Conflicts are absolutely inevitable for Christians (Matthew 10:34-36).
- Most denominations across Christian history were formed through some type of disagreement.
- Many Christians higher on the Agreeableness personality dimension (especially leaders) have trouble with this fact.
- This won’t change until Jesus comes back and sets up His Kingdom, though it still won’t be completely gone until the Final Judgment in Revelation 21.
However, we must engage any disagreements in love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
- Many people who claim Christianity do not follow Christ, but can gain influence by associating with it.
- Most cults have been indoctrinated to believe Christians have perverted the truth, are following false doctrines, are in severe error, or the Church’s leadership is exploitative in nature.
- To lovingly accepting them while rejecting their beliefs is the first step to any healthy dialogue.
Everyone is entitled to their beliefs and traditions (or lack thereof).
- Some people can believe a contradiction that defies naturally healthy conflict-management strategies:
- They’ll hate you, with “loving” you being through condemning behavior to show you the truth.
- They won’t realize they’re being rude, or imagine the rudeness is perfectly justified.
- Typically, they won’t see living graciously or peaceably as important (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
- Even while they may be trying desperately to influence you or force you to react, do not lose your temper.
- The battle is much larger than just your interaction, and you can show Christ even if they persecute you.
Working through disagreements, heresies, and cults is a very intense form of personal evangelism and leadership.
- To be a peacemaker, you will need tremendous patience in understanding everyone’s points of view (Matthew 5:9).
- It takes a tremendously open mind to respect each person’s culture as uniquely different while maintaining your views.
- A Bible verse can be descriptive (with a precise application) or prescriptive (should be adapted to the culture).
- Only pursue a ministry in resolving disputes if God has specifically equipped you for the purpose.
In general, prioritize your conflict management skills correctly:
- As much as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18).
- This may mean dropping disagreements that get too heated or don’t have much earthly significance.
- It also means staying legally safe, but exercising restraint in delivering legal action.
- If it’s a legitimate sin with another Christian, confront them about it (Matthew 18:15-17, Deuteronomy 19:15-21).
- If that doesn’t work, bring 1–2 others with you to validate what they’re saying with evidence.
- Take it to the church at large if that doesn’t clear up the issue.
- Finally, if nothing changes, exile them outright from your group.
- Do not take issues with other Christians in front of a secular group (1 Corinthians 6:1-8).
- Lastly, if a so-called Christian is openly practicing outright lawlessness, don’t even associate with them (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
- Some people have a lot of experience with following God, but have no hope of salvation (Hebrews 6:4-6).
- Most controversies with this level of opposition with others fail to recognize that we receive eternal salvation in Christ when we die (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Most of the more durable heresies and bad theology comes through a few major routes:
- Old supernatural fiction like Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained or Dante’s Divine Comedy.
- Catholic figures of speech and phrases that borrowed from local superstition.
- Protestant worship songs, especially 19th-century hymns.
- Spiritual themes in American pop culture, especially films.
Debating
The only worthwhile debates are the ones that affect how to rightly understand the truth and walk with God (Titus 3:9).
- The devil works overtime to deter and discourage healthy disagreements.
- Healthy Christian disagreements are loving, patient discussions over philosophies and ideas.
Do not back down from clear-cut language Christianity uses (e.g., don’t accept that Jesus was “a God” instead of “God”).
- The devil himself leads many cults, so expect a massive fight over seemingly minor matters (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
Frequently, the best thing for your thought life is to back out of the conflict and reflect or read your Bible more thoroughly.
- You can still coexist with them, and do not have to conform your ideals to them, but must agree to disagree.
- Unfortunately, you only have a few options if they won’t relent on an issue:
- Out of love for them, avoid the subject or practice entirely, which is safest for everyone.
- Hide your beliefs or practice from them if possible, which can be a severe issue if they find out (especially if you lied).
- Find a new community, or create distance from them.
A. Dumb Arguments
Christians frequently argue over relatively small lifestyle elements while forgetting broader issues.
- Expect disagreements when the Bible doesn’t address an issue or has 1 verse that might apply.
- Petty disagreements are the most frequent cause for a church split.
- Ironically, most of the issues serve little practical benefit for anyone’s spiritual journey.
- If there are any advantages to one side or another, that will be sorted out with a more significant issue.
The concept of free will:
- On one end, Bible verses show how God has set up everything into a plan, even evil people who will go to hell (Proverbs 16:4, Romans 9:11).
- God has also called an elect to serve Him (Romans 8:28-30).
- At the same time, God sent His Son to save the entire world (John 3:16).
- We must philosophically reconcile that God knows everything and that we can make independent decisions.
- Calvinism – God has complete knowledge of absolutely everything, and we have no free will.
- Arminianism – God has limited knowledge, and we have total free will.
- Molinism – God has complete knowledge, including of alternate realities, but people can still freely accept or reject it.
- Every growing Christian swings back and forth on their views of free will.
- People who believe humans have no free will usually have a severely undervalued sense of humanity’s worth.
- People who believe God doesn’t know ahead of time invalidate Scripture.
- Most mature Christians are aware of the strange paradox that God is three persons, so they eventually come to understand (or at least sense) the entire discussion is irrelevant because God/Jesus has more than one will.
Political views mixed with faith:
- This is far more common in cultures that give people the right to vote.
- Advancing a political agenda can have potentially good qualities:
- Conservatives want to align the nation more with God’s will.
- Liberals want to give more freedoms and protections for the oppressed.
- Whether you’re a Christian is determined by your relationship with God, not someone else’s.
- However, politics can define other people have their relationship with God.
- The most significant factor about whether politics are worth pursuing is why you endorse it.
- Protecting legitimately suffering people (e.g., unborn children, orphans) is a Christ-like endeavor.
- However, make sure you’re not simply receiving indoctrination talking points from political influencers.
- Take a stand on clear ethical positions, and ask Him for wisdom for difficult ones (James 1:5).
- Be careful, though, since it’s easy to fall into a secular political cult (see below).
Lifestyle and cultural decisions:
- Triumphalism – God’s Kingdom is taking over, so Christians must urgently conquer everything for Jesus.
- Mariology – The Virgin Mary has significance in our daily lives and rituals.
- This is strictly a Catholic value system, with a few Protestants keeping it.
- Much of it comes from the Gospel of James, which was later rejected by Pope Innocent I in 405 and later by the Gelasian Decree.
- Veneration – We can pray for saints to intercede and pray for us.
- While it’s possible the saints are actively praying and interceding for us, there’s nothing in the Bible that indicates we should pray to them.
- Triclavianism – 3 nails were used to crucify Christ (the Catholic Church declares it was 4).
- Other cultural matters:
- Individuals’ choice in music or media.
- Whether pastimes or rituals or acceptable or profitable.
- Power dynamics and politics inside churches.
