Vanderhoven7 » I believe Mormons, like JWs, are in a cult. But being in a cult does not mean you can't be a Christian.
As a Mormon, I agree. We are a cult in the strict sense of the word, even as the first century Christians were a cult. As originally defined, a cult is a religion based on a larger, more recognized religion. But they alter that religion, adding a new spin and new base material such as scripture, often significantly at odds with the base religion. A cult also generally involves a central authority figure (or group) that holds total power over the cult and dictates its base beliefs.
As Moses led his people and taught them, Jesus taught new doctrines that were strange to the base religion of Judaism. The Jews heard those doctrines and said, "this is not the messianic concept we were expecting. Blasphemy!" This also was the reaction of modern Christians to many of the teachings of Joseph Smith.
Unlike other cults, first century Christianity and Mormonism both had central leaders who weren't one-man bands. Almost from their earliest beginnings, they began laying the groundwork for those who would follow. Jesus spent forty days with his apostles, teaching them things that were so holy they weren't passed down in their fullness to the rest of the church; and Joseph Smith called together the twelve apostles of his day just a few months before his death and conveyed upon them all the keys and authority he'd been given. Then he told them it was up to them to round up their shoulders and bear off the Kingdom of God. "If you do not do it," he said, "you will be damned." (One wonders why a fraud would go through the trouble of planning the future of his movement. In fact, I know of no other case where this has happened except early Christianity and Mormonism.)
In cases of cults by other modern leaders, they created the movement, then sought divine acceptance. Alexander Campbell, Joseph Rutherford, Herbert W. Armstrong, David Pack and others who taught that God is the same yesterday, today and forever acknowledged that He was an active force anciently, but argued that in modern times He had become a passive force instead. "Build it, and HE will come," was their philosophy, but that had never happened anciently. "God built it and THEY will come" had always been the old way.
God was the active element and man the passive. In Mormonism, God called Joseph Smith, gave him the necessary authority and built the church on a foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone.