You've probably seen the news about a previously-unknown cult in northern New Mexico, led by a man who claims to be the Messiah.  He was recently jailed on sex charges related to his practice of lying in bed with young girls who are virgins.  This man was also profiled last week on the National Geographic television network in a program about an inside look at a cult.

In a previous post in the section “Why I Won't Return to Mormonism,” I began a discussion of the characteristics of cults with this definition (from my book, Why We Left A Cult (Baker Books):

In the sense that most Christian writers would use it, that of a pseudo-Christian cult, it would have the following characteristics: Such a group would humanize God, deify man, ostracize Scripture and provide a different view of salvation ““ all of these in distinction from traditional Christianity, yet sharing much of its terminology.

In addition, I have collected several characteristics of most cults, and will add to the list in future posts.  I'll begin, however, with an expansion of the four characteristics listed above.  Today we'll look at the concept of the Godhead.

1.  A non-Biblical redefinition of God and/or God the Father, either as a former human or as an impersonal force.

2.  A redefinition of Jesus, either as merely human, or as just an illustration of something like “the Christ Principle,” or as one of many prophets or holy men, or as the brother of Lucifer or Michael the Archangel.

3.  A redefinition of the Holy Spirit, either as a force without personality or a commodity to which only the cult has access.

4.  Rejection of the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity by claiming that God, Jesus, and the Spirit are totally separate; or that one or more of them is either inferior to or absent from unity with the others.

What pseudo-Christian groups can you think of that fit these characteristics?