Kingdom of the Cults (Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, 7th Day Adventism & Christian Science)

Hello, in this video I'd like to cover the four major cults and their doctrinal distinctives. We're going to look at the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the Seventh-day Adventists, and then Christian science.

Some people would question whether or not the Seventh-day Adventists should be on this list, but we'll cover that when we get to it. Let's begin by looking at the Jehovah's Witnesses. This group was founded in the late 1800s by a man named Charles Taze Russell.

Charles Taze Russell denied the biblical teaching of hell. He began holding Bible studies that, I believe, morphed into his organization called the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, but eventually they just became known as the Jehovah's Witnesses.

The first doctrinal distinctive, the thing that kind of everybody knows about them, is they make a big issue about the name of God being Jehovah. So Jehovah's Witnesses believe that God's one true name is Jehovah, even though in the Bible God is called by many names.

Elohim in Hebrew is translated capital G-O-D, you know, God. El Shaddai, God is called Father by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called Father by the Apostles. He's called the Lord of Hosts, Lord, lowercase O-R-D, is the name Adonai.

So God is called by a variety of different names, not just Jehovah. The second thing about the Jehovah's Witnesses is they deny the Trinity. They say the Trinity is not biblical. Now it's true the word Trinity is not in the Bible, but the question is, does the Bible teach the Trinity?

And we believe it does. Although there is only one God, there are three persons within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So because the Jehovah's Witnesses reject the Trinity, they also reject, next, the deity of Jesus Christ.

They believe that Jesus was originally created as the Archangel Michael. The Jehovah's Witnesses also, because they reject Christ and his divinity, they reject the Incarnation. The Witnesses believe that when Jesus was born on earth, he was a mere human and not God in human flesh.

They also deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus was resurrected spiritually from the dead, but not physically. Although, if you read the Bible, clearly he had a physical body.

He told the disciples to handle him. He said a spirit does not have flesh and bone, as you see that I have, but they would deny that Jesus rose from the dead bodily. The next thing about the Jehovah's Witnesses, they deny the second coming.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the second coming already happened and that it was invisible. They say this was a spiritual event that occurred in the year 1914. However, the Bible teaches in the book of Revelation, chapter 1, verse 7, that when Jesus returns, every eye, scripture says, will see him.

Next, the Jehovah's Witnesses reject the person of the Holy Spirit. They teach that the Holy Spirit is God's impersonal force. Remember, they deny the Trinity. So, Jesus is not God in human flesh. He is just a man.

He was created originally in heaven as the Archangel Michael, but when he came to earth, he's just a man. So, they deny the divinity of Christ. They also deny the person of the Holy Spirit. He is simply God's impersonal force.

What do the Jehovah's Witnesses believe about salvation? Jehovah's Witnesses believe that salvation requires faith in Jesus. They would say that. Also, they believe that salvation requires association with God's organization, that is, the Watchtower group, and obedience to its rules.

So, it's Jesus plus. Jesus plus, according to the Apostle Paul in the book of Galatians, Jesus plus is a corruption of the gospel. It is a different gospel, and Paul said, all who preach a different gospel, let them be anathema.

The Jehovah's Witnesses believe in two redeemed peoples. They believe that there are two peoples of God, the anointed class, that is, the 144 ,000 that will live in heaven and rule with Christ, and then the other sheep, the other people, the lesser class, they will receive paradise here on earth.

Biblically, however, a heavenly destiny awaits all who believe in Christ, according to John 14, 1 through 3. The Jehovah's Witnesses teach that there is no immaterial soul. Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that humans have an immaterial nature.

They say that the soul is simply the life force within a person, and at death, that life force leaves the body. That is one of the reasons why the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in the doctrine of soul sleep.

They believe when a person dies, that's it, they cease to exist, and that they will be brought back at the resurrection on the last day, but, and this goes to the final distinctive that we're going to cover, the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in hell.

They do, excuse me, they do not believe in hell. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that hell is not a place of eternal suffering, but rather it is the common grave of humanity, so if the wicked are resurrected at the final judgment, if they are cast into the lake of fire, it's not to be tormented day and night forever and ever, they simply cease to exist, and therefore all people who have died, lost, right now they do not exist because they don't have a soul.

