Ch. 52 Cults And Religions
Cults often portray themselves as Christian, but when you evaluate their doctrines they are obviously non-Christian. It is no mistake that they portray themselves as Christian; it is a technique the enemy of your soul uses to deceive you. God’s Word warns us about such people.
2 Timothy 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
The easiest way to evaluate if an organization’s followers are saved or lost is to focus on their doctrine regarding Jesus of Nazareth. Concentrate on what the cult teaches regarding the deity of Jesus Christ. Any organization which denies that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh is a non-Christian organization. Any organization which teaches you need to do anything in addition to trusting only in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for salvation is a non-Christian organization. Any organization that tries to add anything to Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross for salvation is a non-Christian organization. As well, you will learn if an organization is truly Christian or if it is instead a religion. Any organization that teaches you must keep a set of laws or rules to make yourself acceptable to God is a non-Christian religion. Please read or re-read the chapter titled Christianity Is Not a Religion.
Not to put too fine a point on it but, any organization that teaches Jesus was simply a good teacher is a non-Christian organization. Or if they teach, He was simply a prophet then it is a non-Christian organization. In fact, there is a specific warning in God’s Word regarding the type of person or spirit who denies the deity of Christ:
1 John 4:2–3
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
The phrase “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” means Jesus Christ
is God in human flesh. God warns us that anyone who does not confess that
Jesus Christ is God in human flesh is the
“
spirit of the antichrist”
.
Therefore, any organization which denies the deity of Jesus Christ is a
non-Christian organization; in fact, it is the spirit of the antichrist.
That is why I wrote an entire chapter titled
Jesus Christ Claimed to Be God
.
God’s Word clearly and repeatedly teaches that Jesus Christ is God in
human flesh. If you are unsure about the deity of Jesus, then please read or
re-read that chapter.