Apostolic cults?

Val Waldeck is a Christian Protestant writer from South Africa. This short e-book is her polemic against two Christian denominations that are currently almost unknown in the Anglo-Saxon world, but apparently thrives in her native land: the Old Apostolic Church (OAC) and the New Apostolic Church (NAC). Curiously, the “old” group is a split from the “new” ditto. The NAC, in its turn, is a split from the Catholic Apostolic Church (often called the Irvingites), a group that emerged in 19th century Britain.

Since Waldeck's pamphlet is short and polemical, I can't vouch for her interpretation of NAC and OAC beliefs. She regards both groups as “cults” on the grounds that they are un-Biblical, a typical evangelical definition, but not one I would agree with. To me, a cult is a manipulative, authoritarian and exploitative group regardless of its ideological message. Even a nominally evangelical group can be a cult, while a group with very odd beliefs need not be. Thus, I wouldn't call David Icke a cult leader, for instance, despite his very, *very* strange ideas!

Waldeck's main objection against the NAC (her main target) is that the group has a church structure similar to Catholicism, with the Apostles being seen as the only infallible interpreters of the Bible, and their ministry as the sole dispenser of grace, valid baptism, etc. She accuses the NAC of venerating its Chief Apostle almost as a stand-in for God and Jesus, and claims that he definitely has the authority of “pope” within his church. NAC even believes in a kind of purgatory, where those who have died outside the fold are trapped unless NAC organizes a special service for them, at which point the Chief Apostle can “open the Door” and give them baptism (compare Mormon beliefs in “baptism of the dead”). The pseudo-Catholic structure of NAC is intriguing, since the church traces its lineage back to a Protestant charismatic revival.

Only about half of the e-book deals with NAC and OAC, the other half contains Walbeck's own confession of faith. In Sweden, small groups of Irvingites and Neo-Irvingites existed during the 1970's, but I'm not sure if they are around today. This book is probably mostly of interest to South African readers, since the “cults” mentioned are particularly active in that, ahem, God-forsaken nation…