New Zealand Cults, Sects, Religions, Christian Organisations, and other groups.

Groups List: J

Hot picks: Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus Seminar, Bill Johnson, Judaism

J

Jainism. Eastern religion with a very small following in New Zealand, with just 57 adherants in the 2001 census. Most Jains worldwide live in India (0.4% of India's total population), although it is not officially recognised as a minority religion throughout that country. It is also slowly declining there, but at the same time is increasing in the West. Beliefs include karma. Practices include meditation. Wikipedia's Jainism article says Jains refuse food obtained with unnecessary cruelty. Many are vegan due to the violence of modern dairy farms. The Jain diet excludes most root vegetables, as they believe this destroys entire plants unnecessarily. If you eat apples, you do not destroy whole trees, but for root vegetables, whole plants are uprooted. It possibly gave rise to Buddhism and has had a large effect on Hinduism.

Jehovah's Witnesses. Cult through and through. They deny the deity of Jesus Christ and have many other serious doctrinal errors that contradict the Bible and their own incredibly inaccurate version of the Bible known as the New World Translation. They enforce extremely strong mind control on their members. Known for door knocking in order to recruit new members - something they have to do to be saved (they have to do the door knocking, not necessarily the recruiting). If you happen to talk to some at your door, note that (as a generalisation) they think it's OK to lie to you since they do not consider you, as an outsider, worth the truth. (For an explanation see Why Witnesses Lie in Court.) Founded by Charles Taze Russell (b 1852, d 1916) in 1879 and renamed to Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931, with the name coming from a spirit guide. Under the banner of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society they publish Awake! and Watchtower magazines and many other books, magazines, brochures and pamphlets. Branch buildings are called Kingdom Halls. Notwithstanding the above, please note that most Jehovah's Witnesses are very genuine people, what you might call model citizens, and are very sincere in what they believe. They believe they are doing the right thing. For more information see the Closeup on Jehovah's Witnesses (including some downloadable pamphlets) or Institute for Religious Research's JW listing.

Jessa O' My Heart. See O' My Heart, Jessa.

Jesus Morning Star. Better known in English-speaking countries as Providence Church.

Jesus Seminar. A bunch of supposed intellectuals who all disbelieve that the Bible is true, and sit around and vote (using coloured beads!) about how true they think individual passages are.

JMS. Abbreviation for Jung Myung Seok or Jesus Morning Star, the cult he founded. JMS is the name by which the cult is known through most of Asia. It is a particular problem in South Korea and Japan; its presence in New Zealand is believed to be small.

Job's Daughters. occult group for the daughters of Freemasons, not officially in New Zealand that we know, but known to exist in Australia.

Johnson, Bill. Bill Johnson and his wife Brenda (Beni) are senior pastors of Bethel Church in Redding, California, USA. He is an author and is heavily involved in the False Revival Movement. He is an associate and supporter of Todd Bentley. He and his church are specifically mentioned in Part 3 of Andrew Strom's Kundalini documentary, and has visited New Zealand several times. His Church also teaches the strongly New Age "healing" Sozo.

Johnson, Ian. Ian Johnson is a false signs person who supports false signs of gold dust, feathers, and gem stones, and angelic appearances. He is based in Auckland and has toured New Zealand with Kathie Walters. See the Jack and Gaye Stradwick listing for a very relevant quote from Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine. Also see False Revival Movement.

Jones, Bob. Bob Jones is a false prophet. Not believed to have visited New Zealand, but is strongly associated with false phophets and false teachers who have.

The Journey. New Age healing seminar founded and run by (Ms) Brandon Bays. It's an LGAT (Large Group Awareness Training program), and thus competes with NLP and Landmark Education, and is possibly based on NLP with even more New Age material thrown in. She has also written a book named The Journey. Please note that while Brandon Bays claims to have dealt with a large tumour without drugs or surgery, ignoring or rejecting medical advice and treatment can have lethal consequences.

Joyce Meyer Ministries. See Meyer, Joyce.

Rick Joyner. Major leader in the False Revival Movement, restored Todd Bentley to ministry.

Ju-Jitsu. A martial art. Involves sweeps, strikes, throws, etc.

Judaism. Major world religion. Supreme deity is JHWH. Followers are called Jews. (Note: Judaism is the religion, Jews are the people.) It is important to note that the founder of Christianity, Jesus of Nazereth, was a Jew. His twelve disciples were also all Jews. Paul (formerly Saul) of Tarsis was also a Jew. It could be argued that until the time that Jesus provided the ultimate sacrifice, Judaism was not a false religion and since then it's not so much "false" per se, as outdated. While many Christians think that Christianity has replaced Judaism, many other Christians (and others) object to this view of Judaism and believe that the Jews are still the chosen people. It is possible to be both a Jew and a Christian (such a person is known as a Messianic Jew), although most Jews deny that Jesus is their long-prophesied Messiah.

Judo. Technically not a martial art, but a sport created from the martial art Ju-Jitsu, minus the killing strikes. (There wasn't any point to them, judo just being a sport, you see.)

Jung Myung Seok. Also known as Joshua Jung, Joshua Lee Jung, Sung Sang Nimh (a name to which JMS members pray, along with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit), Lord of the Second Coming, and Rabbi. Founder of JMS, aka Providence Church. Born 17 February 1945. Joined the Moonies around 1975, which had a strong influence on his present teachings - most are nearly identical. He left in 1978 and founded JMS (then called Ae-Chun Church) in 1980. He was arrested by Chinese police in May 2007 and was extradited to South Korea in February 2008 on charges of fraud, sexual abuse and embezzlement. For more information see Providence Cult Watch or Wikipedia's Jung Myung Seok article or www.jmscult.com.

JUSTBible. A seminar run by the Christadelphians.

JWs. Cult. See Jehovah's Witnesses.