Cults
Groups that use Christian words for a different Jesus or a different gospel, what they teach from their own books, and how to reach the people in them.
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A cult, as this section uses the word, is a group that uses Christian words while denying the Gospel or the God it reveals, preaching another Jesus, another spirit, or another gospel.
Mormonism, the teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, uses the Bible's words for an embodied God, a Jesus who is His firstborn spirit child, and an exaltation reached through ordinances and covenants, so its sincere people need to hear of the eternal God and Christ's finished work.
Jehovah's Witnesses honor the Bible and the name of God but teach that Jesus is Jehovah's first creation, that the holy spirit is a force, and that everlasting life depends on faithful service, while Scripture reveals the Son as truly God, sharing Jehovah's name and glory, and eternal life as a free gift.
Seventh-day Adventism confesses the Trinity and salvation by grace, yet it teaches that Christ has been reviewing the lives of professed believers since 1844 and that the Sabbath will be the final test of loyalty to God, a system that moves the weight of salvation from Christ's finished work to the believer's obedience.
Churches of Christ grew from the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement and love the Bible, but those who teach that sins are forgiven only at baptism and that all outside are lost preach another gospel, while Scripture promises forgiveness to everyone who believes on Christ.
Oneness Pentecostalism teaches that God is one person who reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that the new birth requires baptism in Jesus' name and speaking in tongues, reviving ancient modalism and adding conditions to the Gospel of grace.
Christian Science, Scientology, and New Thought each promise freedom through right knowledge of the mind or spirit, and each sets aside the Gospel's real sin, real cross, and real risen Savior.
The Iglesia ni Cristo, registered in the Philippines in 1914 by Felix Y. Manalo, teaches that Jesus is a man and not God, that Manalo is God's last messenger, and that salvation requires its membership, while Scripture reveals Jesus as God the Son, whose finished work is a free gift to whoever believes.
Shincheonji, founded in South Korea by Lee Man-hee in 1984, teaches that he is the Promised Pastor who testifies to Revelation's fulfillment and that its sealed twelve tribes are the 144,000, while Scripture shows that Christ alone is the Head, that He will return visibly, and that salvation is His free gift to whosoever will.
The World Mission Society Church of God, begun in South Korea by Ahn Sahng-hong, teaches that he is the returned Christ, that God the Mother has come as a living woman, and that keeping its Passover brings eternal life, while Scripture declares one God and a risen Christ who dies no more, whose finished work is a free gift to whosoever will.
The Unification Church, founded in Seoul by Sun Myung Moon and now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, teaches that Jesus left His mission unfinished and that Moon and Hak Ja Han are the True Parents who complete it, while Scripture declares that Jesus is God the Son, that His cross was the plan of God, and that His finished work saves all who believe.
The Nation of Islam, founded in Detroit in 1930, teaches that God appeared in the person of Master Fard Muhammad and that the white race was made to be the enemy of the Black man; we name the real wound of slavery and racism that gave it a hearing, and we answer from Scripture that God made of one blood all nations and that Christ died and rose for every one of them.
Black Hebrew Israelites is a broad name for groups, from old congregations to street camps, that teach that Black people and others are the true Israel by descent; some add that salvation comes by race and law-keeping, while Scripture teaches that Christ became a curse for us and that every person of every nation is saved the same way.
The Hebrew Roots movement teaches Gentile Christians to keep the Law of Moses, and while many in it trust Christ, the apostles refused to lay that yoke on Gentile believers, and where it is added to the Gospel it is the very error Galatians answers.
The New Age is a loose family of modern spiritual beliefs, from the divine self and reincarnation to astrology and energy healing, that repeats the serpent's oldest promise and is answered by a holy Creator and a crucified Savior.