- Whether certain holidays (e.g., Christmas, Easter, Halloween) are right to practice and how.
Since Jesus is both God and man, there are disputes about His will:
- Monothelitism – Jesus only has one will.
- Dyothelitism – Jesus has both a divine and human will.
- Trithelitism – Jesus has a divine and human will, but also a will through the Holy Spirit.
- Trinitrithelitism – Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit all have separate wills.
B. Debatable Practices/Beliefs
The Bible can defend the correct stance on many things, and God designed His Word to only give wisdom to people who want it.
- Some Christian disagreements have a clear, simple answer from the Bible, and many believers merely don’t want to accept what the Bible says.
- Accurate beliefs will have many angles validated by Scripture, so enough Bible study will reveal the truth to anyone seeking it.
Some things labeled as “Christian” have little to do with the essence of Christianity:
- A singular event of deciding to follow Jesus, making a prayer or getting baptized.
- Following Jesus is a journey until death.
- A visible sense of morality and a moral conviction of sin.
- Even secular people can be morally convicted of wrongdoing (Acts 24:24-27).
- Intellectual knowledge of what Christianity believes and who Jesus is.
- The devil has far more knowledge than we do about Jesus.
- Church involvement, religious affiliation or running an active ministry.
- There are many cultures, and they each have their variation on practicing their faith.
Many Christians, especially new ones, ask whether God permits something specific:
- Because of God’s grace, a Christian can technically do anything when they first convert and for a short time afterward (Ephesians 2:8-9).
- However, new believers will slowly discover at least some of their habits are sinful (e.g, substance abuse, bad language, sexual immorality/porn, occult themes).
- Everything is permissible because of Christ’s sacrifice, but not everything is beneficial (1 Corinthians 6:12,10:23).
- The more important detail is how every action and habit you do around people could cause them to sin (Romans 14).
- Don’t use your freedom to sabotage others’ spiritual journey (1 Corinthians 8, 1 Corinthians 10:24).
- Loving and enduring others’ weaknesses is especially critical when you don’t know where they stand:
- Specific controversial media (e.g., horror movies, rock music, role-playing games, fantasy literature)
- Observing certain days over other days
- Sabbatarians – Saturday (or Sunday in First-Day Sabbatarianism) must be honored to comply with God’s law.
- Eating certain foods (e.g., pork)
- Drinking alcohol
- Romance before marriage
- Dancing
- Medical care decisions
Cessationism vs. Continuationism – The modern-day usage/validity of spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues, knowledge, and healing (1 Corinthians 12-14):
- Cessationism – Those gifts were necessary to validate the Church’s initial authority as being from Christ, and ended after Christians canonized the Bible.
- The completion of the Bible was the “perfect” referenced in 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.
- Sign gifts like tongues and prophecy undermine the Bible’s full authority and sufficiency for everything (2 Timothy 3:16).
- Continuationists – all the spiritual gifts the Apostles had are available today to believers.
- Jesus coming again is the “perfect” referenced in 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.
- Nothing contradicts Scripture’s application, so the gifts are still in effect for anyone who earnestly desires them (1 Corinthians 14:1).
- When both sides are legitimate Christians, they will agree on several points.
- Test every proclamation against Scripture (1 John 4:1).
- Nobody can add anything to Scripture (Revelation 22:18).
- God can give personal messages for specific Christians, even if it’s not overtly Scripture (James 3:17).
- Cessationism is fine, within reason:
- We can empirically observe that the miraculous gifts we see today do not express in the same way as what the early Church received.
- God can (and does) work miraculously and outside our expectations, so we should be open to the Holy Spirit giving understanding or power to fulfill His purposes.
- Continuationism is also fine, within reason:
- Every revelation and spiritual gift must be tested against conforming to Jesus being Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3).
- If speaking in tongues is still active, then prophecies and words of knowledge must also be equally active today (1 Corinthians 13:8).
- Further, tongues are for the unbeliever and prophecy for the believer (1 Corinthians 14:22).
- Many Christians confuse motivation, situation, and sign gifts.
- It’s entirely possible that some spiritual gifts have ceased, while others are very active.
- The entire debate is relatively dumb, and people who speak in tongues should desire more useful gifts (1 Corinthians 14:19).
How long God’s “days” were to create the universe in Genesis 1:
- New/Young Earth Creationism – The six days are literal 24-hour days.
- They must explain how a man names all the animals, gets lonely, falls asleep, and meets a woman after waking up in one day (Genesis 2:4-25).
- Their values also must go against atheistic science (indicated near the bottom of this page).
- Old Earth Creationism/Theistic Evolution – God used evolution across millions of years to design nature.
- A middle point between creationism and evolutionary theory: God still created everything, but over a period of time reflecting science cults’ projections (see below).
- Indicating that God can instantly create something out of nothing, then constraining it to require millions or billions of years is a bit silly (e.g., Omphalos Hypothesis).
- “Gap theory” is an in-between compromise, where God created everything as-is, but that the earth is still millions of years old after that creation.
- One simple compromise is “day-age creationism”, where the days were symbolically longer periods of time (up to millions of years), similar to how prophecies are interpreted.
- God created the universe (Genesis 1:1), and how long He took to make the universe isn’t particularly relevant as much as God having made all of it.
Rigidly enforced rituals:
- Any rituals practiced as simply a duty (especially with prayer) don’t add any significant value (Matthew 6:7).
- The spiritual exercises that strengthen us should be part of a relationship with Jesus.
- We quickly lose the meaning behind rituals once they start becoming boring.
- Each person has their journey, and God judges each one separately (Romans 14:1-23).
- Judaizers – Christians must still practice Jewish ceremonies under Levitical law.
- They tend to overlook the fact that they’re placing an undue burden on themselves to honor the law Jesus died to set Christians free from (Galatians 5:1-3).
- Women should exercise modesty in church and cover their heads (1 Corinthians 11).
- A woman’s hair is her glory, and a man’s glory is his woman, which places a veil on all believers’ glory until the unveiling (Revelation 21:1-3).
- However, in most modern societies, women should work on other elements of modesty first, like their speaking and shirts.
- Transubstantiation – When communion/Eucharist rituals are performed, the bread and drink become Jesus’ body and blood (instead of simply symbolizing it).
- The doctrine was affirmed at an Ecumenical Council in the year 1215, and there’s not enough evidence to indicate what the first church believed.
- The communion and Eucharist are spiritual, not merely physical acts, so their consequences are spiritual, and it really doesn’t matter how a believer thinks it to be.
Specific Bible translations having more authority:
- Most proponents advance the King James Version (written in Shakespeare’s time) or the New World Translation (written by the Jehovah’s Witnesses cult).
- The only “true” Bible reading is in the original ancient Greek (both Majority and Minority Texts), Hebrew, and Aramaic, with a full historical context of the culture of the time.
