By definition.. isn't Christianity a cult?

Question

Main Entry: cult
Pronunciation: 'k<
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: French & Latin; French culte, from Latin cultus care, adoration, from colere to cultivate -- more at WHEEL
1 : formal religious veneration : WORSHIP
2 : a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents
3 : a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents
4 : a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator
5 a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion
- cul·tic /'k&l-tik/ adjective
- cult·ish /-tish/ adjective
- cult·ish·ly /-lE/ adverb
- cult·ish·ness /-n&s/ noun
- cult·ism /'k&l-"ti-z&m/ noun
- cult·ist /'k&l-tist/ noun
- cult·like /-"lIk/ adjective

Answer 1

Yes, especially in that its members deny it's a cult.

Answer 2

Hm...yeah, it appears that Christians are a cult. As a Christian, I have no problem admitting that. In fact, to deny it would be ignorant. Look at the definitions.

-- Formal religious veneration: worship
Worship is a crucial part of any Christian service. Heck, it's to be a major part of our lives. We meet that definition of a cult.

-- System of religious beliefs and ritual
Christians aren't as big on rituals, but beliefs...that's what we're built on. Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) states that "faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see." That's belief if I've ever seen it. We're a cult.

-- A religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious
Matthew 5:38-39 (NIV) reads as follows: "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Unorthodox? You better bet your bottom dollar that Christianity is. Three points for Christianity as a cult.

I could continue, but I think you get the idea already: Christianity fits the definition of a cult. If you're Christian and denying that, you should probably stop. That's bearing false witness to your neighbors, and Exodus 20 tells me that I shouldn't be doing that.

Christianity can be called a cult. It can be called a religion (though not a formal one in nature). It can be called a lifestyle. It can be called anything that it fits into by definition, but the message remains the same: there is a Savior by the name of Jesus Christ who hung on a cross for the sins of mankind. In doing so, the sins of mankind were crucified with Him, and all have the opportunity to place their sins on the cross through faith in Christ. And in doing so, they will be given a place in heaven for eternity.

Whether it's a cult, religion, lifestyle, or whatever, Christianity is about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That's the definition of the Gospel message of Christianity.

Answer 3

1 : formal religious veneration : WORSHIP

True Christianity is not formal. As David danced in his underwear, worship of the living God is spontaneous and creative.

2 : a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents

Same reasoning, Christianity is not a man made tradition or ritual, but an inspired relationship with reality.

3 : a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents

If you don't believe in Jesus, to you it may be a cult of Judaism.

4 : a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator

True Christianity is not dogmatic. Man cannot interpret the law in and of himself.

5 a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion

ok, if you believe Jesus was just a man, then we have a cult, but if you believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be, the Messiah, God come down to earth to save mankind, you have something different altogether.

Answer 4

No, it doesn't fall into a cult, because cults within Christianity are few and far between.

Here's a good way to think of the difference. Jim Jones is well known as a cult leader, because he had people willing to follow him to a foreign country and drink poisonous koolaid.

Cults like these encourage the followers to ignore logic and elevate the leader into a God-like position.

In contrast the vast majority of churches do not elevate any leader into that aspect and would not ask a person to do something that is harmful to their families, such as having sex with the leaders. Most churches also do not ask for the entire life's savings of its membership or to give up jobs or live in a commune.

Those are some of the red flags that we use to tell the difference.

Answer 5

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet."

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

According to your definition (part 4) the practice of medicine with its ancient 'dogma' of the Hippocratic Oath would be a cult. Fine, if you want to define medicine in that way - but that does not change the nature of the practice of medicine. So, according to this definition, a cult (or being a member of a cult) is not necessarily a bad thing.

My understanding of the term 'cult' is that it applies to minority groupings/practices and thus may be a temporary status - for example the originally small Christian cult within Judaism became the belief system of a large proportion of the world's population - and so dropped its cult status.

Answer 6

There are aspects of Christianity and even ancient Judaism which technically fall under the heading of some definitions of the word cult, for example you can read OT Theologians discussing the "temple cultus" of ancient Israel, but to wave the word cult with it's fringe implications in front of a lay person is just a red herring.

Answer 7

If by "cult" you mean the first definition, a form of religious worship, then yes. It is a religion which worships God.

If by "cult" you mean the last definition, a small group of people characterzied by a devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad, no. Christiany is neither small or a fad. (And some would say not at all intellectual).

