The term "cult" is a pejorative lable used to describe certain relious groups outside the mainstream of western religion.
In the cult phenomena disagreement, arises among the researcher in the question of which group should be considered cult.The social scientist are of war that
religious group are divided into three categories. Church, sects and cults.
Church are the large denominations characterized by their inclusive approach to life and their identification with he prevailing culture. In the United States, the churchly groups as the Roman catholic church, the United Methodist church, the American Baptist church, the United church of Christ, the Pentecostal and Episcopal churches groups that have broken away from the churchly denominations are termed "sects" They tend to follow the denominations in most patterns but are more strict in doctrine and behvaioural demands placed upon members and emphasis their separation and distinctiveness from the larger culture (frequent spoken of a "rejection of worldliness" "Cults" follow an altogether different religious structures, one foreign and alien to the prevalent religious communities. Cult represent a force of religious innovation within a culture. In most cases that inanition comes about by the transplantation of a religion from a different culture by the immigration of some of its membersand leaders. Walter Martin (2002:19) the kingdom of cults.
Jan Karel Van Baalen described cult as non-Christians, religious but included those groups which had their roots in Christianity while denying what he considered its essential teaching.According to Van Baslen all religious could be divided, into two groups those, which describe to humans, the ability to accomplish their own salvation and those which ascribe that ability t God. The later group is called Christianity. All other religion fits into the first group. In the chaos of cults which went through numerous, editions from its first appearance in 1938, van Baalen analsyed various non-Christianity, religious in the light of Christian teachings. With the little change, contemporary Christian counter-cult spokesperson have followe van Baalen. Cults follow another gospel (Gal 1:16) they are heretical. They set up their own beliefs in
opposition to orthodox faith. According to Josh Mcdowell and Don Stewart -two popular Evangelical writers, "A cult is a perversion, a distortion of Biblical Christianity, and as such, rejects the historical teachings of the Christians church.
Cult is define as a body of religious rites and practices associated with the worship or propitiation of a particular divinity or group of supernatural beings. As we maintain above, cults divine from man''s dependent on the supreme being, a dependency which necessitates worship or propitiation. Reference: The chaos of cults:A study of present days lsms by Jan karel van Baalen(published 2004) Krishna consciouness in the west by David G Bromley ,larry D shinn (published 1989) The Tree of culture by Ralph linton (published 1955)