Cults

Hello,

Hope you all had a great Sunday worshiping our Lord and learning His precepts to apply. We went to a new church, a baptist one. It's fairly large and non-personal from the aspect that no one greeted us except for the folks at the door, and then they didn't get very personal.
We were early for the 2nd service and stood in the entry, which is very large and has a coffee bar. People looked at us, but didn't approach. We've found that in large churches people don't know who is new and isn't.
The pastor shared before his message and worship about greeting, welcoming and inviting people to the church. But, I didn't see that happening. We didn't meet him at all. Why did the habit of pastor's standing at the doorway shaking hands with people as they leave, end? I guess we're just small church people.
This blog is about a church we passed that's called: Unitarian Universalism. I was familiar with unitarian, but what's universalism??? So, I researched our Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin. It has unitarian only. So, here's what I found.
In the Sunday school class as we went through 1 John we learned that there are lots of false teacher's and that they like to draw people to their way of thinking. This unitarian church seems to be just that.
In a nut shell, they believe that God exists and that's all. Everything else depends on them. They don't believe in heaven and hell (therefore no need for a savior). They don't acknowledge Jesus Christ's deity or the doctrine of the Trinity.
According to Martin they: forsake the real human Jesus and have substituted a Christ of dogmatism, metaphysics and pagan philosophy. Basically, they refuse Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Then, they say that Jesus was not from a virgin birth, is not the Messiah, but a Christian fantasy.
What about sin you ask?? Good question. They recognize evil and man's responsibility for much of it. They don't believe that God sent Christ into the world to save man from hell and they find it offensive, un-Biblical and immoral to believe that.
So what do they believe? (quoting Martin) In salvation of character.....God's help is not likely to come to those who cast all their burdens on the Lord. There is practical wisdom in the saying, "God helps those who help themselves,"... if by heaven, you mean an abode of eternal light, where the saved and redeemed enjoy everlasting bliss, and if by hell, you mean the devil's eternal darkness, where the wicked suffer unending torment-then Unitarianism emphatically repudiates such beliefs. This is quoted from the president of the U. church.
My mind can't understand why people would want to believe in this type of existence, one with no hope of a future with God. Basically they have the now, and that's all.
So, my question to you is, if you entered this church and heard these types of things taught, would you know truth from false? Do you know what the Bible teaches from what a cult teaches? Do you know what you believe about God, Jesus, heaven, hell, etc. so that you could defend what you believe?
Tomorrow I'm going to address Joyce Meyer's teaching. Come join me.....

Seeking Him,
Sandy