Distortion and Denial: Pseudo-Christian Cults

Posted: January 10, 2010 by Jarrett in Apologetics, Worldview
Tags: , , , , ,
1

If you read the title of this post you’re more than likely wondering, what in the world is a Pseudo-Christian cult?  Glad you asked.  A Pseudo-Christian cult is, in brief, a religion that has taken a piece or pieces of Biblical Christian doctrine and distorted or perverted them.  This may be done through adding to or denying the particular piece of doctrine.  For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormonism are two common Pseudo-Christian cults.  Mormonism teaches that God spoke through a man named Joseph Smith during the 1830′s, informing him that the modern Christian church had corrupted the truth.  Smith then started a new religion and claimed that he had received a new revelation from God — one that required him to add to the Bible as a sort of “update”.   Jehovah’s Witnesses also distort Biblical Christian doctrine by denying the deity of Christ.  As a result, Jehovah’s Witnesses have made numerous revisions to the Scriptures, producing their own version — the New World Translation — which proposes contradictions to several fundamental tenets of Biblical Christian doctrine.

 Why should Christian be concerned about these cults in the first place?  Consider it this way: Christians need not be concerned about Mormonism and the Jehovah’s Witnesses because they are so different from Biblical Christianity.  Rather, Christians should be wary of these cults because they appear on the surface to be extremely similar to Christianity.  If you entered into a conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness or a Mormon about matters of religion, you may not quickly detect an obvious difference in your positions.  That is exactly what makes these cults so dangerous.  Christians who are not firmly grounded in the Bible — the true Bible, that is — may be easily swayed by a teaching on a few points of doctrine they are not familiar with.  As a result, they may be persuaded to accept the cult’s entire belief system, not realizing the conspicuous contradictions they hold toward Biblical Christianity.

 Because of the great extent of material a blog post would have to cover in order to take an in-depth look at particular Pseudo-Christian cults, I’ll have to wrap this one up by adding a few links to some resources.  As stated before, the great danger of these cults lies not in how different they are from Christianity, but how similar to it they appear on the surface.  Christians therefore need to understand these differences so they are not swayed by non-Biblical teachings.  Knowing what other religions and belief systems accept as truth is an invaluable step toward becoming an informed Christian.  More on that topic coming up in the next post.

List of articles concerning cults

Article about discerning cults

Fact sheet on Pseudo-Christian cults

The Savior of The World

Posted: December 24, 2009 by Jarrett in The Christian Life
Tags: , , ,
1

He is Lord of Lords, but He came to earth as a peasant.  He is King of Kings, but He arrived in a stable, not a palace.  The same God who spoke the world into existence was visited on the night of His birth not by kings and princes, but by some humble shepherds from a nearby field.  He was given gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh by wise men, having left the eternal riches and majesty of heaven to dwell upon this temporal earth with its material wealth.  He who is eternally adored by angels was mocked, beaten, spat upon, and crucified by the people He came to save.  Although He has legions of angels at His disposal, He surrendered His life with perfect meekness.

 His life-giving message was so radical and contrary to popular opinion that He was disdained by the religious leaders of His day.  Those same leaders, who had so fervently awaited the coming of a Messiah, would not accept Him when He arrived.  He who is so worthy of our highest praise taught and modeled humility, even to the point of washing His disciples’ feet.  He loved unconditionally those who denied and refused Him.  He lived not for His own pleasure, but instead ever sought to serve and love others.  His coming to this earth did not signal the beginning of His life, but rather initiated the beginning of His walk toward Calvary.  He came not to live, but to die as the perfect sacrifice for a world utterly lost in darkness.

In our present time, this same Savior is all too often treated with shameful indifference.  Christmas Day, the date on which His birth is celebrated, has been gradually watered down to the point of a mere reflection of the honor and reverence it should receive.  Even the name has been replaced by more “tolerant” greetings: Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, etc.  Nevertheless, no matter how much Christmas is diluted with distractions, no matter how much this Savior’s name is defiled and misused, His impact on our fallen world will be forever present, forever known, and forever honored by those who accept His gift of life.

Much is made among Christians about focusing on the “real meaning of Christmas”.  Obviously, this would be understood as a call to realize that this day honors Christ’s birth.  However, this Christmas, I want to ask you to remember and seek to realize the sheer awesomeness of this event.  This isn’t simply about a baby being born; this is about God Himself coming down to this world in order to die for mankind.  Consider the weight of this love and mercy.  Consider the humility, meekness, abounding grace and unconditional love Christ had to show at His coming.  Jesus’ physical arrival on our planet wasn’t simply a momentous occasion.  It initiated the most important sequence of events in the history of the world: His ministry, death, and victorious resurrection.

