Cult may mean following a leader mindlessly and many times involves isolation from anyone who may disagree with any teaching the leader espouses. I believe from a Christian point of view the word to use would be “unorthodox.” The heart of it all is what does someone teach about the deity of Christ and salvation.
2 John 9 says, “Whosoever transgresses, and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, has not God. He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son.”
Mark Spence (Living Waters) wrote this:
Which Jesus? If a stranger approaches you and says he knows your buddy “John.” but all the facts are wrong concerning him, you could safely conclude that he is referring to a different John. With that in mind, there are many religions that claim they know and believe in Jesus, but that does not mean they are referring to the same Jesus Christ in the Bible, for example.
1. Mormons believe Jesus was the spirit brother of Lucifer.
2. Jehovah Witnesses believe Jesus was Michael the Archangel.
3. Muslims believe Jesus was just a prophet.
4. Baha’i teaches Jesus was simply a messenger.
Here I will add another.
5. Oneness Pentecostals believe Jesus is God but believe salvation is obtained by:
A. Being baptized in Jesus’ name only.
B. Speaking in tongues
C. Once salvation is obtained through these religious activities, it must be maintained by good works and legalistic codes of personal behavior or one will go to hell.
This brings us to the heart of the matter. Salvation is by faith alone which is followed by good works as a result of being born again. If adding the rituals of the law such as circumcision can damn someone, so can adding the ritual of Baptism or any other religious activity. Jesus clearly distinguished between the ceremonial aspects of the law which could be taken care of by ritual washings and moral defilement which corrupts a person’s soul and can only be dealt with by the blood of Christ through repentance and faith.
Mark 7:21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7:21-23).
A man can be trusting in Christ alone and still have doubts concerning salvation and believe salvation can be lost because of the fact that we still have the old nature and will never reach sinless perfection in this life. There isn’t really much difference between Arminians and Calvinists in that both believe repentance is what distinguishes a believer from a non-believer. Both groups can’t fully understand the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man in relation to salvation so they both try to reconcile the unreconcilable in theological terms. There are hyper-Calvinists as well as hyper-Arminians who go to the extreme of excluding the necessity of the sovereignty of God or the responsibility of man.
Charles Spurgeon, a classic five point Calvinist fully acknowledged in his sermons that he couldn’t reconcile man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty but that the scriptures taught both. This is what he had to say about John Wesley, a classic Arminian. “It will be time to find fault with John Wesley, not when we discover his mistakes, but when we have cured our own. When we shall have more piety, more grace, more fire, more burning love, more intense unselfishness, then and not till then, may we begin to find fault and criticize.”
A false gospel is one that requires trust in any good works or rituals and not in Christ alone.