- While Christians don’t frequently talk about it, the Bible’s authorship requires a few extra degrees of trust:
- God inspired people in their language and time to write the Bible, likely as standard creative inspiration in the flow of writing something useful for someone else (i.e., they were conscious the whole time even while God acted).
- The texts were copied faithfully, without any permutations, by other Jews/Christians across centuries.
- The texts were canonized faithfully, without any omitted books, by Christian leadership.
- The text was faithfully translated into your local language while preserving the spirit and essence of all the important ideas.
- It’s not too difficult to imagine that, if God has been diligently tracking the Bible’s development, He’d maintain a modern version that’s accessible to anyone while preserving all His ideas.
- Most of the time, people defend a specific translation because it supports ideas they want to assert.
- The only constructive correction of translation is the original Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic, but it will only serve to clarify the already obvious-enough idea God wanted to express (1 Corinthians 1:18-20).
- Many people discredit specific Bible translations from their choice of words.
- They were written to capture the spirit of Scripture for casual reading (e.g., New International Version, The Living Bible).
- Anyone who needs more in-depth study can consult multiple translations, a Bible dictionary, and a concordance.
- However, some Bibles at the far end of the paraphrase philosophy (e.g., The Message) use some very odd depictions that merge the authors’ opinions into the text.
- Some believers insist Jesus’ words in red letters are more important than the rest of the Bible, but it also implies the rest of the Bible isn’t as authoritative or God didn’t write it.
Papal Primacy – The Pope is the head of the Church and acting on behalf of Christ.
- Catholics tend to state that the Pope’s authority travels a succession all the way back to Peter, with Jesus commanding him to feed His sheep (John 21:15-25).
- There are very few, if any, Bible verses that point to Peter’s authority relative to the other Apostles.
- The Protestant interpretation applies the admonition to Peter to apply to anyone in a position of church leadership.
- As long as the Pope says what’s consistent with Scripture it really doesn’t matter, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Contemplative Prayer – Practicing a multi-stage prayer session:
- There’s a clear set of guidelines for contemplative prayer.
- Centering prayer – focus on a word and repeat it over and over throughout the exercise.
- The purpose is to clear the mind of outside concerns.
- Sit still and listen for direct guidance from God.
- Feel God’s presence.
- Centering prayer – focus on a word and repeat it over and over throughout the exercise.
- It’s not overtly wrong, but there’s nothing in the Bible to indicate its validity.
- Further, while it can theoretically create peace through standard meditation practices, it incorporates an aspect of mysticism that’s highly subjective.
Some Christians (mostly Catholics) believe we can pray to saints who came before us for their support:
- The most common idea is that they can pray for us and our needs (Ephesians 6:18).
- Most Protestants denounce this idea without any further discussion.
- One variation is to adapt Jesus’ mother Mary as a holy figure who can make special requests to Jesus (John 2:1-5).
- There is evidence the saints definitely may pray for us (Hebrews 12:1, 22-23, Revelation 5:8).
- The Holy Spirit, however, makes intercessions for the saints (Romans 8:27).
- Irrespective, it doesn’t matter what someone believes as long as Jesus stays as the central mediator of all things (1 Timothy 2:5).
- Obviously, by the time we need to know, we’ll be there with Him.
- As created beings, we’re all beneath the status of God, even though some will be ranked higher than others (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
Cremation versus burial:
- We will all have a resurrected body someday (Philippians 3:20-21).
- This is relatively trivial to God, and He could rebuild an entire body from one skin flake or absolutely nothing if He wanted.
- However, there is some controversy over cremation versus burial, often connected to the idea that our body is made “lesser” if its form is diminished.
- The only worthwhile tradition to maintain is to keep the identity of that person separate, similarly to how it will be in eternity.
- Commingling ashes together, scattering the ashes, or using the ashes as potting soil for a tree often has a pantheistic implication behind it.
- As a related concept, this can apply to organ donors, where it’s a legitimately loving action to let someone use parts you don’t need anymore.
C. False Doctrine
Defining heresies by standards established by groups or society is a bad idea for Christians:
- The fashions of Christianity move around, and what is heresy today may not be in 1,000 years.
- Cult deprogrammers often define “coercion” with vague enough terms that it can apply to any religion whatsoever that exerts influence, including Christianity, and their efforts are often a source of persecution.
- Most people claiming to be a Christian when Jesus returns likely won’t believe in Him (Matthew 7:22).
To Christians, a heresy is a belief that deviates from a dominant Christian theory, opinion, or practice.
- Jesus is the supreme authority for everything (John 17, Matthew 28:18).
- Heresies may or may not bar someone from going to heaven, but they might impede a Christian’s development.
- For many of them, we often won’t know their full impact until Judgment Day (Matthew 25:31-46, Revelation 20:11-15).
- Jesus and the New Testament in general warns about heretics (Matthew 7:15-23, 1 John 2:19).
- In order of significance, heresies strip or add a secondary authority to:
- God the Father and Holy Spirit
- Jesus, as God and as man
- Scripture and the value of the Bible
- Humanity’s immoral state, especially regarding sin
- The Church’s position to lead believers
- Spiritual rituals and how they should be done
Within reason, someone can still believe heresies and have a relationship with Jesus.
- Their salvation is certainly crippled, but can still exist as long as they understand and believe the basics of the Gospel.
- Cults, however, can easily arise in the absence of the solid theological foundation of good Christian doctrine.
- Sometimes heresies are completely unintentional, and generations of mindless ritual can often create institutional misunderstanding.
- As long as the leadership of that group still defers their authority to Christ and what is true, that group is never at risk of becoming a cult.
C1. Near-Heresies
Isolationism – Following Jesus requires severing ties completely with the rest of the world (James 4:4):
- To be precise, desiring friendship with the world is to be an enemy to God (1 John 2:15).
- Jesus came to save sinners, and associated frequently with them as part of His ministry (Matthew 9:10-13).
- Following Jesus means a cycle of associating with other believers, then going out into the rest of the world (John 17:13-15).
- One variation of isolationism is to believe there are no ties between a person’s professional or cultural life and their Christian life.
- However, if you choose to identify as a Christian, your lifestyle will change, and it will reflect on a holier lifestyle.
- Saying something is “just business” is never used to justify a morally good action, so most of it is motivated toward gaining some form of power.
Christian Hedonism – God receives the most glory through us when we are most satisfied with Him (Romans 15:13):
- We will find joy in Christ when we serve Him.
- In fact, God designed all wisdom for the purpose of long-term satisfaction in life (Proverbs 4:5-9).
- However, if that joy ever steps across any of God’s commands, it’s still a sin, and He is not satisfied with it.
Cultural Christianity – Christians are responsible to instill a holy culture in the world around them (Deuteronomy 28:1-14):
- We are responsible to build a culture that reflects Christ-like living wherever we are.
- At the same time, people in this life will reject doing lawful and good things (Romans 2:1-9).
