Course:  World Religions, Cults and Heresies

Section Two: Cults and Heresies

Introductory Lesson (5):

Lesson Title: The Gravitational Pull of the Old Testament.

 

Text:  Galatians 6:14  'But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.'

 

Theme: Beware that zeal doesn't lead to Old Testament bondage.

 

Introduction:   The gravitational pull of the Old Testament

Carnal thinking will always be drawn back to the Old Testament like a magnet.  There is only one antidote for 'false teaching' preach the cross.  Not glorying in leaders or genealogy, not glorying in knowledge, and not glorying in our church; but rather glorying in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that has left us with nothing else to glory in but Christ crucified.

If we move away from the cross we will be drawn back into bondage.

Cults and Heresies that call themselves Christian are usually characterised by their use of Old Testament teaching to oppose New Testament Christianity. 

 

For instance:

1.      Seventh Day Adventists use the Old Testament teaching of the Sabbath to oppose the New Testament teaching that the Sabbath rest was fulfilled through Christ.                                                                                                           

2.      Mormons follow a form of Old Testament history concerning a Promised Land and the building of temples to oppose the New Testament teaching that God now dwells in the hearts and lives of His people.

3.      Roman Catholicism is built upon an Old Testament form of priesthood offering the sacrifice of the Mass on behalf of the laity.  This contradicts the teaching of the priesthood of all believers and the once for all sacrifice of Calvary.

 

The people who are in most danger of being drawn into error are often those who are most zealous for God.  They may be more open to deception because they are aware of the apostasy in the Church.   Mormonism and Seventh Day Adventism arose during a time of revival in which the Second Coming of Christ was strongly emphasised.  Their teaching is built upon the belief that they are the true church and the nominal church is apostate.

 

Introductory Story:  Zeal can pull into legalism

Some Christians in their zeal to be committed to Christ have been led into a teaching that the bride of Christ is only an elite few within the body of Christ. 

They teach that to be in the bride a person must have a higher standard of obedience.  

It is a teaching associated with William Branham (1909-1965).

The women are taught to only wear long skirts, and have long hair; some do not cut their hair at all. 

Baptism in water is regarded as invalid if the words 'in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost' are spoken instead of 'in the name of Jesus'.  

This teaching has the effect of isolating those who adhere to it. 

Those within the group usually associate this isolation with the cost of being zealous disciples of Christ, but in their zeal to live for Christ they have been drawn back to a legalistic form of religion.

Galatians 5:13-14 states  'For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'

 

True Christianity is not the way we dress or wear our hair; it is not the music we listen to or the food we eat; it is not keeping rules and laws; but it is the life of Christ in us (Colossians 1:27). We become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). The body of Christ can only glory in the cross.

 

 

Main Points:

1.      Glorying in the flesh instead of the cross

A characteristic of cults is that they glory in a leader or an organisation. Glorying in leaders is carnality.

1 Corinthians 3:3-6  'For you are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men?  For while one says, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are you not carnal?  Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?   I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.'

Mormons follow the teaching of Joseph Smith (1805-1844), Seventh Day Adventists follow Ellen G White (1827-1915).                                                                                           

Following leaders can have terrifying consequences as was seen when a charismatic preacher Jim Jones (1931-1978) died with almost 1000 of his followers in the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana (Nov. 18, 1978).

 

The Jews gloried in their lineage.  They were the children of Abraham.  

The Pharisees were proud that they were the descendants of Abraham.                                                                               

John 8:39  'They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto them, If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.'

We are not to glory in leaders or in being descendants of great leaders.  All are one in Christ Jesus. Glorying in leaders or race has no place in the body of Christ.

Galatians 3:27-29  'For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you be Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.'

 

British Israel - teaches that Anglo Saxons are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel.   The Danes, who invaded Britain in the 9th century are associated by name with the descendants of the tribe of Dan. 

Answer:  This teaching is not backed by factual evidence.  But even if it was true it has no relevance to New Testament Christianity because all are one in Christ. 

 

 

2.      Glorying in the teaching instead of the cross

Cults pride themselves in their teaching. 'Knowledge so called'.

1 Timothy 6:20,  'O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science (knowledge) falsely so called:'

Gnosticism:  salvation through knowledge.

Consider:  Jehovah's Witnesses glory in their knowledge – they are Gnostics not Christians.

Paul writes about the simplicity of the Gospel

2 Corinthians 11:3  'But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.'

Eve was deceived by false teaching offering her immense prosperity and great personal advantage.                                                                            

Genesis 3:4-5 'And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die: For God knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.'

 

The devil can easily deceive those who are zealous for truth into believing they hold greater truth than those who hold a more shallow understanding of the gospel.

All the cults claim to have 'knowledge'. 

Mormons - teachings collected by the prophet Mormon.

Seventh Day Adventists - teachings of Ellen G White

Jehovah Witnesses - teachings of Judge Rutherford.

 

The people were told the King had an amazing invisible new set of clothes.  All who were told believed.  A child who had not heard, he sees the King without any clothes and shouts 'the King has no clothes on'.

 

Example (clever words that appear spiritual):   Teaching on healing that divides sickness from symptoms (deny the sickness).  This is a dangerous teaching because denying symptoms can be deadly.  The symptoms help us to know something is wrong.

The Bible does not teach denial - the Bible teaches trust in Christ.

 

 

3.      Glorying in the church or organisation instead of the cross

1 Thessalonians 2:3,  'Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away (apostasy) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;'

Many cults and heresies believe they are a restoration of the true church in opposition to apostasy.                                                    

Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists etc., maintain that they are a restoration of the true church, they consider other churches to be apostate.

 

Regarding all other churches as apostate produces a 'we are the people' mentality. 

The people of God are not those who belong to a particular organisation but it is all those who have the life of Christ in them.

There is one body of Christ in whom Christ dwells. 

Cults will accuse the church of apostasy but their existence is totally dependent upon organisation.

Apostasy is when the church moves from new life in Christ to an organised religion.

Cults cannot exist without an organisation.

 

Question:  Can the body of Christ exist without an organisation?                                  

We must differentiate between what is the body of Christ and what is an organisation. 

Division in the body of Christ is always wrong, but division in an organisation can be the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The Reformation in the 16th century did not divide the body of Christ.                                              

It divided the organisation of the Roman Catholic Church but through this division came liberty to the body of Christ.  It was a wonderful move of the Spirit of God.                                                                                                      

 

Carnality will always gravitate away from the liberty in Christ to bondage. 

This happened after the Reformation when Protestant organisations replaced the organisation of the Roman Catholic Church - people associated themselves with leaders.                                                                               

These organisations then had a natural tendency to gravitate away from the liberty in Christ towards legalism on one side and faith in the sacraments on the other.

 

What is the answer?

The body of Christ needs to be more Christ centred and less organisation centred.

A Christian is one who has received new life in Christ Jesus.  It is not what he or she does; it is who she or he is.

 

There is one body of Christ and we are not to divide ourselves around leaders or organisations.  People enjoy different kinds of meetings but this should not stop us from having fellowship with the body of Christ. The foundation upon which the church is built is Christ and not leaders:         

1 Corinthians 3:11, 'For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.'             

 

 

Summary:

The antidote that will keep us from false teaching is trusting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross 'alone'.   Salvation is by faith in Christ alone.

Faith alone in the finished work of Christ on the cross will keep us from:

1)     Glorying in the flesh and following after leaders and dividing the body of Christ.

2)     Glorying in new teachings and moving away from the simplicity in Christ.

3)     Glorying in the church or organisation and coming into bondage to men instead of moving in the liberty with which Christ has set us free.

 

 

 

Back to Index