All right, so that's the doctrinal distinctives of the Watchtower organization, also known as the Jehovah's Witnesses. Now let's cover the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is also known as the Mormons, founded by a man named Joseph Smith, also in the 1800s, although this would be much earlier than the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Mormonism is one of the more far-out. Of all the cults, they are pretty far out, although it is one of the more interesting religions. They believe, one of their doctrinal distinctives, they believe in apostasy and restoration.

That is, after the Apostles died, the church went apostate. So from the first century up until the restoration of the priesthood, when Joseph Smith, their founder, was walking out in the woods in upstate New York, God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him, and they restored the true faith and the priesthood to Joseph Smith.

So basically the Mormons say that from the first century onward, up until the ministry of Joseph Smith, the Christian Church ceased to exist. They believe so in apostasy and restoration. Next, Mormons claim that God the Father was once a man, that God the Father was once a sinful man living on another planet near the star Kolob.

They believe that he progressed to godhood. Therefore, people today, through the rites and rituals of Mormons, men at least, can become gods. Therefore, because Mormons believe this, they are not monotheistic, because God was once a man who became God, and men today can become God, and there are many gods.

Therefore, Mormons are technically polytheists, although they would say for us there is only one God. So sometimes they play that game and call themselves monotheists, but in fact, in reality, they are polytheists.

Mormons believe in the exaltation of humans. So Mormons believe that human beings, like God the Father, can go through a process of exaltation to godhood. So you may know of a Mormon church in your area, and then you're aware of maybe the Mormon temple.

I live in Massachusetts, so there is a Mormon church in the town next to me, but the Mormon temple, I think, is out towards Boston. So if you want to achieve God status, you have to go through all the rites and jump through all the hoops in the temple.

So it's not that every Mormon becomes a god, but some can. So they believe in the exaltation of humans to God status. However they describe that, you have to go to the temple and go through all the rites and rituals and follow the doctrines and teachings and lifestyle and practice of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Now what do the Mormons believe about Jesus Christ? Mormons believe that Jesus Christ was the firstborn spirit child of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. Many people became aware of this when Mitt Romney ran for president back in 2012.

It became common knowledge around that time that Mormons believe that Jesus and Lucifer are actually spirit brothers. Of course that is not what the Bible teaches, but that is a doctrinal distinctive of Mormonism.

So Jesus, therefore, is not God in human flesh. He is a separate being. He is a spirit child of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. So they believe that God or Jehovah or Elohim actually engages in celestial sex, produces spirit children, then they are sent to earth and given bodies.

And there's a cartoon on YouTube. Type in Mormon cartoon or banned Mormon cartoon and it explains all of their really far-out teachings. But it is somewhat humorous, although it is very sad because it's just not true and millions and millions of people are wrapped up in this false religion.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that there are three kingdoms. Mormons believe that most people will end up in one of three kingdoms of glory depending on one's level of faithfulness.

See, as Christians we believe that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and God will dwell with his people. But essentially Mormons believe in sort of three levels of heaven or three levels of glory or as it's described here, three kingdoms.

Because, like Charles Taze Russell, because Joseph Smith, it is questionable whether or not he believed in hell. There's a story about when Joseph Smith was younger, his brother died and at the funeral the local Presbyterian minister strongly hinted that his brother was in hell, that Joseph Smith didn't like that very much.

So within Mormonism, the point is it's questionable whether or not anyone goes to hell. But if people do go to hell within Mormonism, it is a very small number. It is a universal type religion. Basically, if you're sort of a good person, you'll at least get into the lowest level of heaven.

Sin and atonement. Mormons believe that Adam's transgression was a noble act that made it possible for humans to become mortal, a necessary step on the path to exaltation to godhood. They think that Christ's atonement secures immortality for virtually all people, whether they repent and believe or not.

Some of you might be aware that Mormons practice baptism by proxy. So they'll get the names of people who died unbaptized, could be from hundreds of years ago, and in their temple services they'll have one Mormon baptizing another Mormon.

I baptize you, John Doe from 1832, I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ. And they'll baptize people by proxy. So that gets John Doe, who died in 1930, by Mormons doing this baptism ritual, that kind of gets him into the lowest level of heaven.

