The Battle Begins

As we look into the history of the Church we find the rise of various groups that have come forth and claimed to have a more clear and accurate understanding of God and the scriptures. We have examples of groups very similar to those that arose in the early church in these modern days with cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormon’s.

We have an opportunity to see how it is that we are to deal with these groups and know the truth of what separates and makes them different.

Why is it so important not to follow these men and their doctrine?

In studying the writings of the Early Church and those teachings and writings of modern day cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons, you will find three distinct areas that are very common with all of them.

The First and most important is that of Essential Christian Doctrine for this is the foundation of the Christian Church and the Salvation of man. If anyone strays from these essential doctrines they would be considered outside the Orthodoxy of Christianity.

There are many different views on Essential Christian Doctrine but I will list these six for a foundational reference.

• The Trinity or Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)
• The Deity and Humanity of Christ
• The Bodily Resurrection
• Man’s sinfulness and guilt
• Justification by Faith alone and not works, through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus of the Cross.
• The Ultimate Authority of the Scriptures, for without this the above cannot be asserted.

These sects always will waiver from these essential doctrines and change the very nature of God and therefore teaching a different God and a different Jesus, and they often remove oneness of God and the deity of Christ. And it must be noted that even if they were to waiver in only a single area of Essential Christian Doctrine we should be concerned and question whether or not we should follow these men or and the doctrine in which they have brought forth.

The Second they are led by a single and prominent man who claims that his writings, teachings, and doctrine are the work of God. Their teachings are essential to understanding the scriptures properly for coming to the “true” doctrine to which they proclaim. 

The Third is that they will have a very special name for their sect. As you study church history and especially in Gnosticism they often took the name of the leaders of these new doctrines as with the Valentinians, Marconians, and the Manicheans, and today and we also see the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormon’s.