Jehovah's Witnesses

One of the most common cults in America is one that was born here, the Jehovah's Witnesses. One of the things that defines the Witnesses as a cult is their identity of Jesus Christ. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ is identified as God in person. John 1:1 literally reads, "In beginning was the Word (speaking of Jesus). And the Word was with the God. And God was the Word." Now, we could get into a great discussion of Greek grammar, but in the second sentence the phrase "the God" is to define that there is only one God and that He is the object of the statement. In the third sentence, where it says "And God", there is no "the" because it is being used as a Name and is the subject of the sentence, and that subject has already been defined in the previous sentence as THE GOD. The Witnesses try to excuse this away and insert an "a" to make it read, "and the Word was a god". This is a case of Bad Teaching resulting in a bad translation based on bad grammar. And some people think that grammar studies are not very important. Instead of just accepting this truth, they assert that Jesus Christ is the angel Michael. Now, there is no excuse for this, but that is what they claim. The reason this is so important is that only God could live a sinless life and be able to pay for your sins and mine.

Another problem with the Witnesses is that they are a Works Based religion. This means that they believe that one Earns his way into Heaven. The Bible clearly addresses this as a false teaching several times in several ways. It says such things as "all of my works of righteousness are as filthy rags" 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, that no one should boast." I cannot take pride in having achieved Heaven for myself, but that Jesus has achieved it for me. You can say the same. But, the Jehovah's Witnesses cannot. They believe that the only way to Heaven is to work your way there, which is contrary to the Word of God. And He always keeps His Word.

Another difficulty with Witness theology is the fact that they claim the Watchtower (the publication of their governing body) is Scripture and given by prophecy. They claim the same prophetic authority of the great prophets of the Old Testament. But the Bible says, Deuteronomy 18:22 "When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him." In context, it means that a prophet shall be 100% correct, 100% of the time or he is not a prophet of God. In the same passage it more than indicates that this may be a prophet of "some other god" meaning Satan. As one can see, claiming prophetic authority is one thing, validating it is another. Proving it false is easy if it is false. For example, the Jehovah's Witnesses have "prophesied" many times that the end of the world was coming, Armageddon was at hand and have given a date. Those dates have all passed without event. I believe that we would have all noticed ont third of the population dead, countless tons of sea life washing up on shore, fire raining down from the sky, a single battle in Israel ending in thousands of acres of blood and bodies four feet deep. I think we would have noticed the sudden and simultaneous disappearance of millions of people.

Mormons

Another well known cult is the Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints - founded 1830). The Mormons do not claim to be either Catholic or Protestant, but rather they claim to be the only true church of Jesus Christ. According to them, the result of leading a good mormon life is to enter the "Celestial Kingdom" and be given a planet of your own in which the husband and his wives and their children all get to play out the God/Devil roles of the Bible. The husband gets to be god, who is at the same time Adam, the wife of his choosing gets to be Eve (or there could, I suppose, be several Eves), one child gets to be the Jesus guy and another gets to be the Satan guy while others could live out such supporting roles as angels, heros, kings, etc. Just from a basic logic point I would like to ask; If the dad were a "good Mormon" then his son would get to be messiah of another planet, junior to his father: But, what if the son were a "good Mormon" too? Would he be required to serve the in messiah role on his father's planet, or could he abdicate that job to another and take deity on a planet of his own. But abandoning his family obligations in such a way would make him a "bad Mormon". This is not logical. This is also unbiblical. The Bible tells us that there is one God and no other. In Isaiah, God says, "I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last. I am He." (Isaiah 41:4) In Revelation, Jesus says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Revelation 22:13) The only Logical Way these statements can both be true is if they were both the same person, which agrees with John 1:1 in saying that God was the Word.

Joseph Smith claimed that he received golden plates from an angel named Maroni, on which were inscribed the sum of the Book of Mormon. He also claimed to have received the Urim ad Thummim; oracle tools of the Priests of the Old Testament. These ":facts" were attested to by a total of twelve men, including Smith himself and his father. Within thirty years seven of those twelve made public statements, and/or death bed confessions. that the whole thing was a lie perpetrated to make money. It worked too. Today the Mormon church is one of the single most powerful corporate collectives on Earth.

