The Catholic church, by contrast, has been molded by an incalculable number of people throughout its long history. Catholicism is governed by creeds, councils, and the ongoing magisterium. While Catholicism has exercised a triumphalism and an unhealthy control over its members in times past, this is far less true today, especially since the Second Vatican Council. Contemporary Catholicism's broad diversity as illustrated in Part One of this series certainly proves this point. In fact, cults often argue that the Bible has been, to some extent, corrupted and therefore their writings are needed to restore the truth.
Cults usually have some kind of authoritarian, totalistic leader or prophet.
Protestants clearly disagree with the authority and exalted titles given the pope, but he still does not fit the category of a cult leader. Usually this type of restorationism has an accompanying anticreedal and antihistorical mindset. What they do not realize, however, is that if both of these religious bodies are non-Christian, then there was no authentic Christian church during most of the medieval period. This thinking, though containing an element of truth, is not completely correct. Catholicism affirms most of what the cults deny and possesses an orthodox foundation which all cult groups lack.