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For 30 years, Christian leader and spiritual adviser Billy Graham has been offering advice to the thousands of readers who share their problems ...
Read more about By Billy Graham, Tribune Media Services.
For 30 years, Christian leader and spiritual adviser Billy Graham has been offering advice to the thousands of readers who share their problems ...
Read more about By Billy Graham, Tribune Media Services.
What Makes a Group a Cult?
By Billy Graham, Tribune Media Services
Q: This couple keeps coming to our house and inviting us to come to
their assembly hall to study the Bible. I'd like to know something
about the Bible, but a friend of mine says this group is a cult. What
exactly is a cult? They seem like nice people. -- D.B.F.
A: A cult is a group that claims that it, and it alone, has the truth about God and offers the only way to salvation. Members reject what Christians have believed for almost 2,000 years, and substitute instead their own beliefs for the clear teachings of the Bible.
Often, they add to the Bible by claiming that the books their founder wrote or "discovered" are from God, and have equal authority to the Bible. In reality, however, those books deny what the Bible says about God or Jesus, or about the way of salvation. The particular group you mention elsewhere in your letter uses its own "translation" of the Bible, which changes what the Bible actually says at certain key points. The Bible warns that before Christ's return many people "will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (2 Timothy 4:4).
My prayer is that you will turn to Jesus Christ and commit your life to Him. He alone is God's Son, sent from heaven to save us from our sins. When we put our faith and trust in Him, He saves us solely by His grace. Open your heart to Him today.
Then ask God to lead you to a church where Christ is honored and the Bible is taught, and where you can grow spiritually. And pray for this couple, that their eyes may be opened to God's truth and they will put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation.
========
Send your queries to "My Answer," c/o Billy Graham, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, N.C., 28201; call 1-(877) 2-GRAHAM, or visit the Web site for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: www.billygraham.org.
(c)2008 BILLY GRAHAM DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
This news arrived on: 08/06/2008
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Posted Comments:
08-06-2008 08:40
Revmark wrote:
Cults
One of the main questions to ask is, who do you say Jesus is?
And that will give you a clue.
That particular cult you mentioned says Jesus was just a man, and not God in the flesh.
Their bible, in John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god." Making the word a lesser god of The God we worship. Meaning Jesus who was The Word, John 1:14, was not God, but a lesser god.
But in the original Greek, that verse reads, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word."
God Bless
Revmark
And that will give you a clue.
That particular cult you mentioned says Jesus was just a man, and not God in the flesh.
Their bible, in John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god." Making the word a lesser god of The God we worship. Meaning Jesus who was The Word, John 1:14, was not God, but a lesser god.
But in the original Greek, that verse reads, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word."
God Bless
Revmark
08-06-2008 07:33
JamesS wrote:
Differing Interpretations
Natthew 24:34- "I tell you the truth that this generation shall not pass away before all these things take place." What things? The things leading up to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem which signaled the "end of the age" of the Jew and Christ's return in judgment on Israel. I, along with many others believe without a doubt, that Jesus told His disciples that He was going to return during their lifetime. And what happened roughly 40 years after Jesus spoke these words? The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, Jerusalem was left in shambles and Israel as a nation was no longer. This happened in AD70. Now, a futurist, who believes and preaches that Jesus is yet to return, and which Dr. Graham is a part of, tries to convince me that Jesus was speaking of a generation in the distant future, not that generation at the time Jesus spoke those words to His disciples. Now, I must ask, does this make me a member of a cult? That Dr. Graham's interpretation is the correct interpretation and mine isn't. I'd be careful, Dr. Graham, before you accuse me of being in a cult.
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