Foursquare Church- Is it a cult?

Four square church is most definately a CULT! BEWARE of their CARTOON ANTICS in order to convince people to join thier so called family of faith. The only faith they convice you of is in themselves. One is not ALLOWED to LOVE anyone OUTSIDE OF THE CULT! You MUST give up any family and friends you have, in order to be ACCEPTED into the PURITY of the four square family, otherwise your not PURE enough for their standards. Once you are deemed acceptable, you have obviously become a chronic lier to yourself and the world in order to believe that you love GOD, and need only to be FAITHFUL in SUPPORTING THE FAMILY. That must be why they go after young, nieve, yet successful and ambicious members so they can count on financial support. GOD BE WITH YOU, should you get drawn in by thier fake faith and lies in the name of religion. If you are involved with the four square, I pry for you, and don not forget, even though you are LIVING A LIE, GOD KNOWS YOU, FORGIVES, AND TRULY LOVE YOU!

Go to a Foursquare. Maybe a few times. It is not a cult. It is lined up with scripture more so than other main stream churches. I really think you should not have judgement until you have more understanding of God. Then you will be able to answer the question, "Is the Foursquare Church a cult or whatever else. God bless you.

No it is not.
Protestant watch dog groups do not consider them a cult.

I have attended many Four square churches and have had friends that are/were Four square church members, and my wife is a former four square church member.
So I would know.
It is deeply into Tradition, much more than some other churches are, but that does not make them a cult.

Just a change up from all the previous discussion:
My daughter 'converted' to the 4square church where her Father and Mother –in- laws were both pastors. They talk about the man being the provider for the family, but her husband can't hold a job for more than a few months. On the side he’s a permanent student who is always ‘just ready to graduate’. She works hard and still makes time for her kids.
But the worst part of this 'church' is their cover-up of abuse. My grandson (at 8 years) went missing during a service and my son-in-law (jobless guy) found him in the back of the church (boarded up windows and all), with his pants around his ankles and a 15 year old guy starting to play w/ my grandsons privates. My daughter called us a few hours after he services and told us what had happened, and wanted to know what we thought she should do. My wife(not my daughter’s mother), being a mandatory reporter (she’s a nurse) , told her she had to report it to the authorities. She thought that was a good idea (at the time). Later that evening, my wife got a call from the mother-in-law pastor, demanding that we keep our nose out of ‘church’ business. After a long and heated discussion, the mother-in-law hung up on my wife. My daughter called back a bit later, and after talking to my wife, said ‘for the good of the congregation’ she wasn’t going to report it. My wife then told her either my daughter had to report it or she (my wife) would have to. After more ugly discussions, she promised to take my grandson to their primary care provider, who promptly sent them (daughter, son-in-law, and grandson), to the area child abuse facility at a local hospital. They went once and never went back.
Since then she’s been cold to us (and me in particular) and her in-laws treat us like crap. She accuses us of treating the grandson different than the other grand kids (not true). For such a ‘forgiving’ and ‘salvation’ oriented church they sure seem to miss the main point: Their child was sexually abused and the church covered it up for the ‘sake of the congregation’. What about the poor kid ?
My vote - CULT

My buddy invited me to attend his church this morning. It is a Foursquare Church. Wonder if anyone knows if this is a cult of some kind....
It was started by a woman named Aimee Semple McPherson back in 1928.

Foursquare is not a cult, but Aimee certainly had a colorful past.

The title "International Church of the Foursquare Gospel" was created out of a passage in the book of Ezekiel chapter one where it spoke of a four headed creature (lion, man, ox, eagle). This then developed into a four part theology where Jesus is viewed as the Savior, the Healer, the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, and the Soon-and-coming King.

Aimee was not perfect in any means. I am getting ready to graduate from the Foursquare Bible College and learning about her life almost caused me to leave the denomination. She had some quirks and made some TERRIBLE decisions, but also did some pretty incredible things. Aimee (no, I do not call her "Sister Aimee" - only old people still do that) was the first woman in the world to own her own radio station, and was an extremely public figure in the 20s. I've never heard or read anything about her believing she was the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene or that Jesus was ever married to Mary Magdalene. I am not one who is totally committed to Foursquare but I also don't think it is terrible either.

The trend in Foursquare students is moving away from what I would call "Aimee worship" and towards true ministry. The denomination honestly functions much more like an organization than a denomination.

To view Foursquare's Statement of Faith and the scriptural backing behind it, click this link: [link to www.foursquare.org]

Hope this helped.

That's funny, I attend a Foursquare church and I show up on Sunday wearing shorts and flip-flops.

I've been going there for a while. I've never been asked to become a "member." I don't know anybody that is a one.

I've been a Christian my whole life and I don't go in for the charismatic hype. This is an orthodox Christian denomination.

If your familiar with Jack Hayford, then you know what I'm talking about. If not, google a video or two to check him out. If you like what you see, then give the church a try.

