
to make their followers do anything without “free-will” involved is dangerous.
Nothing is scarier than the idea one of our children could be following a nut
job. Heck it’s spooky that we could do that.
I think of my old church home, 12 Stone, and how many called
them a cult because of the influx of stickers. This specific comment was one
with the stick figure family, but one was an elephant. It was promoting a
series on an elephant in the room and we placed one on our shop window. Well
one came in accusing 12 Stone of being a cult because of the large number of
these in the community. It was actually a blessing to see the community was so
full of believers.
At a previous church we had a Sunday school class about “Witnessing
To The Witnesses” and immediately got concerned because of how we were calling
a fellow church a cult. Then the finger got pointed to the Mormons and Catholic
church with the same accusations. I shortly ended our time there since I knew
many in each faith and during the class had detailed discussions about the
faith. You know what the common thread was? All believed in the Salvation
through Jesus!!
Sure one believed Jesus was a man and not God, but scripture
says Jesus was the SON of God. One complaint was a change in the Bible that was
horrendous. Honestly you look at every translation and people can see doctrinal
biases. I can find numerous sites that will tell you the KJV is bad, the NIV is
bad, the Message is bad and so on.
Honestly the ONLY church that has knocked on my door and
witnessed to me was the Jehovah Witnesses. If we are really concerned for the
salvation of others why are we not making an effort to share our faith? Sure
one could say the Mormons are “works based”, but one could read the Bible and
understand that our salvation is not from works, but our fruits are so
therefore we need to DO more!
When all is said and done, a cult is a cult and a
denomination is not. Be very careful of judging others within our faith. Sure I
think the Watchtower is odd, sure I don’t like the additional books in the
Mormon Bible but who am I to say that is wrong? My key is as long as salvation
through Jesus is taught, the rest is details that we need to figure out on our
own through READING THE BIBLE with guidance from elders.