- We’ll never achieve any true spiritual culture until Jesus establishes it directly and in-person.
- In this life, we’re destined to battle hardship, which includes not being able to fully trust those around us.
- A variation of this is Christian nationalism, which indicates a person’s Christian background should reflect on their political views.
- While our political views can be shaped by our spirituality, sound economic theory and governance principles will not have relevance once Jesus returns.
- To live for the Kingdom of Heaven, we must learn to love others sacrificially, which has very little to do with how we choose to vote, any attempt at a political revolution, or our political activism.
Second Work Theology – Salvation can be enhanced through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38):
- Jesus died for our sins as a first work, but then God gave a second work in Acts 2 as the baptism of the Holy Spirit baptism that gives spiritual gifts (most notably speaking in tongues).
- Most of their experience can be traced to autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), which is a low-grade euphoria mixed with a tingling sensation.
- Scripture doesn’t emphasize the idea of “repent, then receive the Spirit’s baptism” as much as “repent, and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior“.
- Second-work believers (typically associated with Pentecostalism) typically advance beliefs in extra-biblical revelation and dismiss portions of the Bible that clarify spiritual gifts (e.g., 1 Corinthians 12-14).
- Paul addressed the Corinthian Church as if they had universally accepted the Holy Spirit’s baptism (1 Corinthians 12:1) but called them spiritually immature in the same letter (1 Corinthians 3:2).
- Aspiring for extra holiness or righteousness is a waste of time (Colossians 2:20-22).
- Instead, work to improve the quality of your works (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
Church services with drug use:
- Typically, they’ll use hallucinogenics and psychedelics to “enhance” their spirituality.
- The experience of consuming drugs is in direct defiance of the holy lifestyle appropriate for a Christian (1 Peter 1:13-16).
- Members tend to have severe spiritual experiences, but typically not with God.
- Recreational drugs also often have the unfortunate side effect of becoming addictive.
Philosophical vagueness about aspects of Christianity:
- The Gospel is a simple concept, designed to be absurdly simple to understand.
- God Himself has many mysteries, but He’s also very accessible (James 1:5).
- Smart people are often foolish with their intellect and tend to clutter up doctrinal matters that would otherwise be easily understood (Romans 1:22).
- Highly intelligent people have a tendency to heavily parse language to the point that it’s difficult to precisely follow them, and readers or listeners can often get lost.
- God literally designed universals in nature for us to presume, but some smart people have major trust issues.
- Some people will define words like “God” and “eternal” in strange ways that create tremendous uncertainty.
- Most post-modern philosophy, including pseudo-Christian works like Kierkegaard, fall into this domain.
Jesus doesn’t technically need to eternally exist, but must be God:
- Christians must believe Jesus is completely equal with God, but also that He’s completely human.
- This paradox is called the “hypostatic union”: 100% God and 100% man.
- However that equality doesn’t necessarily mean that the Father and Son were necessarily eternally existing in the form they exist in right now (Colossians 1:15-20).
- If God were to split Himself at the beginning of creation (e.g., for the purpose of a relationship with created beings) there is no heresy as long as Jesus is still the ultimate authority with a completely equal and shared essence with God.
Dispensationalism – there are different “ages” where God interacted (and will interact) with people differently, and when Jesus came He completely divorced the meaning of “Israel” and Hebrew.
- Before Christ, the hope was in the coming Messiah.
- The Holy Spirit is the down payment for the coming Age (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).
- Not all Israel is “Israel” (Romans 9:6-8).
- The natural implication, therefore, is that modern-day Israelis are no longer part of God’s plans.
- However, dispensation theology was also created before geographical Israel coming back into existence in the Middle East.
- Revelation declares a war on Israel, and it’ll almost certainly be those geographical locations indicated.
- God clearly hasn’t given up on the Jews (Romans 11:11-15).
- Many people use dispensationalism to justify antisemitism, which is fully inconsistent with Christianity because it’s a severely unloving behavior toward a people group, which happens to be the race Jesus was born into as well.
Losing one’s salvation:
- Some Christians believe someone can lose their salvation, and needs to regain it again by praying once more to receive Christ or being re-baptized.
- However, some Bible verses imply that former followers of God have lost their salvation (Deuteronomy 13:6-11, Hebrews 6:4-8, 2 Peter 2:20-22).
- These people have somehow followed Jesus but now have absolutely no redemption available to them.
- Once Saved, Always Saved – Any person who decides to follow Jesus will prevail to the end.
- The people stated in the above passages, however, do have significant experience with God working.
- Most Christian culture tends to set the goals for salvation wrongly by implying it happens at the conversion to Christ.
- Protestants are the worst at it, since they tend to treat a conversion to Christ as the only sufficiently necessary task.
- Catholics, however, have a similar attitude about being confirmed and baptized, with the extra-biblical theology of Purgatory and indulgences often mixed in.
- They’re not considering that starting the spiritual journey isn’t nearly as important as finishing it (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
- Salvation doesn’t technically happen until the moment God judges all of us (Revelation 20:11-15).
- Before that point, we’re carrying a discipleship and journey until that fulfillment (Romans 8:22-25).
- In this situation, the passages plainly indicate the person who has abandoned that journey entirely in light of all the information they possessed, and their decision is themselves possessing full knowledge at that moment.
Rapture Theology – Jesus will come back twice, once for Christians and once again for the rest of the world (more on the subject on this essay).
C2. Clear Deviations from Christ
Gay Theology – Homosexuality is not a sin:
- The Bible clearly indicates that homosexuality is a sin (Romans 1:26-27).
- However, while it definitely represents more deviance, it’s as much sexual sin as fornication or adultery (1 Corinthians 6:18).
- It is distinctly odd (along with other domains like transgenderism), so many Christians don’t know how to handle it.
- The Bible’s context indicates how homosexuality is a form of self-worship, and God lets people run to it when they reject Him.
- Many of them are part of the Pride cult (see below), so they severely need God’s love and grace.
Spiritual Celibacy – Virginity outside of marriage is a purer state of existence than being married or divorced:
- The general idea is a simplified one:
- The ideal is to be single all your life, but…
- If you burn with romantic passion, then get married, and…
- Never leave your spouse, ever.
- At the extreme, this can take the form of mandatory celibacy to join a church.
- There is evidence in the Bible that being unmarried makes a person’s ministry easier to perform, and that reconciling marriage is a good ideal (1 Corinthians 7).
- But, everyone is gifted differently, and it’s better to marry than burn with romantic desire.
- The idea often implies all marriages should reconcile without divorce.
- In the case of clear abuse, it’s clear someone should not live with their spouse if they’re in any danger, but doesn’t give license for divorcing.
- Jesus certainly doesn’t give free license to divorce or remarry, and remarriage will typically devastate another person in the process (Matthew 19:7-10).