So you can look into that more baptism by proxy. We already talked about salvation, how Mormons believe that God gives to virtually everyone a general salvation, although it may be in one of the lower tiers of heaven or the lower levels of the kingdom.

But that's the doctrinal distinctives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormons. Now next we're going to cover briefly the Seventh-day Adventists. There's a lot of debate.

Are the Seventh-day Adventists just another evangelical denomination with some wrong beliefs that we disagree with, or are they legitimately a cult? Most of the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are similar to doctrines professed by evangelical Protestant denominations.

However, there are three main SDA doctrines considered heterodox by evangelicals. That is, they're not orthodox teaching. These teachings are outside the bounds of Christianity. These three errant doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are Sabbatarianism.

That is, you are required to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath just as the Jews did, so therefore it's in the name Seventh-day Adventist. They go to church on Saturday. They believe people are obligated to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath.

They also believe in the gift of prophecy as a manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White. We'll talk about her in a moment. And then there is the Sanctuary Doctrine. So just as Jehovah's Witnesses were started by Charles Taze Russell and Mormons started by Joseph Smith, the Seventh-day Adventists were started by this woman, Ellen G. White.

So I would say my personal opinion is the Seventh-day Adventist Church, they are not just another evangelical denomination. Now the further they move away from the ministry and the teachings of Ellen G. White, maybe they can be considered valid New Testament Christians if they, you know, the further they move away from her.

But if a Seventh-day Adventist says, no, we believe Ellen G. White was a prophetess and we believe her teachings and we follow her teachings, if that's where they stand, then I do believe they retain this label of cult.

This is not New Testament Christianity. This is a deviation, a corruption of New Testament Christianity. And the Sanctuary Doctrine basically is, from what I can tell, just another form of works salvation.

The Sanctuary Doctrine is the most distinctive Adventist doctrine. Orthodox Christians commonly hold that Jesus, as our High Priest, He intercedes for us at God's right hand, Hebrews 4, 14 through 16, Hebrews 6, verse 20, and Hebrews 7, 25.

But the Seventh-day Adventists also believe that Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary after a prophetic period of 2 ,300 days, ending in 1844. They say that He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry, a work of blotting out sin.

So from His ascension until 1844, Jesus had been applying the forgiveness He purchased on the cross in the first compartment of the sanctuary. But in 1844, He entered the second compartment and began to investigate.

Sometimes you hear about the investigative judgment. Basically, there's a prediction by the, let's see, is it the Campbellites? Don't quote me on that. No, sorry, the Millerites. There's a group called the Millerites, and their founder, the Campbellites, are another restoration group.

That's Church of Christ, which we're not talking about today. But the Millerites, William Miller, I believe it was, he predicted that Jesus Christ was going to return in 1843. It never happened, obviously.

Then he said, no, it's, I got it wrong, it's 1844. And then it never happened. But Ellen G. White, she said, well, He was right. Something happened in 1844. Jesus entered the heavenly sanctuary. And where they get this, it's just not, it's not in the Bible.

But sorry to continue on with this statement by the Adventist Church, or at least somebody who wrote this about their beliefs. Only those who passed this judgment, this investigative judgment that started in 1844, only they could be assured of being translated at the Lord's return.

So this doctrine gave rise to what later became known as the sinless perfection teaching. And there's just a lot of weird teachings like this that came from Ellen G. White. And she again was the founder of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

The other unique belief about Seventh Day Adventism is this prophetic ministry of Ellen G. White, who lived from 1827 to 1915. During her lifetime, White produced more than 5000 periodical articles and 40 books, totaling some 25 million words.

SDA's claim, probably correctly, that White is the most translated woman in literature. And from the time she was 17 years old, until she died 70 years later, she claimed to have approximately 2000 visions and dreams ranging from less than a minute to four hours.

The 27 fundamental beliefs states that her writings speak with prophetic authority and provide, provide comfort, guidance and instruction and correction to the church. They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested.

So well, is it the Bible plus Ellen G. White that you see the problem? Some Adventist scholars claim that as much as 90 of White's writings were plagiarized, though the White estate claims it's only 2%.

