The term "heresy" refers to errors (False doctrine) taught in the name of Christianity. It usually refers to errors in, or creeping into the church. Most people are not perfectly biblical in every aspect of their understanding of the faith. We all seem to make errors at some time in our faith. So how do we know what to believe and who to follow? Dr. Walter Martin said that there are certain basics or "essentials" that we all must agree upon or we are not brothers in the faith.
We believe that these essentials that separate the true churches from the false ones fit into two general catagories. These two catagories of essentials are called the "Two Biblical Laws." They are as follows:
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Today there are whole churches or groups that claim to be Christian yet they deny or redefine the essential teachings that form the foundation of Biblical Christianity. These churches or groups that are teaching false doctrine are commonly called "Cults." These churches are false at the core because they redefine who God is (#1) and how we get saved (#2). Because these churches have a different method of salvation, their members usually have a different way of evangelizing. Their methods usually involve deception and a de-emphasis of God's law and man's sin. There are many related teachings that are contained in these two general categories. These two essentials are the foundation of the gospel. The following cults change these essentials and therefore promote false gospels (see Galatians chapter 1)
Click one of the links below to see information on that group or false teaching: | |
Learn more about Biblical Christianity
We consider Mormonism to be a cult for two main foundational reasons. The first is that it has redefined who God is. The Mormon Church has invented a God the Father and a Jesus Christ that conform to their doctrines and desires, and not according to scripture (the Bible). Redefining and worshiping a false god is the modern form of idol worship.
The second reason is that the Mormon Church has invented a new method of salvation. Their method is not the same one described in the Bible. The Mormon Church requires many works by man to "qualify" a person for exhaltation into the Heavens. The Book of Mormon teaches that "it is by grace we are saved, after all we can do."(II Nephi 25:23). This demonstrates their reason why Mormons need to work for their salvation. Mormonism only affords grace to those who have first done all they can do. Have you done all you can do? The Bible teaches a different method of salvation completely. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- and not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."(Ephesians 2:8-10). This is the Christian model for the biblical relationship between salvation (grace) and works. First we believe and have faith, then our faith is counted to us as righteousness and we are saved. Finally, after we are saved, God provides the ability to do the good works that he has already planned for us to do. In biblical Christianity, we first receive the grace and are saved, only then are we able to do good works.
For more detailed challenges to Mormonism explore the following list of topics.
Does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really deny the Jesus of the Bible...?
Was there really a great Apostasy?
How many Apostles should the true church have? How many does the LDS Church have?
Similarities between Mormonism and Catholicism?
Is the "Most Correct Book" a work of Man or of God?
What did Nephi, Jacob and Moroni have to say about the Book of Mormon?
The Book of Mormon, a history of change(s)
Freemasonry claims not to be a religion, however, it qualifies as a religion in it's two basic teachings. It teaches who God is and how to get to Hevean. Is's theology not biblical because they redefine who God is and how to get to Heaven. The God of Freemasonry is only an Archetecht of the universe not its creator. They teach their members how to get to Heaven through secret hand shakes and secret names of God and secret pass words to gain entrance into Heaven. Freemasonry teaches well-meaning people how to get to Heaven without Jesus Christ.
A former Freemason tells his story
Roman Catholicism claims to be Christian but denys the essentials of the biblical faith. Rome denys the biblical Jesus by inventing additional information not from the Bible, about Jesus and how to get to Heaven. The Jesus of Roman Catholicism is at the beckon and call of his mother, the virgin Mary. He is not in control of what he does, she is. Though in recent years many Protestant Churches have made movements toward ecumenism, fellowship with the Catholic Chruch, we have evidence that the Catholic Church is a cult that teaches a different God and a different method of Salvation (a false gospel).
Follow the links for detailed and anotated support for our classification of Catholicism as a cult.
Would you be surprised to learn that Mormonism and Catholicism are actually quite similar?
Does the Roman Catholic Church deny the Jesus taught in the Bible? Absolutely they do!
The sale of indulgences, a mideval practice? Think again!
Can you eat your Jesus? or The redefinition of Christ
Is Catholic Christian an Oxymoron?
School teachers have been teaching that evolution has been proven scientificlally for over thirty years. When I was in High School, I believed their claims. Only seventeen years later, I encountered the truth my teachers never knew. The fact that evolution is disproven by the rules of science, is systematically shown through the individual steps of evolution itself. Evolution has no evidence archeologically or scientifically.
Evolution: Scientific Fact or Science Fiction
Summary:
The Toronto Blessing, charactorized by "Holy Laughter," Slain in the
Spirit," and animal sounds is subtlly preventing many "Christians"
from thinking biblically. One of my former pastors told me that he wouldn't
even listen to any evidence comming from anyone who has not experienced "The
Blessing. With this line of reasoning, one would have to participate in the
act of adultry, or Homo-sexuallity in order to decide if it was of God or not!!!
Another pastor told me that he didn't want to hear about the negative things
and that I should stop consentrating on the negative and tell him something
positive about "The Toronto Blessing." " This is in escence saying,
"Don't confuse me with negative facts, just tell me the positive stuff,
my mind is made up." This tract exposes the errors in discernment contained
in chapter 9 of the book, "Epic Battles of the Last days" which was
preached from the pulpit on Sunday morning, January 23rd, 2000, by a pastor
of a local Baptist Church.