James M. Rochford

Cult groups have spread rapidly across the United States in recent years. Secular author Margaret Thaler Singer estimates that in the last two decades roughly 20 million Americans have been involved in a cult.1 Christian cult expert Ron Rhodes concurs with this estimate, claiming that this has been a 3,000 percent increase over the last 150 years.2 Rhodes writes, “It is for good reason that every book in the New Testament except Philemon has something to say about false teachers, false prophets, false gospels, or heresies.”3 While cults have certainly proliferated over the last century, many have had difficulty clearly defining what they mean when they use the term cult. Atheistic critics have grouped all religious groups together.

Lee Campbell PhD.

If it were not for the traditional use of the word 'worship' amongst Christians, substantial arguments could be raised against its continued use. For one thing, the denotative meaning of 'worship' is different from the related Greek and Hebrew terms. For another, the connotative meaning of 'worship' in the Christian community is substantially different from the biblical teaching on the topic. Since the evangelical Christian community is committed to the use of the term worship, it certainly bears careful examination so that we mean what God intends when we use it.

Dennis McCallum

In the New Testament God used human leaders to bring blessing and feeding to the church. From the day of Pentecost, the apostles acted as de facto leaders. They preached, taught, (Acts 2:42) and ruled on issues that came up for debate (Acts 6:1,2). They were able to delegate leadership to others (Acts 6:3,4).