JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

The cultist takes pride in his lack of formal education. To bypass the accumulated knowledge
and wisdom of people throughout the ages by selecting a narrow path, if a path at all, of
intellectual pursuit, is the height of intellectual and religious snobbery.
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16. SYNCRETISM. Often cults are a mixture of views and interpretations from various
teachings or groups such as the British Israel theory of eschatological interpretation, Seventh
Day Adventism, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. Various views are blended together to appeal to the
naive and the uninformed.
17. FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION. As seen earlier, false prophets are usually
motivated by greed. Their love of money, which is the root of all evil, makes them seek huge
sums of money from their followers so they can live in the lap of luxury. Luxurious living is
often used as evidence of God's blessing in their life and ministry. Wealth is a sign of God's
approval and the faith of the leader. The more faith, the more money! All kinds of manipulative
techniques are brought to bear on the gullible followers to extract their hard-earned money.
All these major cults, as well as the numerous minor (only in the sense that they have a
smaller following) cults, are doctrinal perversions which deny the deity and humanity of Jesus.
With this denial and their denial of Jesus' bodily resurrection, they render Jesus' death and
resurrection meaningless.
Throughout church history orthodox Christianity has adhered to the statements of the
creeds of Nicea, Constantinople and Chalcedon. Even the division between the Eastern and
Western churches in A.D. 1054 did not change this as both church bodies retained the
Christology of the early church. The Reformation with its major division of the Western church
also left the creedal confessions unchanged. All major Reformation churches (Lutheran,
Reformed, Anglican) accepted the ancient creeds.
It was only in the 18th century that serious opposition arose from the new liberal
theology, but even then the churches themselves, at least officially, retained the old
Christological dogma. None of the historic denominations ever officially abandoned it.
Throughout this entire period, as well as our own century, the ancient creeds (as well as the
Westminster Confession) have remained the shibboleth that distinguished orthodoxy from
liberalism.
According to the New Testament, our salvation is nothing less than this:
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who, though He was rich, yet for your
sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich" (2 Co 8:9).
These words contain in a nutshell the whole Christology of the New Testament. It was
this very Christology that was upheld by the church at Nicea as well as at Chalcedon.