What is a cult?

CULTIST BEHAVIOR IS SO TYPICAL

Just yesterday, someone from India, a so-called "bible translator" got very, very upset with me.  I believe that he happens to hold the belief that there is no eternal punishment in hell, and he also happened to read my earlier post that describes such believers as cultists.  He charged that I do not read the scriptures, accused me of unjustly labeling anyone who disagrees with me as a cultist.  Boy, was he mad.  Anyway, I have nothing against the person; he is a deceived person and does not know it.  It is the organization and the leadership which deceives that need to be addressed.

The "pagan" cross still on Jehovah Witnesses' founders tomb

Consequently, we had an extraordinarily long exchange of views over Facebook, which covered many other cult teachings.  And as can be expected, in typical cultist fashion he responded with what I called "canned teachings" and could not answer questions posed to him.  Finally it all ended with him literally foaming in the mouth, scolding, grumbling and calling me names, including denigrating my command of the English language.  After he got checkmated twice in the discussions, he went growling grrrr! grrrr ! grrrrr ! on Facebook against me for the next 3 hours!  Now, that is a really bad loser!  Ah well... all in a day's work of upholding the word of God.  I had a bit of fun goading him on his childish grumbling, though. He was also very deceptive declaring that he does not belong to any group or organization.  But I do recognize the pattern of his arguments and can guess which cult he belongs to.  He denies it though. That's honesty for you. So, for formal purposes, I'll just say I do not know which cult he belongs to, since he is too chicken to admit it.

Now, one of the things that he hankered on was the question "Where does the bible define a cult?".  It appeared that he was trying to say that since a cult is not defined in the bible, then nobody knows what a cult is.  Really?  I think that is silly, blinkered logic.  The bible does not contain the word bible either.  So the bible cannot exist either.  Does it sound logical to you?

So, what is a cult?

Here is my view of what is a Christian cult.  Any group or organization of people who label themselves as Christians but teaches against the essential doctrines of the Christianity is a cult.  It does not matter that the members live exemplary lives under the rules of that organization.  If their teachings go against the grain of Christianity, deny the deity of Christ or they teach another gospel, another Christ or another Spirit; they constitute cult.  So, just because a person disagrees with me does not make him a cultist.  For that matter, a person who disagrees with the bible might not even be a cultist; he is only an unbeliever.  It is those who pass themselves off as Christians and bible believers, who pass themselves off as followers of Jesus that are cultists.  These are the pseudo-Christians.  They are not bible believers.  They are bible readers who do not believe what they read.

Characteristics of a cult

It is very easy to spot a cult. The most glaring one is this stand of theirs: "If you do not belong to our church ( or organization, or assembly ) you are going to hell".   And with that, you immediately spot the Roman Catholic church, the Watchtower Organization aka Jehovah Witness, The Church of the Latter Day Saints aka the Mormons and the 7th Day Adventists.  The Jehovah Witness condemn everybody to hell.  The Mormons condemn them and all others to hell. The pope does the same to everybody ( but of late, he is ecumenising though ). And the 7th Day Adventist think that only heaven is full of Sabbath worshippers only.  They have yet to learn ( or prefer not to acknowledge ) that it is one's personal relationship with Jesus that is the only deciding factor. 

The 2nd characteristic you never fail to spot is the presence of a strong personality, dead or alive or a leadership position whose instructions and teachings are considered infalliable, and authority is held unquestioned awe; and even if these clowns have been proven to be wrong or prophesized falsely, it does not matter to them.  That brings to mind the Pope, who is considered infalliable despite all the boo-boos of his position, Pastor Russell of the Watchtower, Ellen G. White of the 7th Day Adventists and Joseph Smith of the Mormons are all proven to be false prophets and false teachers.  Ellen White has been proven to be plagiarize her teachings from other authors and mistakenly predicted the 2nd coming of Jesus in the 1840's; Joseph Smith was jailed for the infamous magical wheat plant fraud, and died fighting his way out of jail; Pastor Charles Russell also wrongly prophesized the 2nd coming as being 1872, a habit his successors continued with a not less than another 5 dates until 1975!  These false prophets still have many willing followers.