I grew up in the church and went to the foursquare Bible college. Not a cult but ok I stopped going .
Had many great memory's there from my teenage years .
One thing that was strange was the day I started going to the college one of the student advisers took me to Amy's ( the founder ) grave to have lunch . It kinda creep-ed me out .

Foursquare is a masonic term.

Yes it is. I would say stay away from this church, and probably that "friend" too. They can ruin your life. NEVER take a Masonic oath. It's like joining the mafia. They will end up owning you.

RUN!

To cover up abuse is wrong.
Making it a cult, it does not.
Abuse can happen anywhere, at the store, at the movies anywhere in society.
So get over it. They were wrong but hold no more Guilt of being a cult that if it happened in a movie theater or a Kid themed Pizza parlor.
I will guarantee neither of them would want it to hurt their reputations either. They would also like things like that "to just go away".

My buddy invited me to attend his church this morning. It is a Foursquare Church. Wonder if anyone knows if this is a cult of some kind....
It was started by a woman named Aimee Semple McPherson back in 1928.

It is nowhere near a cult. For those of you who say it is why don't you read it's "what we believe" statements. It is theologically the same as Assembles of God which is a well known denomination. I am a Foursquare Pastor and have worked with Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian,Assemblies of God, Non-denominational and Lutheran Churches. Get your info rightbefore you post remarks.

It's a cult. McPherson gained fame in the 20's and was exposed as having faked her own kidnapping for publicity.

Not only is Foursquare church a cult, it is downright evil. My daughter atended this church because her husband's father and mother were both pastors there. Her husband played in the band.

My daughter invited us to come visit the church. Since we didn't see each other very often, it was a great opportunity to see more of her and the children. I sincerely believe that they changed their entire service for us because I did not see ANY tongue speaking, no offbeat type of antics like barking like dogs, rolling around on the floor, etc. Everything was above board and traditional. This went on for several weeks and all I saw was the typical Sunday service--minus the Sunday School part. Apparently, they didn't believe that studying the Bible was necessary for the parishiners. There was very little talk of Jesus, but lots of stories and laughter. I did not see it as very effective for salvation, but it certainly kept everyone "happy".

I am "anti-pentecostal", so I watched very carefully what they were doing. I only cared about being with my daughter and grandchildren. I thought it odd that ANY semblance of Pentecostelism was evidently missing. My other daughter also attended a four-square in another city, and their behavior was typically pentecostal--lots of prophetic utterances, speaking in tongues, odd behavior, etc. After about 10 weeks of "missing pentecostal behavior", I finally saw some secret signs back and forth between pastor and head elder. Then, the head elder jumped into it with both feet. It was totally choreographed. After jumping about with "Satan trying to enter", and spouting a bunch of garbage, he took several (to me) mentally deficient women and began parading around the church and "stamp, stamp stamp that evil spirit away", looking like total fools. It was a big charade. To say that there wasn't a "spirit" there, would not be totally correct. Those women were shaking in their shoes. They looked like they were in awful pain. It was a totally humiliating sight. I felt really bad for those poor women! They had no choice whether to take part or not. They were literally pulled up from their pews to take part in the macabre dance. It was as evil as anything I had ever seen. Still, I did nothing. I simply watched to see where the madness would lead. My wife did no such thing. She got up, went to the front of the church and brought it all to a screeching halt. She accused the men of hurting those women and told them to STOP. They stopped DEAD. So much for the "power of the Holy Spirit". I was never more proud of her. I was too concerned about what my daughter would think and say if I did anything like that. My wife was simply concerned for the women's sake.

To me, it was total theater. The church has no place for theater, That is what makes it evil. It is false theology, false tongues, false "baptism of the Holy Spirit", and false church practices--period. My daughter (and her husband) no longer attend the church. They are looking for a good church for their family, but that is getting harder and harder to find. They have become "homogenized", by a simple model that has emerged out of "Willow Creek" that is turning Christianity on its ear because of its "success" in growing churches. The theme is fairly simple: give the congregation a screen with pictures and letters on it that they can follow, a band set up to the left of it that can get the people toe tapping and entertained, and a preacher that literally hyperventilates himself (or herself), before going on stage to give a "rousing" sermon. More often than not, the preacher is a "comedian" to continue keeping the people entertained, or spouts out nonsense that is supposedly the "voice of angels". It is all meaningless garbage and they don't even ATTEMPT to do what the Scriptures say when using "tongues"--one speak and another interpret. It is either a bedlam of noise, or a cacaphony of "prophetic utterings" that is so vague as to be explainable in almost any way.

Pentecostelism is SPIRITUALISM--plain and simple. I've seen the Catholic charismatic renewalists make an attempt to counterfeit even this dribble. What comes across is a more boring spectacle, and PURE LIES. To me (again), it is no different than trying to conjure up the dead and speaking to them to get some insight on life. The dead are dead. The scriptures plainly say that. These people are conjuring up evil spirits--and saying it is from God. If there were a supernatural aspect to it, then I could at least say that there are "spirits" at work. At best, it is just theater--at worst it is a crime--a crime against nature and a crime against God.

Is it a cult? Cult just doesn't sum it up enough. It is Satanic.