"Christian Cults"
Deals with the subject of organizations which are evangelistic in theology but cultic in their organization.
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The psychological bondage which happens has a demonic character. When the people leave they are automatically ostracized by the other people still in the cult. It is like Catholicism. You left the one true church so it is a mortal sin, go to hell, go directly to hell, do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200. That is it – the unpardonable sin. The other people will turn against those leaving because those leaving are free while those remaining are in bondage. But are they free? No they are not, not right away.
A person can be taken out of the cult but they are so confused and have been so hurt and manipulated it takes a longer time to take the cult out of the person. It is like that rock song Hotel California – “you can check out any time you want but you can never leave”. The person can be taken out of the cult but to take the cult out of them is not so easy. They remain in psychological and spiritual bondage to it, particularly if they were saved in it. And they cannot be accommodated in other churches because other churches cannot understand what they went through. There is a secret fear that they have, “What if they were right?” This battle takes place within and sometimes it goes on for years.
Sometimes people have had nervous breakdowns and become mentally ill because of it. Some have turned to alcoholism and drugs. Some have committed suicide. Marriages have broken up because of it.
Another common phenomena is they have been so hurt and so burned they can never trust another church or another leader again. The solution to a bad church then becomes no church. The solution to bad leadership becomes no leadership. Actually the right solution to wrong leadership is right leadership, and the solution to bad church is good church. But they cannot accept that. Others do not understand what they have been through. No one understands what is going on inside of them. They can come to a church but they do not fit in until something happens. It takes time for that to happen, but it eventually happens.
This is a big problem and it is getting bigger. And before Jesus comes back it will be bigger still.
First formulated by a social psychologist named Leon Festinger, he was interested in the social psychology of religion and he identified the phenomena called “cognitive dissonance”. I do not know if he was a Christian or not, but even secular sociology and psychology can see the phenomena. Cognitive dissonance states when people become cemented to a sect with this heavy control by the leadership, and the leaders make predictive prophecies which fail to happen, instead of the people using their noggin and coming out, they will become even more committed to the sect.
One of the things to do when the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to the door is to show them back copies of The Watchtower where their leaders have predicted things which have failed to happen. You can show them from The Watchtower and Awake magazines where it quotes Deuteronomy 18, “Those predicting things in God’s name that don’t happen are false prophets”. (Dt. 18:22) They can be shown this from their own literature quoting the Bible. But when logic goes out the window, the Bible goes out the window. They cannot see it.
What can be done with the fact that men like Gerald Coates predicted an earthquake in New Zealand that never happened? In the Elim cult all forty-four churches were taking survival course lessons or something like that.
What do you do with the fact that Rick Joyner has made major predictions in his book The Harvest which failed to happen? He said Communism was going to be triumphant and five months later the Iron Curtain came down.
What do you do with the Kansas City Prophets, men like Paul Cain and Mike Bickle who said the greatest revival in Britain’s history would come to Great Britain in October of 1990 and fan out to Germany? In the last 10 years more mosques have been built in England than churches
What about men who are proven false prophets such as Benny Hinn prophesying falsely in New Zealand, or Rodney Howard-Browne seen on TV in Australia with Phil Pringle predicting revival that did not come? What do you do with these men who make predictions that do not happen? Deuteronomy 18 says to get away from them, do not be afraid of them, and have nothing to do with them. In a cult, though, it does not matter.
Is there any difference between what the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons do and the people who will still listen to Benny Hinn or Rodney Howard-Browne? No, there is no difference. They have only gone further down the same road. This is known as “cognitive dissonance”. Even secular psychology can identify it. Even the world sees it for what it is. They become even more committed to it.
They will always make an excuse to defend it or set another date or something like this. Then when that does not happen they will get that wrong, the same as the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
These guys have been predicting revival for years. No revival comes so they predict another one. If Toronto does not come we will get the Alpha. If the Alpha does not work we will get the Pensacola. When Pensecola does not work we will get Pepsi-Cola®. When that doesn’t work we will try Seven-Up®. It does not matter. There will always be the next fad. People will swallow anything. Why? Because they have become incorporated into a cult. It is cultic. It is following men.
“Yeah, but the Word of God says I shouldn’t listen to you anymore.” It does not matter to them because they are in bondage and it is terrible. Saved Christians are dead, Families and marriages have been destroyed by these kinds of people.
Not only that but these people are frauds and Charlatans themselves! They are highly insecure and usually do not know a fraction of what they want you to think they know. They fear anybody who does know more than they do. That is why they will demean any kind of education or learning. They are as bad at one extreme as those who lift it up and make a god of it on the other.
It is like what Arnold Fruchtenbaum says, “I don’t care if you are Plymouth Brethren, I don’t care if you are Open Brethren, I don’t care; but don’t be ignorant brethren.”
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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.