Beautifully framed question, but it’s not what I’m talking about. You are clear in your assertion of backing for your faith while calling others cults.
What makes your faith superior and un-cultish?
I remember the first time I went to an evangelical church. I was appalled at the lack of seriousness. It went like this: Read some scripture to the crowd, listen to the leader. Say you’re sorry, take the sacrament, give your donation, claim you’re forgiven and smile.
What if all that is a spiritual scam? What if this is terribly wrong? Oh, let’s not think of that, let’s criticize others and call them names; yeah, that’s how to make it work.
You make it sound like Christians have no objective standard for knowing truth from error. It is simply NOT based on what someone “feels” is the truth but is something that Christians have known from the start. St. Vincent referred to this knowledge as “we hold the faith that has been believed everywhere, always, by all.”. It is based on the revealed word of God and which the Holy Spirit confirms as the truth.
Certainly heresy and cults are nothing new. St. Paul warned that it wouldn’t take long before ravenous wolves would infiltrate the flock and try to separate and destroy the genuine faith. Had he not ensured the truth had been taught, preserved and passed down by faithful men able to teach others also, then I seriously doubt Christianity would have survived past the second century. We DO have a sure word of truth - an objective standard by which all claims of truth must be measured. It is sacred Scripture. God’s divinely revealed word. Which He gave to us and which will never pass away. Every major tenet of the Christian faith is plainly taught in Scripture and it has been used as the touchstone to fight against false doctrine from the very start.
If some group claims to have a “restored gospel” and they condemn every faith tradition but their own, then they should be expected to defend it against the standard of God’s word. They should be expected to prove that their tenets were taught by our Lord and the Apostles - that it was believed from the start always, everywhere and by all.