Is Christianity a Cult?

For the past several weeks I have been teaching a class to high school students on the Jewish feasts mentioned in Leviticus 23. After doing so, I am convinced that Christianity is a cult!

Why don’t we just admit it? Christ followers are cult members! Shoot, I am a cult member! It sounds kind of weird when you say it out loud, “I am part of a cult.” The word “cult” conjures up so many horrifying images, that we just can’t get past the fact, that Jesus is a cult leader.

Surprisingly, Wikipedia actually has a good sociological definition of a cult when it says, “a cult is a term designating a cohesive group of people…devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be outside the mainstream or reaching the point of a taboo.” Yep, Christianity fits this definition by being outside the “mainstream,” but so do a lot of other things.

A proper theological understanding of a cult is, “a group that deviates doctrinally from a ‘parent’ or ‘host’ religion; that is, cults grow out of and deviate from a previously established religion.” It is interesting to note nether definition comments on the claims made by cults as to their truth or falsity. Nor do they address the psychological strategy used by cults. These definitions only explain how cults are perceived and their development.

Further, it is necessary when speaking theologically of cults to recognize that they are not stand-alone entities. They grow out of some predecessor.

An example of this is the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which is a “cult” of Islam. They seek to restore the perfected teachings of Mohammad, by adhering to the voice of Mizra Ghulam Ahmad the last prophet sent by God. Because it does not purport Mohammad was the last and greatest prophet of Allah this view of Islam is outlawed in Pakistan.

Similarly, Hare Krishna is a cult of Hinduism. The Branch Davidians are a cult of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Christianity is a cult of Judaism.

The writers of the New Testament used their knowledge of the Old Testament to validate their experiences with Jesus. It was through the filter of the Old Testament that they confidently heralded Jesus as the Christ. This is because Jesus took the Jewish scriptures, the Jewish hope of Messiah, some Jewish theology and reoriented it towards himself. Where Jews are awaiting Messiah’s first coming, Christians are waiting for his second coming. This is a major break from Christianity’s “parent” or “host” religion.

In view of the fact that Christianity grew out of Judaism, that Jesus was a Jew and most of the New Testament writers were Jewish, it would only make sense to search the Old Testament for illumination of the New Testament. Christ followers need the Old Testament to fully understand the New. Scripture is progressive. By this I mean that the New Testament builds upon the foundation of the Old. The early church father Augustine said, “The New Testament is in the Old concealed; the Old Testament is in the New revealed.”

I was thinking about this on Easter Sunday when our pastor initiated a dialogue within the church community by asking, “What do you think a good Easter sermon should contain?” People in the community mentioned aspects of the Easter narrative like hope, life and joy. But, I wanted to see connections. The resurrection of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament relates to the Old Testament. I want our worship community to connect the dots from the freed Hebrew slaves wandering in the desert, to the Feast of First Fruits, to the resurrection of Jesus (Ex 13:1-2, 11-16; Lev. 23:9-14, 1 Cor. 15:20-13) in order to gain a full and Technicolor picture of what we celebrate.

Just imagine the meaning and imagery we would struggle to appreciate if we divorced the two Testaments. A few examples from the Jewish Feasts in Leviticus 23 will help to shed light on this:
*Without understanding the Passover, one would be hard pressed to understand John the Baptizer’s title for Jesus as the, “Lamb of God,” in John 1:29, 36.
*Without understanding the Feast of First Fruits, Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 15:20 about Jesus being, “the first fruits of those who are asleep,” loses most of its significance.
*As related to Yom Kippur, Hebrews 10 does not convey its magnitude and meaning alone. It needs to be reconciled with Leviticus 16.
*John 1:14 loses its luster without the knowledge of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Not to mention that the New Testament keeps driving readers back to the Old for support and clarification on many different issues:
*Paul used “The Law” and “Prophets” to explain the kingdom of God and who Jesus was to the Jewish leaders in Rome (Acts 28:23).
*The book of Jonah plays a pivotal role in understanding the resurrection of Jesus (Matt. 12:39-41).
*Jesus used the Old Testament to identify himself as the Christ in Luke 4 by quoting Isaiah 61.
*The Ethiopian eunuch found salvation in Isaiah 53 (Acts 8:26-39).

The list could go on and on. There are over 400 Old Testament quotes and allusions found in the New Testament. It has to be remembered that those in the New Testament never read the New Testament! Their “scriptures” were the Old Testament (John 7:42, Rom. 10:11, Gal. 3:8). It took the coming of Jesus and their knowledge of the Old Testament for the first Christians to understand that Jesus was Messiah.

Without marrying the Old and New Testaments together readers will miss significant opportunities to know and understand the author of both sections. There is a beauty and a complexity to the whole of Scripture’s revelation of God, which transcends the words themselves.

Within the pages of Scripture we find that God himself came to rescue and restore all of creation through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Next to the person of Jesus, the Bible (both halves) is God’s best, most available and most complete expression of himself and his activity on earth.

If Christ followers are seeking hard after God -- or to put it another way, if they are seeking God through Jesus -- we cannot afford to neglect the Old Testament in favor of the New. It is not an either/or, but a both/and state of affairs. To truly understand God’s revelation of himself, Christians need to connect the dots between the two Testaments.

If we fail to do this, our view of God is stilted and anemic. It would be comparable to watching the Super Bowl on a black and white 13’TV set, when a color, 1080 x 1080 resolution High Definition, LCD screen with 7.1 surround sound home theater is available. Yeah, you can still “watch” the game, but you will lose out on participating in the dynamic media experience in front of you.

It is vital not only to our understanding of the message communicated in the Bible, but also to our comprehension of God’s character that we interpret and integrate the New Testament with the Old. The two halves of Scripture should be read, studied and applied in conjunction with each other. As Christ followers we should strive to connect the dots between the Testaments.

We can reject Jewish interpretations of the Old Testament without getting rid of the Old Testament. Likewise, we can embrace the Old Testament, without embracing the teachings Judaism. So, no matter the imagery conjured up in our minds by the label “cult,” Christians need to embrace the “Judeo” part of Judeo-Christian. It is part of who we are as a community of faith, our grasp of God depends on it and our understanding of Jesus necessitates it.