What is your definition of a cult and how can you prove you are not in one?

Answer 1

well supposedly its any religion but to me its any religion or group that is really extreme or that misleads its members. well actually that kind of does match the original definition then...

Answer 2

Of course there are alot of wacky groups that believe odd things like the Jim Jones cult or the cult of comet followers that all committed suicide. But even though I am a christian I believe one of the biggest cults is the Cathlolic church.Along with Mormonism, JW's, pentecostal, Nazarene, and other such christian denominations. There was a time when a cult was just directed towards a group of people with odd doctrine and strange practices. But because people have been brainwashed by ignorance they don't recognize that mainsteam christian churches have fallen far away from the truth and from the pure gospel.

My definition of a cult is one that uses items for prayer like statues, beads, etc...or ones that kneel to statues, and churches that change the days and times of God's original Holy Days or Sabbaths, churches that teach one has to be baptized to get into heaven or that one can lose their salvation. Also churches that keep people ignorant about the Word and tell people that they should trust everything that the priest or pastor says about what the bible means instead of teaching the people how to hear from God and study it on their own. Most people will just let the priest or pastor preach and never study on their own because they think that since preachers and priests have been to some kind of seminary that they must know what they are talking about. But the word of God says to call every man a liar. (Roman 3:4.) That means that we should not just take what these teachers say as truth until we have lined it up with God's word. This includes every man or woman from the Pope and Mother Teresa to even Billy Graham.

Answer 3

To me, a cult is any group of people who are told by a leader (or leaders) that they must lead their life a certain way or there will be consequences and employs brainwashing and scare tactics to ensure the following of said people.

I do not believe that the size of such a group or whether or not it is widespread or widely accepted changes this definition in any way, therefore most organized religion would have to be considered a cult.

I can prove I do not belong to a cult because I do not subscribe to any group or religion, and allow no one to make any decisions of how I should live my life other than myself.

Answer 4

generally speaking, a cult is a religious group- many people belong to the cult of Jesus, others to the cult of Buddha, and so on. According to that definition we are all in religious cults if we ascribe to a belief about supernatural beings (this includes atheists, since they have a belief about this, even if it is a denying belief).

That being said, the word is used mostly used nowadays to identify an 'out-group', that is a group that either you don't belong to, or a group that seems 'fringe' to society. I am Unitarian Universalist, which is not a cult according to Jack Chick, but I am to some of my more evangelical Christian friends.

So I guess it's not my opinion that matters. It's someone who's not in my 'group' who will decide whether or not I'm in a cult, and there is no proof to the contrary. If I don't belief the way they believe, that's the only proof some need.

Answer 5

The first thing that comes to mind is the Armed Forces of any earthly nation. Here is a "CULT" that trains people to kill others and break things which is specifically against Messiah's commandment to love one another, even thine enemies.

Military Chaplains sure are an oxymoron. Faith unfaithful kept them falsely true.

CIA, Mossad, and other so-called "intelligence agencies" would be an example of an extreme cult, don't you think?

The cult government that I am a part of is the Kingdom of Heaven. Yahshua the Messiah is our cult (sect) governmental Head and we don't kill people or break things. We love YHWH with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves.

http://www.embassyofheaven.com/

http://www.fossilizedcustoms.com/

http://hushmoney.org/

Answer 6

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 7

A good way of categorizing, would be - does that group/religion/etc use a system of programming, such that a person then believes in something 'unreal' as being 'real'.

It is using an indoctrination method, and then maintain that programming by using 'tools' which reinforce the original programming. eg. Christianity uses the Bible and sermons to reinforce what Christians are told.

Jehovah's Witness is viewed as a 'cult' because they have a consistantly rigid method for indoctrinating and maintaining their members - and use existing members to gain new members in their 'witnessing' door knocking.
Mainstream Christianity is still a cult because they use their own system of programming, to keep people believing in their church and much of what they teach is false information.

