World Religions and Cults

In this blog we’ll learn to understand the world religions of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism. Understand the beliefs, practices, and teachings of each religion and popular cults too.

Jesus Christ came as the Word of God in human form to model God’s heart and His way of living. Through His death and resurrection, He paid the debt for our sins. He makes it possible for all who will believe to be transformed into ambassadors of God. We can be part in reconciling God with peoples of every tribe, nation, and language.

We can better understand World Mission and how it relates to the Church and our lives by exploring the following;

Religion is an institution or a set of beliefs constituted by human beings in order to approach a god or gods. It is an organized set of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules in which one believes and which one follows devotedly. There are many different religions in the world.

Below we briefly address three of the world’s religions—Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

Islam means submission to the will of God. The founder of Islam, Mohammed, was born in 570.

According to his revelation, there are six doctrines of the faith that Muslims hold to:   

There are five pillars in the Islamic religion. These obligations that every Muslim must keep are as follows:

Hinduism is tremendously diverse. It encompasses those who believe in one reality, Brahman (the ultimate reality underlying every phenomenon), as well as those who believe in many gods, up to 330 million. It is common in one house for the husband to worship one god, the wife another god, and the children others. Regardless of the diversity within Hinduism, there are some core beliefs.

Buddhism does not believe in a personal God. It does not have worship, prayer, or praise of divine beings. It offers no redemption, no forgiveness, no hope of heaven, and no final judgment. In Buddhism, there are “The Four Noble Truths”:

The Eightfold path is:

The Eightfold Path is a set of steps that describes not only a good life but one which will move the follower toward Nirvana—extinction wherein lies one’s essence. The individual doesn’t actually exist in Buddhism; you can turn off existence like a candle flame marking the end of desire and the end of suffering. 

How do you feel when you hear the belief of these religions compared to what we as Christians believe?

As messengers of the Gospel of Jesus, we need to pray and find ways to engage the Gospel in the context of other religious beliefs.  

Cults are religious groups that claim to be in harmony with Christianity but deny foundational Christian teachings such as the Trinity or the unique deity of Jesus Christ.

The word “cult” is generally used to denote a group or organization which deviates from Christian teaching. 

In Matthew 7:15-17, Jesus gives us warning about the coming of cults, and much of the New Testament is written to correct their distractive influence (2 Corinthians 11:1-11; Galatians 1:8-9). 

Jesus stated, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” What Jesus was warning us of was that followers of cults will look and act like Christians. However, that is only in external appearance. They might argue as true believers for the time, but eventually, their words, actions, and especially their fruits will reveal their true identity.

The failure of the Church in making disciples contributed a lot to the emersion of many cultic movements. The increase of cults is also a fulfillment of the warning given by Jesus and the apostles (Matthew 24:23-26; 2 Peter 2:1-3). As the day of the return of our Lord is approaching, there will be an increase in false prophets and teachings.

All cults have a distorted view of the triune God; they promote false teaching based on the nature of God.

But the Bible teaches us there is one God who has revealed Himself in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14).  

Cults also teach a false view of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 11:4). For example, Christian Science teaches that Jesus Christ is a historical figure but not the God-man, and Jehovah’s Witnesses also teach that Jesus is not God. But the Bible tells us that Jesus is fully God and fully human (John 17:3; 1 Timothy 2:5; Philippians 2:6-7).

Cultic understanding of salvation is also distorted. Most cults have a works-oriented Gospel by undermining the finished work on the cross (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

In the early Church, there were a number of schisms and heretical movements such as Arianism. These heresies were essentially doctrinal ones. As the church councils met in response to them, the creeds of the Church formed, and the canon of the New Testament was finally agreed upon.

Throughout history, there have been heretical teachings of many kinds, but in recent years, there has been an explosion in the number of these groups. In the end, most cults fail, but they still can cause enormous personal damage and create confusion amongst Christians and non-Christians alike. The good thing is that, as the cults continue to increase, we know that the day of the Lord is near.

Global Disciples Canada is a Christian mission organization that trains local leaders living near least-reached communities to multiply disciples for Christ. One-third of our world hasn’t heard the Good News of Jesus. Yet. Global Disciples refers to these as “least-reached” people, and fewer than 10% of all missionaries work among these groups. We live in a time where many of these people are within reach of a local church. Through our simple and effective strategy of training and coaching, believers share the Gospel in their own nations and cultures. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” and we’re committed to doing just that. If you want a Christian mission organization to partner with to become a better disciple and help make disciples, connect with us today!