Not all cults are filled with the kind of people who drag you off to have a suicide party. Many are just quietly sinister and lead you away from the Gospel.
Here are four of the easiest ways to spot a cult!
1) Extra texts which 'add to or take away from' the legitimacy of the Scriptures. These include such as The Book of Mormon and retranslated Bibles which differ from all standard translations in order to justify theological points not found in the original. The new world translation of JWs being a case in point.
2) An often charismatic character as leader whose authority goes beyond Scripture. We may think of: Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Herbert W Armstrong,Charles Taze Russell, Moses David, Jim Jones, Kim Il Myung Sung Moon and countless others.
3) A more subtle problem is often harder to spot - cults which operate to a 'salvation by works' belief system thus denying God's Grace. Admittedly "Faith without works is dead" - James 2:26 - but we cannot be 'saved by works'.
4) It is rare for a Church which is trinitarian to be a cult. There are very few cults which are not unitarian.
A profound study of Scripture across the Testaments proves that God reveals Himself in Three Persons. One God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Churches which miss this have no concept of the depths of God's sacrifice for mankind and soon go wrong on many other matters.
Note. On occasions cults such as the JWs have attacked me on this saying "One+one+one=three gods." This shows how limited both their mathematical and theological thinking really is. "One X One X One = ONE!" - Of course God would always reflect multiplication rather than mere addition!
Of course: brainwashing, disassociation from family and "give us all your money" are some other minor clues to help you spot a cult.
