Good day beautiful people,
I hope that this message meets you well? It’s been a while since the last post and I have a lot of topics to discuss with the WordPress community which is still in the process of being transmitted from my brain to my phones notes section. Today’s topic has been on my mind for a few weeks and the prevalence of cults in today’s climate is something I find disturbing and alarming. Simply put beware of cults because they’re still in operation.
Now please do bear in mind that it’s always important to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance when choosing a church to attend.
Forewarning: If you notice one trait I mention being practiced at your local church this may not automatically mean that your church is a cult. Usually there are several practices which come into play which is why it is important to be very prayerful and test the spirit of an individual by lining up what they say against the word of God as well as their habitual habits. A lot of people fall prey to deception because they don’t know God for themselves or they don’t spend time reading the Bible for themselves, instead they take everything a leader says to be 100% true.
1 John 4:1 ~ Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
Acts 17:11 ~ And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.
Some tactics I’ve identified that are used by cults.
1. The online tactic: What I’ve noticed from personal experience is that a new method that some cult organisations use to draft people into their communities is through using the online world. They tend to send personalised messages to strangers and I’m assuming the reasoning behind that is to make individuals feel like they’ve been specially chosen (love bombing tactic) to attend a Bible study. [Always remember that you are special and loved by God, the Bible tells us that God came and died for us because He loves us]. Now I’m not against people attending events they’ve discovered online, but DO YOUR RESEARCH, try and find out about the church doctrine and be on guard when you receive messages from online strangers. Check out church reviews and I know that reviews are subjective but when you notice a pattern of people stating ‘this is a cult’ in the reviews it wouldn’t be unwise to take the hint. Usually cults tend to hold their members in bondage by telling them their church organisation is being persecuted because they are the only ones following the truth and remind their congregants that Christ too was persecuted.
2. Mirroring the leader: A lot of the time emphasis is put on mirroring the life of a leader rather than Christ. Leaders are usually put on a pedestal, and in extreme cases a leader may even claim to be the Messiah. This may be far fetched for me to say but when you observe a cults congregation you may identify that there is no God given individuality expressed amongst the congregants. Everything is uniform and mechanical, people may tend to dress the same and have their hair styled the same (this could be harmless but in some cases people don’t have the freedom to live any other way. This is not right as God has given us all free will. I’m not saying this to warrant immodest dressing within the church, but just to remind us that God created us all uniquely). Don’t forget that the person we should be imitating in every area of our life is Christ.
1 John 2:6 ~ “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.”
3. Twisting scripture: Normally scripture is twisted to help benefit a leader or an ‘elite’ group of people live out their twisted desires. Such as a persons corrupt desire to control others, or encourage others to sell all they have to finance a leaders lavish lifestyle. And of course people use their positions of authority to sexually abuse vulnerable people.
2 Peter 2:1-3 ~ But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.
4. Isolate you from your loved ones: They don’t want you to have anything to do with anyone outside of their organisation because everyone else is apparently evil. Basically they don’t want you to find out the truth from people on the outside that you’re in a trap. If someone can control who you associate with they can pretty much control your life and influence your thought process. But as Christian’s we should be the salt of the earth which means we don’t cut off our family members or friends (although sometimes there may be a need to distance yourself from an individual who causes you harm) we are supposed to bring the gospel to them.
Matthew 5:15-16 ~ No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
5. They target impressionable minds: They usually target young people especially university students who are isolated from their family by distance. Why? Because it’s easier for them to get their new converts to disconnect from their family because the long distance is already a factor which can negatively inhibit good communication. Also younger minds tend to be more open to new ideas and are more malleable. I was recently approached online after a long while and this individual ceased communication with me once they gathered through conversation that I was older than expected. I took it as a plus, I guess I look pretty young for my age 😊. They like to prey out vulnerable people and take advantage of individuals who are emotionally unstable.
2 Timothy 3:6 -9 ~ They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by various desires. (Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth.) These teachers oppose the truth just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit faith. But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres.
6. You can only receive salvation through their church or leader: Usually such organisations guilt trip people into staying within the community. Those who choose to leave are ostracised by the community and are labelled as black sheep and people who have ‘fallen away’. They usually make statements such as ‘we are the only true church’, ‘other churches are bad and are of the world’, ‘you can only find truth and salvation in our place of worship’. Visiting other churches or communicating with others may be frowned upon or even forbidden. But we know this is not biblical, when you look at the Bible Paul wrote letters to different churches (the seven churches in Asia [modern day Turkey] Revelations 1:11). There cannot be one church on earth that fits every single believer this is not practical or realistic. It’s not a building that makes a church a place of truth it’s the presence of the Holy Spirit and the word of God being preached. One church cannot have all the answers and be the only place where truth is preached. Ultimately truth is found in the Bible which is the tool which churches should be using to minister to people and the world. Now we can even look at the life of Jesus for guidance and wisdom. Jesus told the disciples to go out two by two and He sent them out to different places. When you observe the behaviours of the disciples, you can see that they travelled to different destinations which enabled the spreading of the gospel throughout the world. Now, this way of life is contrary to the views which most cults hold which is that salvation can only be found through their organisation, and if you fellowship anywhere else you will be condemned to hell. Whereas Jesus encouraged the disciples to spread out. The disciples were part of one body, the body of Christ but were in different places and probably attended different synagogues!
Luke 10:1 ~ The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit.
Mark 6:7 ~ And he called his twelve disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority to cast out evil spirits.
An additional trait to beware of is that some cults openly deny that Jesus is God.
I hope you enjoyed reading today’s post always remember to stay alert, stay on guard, read your Bible, pray and beware of false prophets. God bless.
Love from
Christian Lady After God’s Own Heart 💜
Republished with permission from Blogs.crossmap.com, featuring inspiring Bible verses about Beware cults are still in operation..
