As 1844 approached, one of Miller’s followers, Samuel Snow, narrowed down the Second Coming to a specific date: October 22, 1844. Miller worked with the texts and developed a chronology for the last days, giving a range of dates between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. Each of these sects had doctrines that differed from mainstream Christianity. As the day approached, they quit their jobs, gave away their possessions, and paid off remaining debts. Facing torture, Tzevi converted to Islam. While the rest of the Muslims argued over whether the caliph should descend from Muhammad or not, the Kharijites believed that anybody could be a caliph, as long as they received revelation from Allah. Highly controlling group. Answer. A group may be deficient in one or both areas and thereby be considered an unhealthy and/or destructive group from a Christian perspective. The Syrian mystic Bardaisan was a key gnostic leader who not only founded his own sect but also was the first religious leader to Christianize Syria. This communal group was founded by David “Moses” Berg. Marysville WA 98270-1167 During this time, the Avignon papacy struggled against secular European government heads, and the Inquisition was beginning. The sect of Shabbetaianism grew around Tzevi. Ebionites believed in Jesus Christ as the Jewish Messiah but also accepted many of the Christian rhetoric about Christ’s life. Defining Shugendo as a sect of any one religion is difficult. The Yihewani emphasize education and modernist reforms, but insist that those reforms must take on a uniquely Chinese character. Very little of the group’s doctrine survives in modern Christianity. He quickly gained a following that put him at odds with another major sect at the time, the Marcionites. Some of these sects may be familiar to practitioners of the parent religion, but these are generally unknown to the average person. However, it is difficult to determine how widespread the Ebionites actually were. One of the most common mistakes in dealing with sect-members is to regard them as the enemy to be defeated. Militantly anti-historic Christian tenets. They taught that everyone would eventually face God naked, so nude religious practices were best. Miller came in contact with many other groups that had their own expectations of the Second Coming, most notably the Mormons in Nauvoo, Illinois. Overall, it is hard to pin down exactly what Shugendo doctrine is, since the specific practices of the religion are kept secret from the world at large and even from initiates into the religion. While many view it as a sect of Shinto, Shugendo is more accurately defined as a Japanese folk religion that borrows ideas from many religious sources, including Shinto, Taoism, Buddhist esoteric thought, and Onmyodo. In this period of confusion, various interesting sects grew, including the Brethren of the Free Spirit, a lay Christian movement that tried to reinvent Christian theology toward a more individualistic and egalitarian philosophy. Today, many of the older sects of major world religions have been forgotten. Instantly, that person or group is identified with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, Jim Jones and the People's Temple, or Marshall Applewhite and Heaven's Gate—a few of the most notorious and contemporary examples of destructive “cults” in America. They stopped their work and spent their time in religious studies. Seeks to destroy through litigation and character assassination those who speak out against the group. Over time, they died off as Christian doctrine became more uniform and evolved into the Christianity observed today. Regardless of where the ideas come from, the unique center of Shugendo is mountain worship. Expelled from his hometown of Smyrna, Tzevi traveled throughout the Middle East gaining followers. An odd characteristic of Bardaisan’s teachings was his focus on the stars and planets. With this sect rejecting nearly everything about the Catholic church and doing things like ordaining women priests, the leadership took great care to squash them. Adamites refused to comply to laws since governments did not exist in the Garden of Eden. One of the most interesting aspects of their doctrine was the idea that God is incarnate in everything in the universe. Solitary practitioners existed as far back as the seventh century, but it is unknown exactly when the religion started. However, this makes Quranists very unpopular in Muslim countries. For centuries, Christian leaders have prophesied about the Second Coming, with claims reaching their fever pitch in the US in the 19th century during a period of religious intensity. Born in 1626, Tzevi was an ardent student of the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical writings. At the age of 22, he attracted followers and declared himself the Messiah. Teaches that it is the only true Church and is highly authoritarian, with immense control over members' lives. The word cult creates a great amount of confusion for many religious and non-religious people.