Cults suck
“Gibson's 'The Passion' a Hit Among Arabs” (yahoo.com article)
"They said 'We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah' — but they killed him not, nor crucified him. But so it was made to appear to them. And those who differ therein are full of doubts with no knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not." Sura 4:157 (in the Quran)
-In light of that verse straight from the Quran, why anyone would believe in Islam is beyond me. To deny that Jesus was crucified is on par with saying the Holocaust never happened (which I’m sure most Muslims would have no problem saying considering their great aversion towards Jews). Obviously they have no problem turning their backs on history, archeology, anthropology, theology, and logical intellectualism. I never found that attractive though; that uncertainty of salvation never seemed to fill that void in my soul... But like 2 billion people say Islam is the one True Church....so a couple billion people couldn't be wrong right??? insert big red stop noise... i don't know about you but God gave me the capacity to think as well as to feel.
But that’s what cults do; they’re in the business of de-emphasizing Christ as much as possible. They tear down his self-proclaimed and contemporary claimed title as “God”, his work of sufficient grace, and make him a mere man, a prophet. That way he’s not as dangerous to their egotistical agendas. They want you to focus less on the person of Christ and more on their religion, to benefit the leaders’ and founders’ glory...that way they can control you. Plain and simple, cults suck...
“Real Christianity never is forced on someone nor does it make one obligated to serve. On the surface it may look like all is the same but the motivation and the end result is far different. Real Christianity gives the person freedom to choose which services to attend, or how they will serve, or how much money they will give. Cults like control over someone, it becomes their mission whether it is conscious or unconscious, there becomes no choice in these matters. Spiritually abusive religious systems can range from being legalistic, and authoritarian as in the shepherding movements to definitive mind controlling like we see in the Moonies. They all are addictive, by convincing you that if you question or leave, God will be angry with you. So you keep coming and the more you go the tighter the noose is wound around your neck until you no longer have any control over your life.” -Mike Oppenheimer