|
|
| (43 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| {{draft}}
| | #REDIRECT [[Question: Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a "cult"?]] |
| ==Criticism==
| |
| Critics claim that the Church is "a cult."
| |
| | |
| ===Source(s) of the Criticism===
| |
| * ''The Utah Evangel'' 31 (May 1984): 1.
| |
| * ''The Utah Evangel'' 33 (May 1986): 3.
| |
| * Walter Martin, ''The Kingdom of the Cults'', revised and expanded, (Minneapolis: Bethan House, 1985), 173.
| |
| * James R. Spencer, ''Beyond Mormonism: An Elder's Story'' (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 1984), 138.
| |
| | |
| ==Response==
| |
| Websters Dictionary defines cult as a “great devotion to a person, idea, or thing”. So as
| |
| the Jews revere Moses, Lutherans revere Martin Luther, Seventh-day Adventists have Ellen G.
| |
| White, and mostly Christians reverence Jesus Christ. That would put them under the category of
| |
| cult also.
| |
| | |
| Alan Gomes, who teaches at BIOLA University’s Talbot school of Theology, admits
| |
| right up front that “our English word cult comes from the Latin word cultus, which is a form of
| |
| the verb colere, meaning ‘to worship or give reverence to a deity” (Alan W. Gomes, Unmasking
| |
| the Cults, pg. 7)
| |
| | |
| Fuller Theological Seminary President Richard Mouw said in Nov. 14 2004 conference in Salt
| |
| Lake City for the unity of Evangelicals and Mormons that “I know that I have learned much in this
| |
| continuing dialogue, and I am now convinced that we evangelicals have often seriously mis-represented
| |
| the beliefs and practices of the Mormon community. Indeed, let me state it bluntly to the LDS folks here
| |
| this evening: we have sinned against you. The God of the Scriptures makes it clear that it is a terrible
| |
| thing to bear false witness against our neighbors, and we have been guilty of that sort of transgression in
| |
| things we have said about you. We have told you what you believe without making a sincere effort first
| |
| of all to ask you what you believe.”
| |
| | |
| The true Church has always come under the criticism of being a cult. Even the early
| |
| Church was regarded as a cult. In Herbert Danbys, "The Jew and Christianity" on pg. 8, it
| |
| reads “This new Jewish-Christian party in the eyes of the religious leaders of the time was, at the
| |
| worst, simply regarded as guilty of minuth (cultism), namely, a variety of Jewish heresy, or
| |
| rather, Jewish sectarianism...early passages in the Talmud still contain hostile references to the
| |
| minim (cults), among whom were numbered the Jewish Christians...”
| |
| Pliny, an early Roman leader also said that Christians were a “superstition, a foreign
| |
| cult” this was re-iterated by two more Roman writers, Tacitus, and Suetonius. Tacitus said that is
| |
| why the Christians were being killed, and also because “of their hatred toward mankind”. Tacitus
| |
| also said that they were “an enemy to mankind”, and a “deadly superstition”. And also Suetonius
| |
| who said that they were a “mischievous superstition” or in other words, a cult. (The Christians as
| |
| the Romans Saw Them, pg. 22,49-50,66)
| |
| | |
| ==Conclusion==
| |
| | |
| A summary of the argument against the criticism.
| |
| | |
| ==Endnotes==
| |
| | |
| ==Further reading==
| |
| | |
| ===FAIR wiki articles===
| |
| {{DefinitionFallaciesWiki}}
| |
| *Logical fallacies
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Ad_hominem | Ad hominem]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Appeal_to_authority | Appeal to authority]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Appeal_to_belief | Appeal to belief]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Appeal_to_the_majority | Appeal to the majority]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Appeal_to_tradition | Appeal to tradition]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Argument_from_repetition | Argument from repetition]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Argumentum_ad_numerum | Argument ad numerum]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Bandwagon_fallacy | Bandwagon fallacy]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Begging_the_question | Begging the question]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#False_analogy | False analogy]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#False_premise | False premise]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Ideology_over_reality | Ideology over reality]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#No_true_Scotsman | No true Scotsman]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Poisoning_the_well | Poisoning the well]]
| |
| ** [[Logical_fallacies#Straw_man | Straw man]]
| |
| ===FAIR web site===
| |
| *{{tg|url=http://www.fairlds.org/apol/ai042.html|topic=LDS Church as "a cult"}}
| |
| | |
| ===External links===
| |
| *Orson Scott Card, "Hey, Who Are You Calling a Cult?" {{link|url=http://www.beliefnet.com/story/49/story_4906_1.htmlhttp://www.beliefnet.com/story/49/story_4906_1.html}}
| |
| *{{aremormonschristians}}
| |
| | |
| ===Printed material===
| |
| *{{Offenders1|start=1}}
| |
