I spent a very interesting hour with Scott, a New Zealander in his late twenties who at one time was caught up in the teachings of a well known cult. He didn’t actually join this cult, but in his time of searching for reality he’d spent many years reading books and listening to tapes, studying their beliefs. He had since stopped doing this, but he told me that their influences continued to be heavy upon him even after going through some extensive de-programming.
As a result, he had “no time for your Jesus or your Bible.” At that time I had not been a Christian very long – about three years – but I was very grateful for my own studies and teachings, because at this point these had equipped me enough to expect such comments from cult victims – in fact victims of spurious “religious” practices and teachings in general. As well, they had equipped me so as not to be offended or threatened by such comments.
Through God’s enablement in this equipping, I held on to the wisdom of many authors and teachers – all of whom taught me that knowing the Scriptures is the key to knowing Jesus Christ and truth, not getting caught up in other religious belief systems. They taught that if one knew those Scriptures, then one would soon discern what was truth and what was error when it comes out of the mouths of victims such as Scott, or their false doctrinal teachers. Further advising, that as messengers of Christ under the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit, we are then in a position to help these victims in real ways, not religious ways.
I was also grateful for the challenges many of these authors and teachers brought, advising me to come to terms with the Bible – either it is the word of God to mankind, or it is not. Either there is a God Who can be known to us personally in Jesus Christ, or there is not. Either Jesus Christ is telling us the truth in the Scriptures, or He’s a liar. Also, they encouraged me to settle it once and for all, “as soon as you take a stand for the Bible, you will be labeled by both believers and non-believers alike as a fundamentalist, a crack-pot, a loveless “christian”……whatever.” Thanks to God I have settled it – and by His grace I don’t bow to labels.
Even though Scott made that statement to me, he asked questions about the fall of man as it’s declared in Genesis 3:1-24. His theology was heavily biased towards the cult’s teachings naturally enough, so it was, “Rubbish,” to my answers. Did I believe Jesus Christ died on a cross for man’s sin? “Rubbish,” when I said did. Did I believe Jesus Christ is both God and Man? “Rubbish,” again. I asked Scott if he was looking for answers, or was he looking for an argument? He was silent to the question.
For myself, it was an amazing experience to be tuned in to the Holy Spirit. Once again God was revealing to me the love He has for each individual – the love and honour He has for each person’s uniqueness. Religious man loves to lump us all together – one in, all in! But not God. Never. Yes, Jesus loves the church – but the church is always people – an organism – not an organization. Because of this truth, not once was Scott made to feel wrong even though he was closed off at that point to my message and responses to his questions.
He argued about beliefs, saying there was no such thing as right or wrong. So I asked him if he thought what Hitler did was right. He said no. I asked him why not? A softening came into his eyes. He then said, “I would really like to have what you say you’ve got. I can see you’ve got something, but I don’t think I can accept that it’s Jesus Christ.” All cults deny the true Lord Jesus Christ so one shouldn’t really expect any response other than the one given by this young man.
So I explained to Scott that the Bible doesn’t tell us do anything we “can’t” do and that maybe, if we’re really honest with ourselves, perhaps we mean we “won’t” do. He was silent for a few seconds and then said, “That’s something I haven’t given much thought to.” I then asked him if he’d like me to pray for him asking the Lord to show him the reality of Himself from this moment onwards, in personal, practical ways as well as spiritual. He said he would like me to do so, also telling me he would accept a New Testament if one was given to him. I never saw Scott again, but I made sure a New Testament was delivered to his flat.
When it comes to cults, cult leaders and their teachings, the differences between what they teach and what the Bible teaches are often glaringly different – but not always. Sometimes the counterfeit is extremely difficult to discern. Many years after this event with Scott I was to go through a personal experience of endeavouring to discern just such counterfeit. It came about when I associated myself with a national group here in Australia, spending over seven years among them.
After about three years of sitting under their teachings I began to become very disturbed in my spirit. Something wasn’t right but “I couldn’t put my finger on it.” The leadership (that I knew) and the people, were/are a lovely group and that, in my mind, made it all the more difficult for me to search out what was going on and what I was experiencing.
With regards the big picture – the difficulties came to an end when I began to see their denial of the plain-sense meaning of the Scriptures in preference for spiritualizing and allegorizing of the same.
It was a difficult time for me but I’m very grateful to the reality and power of God for the experience. One of my constant prayers to the Lord was/is to ask Him to enable me to operate in the spiritual gift of discernment – firmly believing that when God answers and reveals – all ministry can then be optimal in its effect.
Therefore, my time and experiences with this group, although harrowing, taught me heaps about how we can quickly get into error by the over-emphasis of doctrines taught from the Scriptures. I learned that if people favour the practice to spiritualize and allegorize, at the expense of accepting plain-sense meanings, then it won’t be too long down the path before they can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say. And they do.
Most Christians do not search out the Scriptures for themselves, they simply leave that to the leaders and teachers – trusting “that they must be right.” I also learned that it’s easy to fall for something by ignoring to check out what is preached or taught and if we continue not to check, then soon we’ll fall for anything.
In the future, I will be posting my testimony of that experience on this blog. It is a very long testimony. But I’ve written it for teaching purposes as well, dot-pointing the main characteristics of cultish behaviour. Thanks to the many writers and teachers who’s works I studied on this subject over some years – all of them making it clearer for me to see what I was caught up in – I pray this testimony does the same for others.
In the meantime, if you think you could be currently caught up in such a group, or you know of people who are, I invite you to read my testimony and see if it matches your queries and experiences. If so, may God bless you with faith and trust in Him as you pray, asking Him to show you the next step to take. (Update. The testimony can now be read in my post: Melbourne Christian Fellowship – Why I Left It. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.) “And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” John 6:35.