A standard dictionary gives one of the meanings of cult as extravagant devotion to a person, cause or thing; also the object of such devotion.

The word “cult” is often associated with religion, although a cult does not need to be religious in outlook. Cults are also often associated with secrecy but not all cults are secret organisations.

In the case of religious cults, another dictionary defines cult as a system of religious devotion directed towards a particular figure or object; a relatively small religious group regarded by others as strange or as imposing excessive control over members.

A religious cult can be described as any religious group which differs significantly in some one or more respects as to belief or practice from those religious groups which are regarded as the established expressions of that religion.

Our religious focus in this tract is on Christianity, and in this case we can regard a cult as a group of people gathered about a specific person or person's misinterpretation of the Bible. Many of such cults have certain writings for which they claim supernatural authority in addition to the Bible. Usually they reject faith in Jesus Christ as God's only way of salvation. John 3: 18; 14:6; Acts 4: 12.

There are certain characteristics which most cults share in common:
1. A centralised authority which tightly structures both philosophy and lifestyle;
2. A "we" versus" they" complex,' pitting the supposed superior insights of the group against a hostile outside culture;
3. A commitment for each member to preach intensively to the unconverted; and 4. An entrenched isolationism that divorces the devotee from the realities of the world at large.

Cultic philosophy varies greatly from the rigidly ascetic to the sexually permissive.

Campus Cults are cults such as Pyrates' Confraternity, Eye Confraternity, Buccaneers' Confraternity, Black Axe, Mafia, etc. which exist on campuses of tertiary level institutions in Nigeria. They are secret societies and, as far as is known, many do not have devotion (extravagant or otherwise) to any person, cause or thing. What is obvious from their members' actions is that they are excessively violent, immoral and appear fiercely loyal to members of their own cults while being hostile to others, particularly to other cu1t groups, with which they compete for supremacy.

Initially, Campus Cults were all-male societies until the early 1990s when female students started their own cults with names such as Black Ladies, Royal Queens, Daughters of Jezebel, Fine Girls, Black Pants, Amazons, etc.

Campus Cults do not demonstrate any religious inclinations except that a few of the cults are now known to acknowledge Satan as their god who they worship. An example is one calling itself Lucifer Knights of the Round Table. But what many members of the Campus Cults do not realise is that even if they do not expressly declare Satan to be their god, they belong to his kingdom and are subject to his control through demons (evil spirits) that run errands for him and uphold his kingdom. It is this demonic control that enables a student to kill his fellow students with a gun, a machete or an axe, without any qualm of conscience.

Religious Cults have been classified under three broad groups as (i) Pseudo-Christian Cults. (ii) Personality Cults and (iii) Occult/Mystical Cults.

Pseudo-Christian Cults have deceptive resemblance to Christianity. The resemblance may be sincere even if untrue, or deliberately deceptive. Examples of cults in this category are Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science and Mormonism (also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints).

Personality Cults are egocentrically structured around one person. In these cults, most adherents are attracted by the person of the leader more than the message. His teachings are incidental to the force of his personality so that there is a subjective commitment to who he is rather than to what he says.

This can lead to self-deification by the cult leader and the acceptance of that image by the followership. Often the leader will demand total blind obedience to his word and may even separate children from their parents. Guru Maharaj Ji, Jesu Oyingbo and Rev. Sun Myung Moon (The Unification Church) are examples of this category of cults.

Occult/Mystical Cults, no matter how varied their esoteric teaching may be, are founded on a mystical model. In most cases, the important factor is in the experience offered by the cult's philosophy rather than its objective parameters of doctrine. Most of the cults in this category encourage occult and psychic exploration involving spiritually dangerous practices of using supernatural forces which are not of the Christian God. The only other source of supernatural power is Satan, the god of this world. 2 Corinthians 4:4. Cults in this category include: Freemasonry. Ogboni (Aboriginal and Reformed). International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna). ECKANKAR and Rosicrucianism (AMORC).

Let us now consider the Jesus of each of the three pseudo-Christian cults mentioned above. He is of course different from Jesus Christ of the Holy Bible who is Son of God and Son of Man, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary in a manger in Bethlehem. Luke 1: 26-38; 2:4-7. Jesus of the Holy Bible is God-God the Son, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus of the Jehovah's Witnesses, founded by Charles Russell, is a created being who they identify with the Archangel Michael. They deny his deity. The Bible they carry around, called The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures has been modified by them in many places to support their doctrine that their Jesus is not God and that the Holy Spirit is not a divine person but merely an active force of God. They do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ as recorded in all the four Gospels. They teach that their Christ has already returned invisibly to earth as a spirit but not in a visible body.

Christian Science founded by Mary Baker Eddy, is neither Christian nor Science. It is founded on pantheism, the doctrine that God is everything and everything is God. The Christian Science God is impersonal and not triune as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Their Jesus was a man who revealed the true nature of God as the Christ. In their theology, man has never departed from his original perfection and he is not in need of salvation by faith in the vicarious death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Mormons believe in polytheism (many gods). Although they use many Christian words and ideas as masquerades to their strange doctrines, they are not followers of Jesus Christ of the Holy Bible. Their God the Father, called Elohim, was once a mortal man but is now immortal. Their Jesus and Lucifer were spirit brothers, and when it was time for Jesus to come in human form to earth, he came as a result of a sexual union of their Father god with their virgin Mary. Their Jesus was a polygamist in adult life, having married Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, as well as Mary Magdalene. The earliest Mormon apostles, Joseph Smith Jr. the founder of the cult, and Brigham Young his successor, were polygamists as true disciples of their Jesus, and Mormons practised polygamy until it was abolished by United States law in 1890, although some faithful Mormons were arrested as late as the 1940s for violations of this law.

The Holy Spirit, through Apostle Paul, speaks of another Jesus in 2 Corinthians 11: 3,4. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received. or a different gospel which you have not accepted - you may well put up with it !

God's stern warning to those who pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ says: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. Galatians:8,9.

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