It’s debatable if those cults are even protestant (some don’t even fall under historical Christianity) as protestants are continuing groups that came out of the reformation, believing the Roman Church erred (Think Episcopal/Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutherans, Moravians, etc. They all stem from the pre reformation Catholic Church), while a lot of culty groups are like “yeah the past 2000 years the church was wrong so we are starting over again” (restorationists). But even them, some groups are still recognisably Christian (Baptists, most Pentecostals, non denomonational) believing in the historical Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the sacraments. Then you get the spinoff groups such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. And then there are the in betweeners such as Quakers and SDAdventists where it’s debatable.
Okay I’m just infodumping now. This isn’t relevant.
No, it’s relevant actually. I called them protestant, but the OG Lutherans aren’t a branch of Catholicism, so why would Pentecostals be a branch of protestantism? Yeah, they’re still anti-pope, but they also found enough problems with the established protestants to split off and start something else.
I don’t know if there’s a term for the wave of new denominations in the last century, if it’s even a single wave at all. Revivalism? And is there a common theme in that wave that leads to cults? Or should we say that the cults are a wave in themselves, caused by some other shift in the zeitgeist? Because as much as I’d like to blame pentecostalism for cultish beliefs (and I think I could make that argument), it could also be a general secularization that strips communities to their cultish cores.
It’s debatable if those cults are even protestant (some don’t even fall under historical Christianity) as protestants are continuing groups that came out of the reformation, believing the Roman Church erred (Think Episcopal/Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutherans, Moravians, etc. They all stem from the pre reformation Catholic Church), while a lot of culty groups are like “yeah the past 2000 years the church was wrong so we are starting over again” (restorationists). But even them, some groups are still recognisably Christian (Baptists, most Pentecostals, non denomonational) believing in the historical Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the sacraments. Then you get the spinoff groups such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. And then there are the in betweeners such as Quakers and SDAdventists where it’s debatable.
Okay I’m just infodumping now. This isn’t relevant.
No, it’s relevant actually. I called them protestant, but the OG Lutherans aren’t a branch of Catholicism, so why would Pentecostals be a branch of protestantism? Yeah, they’re still anti-pope, but they also found enough problems with the established protestants to split off and start something else.
I don’t know if there’s a term for the wave of new denominations in the last century, if it’s even a single wave at all. Revivalism? And is there a common theme in that wave that leads to cults? Or should we say that the cults are a wave in themselves, caused by some other shift in the zeitgeist? Because as much as I’d like to blame pentecostalism for cultish beliefs (and I think I could make that argument), it could also be a general secularization that strips communities to their cultish cores.