Another point of the faith that makes it a cult is the belief that Jesus Christ was conceived through a sexual act committed by Adam/God. The Bible clearly states that Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit and the language of the passage does not allow for any sexual connotation to be derived. Further, Joseph Smith (its founder) and Brigham Young (its continuer) and many since have claimed to be Prophets of God. But, they have claimed such in violation of the Word which says that a prophet of God would be 100% accurate, 100% of the time. Only one such evidence of this is the fact that Joseph Smith said that a command of God and an Everlasting Covenant was that all men should take multiple wives. So, according to Joseph, polygamy was an Everlasting Covenant of God, . . . that is until the US said that it was illegal. At this time, Joseph Smith said the NEW Everlasting Covenant was monogamy (one wife per man). In the Old Testament God never seemed to be afraid of the governments of men. Why should He now fe ar the Congress of the United States? Answer: He didn't -- the "prophet" was a liar.

Joseph Smith died at the hands of his brother, friends and compatriots in a jail cell. He had been arrested for counterfeiting - for which he has since been proven guilty - and the men who shot him later said (when they were safe and far away) that they did so because they felt sure that he would implicate them. These same men, in their safer places confessed the accuracy of the charges and their own guilt in the scheme of funny money. Just a note: Smith was caught because what he was trying to pass off as legal tender was a THREE - DOLLAR - BILL.

Hare Krishna

This is one of the cults of what is referred to (in general terms) Eastern Mysticism. It originates in the area of India and is an eclectic religion. For example, some people have heard that Krishna made a sacrifice of his life in order to save mankind from the wrath of his father. This action is said to have occurred nearly three thousand years ago. This sounds similar to Christianity, but there are some notes to be taken. First off, the religion of Krishna goes back to several hundred years BC, but this form of salvation theology by Krishna appears on the scene only about 1500 years ago, or after the Gospel of Jesus' atonement had been preached for nearly four hundred years. Before that there are no such writings and no records of such writings. In addition to which, the foundational elements of the movement are Karma and Zen.

Zen is a philosophy whose essence can be expressed in the statement: That which is owes its existence to that which is not in its place. But, according to God, everything owes its existence to Him and nothing else. As for Karma: it is a complicated word to translate because of the diversity of its meanings and application. The easiest sense in which to apply it for this conversation is that of destiny. It is one's Karma (destiny) that they go through this life and into another, and the life that they will receive the next time is based upon how they did and what they did in the most current previous life. If they were ravenous and greedy people they nay come back as a poor, starving, groveling leper, or maybe (according to some) as a camel or gnat. Of course, since there is so little promise of advancement, or even a definition of advancement, we have no way of knowing what would be considered a better life next time. What we know of the teaching is that one who achieves promotion all the time will end u p as part of the Great Soul. Only in the past hundred years has this also come to be called the Christ Consciousness, and even the "Is", which is a loose play on the Old Testament title of God, YAHWEH, translated as the "I Am". Anything to look Christian and mislead the flock or the "would be" flock. But isn't that the purpose of Religion?

The Star Trek Philosophy

The most important elements of the Star Trek Philosophy are that Mankind Evolved to be the greatest thing in the universe and that with enough technology and effort and will, anything can be overcome. In one episode the crew of the Enterprise encounter the gods of Ancient Greece. They are made out to be a race of technologically advanced beings, essentially human and needy. And Kirk makes some sort of statement regarding the people of Earth believing in such things until they had evolved to where they had no further need of gods.

In one of the most recent series of the Star Trek collection, the Church of God is directly attacked. In the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine we find a race of people called the "Bajorans". They have a faith in a multi-personal deity called the Prophets. In the telling of DS9 the Prophets have always been proven true and real and right on target in all they say and do, but at the same time, the religion is sneered at and made jest of as "tribal superstition". Even Captain Benjamin Cisco, who has personally met the Prophets, has spoken for them in times of critical decision making for the Bajorans, has witnessed and experienced their supernatural power, . . . cannot say that he believes. The most he can say is that he believes that he had such and such experience, but cannot come to believe its source. On this count, Cisco is a fool. And so would be anyone who denies what he sees and hears and feels and knows on logical grounds to be true.

And just like the situation of the Bajorans, the record of the Bible has proven to be true on every level. God has proved Himself again and again. He has given undeniable evidence. And still, people refuse to believe and call it superstition. Usually it is because they fear what their friends would say if they became a Christian. How sad, to gain a moment of acceptance of worthless men and lose the door to adoption by the King of the Universe.

