"Christian Cults"
Deals with the subject of organizations which are evangelistic in theology but cultic in their organization.
Download or email this sermon The Personality Type of a Cult Leader
I am sure a forensic psychiatrist would tell you the same thing, but the personality type of a cult leader is virtually identical to the personality type of a dictator. There have been forensic psychological autopsies on many dictators including Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. When a team did the forensic analysis on the personality of Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin in the 1940’s for the British and American allies, they were united in agreement that neither Hitler nor Stalin would have had the guts to fight in the Battle of Stalingrad or the Battle of the Bulge, and certainly would not have been able to stomach doing themselves what they had others doing in concentration camps.
Cult leaders are like dictators – they are personally insecure. A cult leader is a personally insecure person who surround their self with others who are more insecure than they are so that he may control them and, through them, go to the people. A cult leader will very rarely deal with someone without his honchos with him to shout them down. A cult leader will send one of his parakeets who will basically just ape everything the cult leaders tells them. The cult leader is insecure and his agents, his deputies, will always be insecure people who are easily manipulated.
Not everybody is the same, but one thing is for sure: when someone is born again they begin to change spiritually. And as they change spiritually they will change psychologically. God changes people from the inside out. As they grow in Jesus they become secure in Christ and then become secure in who they are in Christ. In a Christian cult this fails to happen, groups which in the beginning are theologically “churches” but sociologically “cults”. The people do not become secure in Christ. Their security becomes based on this relationship to the leader. It is only a matter of degrees, but they are all the same.
The only difference between most of the house church movements who are into Restoration theology is a matter of degrees as to how cultic they are. They all go the same way. The only thing different about Jehovah’s Witnesses or David Koresh is they have gone further down the road. Given enough time, although these churches are theologically “churches” and only sociologically “cults”, they will get into heretical doctrine. Not just minor error, but some kind of fundamental error. “The Children of God” did that, “The Church of Bible Understanding” did that, and given enough time such will engage in doctrinal error. But that is only the beginning.
These people are insecure so they will fear people who know things they do not.
We should not make a god out of education by any means. Apollos and Paul were formally educated, Peter and John were not. Yet the apostolic authority possessed by Peter and John was no less than Paul’s. However, as Peter says in his epistle, “These things are complicated; it is better for Paul to explain them”. (2 Pe. 3:15-16)
Once somebody’s background – their intellect – has been crucified, once a believer learns to trust Christ and not their intellect, their intellect becomes a very good servant. “Intellect” is a good servant but a dangerous master; but “ignorance” is a deadly master. “Intellect” is a good servant but a bad master; “ignorance” is not only a bad servant and an even more deadly master.
These people will be found to automatically demean anything like a seminary or a Bible college, somebody who reads Greek – they will fear such people. They will have to demean them and put them down within their group and get others to laugh at them because they know they have encountered someone who knows something they do not. They know because someone can read the original Greek or Hebrew or been to seminary are a threat to them. It is much the same with dictators: they fear people who know something they do not so they have to demean it. “You don’t need this!” And they will point out things that are in and of themselves true: “Look at how the universities are filled with Ph.D.’s who know Greek and Hebrew who themselves are on their way to hell; they’re not even saved!” They will play that angle up, but they will not look at the other side of the coin. They will only emphasize things which suit their purpose to control people.
When dealing with the leader of a cult one is dealing with a personally insecure person who can only control people by making them insecure.
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.