Different Label – Same Stuff in the Bottle!

On a recent national television program, millions of Australian people including myself, watched and listened to a cult leader in his late 40’s tell us he was Jesus Christ.  There’s nothing new in this of course, he’s simply one of many from around the world who pop up from time to time claiming the same thing.  Unlike most of them who simply have a religious, dominating personality though, this man is rather good looking … tall, athletic figure, longish hair, light beard, lovely smile and loads of charisma.  Some of these Jesus’ show up to be mad men within the first couple of minutes, but not this one, he could have been the good guy from next door.

Apparently this man has a background in real estate so he’s not short on the leadership characteristics needed to sway or manipulate people.  Like all cult leaders he knows which buttons to push, with some of his followers having sold their properties to purchase next to or pour their money into the 600 acres for the group and himself to live on.  Not only does he say he’s Jesus, but for his people and the cameras he wrote it on a whiteboard, “I AM JESUS, DEAL WITH IT!” Although there was laughter at this, it appeared his people had already dealt with “IT” and so their laughter was towards us, the simpletons who hadn’t yet realized this.

We learned that this Jesus still has memories and visions of his crucifixion whereby he feels the nails going into his feet and hands.  Not only that but his young wife (Mary Magdalene) says she has memories of it all too.  She told us she feels she suffered more than he did, “it feels like I might die from grief.”  This is the second Mary Magdalene he’s had since being a cult leader.  When asked by the reporter if he raised Lazarus from the dead and did healing 2000 years ago, he replied that he did.  But he denied having walked on water and turning water into wine … “I did not do those things.”

When asked if he was a truthful person he replied that he was a bringer of truth and that, “I feel I always attempt to tell the truth, as I know it.”  That statement gave the appearance of having some validity.  Later in the program when a young child asked him, “Does God have a mum and dad?” he replied with a big smile that although he has lived for thousands of years, “I don’t have the answer to that question.”  Such a response was met with laughter, but also with much approval from his people.  His main message is about discovering a divine pathway to love.  He has an international reach and in that TV audience were people from Asia, Europe, the UK and the USA.

The TV reporter asked some of the cult people about their man, “How can you be sure that he is Jesus?”  To me, that is a grand question and it’s one that every follower of Christ should know the answer to without hesitation.  These people did not know the answer.  All they could come up with is, “I feel he is Jesus” and, “His teachings make me feel good” and, “I think he is Jesus” and, “I feel he really is Jesus” and, “I feel at times that he’s Jesus.”  Therein lies the key to the cultist.  They are masters and mistresses of emotional manipulation.  They work on people’s feelings and emotional injuries, and as the reporter said it about this man, he was “setting up a spiral where people get dragged down.”

And “dragged down” they were, consumed by the power of evil emanating from this man, but disguised as love because he has the face of an angel more-so than the face of a devil and, because their whole deal was based on subjective feelings and not objective faith.  In other words, what they consider to be from brightest heaven is in fact from darkest hell. “I will feed them with my truth,” he said.  What’s the fruit of his “truth”? It is precisely the same as all cult leaders.  Destruction!  Husbands have lost their wives, wives their husbands, families their children and children their families.

Part of his teaching is about searching for a soul-mate and if one cannot be found in one’s spouse then the advice is to leave him/her and go find one.  Of course, one is sure to be found within the group sooner or later.  One middle-aged woman shared that she had left her husband after 30 years of marriage because she realized he was not a soul-mate.  Cult leaders are accused of being stupid  … but they are not, they are very clever.  When the reporter accused this Jesus of turning family members away from each other, he gave the classic biblical answer based on the biblical Lord Jesus’ words from Matthew 10:34-36.

As stated elsewhere on this blog, it is common for people to look upon cult members as being misfits of society or deadbeats, uneducated and unable to think for themselves.  Not always so.  This is not a given.  In fact there are more misfits, deadbeats and uneducated among their accusers than there are among cult members.  Cult members are among some of our most astute in society … scientists, doctors, lawyers, judges, police, corporate business men and women, lecturers, teachers etc.  I don’t know the profiles of any member in that TV program, but the bulk of them could have easily fitted those categories.

