What Are Common Characteristics Of The New Religious Movements?

(12) The group believes that God is a force or power, not a person who relates to the creation. (Christian Science, Unity School of Christianity)

(13) The group is fixated on eschatology (end times) and is usually apocalyptic in its teaching. (Branch Davidians, Children of God/Family of Love, Jehovah’s Witnesses, People’s Temple)

(14) The lifestyle of the group’s members is highly legalistic. (Alamo Christian Foundation, the Christ Family, Church of Armageddon, Maranatha Christian Church)

(15) Sometimes the group has a notion that a communal organization is necessary to fulfill the human calling. Therefore, there is usually a tightly maintained autocratic organization which governs both spiritual and everyday life. Some dictate modes of dress, length of hair, the type of personal adornment that is permitted, and sometimes even marriage partners. (Alamo Christian Foundation, Forever Family/Church of Bible Understanding, Church Universal and Triumphant, The Walk)

(16) The group engages in strange rituals and mindless chanting. (Church Universal and Triumphant, Penitentes/Brothers of Our Father Jesus)

(17) The group emphasizes secondary issues and minor points of theology. (Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses)

(18) The group members are very often taught that they can have direct revelations and visions from God. (Mormonism, Swedenborgianism, Unification Church)

(19) The group claims that it is compatible or in harmony with the Bible and traditional Christianity, but in fact it reduces and discounts the Bible or otherwise adds to the revelation of Scripture. (Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, People’s Temple, Unification Church)

(20) The group has usurped traditional Christian vocabulary but has redefined and reinterpreted terms and concepts from the Bible—making its words do “double-duty” in order to defend aberrant doctrines. Their language is pliable and has no fixed meaning. (Christian Science, Mormonism, Unity School of Christianity)

(21) The group denies at least one central truth of Christianity—such as the work of Christ on the cross, the authority of the Scriptures, salvation by grace through faith, the bodily resurrection, the doctrine of eternal punishment, etc. (Alamo Christian Foundation, Branch Davidians, International Community of Christ/the Jamilians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Swedenborgianism—the Church of the New Jerusalem, Unification Church, Unitarian Universalists)

(22) The group denies both the doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation. (Anthroposophical Society, Children of God/Family of Love, Christian Science, Eckankar, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, United Pentecostal Church, The Way)

(23) The group recognizes Jesus as a great teacher and leader, an avatar, a wise man, even as the most important of God’s created beings—but does not believe that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. (Unification Church, The United Pentecostal Church, The Way International)

(24) The group teaches a “salvation through works” system whereby members must ultimately save themselves. (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism)

(25) The group emphasizes experience over basic Christian doctrine. (Alamo Christian Foundation, Children of God/Family of Love, Divine Light Mission, est, Lifespring, Mormonism, Urantia, The Walk/Church of the Living Word)

(26) The group is mystical and individualistically oriented. (Church Universal and Triumphant, Foundation of Human Understanding, New Testament Missionary Fellowship)

(27) The group dabbles in the occult and spiritism. (Anthroposophical Society, Children of God/Family of Love, Mormonism, Unification Church, The Walk)

Christians must recognize that our spiritual enemy is not the new religion but, rather, Satan (2Co 11:12-15).