Cults and World Religions

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Cults and World Religions
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What is a Cult?

• The literal and traditional meanings of the word
  cult is derived from the Latin cultus, meaning
  "care" or "adoration", as "a system of religious
  belief or ritual or the body of adherents to
  same"
• Answers.com
• A religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious.
  (Websters Dictionary)

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• cult (kult) n.
• 1.
• a. A religion or religious sect generally
  considered to be extremist or false, with its
  followers often living in an unconventional
  manner under the guidance of an authoritarian,
  charismatic leader.
• b. The followers of such a religion or sect.
• 2. A system or community of religious worship and
  ritual.
• 3. The formal means of expressing religious
  reverence religious ceremony and ritual.
• A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed
  by its originator to have exclusive or
  exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
• a. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or
  veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
• b. The object of such devotion.
• 6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an
  esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual
  interest.
• American Heritage Dictionary

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• Groups which hold doctrines contradictory to
  orthodox Christianity.
• A group of people gathered around a specific
  person or persons misinterpretation of the
  bible.
• -Walter Martin author Kingdom of the Cults

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I. 12 World Religions

• Animism
• Bahai
• Buddhism
• Confucianism
• Hare Krishna
• Hinduism

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• Islam
• Judaism
• Rastafarianism
• Shinto
• Sikhism
• Taoism

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II. 8 Pseudo-Christian Cults

• Christian Science
• Jehovahs Witnesses
• Moonies (Unification Church)
• Mormons

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• Scientology
• Unity
• Unitarian Universalism
• Worldwide Church of God

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III. New Age/Occult

• Ancient Creeds (Druid, Egyptian, Mayan, Native
  American, etc.)
• Astrology
• Gnosticism (Kabbalah)
• New Age

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• Santeria
• Satanism
• Transcendental Meditation
• Wicca/Neo-Paganism

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IV. Secular Religions

• Atheism
• Freemasonry
• Humanism
• Marxism
• Post Modernism

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V. Whacky Christians ?

• International Church of Christ
• United Pentecostals
• 7th Day Adventists