Background picture Kailua Volcano Hawaii 1977 taken by Fran Meservy.

Cult Candidate  by: Frances M. McCrory-Meservy

There are a few things that should tell you that a church is a cult.  They are basic Bible Doctrines that are twisted ever so slightly.  The Bible tells us to have nothing to do with them.  It says if we invite them into our home, we are sharing in their iniquities.

1.    If anyone teaches that God is three persons with one thought, they are teaching three gods and not one Triune God.  Or even worse that there are many Gods and you can become a god.

2.    If you leave this church, you will be condemned and go to hell.  The people in this church have put their trust in a denomination and not in Jesus.

Excerpt from "Unequally Yoked (How to Get Your Husband Saved)" © 1987, 1992, March 2007 by Frances M. McCrory-Meservy

The day before the ship was to come in I realized I had to tell Al what I found out about the Mormon Church. I prayed and asked Jesus what I should do. I was very concerned. Al was a Baby Christian and I did not want to do or say anything that would damage his faith.

Jesus said, "if his faith is in me, it will make no difference."

Al and I were in the car on the way home and I was trying to figure out how to tell him about the Mormon Church. He told me he was sorry we got mixed up in the Mormon Church. It seems he was doing the same thing I had been doing.

When we got home, we compared our Bibles and found that on each page the exact same verses were highlighted. We were over a thousand miles apart and God had led us to the exact same conclusions. Our wonderful Lord is the only teacher we need if we would only listen.

We submitted a letter of resignation to the Mormon Church and started studying our Bibles carefully. We never wanted to be fooled again. If we knew the Book, we would recognize the truth when we heard it.

We felt God put us in the Mormon Church to teach us why we should know our Bible. The word of God is a sword to be used against evil. If anyone gives us a testimony instead of the word of God as proof that an organization is what it says - we will walk away. If the church is of Christ, they will use the word of God when talking to you. Also, we will not be able to confound them with God's word. When a group has to leave God's word and lean on a testimony to prove itself worthy, we should turn and walk away.

We started attending Sunday School and worship services at London Bridge Baptist Church. We did not join because Al's enlistment was almost up and he wanted out of the Navy. We were going back to Texas.

3.    The Bible is true in so far as it is translated correctly.  Of course if it does not agree with them, it is translated incorrectly (Cults & the Bible). 

4.    The cult teaches their founder/leader more than they teach Jesus.

5.    Contrary to what they tell you before you join the cult, they do not teach the Bible.  They teach their founder or leaders writings.  IE the Mormon church gives away Bibles and Books of Mormon and tell you about Joseph Smith.  Once you join you are taught the history of the church, "The Pearl of Great Price" and the "Doctrine & Covenants."  We were members for 3 months and the Bible nor Book of Mormon was never opened.

6.    Cult members say "We only read the Bible in the original language" - meaning the King James Version.  I had to ask "Oh, you know how to read Greek and Hebrew?"  No one has ever said "yes."

    There are many other things that cults teach.  The above are only a few basic.  There are many books written about cults and what they teach.  I like "Kingdom of the Cults" best.   We are warned to be careful especially during the last days.

2 Tim 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

1 Tim 4:16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

2 John 1:9-11 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

Rom 16:17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.

1 Tim 6:3-5 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.

 2 Cor 11:3-6 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted; you may well put up with it! For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things.

Eph 4:11-16 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head; Christ; from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

2 Tim 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

Rev 2:14-15 "But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. "Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

Rev 2:20-28 "Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. "And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. "Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. "I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. "Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. "But hold fast what you have till I come. "And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations; 'He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'; as I also have received from My Father; "and I will give him the morning star.

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