Eta_Carinae wrote: "I also called the SDA church a cult since JimSDA slammed the Catholics as many fundamental cults do."
Do you know what the definition of a "cult" is?
A "cult" is a group of people who 1)base their beliefs upon NON-BIBLICAL DOCTRINES, and 2)have a single charismatic leader at the head of their organization -- which is why the Catholic Church accutally qualifies to be the largest "cult" on the planet with over a billion members!
Sure, the Catholic Church loosely bases its beliefs upon the Bible, but most of them are NOT in the Bible! There is no command for people to worship or pray to Mary, the Bible says that there is just one mediator between man and God: Jesus!
The 2nd Commandment tells us NOT to bow down before graven images and worship them -- so the Catholic Church REMOVED the 2nd Commandment from the Ten Commandments so that they could have their people feel good about bowing down and praying to all these statues of Mary that they have in their churches (which is just another form of mother-goddess worship from pagan days).
"Purgatory" is NOT in the Bible, it is Greek myth ala Hades!
People are not supposed to confess their sins to a human priest, they are to confess their FAULTS to people and their SINS directly to God in prayer!
Human beings can NOT forgive sins!!! Only God can do this -- so all those priests in the confessionals are not doing it like the Bible told them to do it -- but what would you expect from a church that put the Bible on their list of "forbidden books" for people to avoid, and then when it comes time to honor either the Bible or "tradition," the Catholic Church chooses "tradition"!
I could go on and on, but won't -- so just let me explain why the Seventh-day Adventist Church is NOT a "cult":
True, we had a woman named Ellen White who helped found this church back in 1865, because she had over 2,000 visions from God -- so in a way, the SDAs have a "charismatic leader" (she died in 1915) -- but we do NOT have a belief system that goes outside of the Bible for its doctrines! The Adventists are the most diligent Christians on the planet that go by a "thus sayeth the Lord" in ALL of their doctrines, and I know this because I have done 6 books explaining those doctrines!
So if you want to look for "cults," let's go by the definition of a cult and not just by how you think a demoniation sounds a little "weird" to you -- study the doctrines, THEN make your decision as to who is a cult! Because SDAs are definitely NOT a "cult"!