It is always a mistake to assume we know precisely what a person believes because he is a member of a particular group. While we can suspect he believes certain things, we need to listen carefully. We are concerned with truth and doctrinal purity, not with labels.

But at the heart of Mormonism is the belief that people may eventually become gods by observing Mormon law. This belief stems from Joseph Smith's overt occult activity. Smith was deeply rooted in the occult. Likewise, Mary Baker Eddy, though she used Christian terms, basically started an occult group, not a cult group. The occult influence of the New England Transcendentalists is felt in these groups.

Many Latter-day Saints are deeply involved in the occult. Numerous Mormon chiropractors and naturopaths are rooted in unscientific "holistic" healing practices. The occult Mormon Temple ceremonies create an openness to the spirit world in ways condemned by the Bible. One Mormon prophet, for example, said all the founding fathers of the United States "visited" him in the St. George Temple in Utah. When I am talking with a Mormon who is focused upon becoming a god, I treat him as an occultist. (I furnished examples of that in the section on the occult.)

So, we cannot approach all cultists in precisely the same way.

The very concept of wolves in sheeps' clothing (Matthew 7:15) speaks to the idea of "cultishness." Cultishness is the no man's land between orthodox Christianity and clearly identifiable cults. Here Christian individuals, congregations or denominations subscribe to doctrinal positions that either are harmful or lead to harmful consequences.

I believe this witnessing area is the most difficult for Christians. I know it is for me. I certainly do not want to be narrow or bigoted. I do not want to stain a brother's reputation. I do not want to call unclean that which God has called clean (Acts 10:15). I move with fear and trembling in this area.

A friend used to say the first marks of the cults would be found in "a day, a diet or a doctrine." He meant we could look for cultishness in teachings that focused on peripheral issues until the central message about Christ was damaged. Taking a portion of Scripture and emphasizing it to distortion is sometimes called "majoring on minors." I believe this is the essence of Paul's warning to us:

Does our responsibility as evangelists stop as soon as we are convinced someone is saved? I think not. In the Great Commission we are told to make disciples of all the nations. Our work is not done when someone says the sinner's prayer. Paul said he was "innocent of the blood, of all men" because he had "not shunned to declare. . . .the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:26—27).

I am asked often about groups that seem to be on the fringes of the Church. The real nature of heresy is that it divides the Church. When a group majors on a minor point so that it becomes a test of faith, it is in danger of heresy.

An example of this kind of splitting has been seen among the Seventh-Day Adventists. For years this denomination separated itself from the rest of the Body of Christ. Likewise, the Church distanced itself from Adventists because of their legalistic insistence upon Saturday worship (sometimes even identifying Sunday worship as "the mark of the beast"), their dietary restrictions and the elevation of their prophetess Ellen G. White. Today Seventh-Day Adventists are trying to minimize the differences between themselves and evangelical churches. Many doctrinal problems, however, continue to impede full fellowship. Their legalistic approach to salvation, for instance, is problematic.

Other groups, like some of the non-instrumental Churches of Christ, take a highly legalistic view of water baptism. Some independent Pentecostal churches elevate the gift of tongues as a sign of salvation. Such groups skate dangerously closely to the edge of cultism.

Another group that seems to exist in the gray edges of the larger Church is the United Pentecostal Church. I have spent hours in discussion with UPC pastors. For the most part I find them delightful brothers. They are, however, split over the biblical understanding of the nature of God. Half believe in the biblical "three-in-one" God but balk at the word Trinity. While they believe—once the terminology is sorted out— what the rest of the Church believes, they choose to call that belief "Oneness." Another half of them are clearly nonTrinitarian in doctrine as well as name. They are unitarian. I will speak to these distinctions in the next chapter.

Then there are groups that call themselves "Baptist," "Pentecostal" or "Church of Christ," but are unorthodox. Many, perhaps most, of these people are orthodox brothers and sisters in the Lord. Some, however, have allowed their particular doctrines to separate them from the Body of Christ. I remember having a dialogue with one such Church of Christ minister. I told him that I had exercised faith in Christ, repented of sin and been water-baptized by immersion. I testified to a changed life and a daily walk in fellowship with Jesus. In his eyes, however, none of that made me a Christian. He said I needed to be re baptized and to stipulate that I was being baptized in order to become a Christian, not because I was a Christian.

I must include in the gray area those who have allowed their liturgy to replace relationship. Many Protestants and Catholics have reduced Christianity to a dead formula. Then there are those we sometimes call Christian liberals. By them I mean those for whom God is far away: The blood of Jesus has lost its power, the Word of God its authority.

Cultishness is the bane of the Church. Organizations, intermediaries and formulas replace vibrant relationship with the Lord Himself. Jesus speaks of impotent churches in the book of Revelation: "You have left your first love" (2:4); "committed sexual immorality" (2:14, 20); "have a name that you are alive, but you are dead" (3:1); "are lukewarm" (3:16).

I realize that even bringing up the concept of cultishness will make some people uncomfortable. But I am motivated by the fact that doctrinal walls sag before they collapse. Unhealthy trees produce little fruit and often the fruit is unwholesome. We who truly worship the Father are required to do so both in spirit and truth (John 4:23). "The truth," Jesus said, "shall make you free" (John 8:32).

When I do seminars I usually open the last session for questions and answers. In a small Oregon town one meeting was dominated by questions from a very nice man who was perplexed by the fact that Christians considered his church a cult. As he described his beliefs, it became apparent to the vast majority of those present that his beliefs were indeed unorthodox. Reason as we could with him, we could not break through to common ground. Yet he was so sincere!