Are there non dem churches that deny Jesus is God?

[Daniel Marsh]

I have encountered someone who claims that he attends a non denomination church that denies Jesus is God, soul sleep and believes that there is no Hell after the judgement. He would not answer a direct question of which church he attends. I am hoping it is not a new cult somewhere in my area. It is possible he belongs to the Way International cult.

 

[Daniel Marsh]

This is information seeking thread. So, when I learn what cult he belongs to, I can study how to answer him. I run into him often.

 

[Sketcher]

I have encountered someone who claims that he attends a non denomination church that denies Jesus is God, soul sleep and believes that there is no Hell after the judgement. He would not answer a direct question of which church he attends. I am hoping it is not a new cult somewhere in my area. It is possible he belongs to the Way International cult.

Whatever that is, it's not a Christian church.

Non-denominational just means that the church isn't part of an earthly denominational hierarchy. It's not trademarked, so you can't assume that any two non-denominational churches are alike, let alone that they would have any kind of creedal agreement with these people.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

lol I guess technically some kind of New Age group could have a "church" and register as "nondenominational" and do this, but tough even in that case because such folks usually like their idea of Jesus but want him to be hanging out with Buddha, or being some version of an Indian avatar, or angel or messenger of light. Now according to the fine details of that sort of thing the answer would be yes in many cases, but it wouldn't be the "in your face" overt way that Western Protestants, Catholics or Eastern Orthodox relay their beliefs about Jesus with the Nicene Creed, or Apostles Creed.


Actually come to think of it there a few people like TD Jakes that came out of Oneness Pentecostalism that entered the nondenominational end of the Charismatic movement (at least with Charismatic conferences, healing meetings, revivals etc.) so maybe I take my lol back....

 

[HTacianas]

I have encountered someone who claims that he attends a non denomination church that denies Jesus is God, soul sleep and believes that there is no Hell after the judgement. He would not answer a direct question of which church he attends. I am hoping it is not a new cult somewhere in my area. It is possible he belongs to the Way International cult.

Jehovah's Witnesses.

 

[Pavel Mosko]

Jehovah's Witnesses.

I think they would be considered a kind of a "denomination" for this.

 

[HTacianas]

I think they would be considered a kind of "denomination" for this.

All kinds of groups consider themselves "non-denominational". Based on what the OP had to say, his friend is a JW. They believe Jesus is Michael the Archangel and deny there is a hell and believe in "soul sleep".

 

[Original Happy Camper]

It could be that he is reading a version of the bible that is based on Hort and Westcott Greek manuscript

those version do away with the divinity of Jesus Christ

Exmple
Romans 16:24 is missing in the New International Version (NIV)

KJV
24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (it says that Jesus Christ is our Lord thus he is divine)

 

[Pavel Mosko]

All kinds of groups consider themselves "non-denominational". Based on what the OP had to say, his friend is a JW. They believe Jesus is Michael the Archangel and deny there is a hell and believe in "soul sleep".

FYI that vernacular term is used by independent Baptists, Evangelicals and Independent Charismatics / Pentecostals etc. they overtly describe themselves this way, I have not ever heard of JW describe themselves this way, they say they are "witnesses" and identify their organization by name. I however described myself as being "nondenominational" through much of the 90s.


For Protestants it is a way of declaring that you are neutral or unaligned even though in many cases the so called "nondenominational church" is only defacto that way (They often closely follow and affiliate with a particular Faith tradition of modern Protestantism very closely like the Word of Faith movement of Ken Hagin, or some Baptist body, or parachurch group or person like Billy Graham Ministries, Campus Crusade for Christ etc.)

 

[com7fy8]

He would not answer a direct question of which church he attends.

A committed Jehovah's Witness, I would think, will tell you outright that he or she is a Jehovah's Witness. They officially claim they are the only Christians, and therefore no one else is saved. So, they will not hide their name.

But ones in certain groups might avoid naming themselves, since they know they are on the Trinitarians' cult list, and they want to keep your attention, maybe.

But he could be just not sure of the group, and so he does not answer you, for all I know. You might try asking him why he would not answer the question . . . and see if he answers that question

 

[bèlla]

Daniel, I’ve never heard of this. I hope you can find the answers and lead them to the Lord.

 

[BobRyan]

Jehovah's Witnesses.

They view themselves as "best of all denominations" centrally organized and most certainly not "non-denom"

 

[ewq1938]

A committed Jehovah's Witness, I would think, will tell you outright that he or she is a Jehovah's Witness. They officially claim they are the only Christians, and therefore no one else is saved. So, they will not hide their name.

Actually (in various forums) it is quite common for them to list their faiths as Christian or non-denominational and not say they are JW.

 

[com7fy8]

Jehovah's Witnesses.

They view themselves as "best of all denominations" centrally organized and most certainly not "non-denom"

The Jehovah's Witnesses do not consider themselves to be a Christian denomination. They consider themselves to be the only group who is Christian and therefore saved. So, they are not the "best", they might say, but the "only".

The Way International seems organized. We knew a lady who had Way people coming to groups at her place. And it seems to me that they had a message broadcast to the group from maybe a central source person; and then they would talk about it and let even visitors share something they had to say. So, I guess I could say they have standardization of what their message is, but there is personal conversation. It seems they aren't hard-core, saying no one outside their group is saved. But I would think they claim they are the most right. And they are not Trinitarian.

 

[com7fy8]

Actually (in various forums) it is quite common for them to list their faiths as Christian or non-denominational and not say they are JW.

ok

But when I have talked with certain ones, they could be very clear that they considered themselves to be the only Christians, and the only saved people.

Even so, people can stay in Jehovah's Witnesses, but are trying to help friends and family members to be saved. And in this process they can get kicked out. And there can be ones who are not satisfied; so they are in but thinking of getting out. And I have talked, at times, on the street with outreachers, and we got into the Bible and the person thanked me.

But officially . . .

 

[BobRyan]

The Jehovah's Witnesses do not consider themselves to be a Christian denomination. They consider themselves to be the only group who is Christian and therefore saved. So, they are not the "best", they might say, but the "only".

In any case they never claim to be among the many non-denom churches that can be seen all over the place. I have never found them claiming to be one of those.

It is pretty hard to get any of their material that they ask you to study - and not find it claiming that they are Jehovah's Witnesses instead of "nondenom"

 

[Pavel Mosko]

In any case they never claim to be among the many non-denom churches that can be seen all over the place. I have never found them claiming to be one of those.

It is pretty hard to get any of their material that they ask you to study - and not find it claiming that they are Jehovah's Witnesses instead of "nondenom"

Yes I recall occasionally hearing the "nondenom" identifier here with a JW and a few non-Trinitarian Christians, when I first joined over 3.5 years ago. But that was just a way of parsing things to try evade TOS of certain boards, not something that they truly identified with. Sophistry, Chicanery, attempting to game the system is much different than a regular person in the free world voluntarily using self identity labels to describe their affiliation, theology etc.