Thirdly, you can always recognize the cultist by his doting and blind defense of the founder or the head of that organization.  Among the behaviors you will see are:

1)      He gets very upset or even offended by any criticism of the leader

2)      He ignores all evidence ( evidence, mind you not hearsay ) against the leaders or the organization

3)      He responses by making excuses on behalf of the leader, like "Oh, you must hear the full teaching first" or "You must listen to the full series", "No, he didn't mean it that way", even when you point out to specific errors.

4)      He often even attacks your person ( by attacking your integrity or calling you names ) rather than discuss the evidence.  Why he might even attack you physically.

The 4^th characteristic of a cultist is his inability to hold a meaningful discussion on what he thinks he knows and what he thinks you don’t know.  He is there to tell you that he is right without being able to rationalize or substantiate, except with what he has been spoon-fed with.  He is not there to listen for intellectual debate and truth-seeking.  He just wants to state his spoon-fed views to you.  He even taunts and mocks at you with spoon-fed standard remarks that he learned from his superiors.  As you point out issues and scriptures to him, he either begins to ping-pong around by switching topics midway or he puts up his mental shutters.  He will not listen to you and say, “Hmm, let me check this out first”.  And finally, be ready to be called names if he is cornered and cannot back out.  Words like “ignorant”, “stubborn”, “unlearned”, "illiterate" and then "semi-literate", “ignoramus” and so on will be used to describe you.  They accuse you of being prideful and conceited.  All standard behavior of a cultist.  The more refined ones will just keep silent, shutdown and asked to be excused.   So, as the word of God says, the god of this world has veiled their minds.

Now, I am writing from the experiences of direct encounters with them.  I am not writing out of copying from other people’s opinions.  I invite cultists into my home for discussions as often as I have the opportunity.  They never last more than 5 sessions, the longest being a Korean, a really sweet guy.  Usually 2 sessions maximum.  When they cannot answer questions, they stop coming and shut you out from their list.
There are many, many more identifying marks of a cult and cultist.  Let me just refer you to these sites:

 Apologetics Index - Characteristics of cults  and The Christian Research Institute 

You just google for more information on your own.  The foremost teacher against cultism is the late Dr Walter Martin whose teachings are real eye-openers.

It is interesting to note that cults are never consistent in what they teach.  As an example, Watchtower aka Jehovah Witnesses claim that the cross is a pagan sign.  But it is strange to note that they used the sign of the cross on the tomb of their founder and also on the Watchtower Magazine.  So, what are pagan signs doing in their libraries and bookshelves?  Why is the cross still on the tomb of their revered founder?

Cultist Inconsistencies -Cross on the Watchtower Mag.

Conclusion
So, if you do not agree with me, you are not a cultist.  If you do not believe the bible and do not claim to be a Christian, you are not a cultist.  If you are a Christian, and you disagree with me on non-salvation issues like head-covering for women, how baptism should be done, whether the rapture is before or after the tribulation and for that matter even the nature of the Trinity, you are not a cultist in my book.

But you are a cultist if you claim to be a Christian but you teach against the core doctrines of Christianity and especially if you claim that membership in your organization is the ONLY way to heaven. So, do you teach believers to talk to statues and dead people or their pictures to ask them to mediate for you?  Do you teach that you must do good works so that you can be saved?  Do you teach that Jesus is not God?  Do you teach that the there is no eternal punishment, or soul sleep?  Do you teach that the Holy Spirit is a thing, an energy field or a power of God: at "it" and not "HE" ?  You do? Then, you are a cultist because you are teaching another gospel, another Jesus and another Spirit. And for, that you are cursed ( not by me but ) by the bible which you profess to believe, but don't:

Gal 1:9  As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

The cultist does not realize he is already under mind-control, else he would not be under mind-control, would he?  And so, when he read the scriptures his mind would skip over this verse:

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him

He does not realize that the bible warns against people coming to teach another Jesus, another gospel and another spirit which does not fit the description for them as is in the bible.

So, you are cursed by the bible.  That means you are going to hell!  Do I judge you or is the word of God judging you.  Your soul – you decide.

Jesus says in John 8:32, "And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."