No, these people are not misfits, deadbeats etc, but they are deceived.  Why? Because they are not truth-seekers, they are happiness-seekers and good-feelings-seekers.  They are loaded down with discontentment, worries, fears, confusions, anxieties, guilt and hurts.  In that sense they are no different than anybody else who is seeking the same things … and which one of us is not – or hasn’t been?  Emotionally they are a mess, but again, which one of us is not – or hasn’t been?  They are no different than the non-cultist people who chop and change jobs, homes, husbands/wives, motor cars or whatever, all believing the lie that, “this will make me happy; this will make me feel better.”  Different label – same stuff in the bottle!

How many Christians are there trotting off to their churches on a Sunday morning to listen to some priest or preacher “feeding them” with partial truths, over-emphasised truths, watered-down truths, or truths totally compromised?  Discerning the fruits coming out of the Western world church shows any truth-seeker/lover that much spiritual and mental damage is being done in those places too.  The cults are not on their own here.  This is no excuse for the above-mentioned false Jesus and his band of dedicated followers but it is a reality nevertheless.  In addition, those cult people experience a oneness with each other that many churches can only talk about.

The TV reporter said to this Jesus, “You’re the only source of knowledge in your group.”  He meant well, but I have to ask, “What makes him any different than most churches?”  That’s what one finds when he/she walks into one.  There is the preacher and there is the congregation.  He talks, they listen.  He prays, they get prayed for.  That’s the expectation and without fail the expectation is met week in week out, month in month out, year in year out.  Yes, there are variations to this but that’s pretty much the guts of it.  Instead of knowledge flowing out from the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, there’s a trickle coming from one or two leaders.

Another comment made in the program caught my attention, “The leader controls everything.”  Well, for many of us, we’d have to ask, “So what?”  Forget about the cults, many of us are yet to find a church where the leader doesn’t control everything.  I know there are some blessed, anointed, holy, mature men of God who allow the Holy Spirit to control them and their people and they freely teach and encourage the discovery and practice of spiritual gifts.  But I am yet to sit under such a man and sadly, that is the testimony of lots of Christian men and women around the world.  But, we hold on to the Lords’ promise, He will build His church Matthew 16:18.

Being “the only source of knowledge” and “the leader who controls everything” is a sign that a group is under the rule of a cult leader, but it’s not enough to go on because it can also simply be a sign of a leader who believes he has to be all things to all his people. That’s how he learned it in seminary and he’s never bothered learn the biblical alternative.  It can also be a sign of a leader who is extremely insecure – not at all sure of who he is.  He dare not delegate or encourage body ministry in case there’s someone who does it better than he does.  He believes the whole identity of who he is to be found in what he does; take that away from him and he’s left naked so to speak.

Were it not for this man declaring himself to be Jesus Christ we’d have to look for at least ten other signs so he’s made my task very easy today.  A man who declares himself to be Jesus Christ is not simply mad, as the spiritually unenlightened accuse him of being, he is demon-possessed.  That is, at some point in his life he knowingly or unknowingly opened himself up to the demonic realm.  For example: his parents could have been involved in occultic (darkness) practice when he was a small child and demons entered into him as well as the parents.  Or, he could have been doing seances, Ouija board etc, etc, with teenage friends.

On the other hand, he could have been demon free as a child but opened himself up to them as an adult in his spiritual search for God. Many religious people do, even if they wouldn’t dare say they were Jesus.  I don’t know how the demons entered this man, but I do know he is possessed by a demonic religious spirit, a spirit of control, a spirit of anti-Christ, a lying spirit, a deceiving spirit, a sexual spirit of lust, a spirit of stubbornness … to name a few.  He doesn’t control any of them, they control him – and in the end they will kill him and send him to hell.  Nobody who works for Satan’s family gets to walk away free when he’s finished with them. The true Jesus told us that John 10:10.

So how does one avoid falling into the trap such as this man has set?  One:- you must be a truth-seeker, not a happiness and good-feelings seeker.  Two:- to discover the facts that you need to know about Jesus Christ, you must come to the gospels of the New Testament with a humble, repentant, teachable heart, surrender yourself to Him and ask Him to reveal Himself to you.  He will.  Three:- embrace the facts of the Lord’s teaching by faith and then let Him take care of your feelings. “And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”Jeremiah 29:13. “If anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it.” Mark 13:21. “…..the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” John 6:37. “….I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”John8:12.