To say that there is something wrong with the Star Trek Philosophy is as great an understatement as to say that bullets in the head are not good for you. What is worse is that it is all so well packaged and glossy in its presentation that its hard sell is hardly even noticed behind the glitz and imagery. Every week, and in some places, many times a day they are peddling Humanism, Zen, Evolution, Socialism and even spiritism, but never the truth. In the series Star Trek: The Next Generation they had a character called Q who was all powerful and all seeing and for whom the writers went out of their way to make appear as a god. But Q was a heartless, self centered, egotistical, petty, jokester of a jerk. He was, in fact, more like Satan than God. Maybe that is because this Q is what those poor lost souls who peddle such dribble believe. Maybe, Q is their understanding of God because they haven't decided to know Him because they have already been sold the idea that they don't need Him. How sad. How Foolish. O r, as Mr. Spock would say, "How illogical."

Multi-Level Marketing

Another form of Cult is that of Multi Level Marketing. Don't take us wrong, We believe that MLM is a viable way for many companies to do business. The problem is when it is done in such a way as to draw a person's attention from God and put it on their wallet. We have seen people have "religions" experiences at MLM rallies and heard leaders teach that to succeed one must be thinking and working on their business all the time. They gotta eat, drink, sleep and dream their business, 24 hours a day. So, if this is what one is doing, where does God fit into it all? And yes, we have heard them say that "you gotta put God first", but what they say is not what we often see. And then, to make sure that the 'group' does what is needed to succeed, they encourage them by telling them that More is Better, and that their dreams of being wealthy come from God. Well, that is most likely not the case. God's first answer to all of our debt troubles and overspending is to quit trying to keep up with the Jones'. We need to learn first to not want so much. And, really, the only reason we continue to want so much, is that we believe that we should have it, just like the TV told us we should.

Television

This is probably the largest cult in America because people watch it everyday, in almost every house and they believe what it says. People believe what they see on TV because they see it over and over again, the same messages - not on the News - on the programs. The news is bad enough, but the programs are most often written and directed and produced and performed by ungodly and illogical, liberal thinkers who have a decided agenda, and that agenda is to make it seem foolish to think any way but theirs. Soap-operas sell the idea that sex with someone besides your spouse is okay. How? Not by the woman who sleeps with anyone she can for her own personal gain, but by the women and men who (compared to her) are so upstanding and good, who sleep with ONE someone to whom they are not married. Sitcoms make people rethink their thoughts and convictions about homosexuality by playing the "gay" guy or gal as the hero and the priest or pastor or the ordinary Christian as the one who is a bumbler or hateful or just repressed in his own homosexuality. In my humble (but accurate) opinion, the best shows on the air today are Touched by an Angel and Promised Land. While these two shows have yet to come out and give a plain simple statement of the Gospel, they both portray real life as Children and servants of God. They are a real blessing because they portray the struggle, but also the victory and Love that God has for each and every one of us. That doesn't meant that I agree with their theology all the time, but no one can deny the simple wholesomeness of the programs. I doubt that there is a father or mother alive that doesn't want their children to grow up to have such character as the characters of these shows. On a philosophical level, we have been eating and drinking a plethora of anti-biblical junk food ever since Lucy lied to, manipulated, disobeyed and conspired against Ricky. The only advantage to I Love Lucy was that Lucy always got caught and corrected. That nearly never happens today. And when it does, it is usually because someone has gotten away with some other and sometimes lesser evil. Still, that serves to sell the viability of the "lesser evil". And we buy into it.

Catholicism

This part of our site is not to be viewed as Catholic Bashing, that is not the point. A good friend of mine received the Gospel of Jesus from a Catholic priest working at a local community college. So, one must concede that the Gospel is still alive in the Catholic Church somewhere. Also, sice the Roman Church is a global organization, and I have only seen it in bites between New York and Texas, I cannot testify on a global scale. What I can say without hesitation is that the Roman Church tends to be more that a bit legalistic. In much of what I have seen the "faith" is a matter of works. One has to do confession and the stations of the cross and attend mass, etc. or they cannot enter the Kingdom of God. There is only one requirement to Salvation by Grace through Faith, and that is that one believe. What must one believe?

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