Answer 8

Well cult is a very very broad term
can be aplied to lots of things most religions can be technically called cults. however there are Bad cults and there are actualy good ones.
The bad ones usualy have the following
1 is there one unquestianable leader or group of leaders. WHo are very charismatic and charming. Not to be questioned or doubted.
2 Do they tell people not to talk with or have relationships outside of the inner circle.
3 is everything upfront and out in the open from the start or are there secrets only for the inner sanctum.
4 many cults use good works like Jim Jones did, he actualy did alot of work for the poor and in the inner cities.
This made the people in the cult blind to what he realy was.They use that to create a sense of shame and guilt to any member who questioned the leader.
A sociopathic mass murderer.

Some things can be called cults but realy are not Bad ones. Most churches do good works help the poor upfront they tell you to read the bible or book.
or say Alcoholics Anonymous. In many ways group therapy and the slogans and meetings can be very cult like. However aside from telling people not to hang around with people who will get them to drink.they encourage people to think for themselves. What they are is out in the open there are no secrets. THere is no leaders or authority or money to be spent. My freind in AA has told me if I am in a cult my family and freinds the police in the town are happy about it.
The BOTTOM line is do they tell you NOT to think for yourself not to talk to others or Isolate you from society.

Answer 9

By definition, any group bound by similar beliefs is a cult. So, all religions by definition are cults as well.

Answer 10

cult is a group who has broken off from mainstream religion.
They follow a human leader rather than God himself.
Adherents live in groups apart from the rest of society.
They isolate themselves from the rest of society.
Friends, relatives, and people they use to socialize with.
They usually give up their jobs and devote themselves to this one man as a spiritual leader. Believing he talks to God and has this special relationship with God that others don't enjoy. In the case of the off shoots from the Mormon church they did this to be able to have multiple wives and marry very young women.
Jim Jones had them drink poison.
David Koresh was using all the women for sex while refusing their husbands to touch them. Even using the very young children. They are very charismatic people.
The lady that works at the bank and is going to a small church is not in a cult. Even thought she believes different from you. She is not breaking the law.
They usually are breaking the law, by being pedophiles and bigamists.
Refusing to salute the flag because you believe in giving devotion to God first and foremost is quite different than killing yourself to catch a comet to take you to another planet.
The word is used so much lately that it carries very little meaning. Now, it has been used to describe a religion your not in. When actually it refers to people who brake the law.

Answer 11

by the definition in the dictionary, a cult is any group of people that follows a single man.
by this definition, Jesus was a cult leader. HOwever the biggest cult leaders in his day were the ones that crucified and murdered HIM. why did they murder him. Because they had power and felt threatened that Jesus would take it away.
almost all bible believing churches are as much a cult as any other. Why? because they follow their single pastor and believe everyword that is taught.

i was called by jesus to be a priest. out of his own lips i saw him speak to me and the others with me. but even among my own kind i have been called an anti-christ and false teacher, which i admit, i have been wrong from occasion. i dont think i am part of a cult. but the cult of babylon is all around us and in every church. if a person is taught to practice pharmekia and witchcraft, then they are part of a cult. i have never tried to practice such things upon other people.
maybe if i were like saint francis, i would start my own church, but even that to me! is wrong.
i believed in a non denominational church because i followed that path which says organized religion cannot be true. they keep their people in membership through fear and oppression. but that went by quickly. i believed everything that any minsiter taught me, at first, but when i started hearing some teach exactly opposite of what i was taught by revelation and scripture study, i knew there were false doctrines and false traditions had among all believers.
i joined the mormon church because i was convinced by the doctrines of the early prophets and by the spirit of revelation that what i was being taught was true. But there are so many mormons that believe in practicing witchcrafts and pollute their temple with drugs in the air, that it cannot be medicine but pure poison(s). The chappels became the spirit of drugs and not the spirit of God, and i found the same thing in the baptist temple, not the spirit of God but the spirit of polluting the air with narcotics. that it became more evil to go to church than to follow blindly.