Jesus the Messiah told us that we could recognize whether something is good or bad, righteous or unrighteous by the fruit that it produces, (Matthew 7:15-20). With this in mind we’ve been looking at the different characteristics, or the fruit that are universally identified as being a cult, and we’ve been comparing these fruits or characteristics to the Roman Catholic Church. The central question being, does the Roman Catholic Church fulfill the characteristics and bear the fruit of a cult, or does it fulfill the characteristics and bear the fruit of the legitimate congregation belonging to YHWH Almighty God, and to Jesus Christ?
One of the fruits and characteristics of a cult is that they will almost always treat Scripture as a second-class or third-class citizen in authority. A cult will almost always say something like, “Yes, we know what Scripture says, BUT OUR Authority is HIGHER than Scripture.”
Whenever any religious group; it doesn’t matter whether the group is Roman Catholic, Protestant, nondenominational, Hebrew roots, Whole Testament, or whatever they label themselves; whenever you see any group minimize the authority of the written Scriptures, so that they can lift themselves up and elevate themselves in authority, you are in a dangerous group. At that point you are either in a cult already, or your group is getting ready to become one.
So, when you want to know whether something is a cult or legitimate church belonging to YHWH Almighty God, and to the Savior Jesus Christ, you must explore the question, where does this religious group place Scriptural authority?
