Vol. 1, Number 1

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In looking around on the Web, it is apparent that there aren't many places where Fundamental Baptists, and other Fundamental Christians, can go to shop for Bibles, music, and gifts, without plowing through a mountain of unrelated or unwanted materials.  The primary purpose of the Online Christian Stores site is to minister to the concerns and needs of Fundamental Christians.  As a part of that ministry, we attempt to do the hard work of separating the wheat from the chaff.  Although the businesses we represent bear, or claim, the name "Christian", they invariably feature books, gifts, and music from across the spectrum of Christianity, from Catholic to Protestant, from liberal to conservative.  The views represented are many times unscriptural, to say the least, and blasphemous, at worst.

Supporting a business or store that doesn't always reflect your beliefs is difficult.  There are bookstores that sell only King James Bibles and related books, but the selection is often very limited.  In the "real" world, Christian bookstores are about like the ones online; in music, for example, they may carry traditional music, but also contemporary Christian music (CCM).  Christian or not, with some few exceptions, the concern of most businesses is the bottom line.

We will never give you a hard sales pitch at Online Christian Stores.  First of all, we offer content, much of it the same as you see here for right now, but that will change as the site develops.  At the end of articles, or at the bottom of content pages like hymn lyrics, we offer you several suggested resources at the sites we are affiliated with.  In the event something you've seen or read causes you to want to learn more, you can click on one of the offered links, or just visit the main site of the merchant.

I have not resumed my blog for Jesus is the Bridge yet, but I am currently doing a series for my Online Christian Stores Blog   The current series is about parachurch organizations.  These are ministries that exist outside the bounds of a local church or denomination, like the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Campus Crusade, or Gideons International.  They perform a wide variety of services that churches either cannot, or will not, fill.

Key Verses:  Ecclesiastes 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

Postmodernism began as a philosophical movement, primarily in France, starting in the early seventies.  It has since taken hold in the social sciences, and is taught as a valid interpretation of reality in many colleges and universities.  Essentially it says that the modern age, which began with the Renaissance and reached its peak with the Industrial Revolution, has now passed, and should be rejected.  In its place, postmodernism proposes intuition in place of the scientific method and reason, chaos instead of order, and subjective reality in place of objective reality.  There is no external reality, these thinkers say, only the perception of that reality that exists in our minds.  Postmodernists propose to "deconstruct" existing theories, writings, and beliefs, and show that they are all based in fallacy.  Experience is everything; experiment is meaningless.

This would seem to have little to do with Christianity, since it involves the challenge of one worldly philosophy by another one.  What the world thinks and does, though, inevitably affects the church, and challenges our continuing ability to witness effectively.  The "ism" of modernism that has had the most devastating impact on the church is secular humanism, with its insistence that the methods of science leave no room for a God who cannot be seen, measured, or quantified.  Postmodernists also say that there is no God, but the reason is that there is no objective reality outside of what we perceive.  They would also say there are no moral absolutes, only what each of us perceives as being right and real.  One example given is homosexuality; since men perceive of other men as fulfilling the female role, and women, other women as filling the male role, this is a valid perception of reality.

Carried to its ultimate conclusion, postmodernism is anarchy, with each person being a law unto him or herself.  This was what happened in Israel during the time of the Judges (Judges 17:6, and others), and God describes such people as fools (Proverbs 12:15).  The philosophy is a very dangerous one, and may well result in the kind of utter chaos that opens the way to the Antichrist, who will offer order in place of chaos.  Since this is another tool in Satan's arsenal, God's people should become familiar with it, and what it means for us in the years to come.

What Marks Distinguish a Cult from Christianity?

The Bible's Answers to Man's Questions

Key Verses:  1 John  4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Cults and heresies have been around since the beginning of the church.  Paul had to deal with the cult of Jewish legalism, which insisted that a Christian must be circumcised and live up to all the other requirements of the Jewish law in order to be a Christian at all (see particularly the letter to the Galatians).  There were also those who insisted on worshipping angels in addition to, or rather than, Jesus Christ (evident in Colossians and, by inference, in Hebrews).  In the last days, Paul wrote to Timothy, men would depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils (1 Timothy 4:1).  Many Christians believe we are already in that time just before the Tribulation period, and there has certainly been a great proliferation of cults, while some of the older ones are growing rapidly in numbers and influence.  The Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses particularly are expanding rapidly, around the world.

But, what makes a cult a cult?  Simply because a group holds different beliefs than we do about matters of doctrine, does that make them a cult?  Not necessarily; there are certain core beliefs that every church must adhere to, in order to be legitimately labeled "Christian", but beyond that there is a wide area of possible disagreement.  In the broadest sense, a cult is a Satanic counterfeit of a church, but that still doesn't define what constitutes such a counterfeit.

Few people would deny that Jesus was a real person, that he actually lived on this earth, though many in the Gnostic cult said he was nothing more than spirit, since all flesh is evil.  That really is not what John is saying here, though.  The key qualifier is the word "Christ", the Greek equivalent of the Jewish word "Messiah", the anointed one of God, the promised redeemer.  To the church, this means Christ as the son of God, God come among us as human flesh.  Any group that does not acknowledge the basic truth of the Gospel, that Christ was God come in the flesh to redeem sinful men, is a cult.  Put another way, "What will you do with Jesus?"  Mormons are a cult because they view Jesus as the earthly manifestation of a planetary ruler, who came to show his elect, the Mormons, how they might, at least the males, attain to the rule of their very own planet.  Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult because the proclaim that Jesus was the earthly incarnation of the Archangel Michael, not the son of God.

By extension, any group that teaches there is a way of salvation by any means other than through the blood of Christ, the instrument of God's grace, is a cult.  Even if they profess to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, if they teach that salvation can be attained through works of any kind, including baptism, their group is a cult.  There is only one avenue of access to the Father, Jesus Christ, and by grace alone, not by grace plus anything else.  He is our great High Priest, our only intercessor, and there is no intermediate chain of saints, or the Virgin Mary, or the local priest, standing between.  We are bidden to come boldly to the throne of grace, not to the local confessional (Hebrews 4:16).  Praying to anyone other than to the Father, in Jesus' name, is heresy.

Leaders of cults often take to themselves the role of God, in some cases explicitly assuming such an identity, and accepting the worship of their followers.  No matter what substitute is used, a cult will always replace the true worship of God in Christ with something else, or someone else.  Even if they do otherwise appear to adhere to Christian beliefs, adding requirements for salvation not found in scripture, such as baptism or membership in a particular denomination, means they are worshipping God in a wrong spirit.

Can a member of a cult be a Christian?  Yes; it is far too common for born-again believers to desert their faith and join some cult or another, sometimes just for convenience or expediency.  Going off into doctrinal error, no matter how serious, does not make you "lose your salvation", which is not based on what you do but who you are in Jesus Christ.  The only unpardonable sin is the ultimate rejection of Christ.  It is always possible, of course, that those who profess to be Christians then desert their faith were never saved at all; only God can make that judgment.  For well over a thousand years, the Roman Catholic church was the only Christian church in western Europe; it is hard to believe that no one in all that time was saved simply because the larger church had fallen into serious error.  I believe that God can reach anyone, and draw them to himself, no matter what religion they practice.  If they choose, even then, to remain in their false religion, even though  they are saved, that does not undo what God has done, and the decision they made.  It simply means that their witness is destroyed, and all hope of reward beyond eternal life itself is lost.  A cult is a substitute, an attempt to offer some other way to salvation than the only Way, Jesus Christ.

Gary W. Cavendish