Cult Cheat Sheet

 

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

Isaiah 8:20

 

“Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning
all things to be right; and I hate every false way.”

Psalm 119:128

 

“We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us;
he that is not of God heareth not us.
Hereby know we the spirit of truth,
and the spirit of error.”

I John 4:6

 

  1. We are Bible Christians. We start with the Bible and learn about Jesus Christ our Lord, and we reject anything contrary to either the Bible or its revelation of Him.
  2. The Lord Jesus Christ recently led us to Jude’s strong exhortation to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints against false brethren and false teachers (Jude 1:3-4).
  3. There have always been false teachers and heresies, but the Bible promises that they shall wax worse and worse (Acts 20:29-30; I Cor 11:19; II Pet 2:1; II Tim 3:13).
  4. Our heavenly Father is merciful to His children with faith, giving us simple but solid rules for proving truth or error (Job 32:6-10; Ps 119:98-100; II Tim 3:16-17).
  5. Instead of plucking leaves from a cult’s tree to slowly starve it to death, let us use simple rules from the Bible that cut its taproot and kill the tree (Rom 16:19; Matt 22:29-33; Heb 8:13).
  6. The Bible warns repeatedly by various warnings to avoid debating or discussing heresy with heretics, for such is dangerous (Rom 16:17; I Tim 6:20-21; II Tim 2:16-18; Titus 3:10-11).
  7. Neither do you need to extensively study the cults, for exploring the depths of their religion is vain and dangerous (II Cor 11:3-4; II Thess 2:9-12; Rev 2:24).
  8. The number of criteria and depth of the criteria could be expanded, but the purpose is simplicity of use and power of application, not worry about the minutiae of each cult or heresy.
  9. This cannot turn into a detailed systematic theology, but rather a few axioms of truth to try cults and heresies by major points of truth that prove them to be false by understood criteria.
  10. The arrangement is based on ease of use for readers not familiar with the sophistry cults use to teach lies, not necessarily the importance we would place on the point.
  11. Some would start directly with Jesus Christ, but cult double-talk and sophisticated arguments make it more difficult for novices to identify the heresy and defend the truth.
  12. This format and these rules do not work as effectively against other Christian denominations or for doctrinal heresies like Arminianism, where the errors are primarily interpretational.
  13. Not every one of these criteria is sufficient by itself to totally and finally condemn a cult or heresy, because it could be an individual or isolated error, but any combination is powerful.
  14. World religions e.g. Buddhism and Hinduism can be ignored, as they have no basis for truth at all e.g. revelation, results, faith, fruit, facts, fools, etc.
  15. It is not complete … (1) to keep you focused on the criteria found in the first column … and (2) to allow you to do a little easy research to fill in the blanks of the other columns.
  16. See these links for false predictions for the end of the world and other events, which are useful in exposing the false prophecies of the false prophets represented by the cults above:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl2.htm
http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/jehovahs-witnesses/jehovahs-witnesses-and-their-many-false-prophecies
http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/mormonism/joseph-smiths-false-prophecies
http://biblelight.net/tbn.htm
http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/false_prophecies.htm
http://www.sabbaths.org/white.html
http://www.hwarmstrong.com/prophet-1.htm