Answer 8

Thank you! Finally someone else see's that. Every religion is a cult. They are all groups of people that share a common religious belief. How else would a religion be formed, except by someone who has certain beliefs and is trying to "pawn" them off on others. It's nothing more than a group of people with a leader that tend to brainwash people. Don't sit here and tell me it's not brainwashing. How many people drag their little kids to church to teach them THEIR beliefs, without even allowing the child to think something differently? But yes, all religions are cults.

Answer 9

Counterfeit Christianity is probably the best description I can give for a cult. Counterfeit Christianity is an imitation of real Christianity. Bible terms like "Jesus Christ, Resurrection, Salvation, and Atonement" are used by the Cult, but the various cult groups have assigned entirely different meanings to these terms.
Like counterfeit money which is sometimes difficult to detect, so it is difficult to detect counterfeit Christianity, since it looks like the real thing. Experts examining counterfeit money often hold it up to a strong light and look for identifying marks. Counterfeit Christianity also has identifying marks, which can be seen when, held up to an even stronger light, the light of God's word, the bible.
We are at an advantage if we know what to expect from a cult. Cultists are very well trained to appear "Christian", and indeed believe they are the true churches, and you need the deliverance! Therefore, be bold and ask the question, "do you believe the group you represent is the only true church on the face of the earth?"
If they reply that they are, or if they are evasive, making remarks like "Well, every church has a measure of truth but...", you have made an early detection of a Cultist.
Every true Christian, if asked the same question, regardless of his denomination, would reply that the true church is comprised of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and HE (not some organization) is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE, (John 14:6). No legitimate denomination would claim that they alone and their members have salvation exclusively, but the cults (the counterfeits) do.

Answer 10

where do you find this crap? the truth is here...

the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings ("scriptures"), its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. Cult is literally the "care" owed to the god and the shrine. The term "cult" first appeared in English in 1617, derived from the French culte, meaning "worship" or "a particular form of worship" which in turn originated from the Latin word cultus meaning "care, cultivation, worship," originally "tended, cultivated," also the past participle of colere "to till". Thus in French, for example, sections in newspapers giving the schedule of worship at Catholic churches are headed Culte Catholique; the section giving the schedule of protestant churches is headed culte réformé.

By extension, "cult" has come to connote the total cultural aspects of a religion, as they are distinguished from others through change and individualization. Well-known global cults include Islam and Christianity.

The meaning "devotion to a person or thing" is from 1829, and from that connotation comes the modern meaning of "cult" as in a "cultist" or a "cult following". Cult and cultist have recently accrued negative connotations that are separately dealt with at the entry cult.

In Roman Catholicism, cultus or cult is the technical term for the following and devotion or veneration extended to a particular saint.

Some Christians make refined distinctions between worship and veneration, both of which are outwardly expressed in cultus or cult and are indistinguishable to the observer. Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy distinguish between worship (Latin adoratio, Greek latreia [λατρεια]) which is due to God alone, and veneration (Latin veneratio, Greek doulia [δουλεια]), which may be lawfully offered to the saints. These private distinctions between deity and mediators are exhaustively treated at the entries for worship and veneration.

Among the observances in the cult of a deity are rituals and ceremonies, which may involve spoken or sung prayers or hymns, and often sacrifice, or substitutes for sacrifice. Other manifestations of the cult of a deity are the preservation of relics or the creation of images, such as icons (usually connoting a flat painted image) or three-dimensional cultic images, denigrated as "idols", and the specification of sacred places, hilltops and mountains, fissures and caves, springs, pools and groves, or even individual trees or stones, which may be the seat of an oracle or the venerated site of a vision, apparition, miracle or other occurrence commemorated or recreated in cult practices. Sacred places may be identified and elaborated by construction of shrines and temples, on which are centered public attention at religious festivals (called "feasts" in some Christian communities) and which may become the center for pilgrimages.

The comparative study of cult practice is part of the disciplines of the anthropology of religion and the sociology of religion, two aspects of comparative religion. In the context of many religious organisations themselves, the study of cultic or liturgical practises is called liturgiology.

One of the most famous cults is the Church of Scientology.

Answer 11

It started out as a "cult", it was propelled by the personal charisma of a leader, Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, all religions started out as a cult, and soon became routinized or bureaucratize that it became a religion.