- If someone repents from their situation, we are responsible to forgive them if they’ve truly changed (Matthew 18:21-22).
- Without this forgiveness, a church culture can reject someone simply for having been a non-virgin before they were Christians.
- It makes common sense for the divorcing person to spend at least 4–5 years single first, though.
There is no hell, it isn’t eternal, or is a figurative state of mind:
- That hell isn’t eternal or is a figurative state of mind, but the Bible verses make hell an abundantly clear location for unrepentant sinners.
- Arabici – Humans’ souls die with their body, but are resurrected with the body on Judgment Day.
- Hell is clearly real, and clearly eternal (Matthew 25:41, Jude 7).
- God reserved hell for the Satan and his fallen angels (2 Peter 2:4).
- Irrespective of its controversy, the Bible makes it clear it’s for unrepentant sinners.
- Other people don’t imagine how an all-loving God could deliver eternal punishment, but several independent thoughts shed some light on it:
- Our souls are designed to be infinite.
- The rest of creation would suffer in the presence of unrepentant, corrupted souls, and God’s essence can’t coexist with sin because He sees the depths of a soul’s heart (Psalm 7:9).
- He therefore has no choice for infinite, unrepentant souls except to put them away from the rest of creation.
Some heresies about Christian rituals and practices create an environment with bad boundaries:
- Adamism – Everyone should live naked, like Adam and Eve.
- Barallots – Everyone should share everything in common, including wives and children.
- Donatism – The sacraments’ validity depends on the character of the minister, not on the members’ devotion.
- They believed Christians who denied Christ and turned in their Bibles should be persecuted.
- Iconoclasm – Icons (symbols of specific things) should be destroyed.
- Kinism – People are only to consort, worship, and marry people of their same race.
- Egalitarianism – Females can be in positions that rule over men, such as pastors (1 Timothy 2:9-15):
- Some people claim it’s sexist, but gender distinctions have a significant spiritual purpose.
- Many females in so-called “pastor” roles are actually preachers, or they straddle that line very closely.
- Novationism – Christians who sacrifice to pagan gods or deny their faith, even under extreme pressure, are no longer Christians.
One of the most prominent heresies stems from magical thinking about God’s interactions with humanity:
- Positive Thinking – Thoughts can form reality (either by willpower alone, or with God’s unconditional endorsement).
- We can’t add to faith because it’s a refined force given at God’s discretion (Romans 12:3, 1 Peter 1:7, Ephesians 2:4-9).
- Prosperity Gospel – The Gospel’s promises do not promise hardship, but do include physical health or earthly wealth.
- God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12, 15, 17, 22) does not apply completely to all Christians in this life for material gain.
- Jesus commands His followers to carry their torture device and follow Him (Matthew 16:24), and that nobody can serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24).
- To treat giving like a spiritual form of investing (expecting future gain) is absolutely against the spirit of denying oneself (Matthew 16:24).
- The only Apostle who cared heavily about money was Judas, who betrayed Jesus at the end.
- Jesus and the Apostles were homeless wanderers, and almost all of them suffered shameful and brutal deaths by persecution.
- Popularity Gospel – Jesus calls for us to love our neighbor, and God loves us so much that what we do is immaterial.
- At the farthest end, we don’t need to maintain any correct conduct, to the point that any disliking of sins (e.g., LGBetc.) is unloving.
- Popularity Gospel churches tend to focus on growing church numbers more than strong doctrine.
- There’s typically more cultural shaming than theological strength to most of their arguments.
- To that end, it’s impossible to indicate precisely what they believe, except that they’re not very rigorous about it.
- While they insist on having compassion and kindness (which is a product of love), they tend to disregard God’s justice against sinners (Romans 2:1-9).
- Word of Faith – Spoken words can form reality (either by the words alone, or with God’s empowerment).
- Some go as far as saying all Christians with enough belief can receive spiritual sign gifts like the Apostles.
- Scripture indicates our desires will change, but makes no promise of physical gain in this life (Galatians 2:20).
- Magical thinking doesn’t bar anyone from salvation, but it will discourage Christians long-term.
Heresies that take away part of the Bible:
- Often, people would rather not accept something uncomfortable or offensive.
- Their justifications are often clearly against the Bible, and anyone else can see that they’re taking a hard deviation from what the Bible teaches.
- Anti-Paulism – the Apostle Paul was a heretic and that the books he wrote are not a part of the Bible.
- Liberalism – Scripture is not inerrant or infallible.
- Neo-Orthodoxy – The Bible is God’s revealed word as people read it, not through its original penmanship.
- Standpoint Epistomology – A person’s understanding of the Bible is directly proportional to how far down the proletariat ladder they are.
- When speaking in tongues is a direct measure of spirituality, 1 Corinthians doesn’t apply anymore.
- When the Bible only has explainable components, Revelation shouldn’t be part of the Bible because we can’t verify its author, or that it was already completely fulfilled with the Roman Empire.
- When evidence is the only way to believe, Hebrews and Job aren’t part of the Bible because they can’t verify who wrote it (though the ideas echo completely in other Scriptures).
- If God is too intense, the Old Testament doesn’t apply anymore.
- Marcionism – The God of the Old Testament is evil, and the God of the New Testament is good.
- The Law and Jewish history are the foundation for God’s grace (Matthew 5:17-18, Romans 3:31).
- Some of God’s promises in the Old Testament certainly do transfer to the Church (Romans 10:12-13).
Heresies that add content to the Bible:
- Montanism – The Bible is either insufficient or incomplete, and God regularly gives new revelations that change based on the culture He’s speaking to.
- Their attitude created a lot of political friction for the Christian church.
- There are multiple works inspired by them (mostly apocalypse-focused), including the Apocalypse of Peter, and the fact that they accepted the Apocalypse of St. John (now known as Revelation in the Bible) is why the Assyrian Church of the East won’t accept it as canon.
- Some works have very significant historical value (e.g., Jasher, other early Christian letters).
- This information is very valuable to gather context and understanding of the culture and context around the Bible.
- However, the works are not inspired by God, and should be considered as authoritative as the writings of spiritual leadership.
- Some ancient works such as the Gnostic writings (e.g., Gospel of Thomas) have vastly contrasting ideas to anything in the Bible.
- Many cult leaders create documents they claim give more clarity to Scripture, but tend to add entirely new ideas.
C3. Outright Heresy
Heresies about God’s nature:
- Audianism – God has a human form, and we’re precisely created in God’s image.
- Christian Deism – God does not intervene in or interact with the world.
- Limited Theism – God is not omnipotent, and His powers can be limited.
- Neoplatonism/Pantheism – We are emanations from God, and we return to become part of God again when we depart this life.
- Open Theism – God doesn’t know everything, including the future.
Heresies about the Trinity:
- Monarchianism – God is only one person.
- Modalism/Patripassianism – The members of the Trinity are only three different aspects or modes of the same person, not three distinct persons.