Merry Christmas

Thinking Critically

Posted: November 28, 2009 by Jarrett in Christian Thought, Worldview
Tags: , ,

Let’s say you go see a movie.  You get to the theater, buy your ticket, and grab a seat, maybe after a quick stop by the concession stand for an $8 bag of popcorn.  The previews drag on for about ten minutes, and then the movie finally starts.  You sit on the edge of your seat throughout the whole showing, totally engrossed in the story that flashes in front of you on the silver screen.  After about an hour and a half the film comes to an end, the credits start rolling, and you make a beeline for the nearest restroom.  Then you head home.  However, what you may not have realized is that for the entire hour and a half that you sat in a sedentary daze, a philosophy about life was being drilled into your mind.  What’s more, it may have been absorbed without even being challenged.  That is, unless you were thinking critically.

When a person thinks critically about something, he doesn’t just take it at face value.  The goal isn’t to swallow it in one bite, but to break it down and analyze it, making careful judgments about everything that is said and done.  For Christians, critical thinking is, well, quite critical to their faith.  No matter who says something, no matter where it was seen, every message that is heard must be dissected and carefully examined in order to distinguish truth from lies.  According to Scripture, Christians are called to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), as well as being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).  How can this be accomplished if we turn our minds off to what we read, watch, and listen to?  To be honest, we’re never really immune to the messages.  Whether we realize it or not, we absorb them without a challenge when we fail to think critically and take them captive for Christ.  When this happens, our worldview is gradually overtaken not by the truth of God’s word, but by the lies we fail to detect and destroy.

Let’s take a second to address the issue of worldview and how it relates to critical thinking.  (If you don’t know what a worldview is, check out a previous post on this topic by clicking here.)  In essence, your worldview is the lens through which you view all of reality.  If your worldview “lens” is blurry, you will likewise view reality in a blurry and misinformed way.  The Christian’s job is to always be examining and “touching up” his worldview, feeding himself with the truth of Scripture. As he does so, he will be able to see reality in an increasingly clearer light.  This clearer vision will enable him to become more effective at locating messages that are contrary to or in correspondence with reality.  As he learns to apply this vision in all areas of his life and carefully examines them, he becomes a better critical thinker.

 That’s a quick look at the importance of critical thinking.  Critical thinking, like many other worthy pursuits, is not an easy thing to do.  However, when it is faithfully and methodically employed in our thoughts and reasoning, our minds — and judgments — will become increasingly stronger and prudent.  This post is just a brief overview of the value of critical thinking.  If you would like to learn more about critical thinking in general and how to develop and apply it to your life, you can check out this link from Summit Ministries here.

Workin’ It Out

Posted: October 19, 2009 by Jarrett in Christian Thought, The Christian Life, Worldview
0

IMG_0605

   The other day while I was at the gym, I had a thought cross my mind.  In fact, the thought was about my mind. As I lifted __ pounds of iron without hardly breaking a sweat, I got to thinking  about how our minds are kind of like our muscles.  When we work them out, exercise them, and challenge them, they develop and grow stronger and we are better off for it.  On the flip side, if we let them take it easy all the time and only tackle what’s within — or below — our comfort zone, they remain weak and progress becomes stagnant.  If we feed them a balanced, nutritional diet with only an occasional allowance for something less healthy, they are given the dietary support they need in order to complement our exercise program.  If all they get is junk, they return the favor and make us think and feel like junk.  So what’s a body (or mind) to do?

   Obviously, the most comfortable way is the easy way.  Just stay in your comfort zone and hit the automatic button for an everyday, predictable routine.  No challenges, no pain – and no growth.  This approach might appear to be comfortable, but in the end it actually bites back.  You feel sluggish, rotten, and possibly depressed.  Eventually, you might get to the point where you decide to bite the bullet and start making changes.  I can remember the days leading up to my purchasing a gym membership.  I had been dissatisfied with how out of shape I was, and sporadic workouts weren’t getting the job done.  I knew that if I wanted to get results, something had to change.  So I joined a local gym and got a workout routine going.  The results didn’t come as fast as I would have liked, but they eventually did come.  Now I wouldn’t even consider trading them for the previous condition I had simply accepted for so long.

   Our minds clearly can’t get physical exercise, but there are other ways that they can be exerted.  Turn off the TV, take a vacation from the computer, and unplug the iPod.  Granted, there are certain programs, internet articles, music, etc. that do succeed in engaging the mind on a challenging level, but they aren’t very common.  Try to get into a reading routine, especially with books that are above your reading level.  A particularly refreshing and challenging pursuit can be found in studying and memorizing Biblical passages.  Read some of the works by the early church fathers and other authoritative Christian authors (St. Augustine, Thomas à Kempis, William Wilberforce, C.S. Lewis, etc.)  Good literature can often be the equivalent of a full body workout for the mind.  But don’t just stop with literature.  Though they may not be in the majority, there are some examples in the electronic realm of music, websites, and videos that are also capable of exercising the mind.  Don’t just settle for post-digested content that you only have to absorb.  Search out stuff that requires you to work before you can understand the message.  If music, look for complex (and definitely morally sound) lyrics that cause you to think about the message the artist is trying to convey.  If websites, don’t waste a lot of time surfing through trivial information that won’t matter in a couple of hours.  Look for some blogs or resources where you can be intellectually encouraged in your Christian walk.  If videos/movies, challenge yourself to determine the message that a director is embedding in his film or, if you want to be really unorthodox, watch (or listen to) some quality lectures or sermons on a particular topic that interests you.

