Today’s “Gem” from Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”: Twenty ways various “cults” twist the words of the Bible to suit their own strange teachings.

INACCURATE QUOTATION:
A biblical text is referred to but is either not quoted in the way the text appears in any standard translation or is wrongly attributed. Example:
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says, “Christ said, ‘Be still and know that I am God.'” Whereas this text is found ONLY in Psalms. (Old Testament)
TWISTED TRANSLATION:
The biblical text is retranslated, not in accordance with sound Greek scholarship, to fit a preconceived teaching of a cult. Example:
The Jehovah’s Witnesses translate John 1:1 as “In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the word was ‘a’ god.”
BIBLICAL HOOK:
A text of Scripture is quoted primarily as a device to grasp the attention of readers or listeners and then followed by a teaching which is so non biblical that it would appear far more dubious to most people had it not been preceded by a reference to Scripture. Example:
Mormon missionaries quote James 1:5 which promises God’s wisdom to those who ask him, and then, follow this by explaining that when Joseph Smith did this he was given a revelation from which he concluded that God the Father has a body.