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==Response== | ==Response== | ||
− | The | + | Websters Dictionary defines cult as a “great devotion to a person, idea, or thing”. So as |
+ | the Jews revere Moses, Lutherans revere Martin Luther, Seventh-day Adventists have Ellen G. | ||
+ | White, and mostly Christians reverence Jesus Christ. That would put them under the category of | ||
+ | cult also. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Alan Gomes, who teaches at BIOLA University’s Talbot school of Theology, admits | ||
+ | right up front that “our English word cult comes from the Latin word cultus, which is a form of | ||
+ | the verb colere, meaning ‘to worship or give reverence to a deity” (Alan W. Gomes, Unmasking | ||
+ | the Cults, pg. 7) | ||
+ | |||
+ | Fuller Theological Seminary President Richard Mouw said in Nov. 14 2004 conference in Salt | ||
+ | Lake City for the unity of Evangelicals and Mormons that “I know that I have learned much in this | ||
+ | continuing dialogue, and I am now convinced that we evangelicals have often seriously mis-represented | ||
+ | the beliefs and practices of the Mormon community. Indeed, let me state it bluntly to the LDS folks here | ||
+ | this evening: we have sinned against you. The God of the Scriptures makes it clear that it is a terrible | ||
+ | thing to bear false witness against our neighbors, and we have been guilty of that sort of transgression in | ||
+ | things we have said about you. We have told you what you believe without making a sincere effort first | ||
+ | of all to ask you what you believe.” | ||
+ | |||
+ | The true Church has always come under the criticism of being a cult. Even the early | ||
+ | Church was regarded as a cult. In Herbert Danbys, "The Jew and Christianity" on pg. 8, it | ||
+ | reads “This new Jewish-Christian party in the eyes of the religious leaders of the time was, at the | ||
+ | worst, simply regarded as guilty of minuth (cultism), namely, a variety of Jewish heresy, or | ||
+ | rather, Jewish sectarianism...early passages in the Talmud still contain hostile references to the | ||
+ | minim (cults), among whom were numbered the Jewish Christians...” | ||
+ | Pliny, an early Roman leader also said that Christians were a “superstition, a foreign | ||
+ | cult” this was re-iterated by two more Roman writers, Tacitus, and Suetonius. Tacitus said that is | ||
+ | why the Christians were being killed, and also because “of their hatred toward mankind”. Tacitus | ||
+ | also said that they were “an enemy to mankind”, and a “deadly superstition”. And also Suetonius | ||
+ | who said that they were a “mischievous superstition” or in other words, a cult. (The Christians as | ||
+ | the Romans Saw Them, pg. 22,49-50,66) | ||
==Conclusion== | ==Conclusion== |
This article is a draft. FairMormon editors are currently editing it. We welcome your suggestions on improving the content.
Critics claim that the Church is "a cult."
Websters Dictionary defines cult as a “great devotion to a person, idea, or thing”. So as the Jews revere Moses, Lutherans revere Martin Luther, Seventh-day Adventists have Ellen G. White, and mostly Christians reverence Jesus Christ. That would put them under the category of cult also.
Alan Gomes, who teaches at BIOLA University’s Talbot school of Theology, admits right up front that “our English word cult comes from the Latin word cultus, which is a form of the verb colere, meaning ‘to worship or give reverence to a deity” (Alan W. Gomes, Unmasking the Cults, pg. 7)
Fuller Theological Seminary President Richard Mouw said in Nov. 14 2004 conference in Salt Lake City for the unity of Evangelicals and Mormons that “I know that I have learned much in this continuing dialogue, and I am now convinced that we evangelicals have often seriously mis-represented the beliefs and practices of the Mormon community. Indeed, let me state it bluntly to the LDS folks here this evening: we have sinned against you. The God of the Scriptures makes it clear that it is a terrible thing to bear false witness against our neighbors, and we have been guilty of that sort of transgression in things we have said about you. We have told you what you believe without making a sincere effort first of all to ask you what you believe.”
The true Church has always come under the criticism of being a cult. Even the early Church was regarded as a cult. In Herbert Danbys, "The Jew and Christianity" on pg. 8, it reads “This new Jewish-Christian party in the eyes of the religious leaders of the time was, at the worst, simply regarded as guilty of minuth (cultism), namely, a variety of Jewish heresy, or rather, Jewish sectarianism...early passages in the Talmud still contain hostile references to the minim (cults), among whom were numbered the Jewish Christians...” Pliny, an early Roman leader also said that Christians were a “superstition, a foreign cult” this was re-iterated by two more Roman writers, Tacitus, and Suetonius. Tacitus said that is why the Christians were being killed, and also because “of their hatred toward mankind”. Tacitus also said that they were “an enemy to mankind”, and a “deadly superstition”. And also Suetonius who said that they were a “mischievous superstition” or in other words, a cult. (The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, pg. 22,49-50,66)
A summary of the argument against the criticism.
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