   Exercising and challenging your mind is not an easy thing to do, especially with discipline.  I’ll be the first to say that I fall short in consistently applying myself toward mental workouts.  Physical and mental fitness, as good as they are, can’t be purchased cheap.  The price is steep and the work is intense, but the rewards surpass the exertion.  I may not be anywhere near the level of mental fitness that I want to be, but the compensation I’ve received for what little work I have put forward has been encouraging.  I’m more able to identify underlying agendas in media and literature, more appreciative of difficult books and teaching, and more aware of how my Christian faith applies to the world around me.  Exercising my mind has not been especially easy and there have been times when I haven’t considered it as important as it truly is, but just like with my experience with the gym, I wouldn’t even consider tolerating what I had before.  Working out our minds is an awesome privilege that God has given us, and we need to be sure to take advantage of all the opportunities we have to develop it for His glory.

A Quick Look at Atheism – Part II

Posted: October 9, 2009 by Jarrett in Apologetics, Worldview
Tags: , , , ,

This post is the second of two posts on some of the inconsistencies in the Atheistic worldview.  If you have not read the first entry, you may want to do so by reading the previous post entitled “A Quick Look At Atheism – Part I”.

OK, let’s check out the next two inconsistencies in atheism that Dr. Bahnsen addressed.  First, we covered the problem of inductive inference, detailing how Atheists cannot rely on past occurrences/information to draw conclusions about the future, since they believe all processes are governed by random chance.  Next we touched on their inability to employ logic and concepts in reasoning.  Considering that atheism holds that all reality consists only of matter, the consistent atheist is unable to accept the existence of non-material concepts and ideas like humanity, justice, and the laws of logic.  In this post, we’re going to conclude with two more stumbling blocks in atheism: the problem of the mind and the problem of moral absolutes.

3. The Problem of the Mind

To an atheist, the mind is essentially an arbitrary concept that is, as far as he is concerned,nonexistent.  Because atheism reduces all of reality down to material things, the closest thing to the mind would be the brain.  As a result, thought, speech, and all other actions that the brain initiates are simply the result of electrical synapses going off at random.  No one can help what they say or do because their brain just spews out the information.  In that case, whatever the brain produces doesn’t really have any purpose, and therefore shouldn’t even be deemed worthy of consideration.  If there is no mind, no ability to even think about actions, words, or ideas, then all you are left with is a brain that produces a bunch of random information.  If atheism were correct on this point there really wouldn’t be any reason to debate if atheism were true or not, since you would be unable to prove it true.  If all I had was a brain that processed information haphazardly, there would be no way for me to bring order and meaning to the words in this sentence, much less defend my worldview.  You can’t reason by using your brain alone.  A mind, something that can access ideas, concepts, etc. must be present.

4. Moral Absolutes

Let’s say I’m arguing about something with an atheist.  I’m getting tired of trying to prove my point, so I want to end the debate quickly and efficiently.  So, I decide to knock him out.  Now, what’s going to happen when I share my plan with him?  Well, he’s obviously not going to be too keen about it, and he would be sure to tell me that I would be wrong to slug him.  Notice that word “wrong”.  According to atheism, there is no way of telling if something is right or wrong.  Morality is simply a matter of opinion, and no one can refer to an objective standard of morality.  Therefore, he can’t tell me that I’m “wrong” to end the argument by punching him.  If there is no way to tell whether something is wrong or not, then there is no issue!  The only way that the atheist can tell me that I am wrong to punch him is if he accepts that there is a transcendent source for morality that is outside the physical universe.  You can be sure that that is the last thing he wants to admit, but the truth is that he lives as if he believes it, whether his words are in agreement with his beliefs or not.

So there you have it.  Four inconsistencies in the materialistic atheist worldview that are practically fatal to its philosophy.  Hopefully you are able to see just how weak this worldview truly is.  Despite the horrendous holes that riddle it, many prominent and extremely intelligent people ardently cling to atheism and proclaim it with the utmost fervor.  But why? Why would so many people accept such a system of belief?  Romans 1:18-20 provides the answer:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what had been made, so that men are without excuse.”

 

The reason that so many people, not just atheists, don’t want to accept that there is a God is because they are suppressing the truth by their wickedness.  People naturally don’t want to hear that they are sinful, and they don’t want to hear that they are going to be held responsible for their sins by a holy, righteous God.  Keep this in mind.  When a person’s worldview is cast down in a heap of mangled ruin, they aren’t often going to be very open to the opposition’s viewpoint.  Simply destroying someone’s worldview is rarely going to encourage them to become a Christian.  Once the inconsistencies are brought into the light, only the Holy Spirit can work in the unbeliever’s heart to draw he or she to the Father.  The Christian’s job is to simply be the vessel God uses to reach the unbeliever.

Older Entries
Newer Entries