- Sebellianism – The Father was the Old Testament God, The Son was the New Testament God, and the Holy Spirit is God right now.
- Partialism – Each member of the Trinity is not fully God, but only 1/3 of God.
- Swedenborgianism – Each member of the Trinity is like humanity’s body, soul, and spirit.
- Tritheism The Godhead is actually three separate gods.
Heresies about Jesus’ nature:
- Adoptionism – Jesus became God sometime after His birth.
- Apollinarism – Jesus did not have a rational human soul or mind, but instead His soul was simply a Logos.
- Arianism – Jesus and the Holy Spirit are lesser, created beings and not directly God.
- Docetism – Jesus was divine, but only seemed to be human, and didn’t experience any human experiences.
- Ebionitism – Jesus was distinguished from other humans, but was nonetheless purely human.
- Eutychianism/Monophysitism – Jesus only has one nature, which is divine, and any finite nature is swallowed up by it.
- Kenosis – Jesus wasn’t divine while on Earth.
- Nestorianism – Jesus is two persons.
- Socinianism – Jesus is a deified man, and there is no Trinity.
- Subordinationism – The Son is lesser than the Father in essence or attributes.
Heresies about the Holy Spirit:
- Macedonianism – God the Holy Spirit is merely a creation of God and not one of His persons.
Heresies about the Virgin Mary:
- Collyridianism – The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, is a goddess.
- Virgin birth denial – Jesus was not born of a virgin.
Heresies about sins and morality:
- Antinomianism – Jesus rescues Christians from the legal guilt of sin, so they’re free to sin as they please.
- Manichaeism – Good and evil are both equally powerful in ability or authority.
- Pelagianism – Human nature does not have a fallen state and isn’t corrupted by original sin.
- Semipelagianism – Man and God cooperate to achieve man’s salvation.
- Works Righteousness/Legalism – Humanity is saved by what they do, or a combination of what they do combined with faith in Jesus.
- Christus Victor – All sins, and all death, has been abolished entirely, so there’s no judgment for them anymore.
Heresies about salvation:
- Dual Covenant Theology – Jews can still receive salvation without believing in Jesus.
- Inclusivism – Faith is not necessary for salvation, and God’s mercy includes non-Christian peoples on the earth.
- Pluralism – Two or more religions in conflict can be true at the same time.
- Rauschenbuschism (social gospel, or social justice gospel) – The primary purpose of the Gospel is to cure social issues, not to forgive sins and reconcile with God.
- Universalism – Everyone will go to Heaven.
Heresies about human nature:
- Reincarnationism – some humans (which may include Jesus and New Testament figures) are reincarnations of previous people (such as Old Testament figures).
D. Cults
The general definition of a cult is “group addiction“, but Christians require a more specific definition:
- For Christians, a cult is a culture that binds multiple heresies together.
- Most cult deprogramming is designed under the presumption the person is a victim of mind control, but that’s not always the case.
- Cult members often have a normal-enough way to approach most of their life that you wouldn’t know just by observing them.
Language is a massive factor in most cults:
- Their choice of words are often the same as the rest of Christianity, but carry an entirely different (and typically more complex) meaning.
- Most understanding of specific concepts are hidden behind dense jargon and long explanations.
- Good educators can simplify vastly complex ideas, but cults practically forbid that form of brevity.
Cults often borrow directly from the Bible.
- Their heresies tend to string passages of 1–2 verses at a time together, then use their inferred idea to defend their assertion.
- A more thorough Bible study will make it patently obvious to a typical Christian.
- They’ll often gloss over specific core ideas, so take your disagreements with them very slowly and methodically.
- They typically use those verses to advance an influential leader’s or written work’s authority that sits alongside the Bible.
- The secondary authority tends to combine heresies together into a group culture of its own.
Most people, including Christians, can be close-minded, but cult members can take it to extremes.
- Cult members are told to accept everything at face value, with stern rebukes if they ask questions for further understanding.
- To accept the doctrine of a cult, cult members have to personally reject the simple Gospel message, meaning they often have a personal antagonism against Christianity in general.
- A cult may have many well-reasoned components, but the core doctrine’s logic breaks down compared to Christianity.
Many religious cults end up believing a few additional things alongside their heresies:
- Most Christians are deceived (typically by the devil) to the point that they deserve condemnation or condescension.
- There is no hell.
- Any manifestation of Satan can only come as a horned, evil-looking thing, and not as a beautiful angel of light.
- Modern health treatments are inherently obstructing spiritual faith, and the only solution is either prayer or a prescribed set of obscure rituals.
The loss of “self” in light of a greater purpose can be attractive to many people.
- Just about any substance whatsoever can become the basis of religious devotion.
- Most cult practices are unhealthy, unbalanced imitations of the symptoms of healthy devotion to Christ.
One fascinating truth about many false religions is that they frequently embody the opposite values of Christianity within their myths.
- The story of Adam and Eve involves a fall from grace that requires God’s intervention (therefore making mankind an antihero in the story), but that same story reflects itself in other religions (e.g., Sethians, Prometheus) as man being the heroic bringer of hidden knowledge (making mankind a general hero and the gods as antagonists).
- Most ancient myths portray the gods as if they were as fickle as humanity, including broken promises and unexpected obstructions. The God of the Bible, however, is absolutely in control, with people being the one impediment to the goodness God wants.
It’s worth being aware of the charismatic leader who founded the movement and their general views.
- There’s typically a lot more if you research, but convincing a cult member requires them coming to their own conclusions.
- Most cults demonstrate the remarkable creativity of the devil with the truth.
- When researching cults, don’t let yourself become agitated by the absolutely insane doctrines they believe.
D1. Religions/Cults
I’ve only included current practiced religions/cults. Many cults go back as far as ancient history (e.g., Zoroastrianism, ancient polytheism), but they’re no longer popular and therefore not as useful for staying informed.
Judaism – founded by Abraham ~2081 B.C.
- Differing core values:
- Christianity and Judaism share 2/3 of the same Bible (the Christians’ Old Testament), which dramatically changes the spirit of the
- Incriminating evidence:
- While Jews did crucify Jesus, they are not a cult.
- Technically, Jewish doctrine is heresy to Christians (beyond Messianic Judaism), but they deserve at least some respect because Jesus is a Jew, and they did come first as a religion (i.e., everyone at the time who believed in God honored Judaism in some fashion).
Gnosticism – founded a few years after Christianity itself ~40 A.D.
- Differing core values:
- The body and physical world are evil or nonexistent, and since God is only spirit, it’s our responsibility to only pursue non-physical things as well.
- Spiritual understanding is a special knowledge (“gnosis”), and that knowledge is salvation.
- This value system arises in different forms, including Theosophy and many post-modern philosophies.
- Sometimes, they’ll come to believe God lied to people (e.g., in the Garden of Eden).
