The Spirit of Cultism Entices People

If it were not for the seriousness of the issue, to me it would be laughable when I hear members of the atheistic, humanistic media asking a cult member or leader, “Are you involved with a cult?  Is your organization a cult?”  They haven’t a clue what it is they’re asking.  If it were otherwise, they would not ask.  It is often said that there are no stupid questions.  Well, if there were, there’s a couple that fall into that category.  To expect the people questioned to respond with, “Yes I am.  Yes it is,” shows the media person/s to have a deep lack of insight into human nature.

Even if the cult leader knows his or her organization is such, they will never admit to it.  As for the member, if he or she knew they were part of a cult, they would never have gotten involved in the first place.  No cult organization ever places a billboard outside their building declaring, “We Are a Religious Cult – Everybody Welcome – Join us This Sunday and Discover More.”  That’s not how it works.  The spirit of cultism entices people, it doesn’t scare them off.  When someone walks into one of those places for the first time they will be made most welcome by everybody.  No pressure will be placed upon them, they will be made to feel valued and be put at ease.  As a result they will return the following week to experience more.

Cult groups are skilled at picking up people – especially the young, but also those who have left other churches because of trouble or hurts etc.  Their people are at the ready to give a listening ear and a helping hand and, the one on the receiving end feels greatly loved and blessed – far more so than anything they experienced in their former church.  This being the case, the visitor will soon join that group and become involved at a deeper level.  Later still they’ll become a committed member.  It is important to note:  For the most part, truth is never the issue as to why they joined.  They joined because their emotional (and often, material) needs were being met.

If the new member is ignorant of biblical Scripture, he or she will embrace without question, everything that is preached and taught.  They will not question doctrine because they are not seeking truth.  On the other hand, should that new member have some biblical insight and understanding, they will lay aside that which is foreign to their hearing.  At a later date they may well question some of the teachings with a leader, but they will also accept the leader’s response when new language is used to explain “new truths.”  New language such as: “headship order,” “family order,” “the body (of believers),” “being fathered by the fathers,” “the word coming to us at this time,” – or something similar!

Although the word “cult” is never used, the main leader sees himself as a very privileged person.  He will have claimed to have had a personal meeting with Jesus, perhaps more than one.  He will claim that Jesus has given him some new truths that others have not received.  Not only does he see himself as privileged, but he now also sees himself as God’s right-hand man.  So does the rest of his group!  Because this leader has a strong, manipulative, dominating personality and because his subordinates have not or will not challenge him as to how he confirmed it was the biblical Lord Jesus he met, they will cave in and accept as truth, whatever they’re told.

So when the new member seeks out a lesser leader, expressing his or her confusions over strange teaching, they will usually accept at face value what is explained and it will not be too long before they, “see it that way too” and begin to feel very comfortable using the same language.  Once everyone is using the same language in the group, they all see themselves as a privileged people.  But if after a while another new member should further begin to question what’s being preached and taught, it will be implied or even said to that person that he needs to submit his “self-fathering” to the leadership so as to be “fathered” by the “fathers” – or similar.

If that particular member agrees and places himself under the “fathering of the fathers,” he will at some point be elevated into leadership of some kind.  He’ll become part of the inner circle of his group, whereby he’ll get to preach from time to time.  His preaching will contain little from himself, but rather, a parroting of his superiors, just as theirs is a parroting of “God’s right-hand man.”  Much of it will contain not only the spurious doctrines he now accepts as the truth, but he will also testify to the “fathering that I needed, so as to be set free from my self-fathering (individualistic) spirit.”  Great emphasis will be placed on everyone else to do the same and most will over time.

Systematic Theological Bible Study, embracing the application of First-mentioned Principles, are never the biblical interpretative methods used by cults.  If they were, they would not be a cult.  Cults demonstrate great aversion to accepting any literal, systematic, plain-sense meanings of Scripture.  Their preference is to take Scripture out of context and force it (if need be) to make it fit with what it is they want to teach.  Their preference also is to allegorize and spiritualize the Scriptures.  The problem with these tactics however – cultists can now make Scripture say whatever they want it to say.  That’s how they come up with “new truths.”  And people who are not truth-seekers love it that way!

According to a definition I read recently, the art of outdoing or showing up a rival or competitor, as in exploits, privileges, or honors is known as “one upmanship.”  Cults thrive on one upmanship, as does human nature!  No wonder the apostle Paul spelt it out loud and clear to Timothy to preach the gospel in and out of season whether the people like it or not 2 Timothy 4:1-5.  He knew that the church would be the ideal place for cultism to arise.  Paul knew human nature like so many Christians do not.  He knew that many would not be truth-seekers, but rather, their desire would be to hear some, “new truths” that would make them feel and believe that they were a cut above everyone else.

Most people in cults are not truth-seekers because they rarely personally seek God Almighty Himself.  They fear the “self-fathering” tag.  They are told, for the most part, that God speaks to them through the leadership.  The leadership is the human face of Jesus Christ to them.  Therefore, any prayer they do seek the Lord for is done with that teaching in mind.  And should they feel that God has answered their prayer, they will go and seek “confirmation” from a leader.  I did that one time.  Thank God I didn’t listen to him.  He’d have put me on the wrong path if I had!  I was never seen by that group as being part of them anyway, which I thank the Lord for.

Having said that these people are not truth seekers does not at all mean they don’t defend their “truths.”  They do – and most vigorously.  They believe they have THE truth and everybody else has a part thereof.  Rather than look for all the facts and lay them out before them, they accept the partial truths as the whole, unwilling to listen to anything anyone else has to offer.  They then blindly go on following one another, “deceiving and being deceived,” more often than not with manifestations of spiritual pride and arrogance. Those challenging them are seen to be not as deeply spiritual, because, “you just don’t understand what the Lord is saying to us.”

Whenever a truth-seeker/truth-lover is told, “you just don’t understand,” or “you don’t get it,” it is my firm belief that the Holy Spirit would say, “You understand perfectly – you “get it” perfectly.”  Jesus has told us that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and He is with us to guide us into all truth John 16:13.  Added to this, the Holy Spirit always glorifies or magnifies the Lord Jesus and teaches a truth-seeker to do the same John 16:14.  In my observations of cultist-type groups, although the name of Jesus is used, the Lord Jesus is not magnified – far from it.  Magnification always goes to “God’s right-hand man” plus the “privileged” group, plus the doctrines or “new truths” embraced within.

The spirit of cultism cares nothing for the negative publicity it receives from the media – or anybody else.  It ignores it.  Cultists simply close ranks, draw closer together, gather around their leader, parrot his explanations – and most of all – see it as “yet another attack from Satan, the devil.”  Given that most of the media is atheistic and humanistic, they are partially correct in their defences.  The media is not interested in truth either.  “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so.  But what will you do in the end?” Jeremiah 5:31.  “Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:3.

For further insights into cultish practice and behavior, I invite you to read my 3-part testimony beginning with: Melbourne Christian Fellowship – Why I Left It. Part 1.