• A cult manifests, deviant or unusual social practices and beliefs. It is an alternative religion. A cult is relative to the culture and religious context in which it resides. For ex., Hindu or Buddhist subgroups may be regarded as cultic in the United States, but not so in their native environment. Moreover, cults and even sect groups should not be confused with world religions. In one way or another, they are subgroups that have not attained a global status as bearers of a particular sacred tradition. Sociologically, cults have much in common with sect groups (Kyle 22)
  
  
• Encarta :

  1. a. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader. b. The followers of such a religion or sect.

  2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.

  3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.

  4. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.

  5. a. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing. b. The object of such devotion.

  6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

• Religion" Like Joseph Smith, Matthias proclaimed a new revelation, but unlike Smith's his cult ended in scandal, dissolution, and obscurity."

• Matthias Delusion

Ferm, Vergilius, Ed. An Encyclopedia of Religion. The Philosophical Library, New York: 1945.