- Incriminating evidence:
- Jesus makes it obvious we must tend to physical things when loving others (e.g., serving others, spiritual exercises).
Islam – founded as the Muslim religion by Muhammad in 609 A.D.
- Differing core values:
- Jews and Christians are deceived by perversions in the Bible’s translations, and Muhammad’s revelations outlined in the Qu’ran set the record straight.
- Allah is simply one God, and to say Jesus was anything but a prophet is blasphemy.
- There is no Trinity, and it’s nothing more than the polytheistic worship of 3 gods.
- A Muslim is required to perform jihad (“struggle”) against sin, which can sometimes include acting graciously to kill unbelievers before they continue sinning and incurring more wrath in hell.
- Some things are absolutely taboo (“haram”), and even talking about them can be a sin.
- While God had given grace to Jews and Christians, He’s grown tired with their unfaithfulness and has abrogated His favor to the Muslims.
- The end of the world will involve a peaceful death to all Muslim believers, but then there will be a great judgment of all humanity later after that.
- Incriminating evidence:
- Muhammad grew up in Mecca and worked to convert Jews peacefully, and much of the Qu’ran’s earlier Surahs indicates that reality. However, once he went to Medina, he declared war on non-Muslims (specifically Jews) and adapted the doctrine of abrogation.
- Islam is the most violent religion ever created, with more wars conducted in its name than any other religion.
Deism – founded as a movement in the 16th century, but present since antiquity
- Differing core values:
- God does exist, but is relatively uninvolved with the world around us.
- We are responsible to live good, moral lives according to God’s standards and our conscience.
- A new adaptation is moralistic therapeutic deism, asserted by a few sociologists in 2005:
- A god exists who created and ordered the world, and watches over human life on earth.
- God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as indicated in the Bible and most world religions.
- The purpose of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself.
- God doesn’t need to be particularly involved in a person’s life except when God has to resolve a problem.
- Good people go to heaven when they die.
- Incriminating evidence:
- The Enlightenment was founded on Deism, and is a massive component of how the USA was established.
- Post-modern philosophy has demonstrated there is no philosophical absolute for virtue without any established Scripture.
- Without any religious devotion to God, society slowly decays.
Mormonism – founded through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by Joseph Smith Jr. in 1830
- Differing core values:
- The Bible is incomplete, and 3 books are also scripture: The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine of Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price.
- There is also a Journal of Discourses originally written by Brigham Young that adapts most of those doctrines further.
- The new scripture was shown through a prophetic vision to Joseph Smith Jr. in 1823 by him reading Egyptian hieroglyphs on Golden Plates the angel Moroni gave him.
- There were once good, white Native Americans who had received Jesus (who had visited the Western Hemisphere after leaving Israel), but they were defeated later and left those Golden Plates.
- There isn’t simply one God, but many gods.
- The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate gods.
- “God” as we know him is Elohim, a human who lives on a planet called Kolob, who used to be a man like us on another world, and became a god by following the laws and ordinances of his god on his home world.
- Humanity was produced by Elohim bringing a wife to this world, who he married on Kolob, and produce spirit children, who are all the people who have ever been born on Earth.
- Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers, and are the first two spirits who were born.
- Everyone is born as a spirit-person before they’re physically on this earth.
- There was a large spiritual battle millions of years ago between Jesus and Satan, with the aftermath determining all of humanity’s fate:
- Elohim would make sure followers of Jesus would be born into white Mormon families.
- Followers of Satan became “demon-like” and ugly.
- The people who stayed neutral had their skin turned black.
- Jesus was born, got married, and had children.
- He died on the cross and paid for sins, but also in the Garden of Gethsemane before he went to the cross.
- Mormons can become gods, like Elohim, after death.
- Mormons can baptize a dead person into Mormonism through their ancestors being baptized on their behalf.
- A believing Mormon must learn 4 secret handshakes to enter the third heaven and be made into a god themselves, which will expand Mormonism to other planets.
- The Bible is incomplete, and 3 books are also scripture: The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine of Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price.
- Incriminating evidence:
- Before running a religion, Joseph Smith had a dishonorable reputation with his father as a treasure hunter and used spiritual divination techniques to that end, but emphatically denied his background later in life.
- Joseph Smith Jr. changed his story later and said the Golden Plates came from the angel Nephi, not Moroni.
- The original doctrine promoted polygamy (multiple wives), but they’ve later changed their stance on it, with divisions on the subject.
- There’s no reported evidence of either the Golden Plates or archeological evidence of white Native Americans.
- There are 3,913 separate instances of the Book of Mormon edited with material distinctions.
- In 1844 Joseph and his brother Hyrum destroyed an anti-Mormon publication called The Nauvoo Expositor and were placed in a Carthage, Illinois jail on trial for it, but a mob of ~200 people brutally murdered both of them.
- Brigham Young immediate took over the group, moved everyone to what is now the state of Utah in 1846, and added a lot of momentum and details to Mormon theology and customs.
- One example is the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, where Brigham massacred 100 non-Mormon immigrants, which led to his imprisonment, conviction, and execution 20 years later by the US government.
Christian Science – founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879
- Differing core values:
- Most of the doctrine of Christian Science is a hybrid of vague and illogical post-modern philosophical language revolving around Christian theological concepts.
- The doctrine borrows heavily from Hegel’s philosophical gnosticism, where all things are Mind, with Matter not a part of Truth.
- Diseases are simply matters of belief, and the mind is capable of healing everything through Truth.
- Sin is simply an illusion, and in no way real or worth directly addressing.
- Incriminating evidence:
- Mary Baker Eddy had a morphine addiction, as well as many material possessions, in light of her admonitions to live spiritually.
- Christian Science produced a relatively expensive publication at the time that ended up repeatedly sharing the same redundant pseudo-philosophical pseudo-spiritual information.
- Mary’s life was fraught with scandals and strange cover-ups.
Jehovah’s Witnesses – founded through the Watchtower Society in 1879 by Charles Taze Russell as an offshoot of the Millerites
- Differing core values:
- The correct version of the Bible is Russell’s New World Translation, which contains many doctrinal differences between any other Bible.
- The Watchtower Society regularly produces publications that declare themselves as having the most biblical authority and interpretation of any published work.
- Jesus was simply created by Jehovah as the “firstborn”, and isn’t God or part of a Trinity.
- The Trinity doctrine is inspired directly by Satan.
- The only people who receive salvation are 144,000 selected people by God in Revelation 14:1-5, and not simply people who will prevail through the rest of those 21 judgments.
- There is no hell, simply the soul’s disappearance.
- Nobody will see Jesus return.
- Incriminating evidence:
- Charles Taze Russell committed lied under oath about his ministry, his college background, and his divorce.
- Judge Rutherford was able to successfully hide the “Russellite” name after Russell’s death by rebranding as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
- Society publications have no author attribution, which they claim enhances their humility but also serves to exonerate responsibility for bad doctrine.