So there's a lot of controversy around Ellen G. White. And again, if a modern Seventh-day Adventist, there's there are some Seventh-day Adventist groups that are moving away from Ellen G. White. I would not question their salvation if they hold to the true gospel, but the closer they adhere to her teachings and her ministry, and this whole investigative judgment thing, it really sounds like work salvation to me.

All right, now we're going to move on to the final group, Christian science, the doctrinal distinctives, the science of Christian science has been called the Grape Nuts religion, you know, the cereal Grape Nuts.

Grape Nuts, they're not grape, and they're not even nuts. So it's a, it's one of those things, Christian science, it's not Christian, it's not really scientific either, but the science of Christian science is spiritual healing.

Christian scientists claim to have no doctrines, though they do have six tenets. So as adherents of truth, they say we take the inspired word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal life. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God.

We acknowledge his Son, one Christ, the Holy Ghost, or divine Comforter, and man in God's image and likeness. They say we acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin and the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal.

This is the problem with, and some of this might sound good, but the problem with Christian science, just like it's not Christian and it's not science, they often redefine terms. So what you think they mean, they actually mean something else, and they basically deny that sin and death and suffering exists.

But the belief in sin is punished so long as this belief lasts. So as long as you believe you're a sinner, you are a sinner. If you believe you're gonna die, you will die. If you believe you're sick, then you'll stay sick.

But they also reject these things. They reject sin and suffering in death. But if you believe it, then you're gonna experience. So there's a... it's a bizarre religion. Again, some of the things they say may sound right, but then you find out, well, they actually believe something else.

And that's the problem with the cults. Just like the Mormons will come and say, we believe in Jesus Christ, but their Jesus is the spirit child of this guy living near the planet Kolob, and it's not the same Jesus.

It's not the same God. It's not the same religion. The Christian scientists will say, we acknowledge Jesus's atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious love unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus, the way shower.

And we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through truth, life, and love as demonstrated by the Galilean prophet and healing the sick and overcoming sin and death. Again, it sounds good. But is that really what they believe?

Verse five, or number five, we acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection serve to uplift faith, to understand eternal life, even the allness of soul, spirit, and the nothingness of matter.

You notice that the nothingness of matter. Is that what the scripture teaches? Of course not. And we solemnly promise to watch and pray for that mind to be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and to be merciful, just, and pure.

So according to Christian science, their pastor is not a human, but a pair of books. For Christian scientists, the ultimate textual authority really is not the Bible. As much as they might give lip service to the Bible, their authority is a book called Health with Key to the Scriptures, written by their founder, Mary Baker Eddy.

In that book, Eddy says that Christian science is the unerring, it is unerring and divine. While the Bible has been corrupted, see, there it is, the Bible has been corrupted and contains manifest mistakes.

Yet together, science and health, and the Bible, usually the King James Version, are considered the universal pastor. You know, it's like this with the Mormons, too. They, well, we believe the Bible, but it's been corrupted.

So we believe the Bible so long as it lines up with the Book of Mormon. So with the cults, they'll say, we believe in Jesus, we're Christian, we believe the Bible, but then on the other hand, what they give with one hand, they take away with the other.

So again, just to recap, and we could go through more of the teachings. The Christian scientists distinguish between Jesus and Christ. Christian scientists deny the Trinity and replace the person of the Holy Spirit with divine science.

Christian scientists believe that matter and sin are, it's just an illusion, none of it's real. And then they have their, their reading rooms, which, like I said, there is one Mormon church in the town next to where I live, there's also a Christian science reading room, and I never see anyone there.

But just to recap, the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses was a man named Charles Taze Russell. The founder of the Mormons was a man named Joseph Smith. The founder of the Seventh Day Adventist Church is a woman named Ellen G. White.

And the founder of Christian science is a woman named Mary Baker Eddy. But the founder of Christianity, the author and finisher of our faith, is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And we actually do believe the Bible.

We believe it from Genesis to Revelation. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to me. Again, my name is Michael Grant from Moores Corner Church. I hope you enjoyed this. I hope it was informative.

Until next time, may the Lord be with you, and have a great day.