Beyond the above, there are other Christianity-imitating cults with a lesser degree of influence and varying cult-like qualities:
- Rastafarianism
- Seventh-Day Adventists
- Unification Church
- Unitarian-Universalism
Further, other religions/cults are very much incompatible with Christianity because they represent entirely different value systems, as well as not giving Jesus full authority:
- Bahá’í Faith
- Buddhism
- Caodaism
- Confucianism
- Deism
- Eckankar
- Hinduism
- Jainism
- Moorish Science Temple of America
- Nation of Islam
- Neopaganism
- New Age
- Scientology
- Shinto
- Sikhism
- Spiritism/Spiritualism
- Taoism
- Wicca
D2. Secular Cults
Some cults do not conform to a religious basis (i.e., no explanation of the Big 3 questions, especially the afterlife).
- The authority isn’t spiritual, so it doesn’t typically centralize on one personality, but they tend to have specific influencers who advance the cause.
- They don’t promise immortality, meaning members are never motivated to perform tremendous sacrifices that could create severe loss in this world (e.g., violence).
- However, the group’s leadership still demands unfailing devotion to specific core doctrines, without any open-mindedness to alternative perspectives.
- Ironically (and in alignment with cult affiliation) many of their proponents are unaware of their value system’s dogmatism, but have an obsession with destroying other groups they’ve deemed as dogmatic (especially religion).
Christians can be part of a secular cult without realizing it.
- Often, they’re consenting to actions they don’t realize are incompatible with Scripture.
- When they do realize, they will be forced into an ultimatum to give up their social movement to follow Jesus or give up Jesus to keep following the movement (Matthew 13:1-23).
Organized crime – existing as long as civilization, but grew in scale with industrialization starting in the 19th century
- Core values:
- Serving the cartel/mafia/syndicate/organization is more important than serving yourself.
- Anything that accomplishes a self-interested purpose is a worthwhile endeavor.
- Incriminating evidence:
- Some goods may require Christians may use the black market (Bibles and Christian literature, mostly), but it carries too many risks for a Christian to safely conduct if there’s a legitimate alternative (Romans 13:1-7).
- Most black market transactions exploit vices a Christian shouldn’t engage with and provide services that work against the reigning government’s interests (and therefore subordinating their role and God’s direct authority over them).
- If an organized crime organization becomes the government (typically through building enough power), then their black market activities fall under “normal” market conditions.
Political campaigns – began significantly as a group in the USA in 1860 through a vast marketing effort
- Core values:
- The hope of the nation, and the world, rests in the selected candidate being elected.
- (for conservatives) We must bring society back to known-good virtues we once had.
- (for liberals) We must give more freedoms to people who don’t have them.
- Incriminating evidence:
- At its extreme, it has become Fascism and Marxism, which are both tyrannical regimes that strip society of its freedoms.
- It’s not possible to scale Jesus’ command to love upward to a political scale (at least, not yet), so we can only work with the domain of what we have control over, then release the rest to God.
Multi-Level Marketing – founded in the 1920s from multiple organizations
- Core values:
- The leadership of the MLM company have the authority from their success stories.
- Self-sufficiency through an MLM organization is the secret to living well.
- Everyone can benefit well from MLM, and the people who don’t follow its winning formula are an inferior type of person.
- Incriminating evidence:
- Most MLM culture advances greed and shameless violation of boundaries with their former friends and family.
- Many MLM companies’ leadership are run by convicted white-collar criminals.
Pride – started in 1970 in the USA as Gay Pride but grew heavily as a political movement starting in the 1980s
- Core values:
- Everyone’s sexuality is absolutely within the domain of choice, and there is no distinction between genders except what you wish to be.
- All things involve sexuality, and reflects the primal desires we’re based in, and the broad sexual range reflects the range of humanity’s exploration (e.g., transitioned in language from “gay” to “LGBT” to “LGBTQQIAAP”).
- All society must accept all forms of sexual expression, and any conventional models of family must be updated to reflect that broader scope of sexuality.
- Incriminating evidence:
- Except for the trend followers, every single person who publicly asserts their sexual deviancy has had a history of sexual abuse in their childhood.
- The LGBetc. movement has a strong emphasis on sex, to the point that it’s impossible to ever discuss anything not about sex with them.
Climate change – started in the 1970s by several scattered scientific papers but asserted as a movement started in the 1990s
- Core values:
- The world will collapse within a few short years if we don’t act fast as a human species to stop it.
- Anyone who doesn’t act in line or question the climate scientists’ assertions is dooming us all.
- Incriminating evidence:
- Dozens of climate predictions have been stunningly wrong.
- Most climate science measures carbon, which is easier to control populations but doesn’t directly correlate scientifically to anything nearly as much as water.
- Climate scientists tend to disregard God’s created solutions to our problems.
- Radiation-eating bacteria cleans up nuclear fallout.
- Hydrocarbon-consuming microbes clean up oil spills.
- Excess carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide gives more air that plants love to breathe, meaning more plant growth and the ecosystem balancing itself out.
- Within months of COVID-19 shutting down all economic activity, smog cleared itself up.
- Climate science also doesn’t address how utterly unimportant we are.
- The Mount Saint Helens eruption caused more pollution in one event than the entire Industrial Revolution.
Atheism 2.0 – provoked by Alain de Botton in 2012 but previously explored in the 17th and 18th century
- Core values:
- The realm of science holds the greatest authority for mankind.
- The values contained within religious doctrine must be extracted from all faith-based ideologies.
- Atheism must substitute all religion with secularized distillations of calendars, art, speech, propaganda, gathering, and collaborative works.
- Atheists in the scientific community have used various tactics to justify all supernatural events, including God’s flood in Genesis 7-8 (most recently, a large meteor) and explain where all life came from.
- Incriminating evidence:
- Relative to most religious groups, most of the atheistic communities on the internet are relatively unkind, unpleasant, and critical.
- Atheists’ insistence of science as a rigor is a dogmatic validation of the published works of scientific journals, not the gathered body of knowledge according to what can be empirically proven.
- They usually hold a double standard of quality for most elements that validate the Bible (e.g., Daniel’s prophecies actually coming true, Noah’s ark has been found, flood vs. macroevolutionary theory, etc.)
Incompatible
All attempts to reconcile Christianity and the world are guaranteed to fail.
- Declaring that Jesus is God, or at the very least has more authority than anything else, by logical necessity, indicates that every other belief system is subordinate to Him.
Any attempts to harmonize Christianity will lead to disaster.
- God will draw people under His domain from every culture of humanity (Revelation 7:9).
- There are simply too many cultures and ways of life to sufficiently harmonize all of them.
Living like Christ is a much more individual experience, and binding together everyone with the same agenda starts veering quickly into the realm of political influence.