Cult Studies Free Course 2, Lesson 1
Cult Studies Free Course 2, Lesson 1
Basic Characteristics of Cults
Every false Cult is a distinct group with a personality of its own. There is a wide diversity among these groups. Yet it is possible to discern many points of similarity among them. A knowledge of these basic characteristics can help one to recognize a Cult quickly.
It must be noted that not all Cults have all these characteristics, and that also not in the same proportion. For example the morally degenerate Cult known as the Children of God taught salvation by grace through faith aggressively. This is contrary to the practice of most Cults, yet the Children of God happens to be not more than a Cult because of other characteristics.
Thus no group should hastily be labeled as a Cult because of a single cultistic characteristic. Similarly, no Cult should hastily be pronounced as harmless because it has a few similarities with evangelical Christianity. Many small evangelical groups exhibit Cultistic characteristics, and many shrewd Cults exhibit characteristics of evangelical groups. Thus only careful evaluation of these groups would reveal their true identity.
Believers should definitely be weary of evangelical groups that manifest one or more cultistic characteristic. At the same time, they should be very cautious about Cults that camouflage their true identity by adapting some characteristics of evangelical churches. The totality of the symptoms should be taken into consideration before a group is identified as a Cult or as cultistic. The following are some of the major characteristics of False Cults.
1-Mixture of Truth And Error: Since most Cults multiply by catching people from outside, they need to hide their false teachings somehow lest people be alarmed before falling into their clutches. They do so by teaching a mixture of error with known truth.
When a Cultist approaches a victim for winning him, a direct presentation of peculiar and erroneous doctrines would immediately alarm or even repel the prospective prey. Thus they always begin with Scriptural truths, and this veneer of truth continues as long as is needed to trap the prospective candidate. The erroneous doctrines usually surface only after this person is enslaved to a reasonable level.
Though the Cults disguise and hide error behind truth, discerning believers can detect this adulteration with some effort. Since the Cults publish a wide variety of literature, even their confidential publications can often be procured by the diligent student. An analysis of this material would soon reveal the presence of error hidden under the cover of truth. Thus, rather than appreciating a Cult for the minimal Scriptural truths that it holds, believers need to be alarmed by the falsehoods and errors concealed beneath the surface.
2-Extra-Biblical Source of Authority: For a Bible-believing Christian there is only one final source of authority, and that is the Bible. This attitude is expressed through the statement: Sola Scriptura, the Bible alone. However, every false Cult rejects this principle and embrace other sources that are either equal to or greater than the Bible in ultimate authority.
The extra-biblical source of authority might be books, present- day revelations, cult-leaders and their teachings, or even their traditions. Thus these groups feel free to devalue or even totally set aside Biblical statements when there is a conflict between the Bible and the Cult’s extra-biblical authority. The Roman Catholic Church places traditions on par with the Bible. The Toronto Movement places their (obviously) satanic revelations above the Scriptures. Every false Cult has one or more extra- biblical authority, and no Cult can maintain its growth, uniqueness, and identity without such an authority.
All such extra-biblical authority is ultimately perverted, blasphemous, and even satanic in origin and content. Many of them are even the “doctrines of demons”. Consequently, the Cults show great boldness and audacity in making both additions to as well as subtraction from the Holy Scriptures. The net effect is a total negation of the fundamental tenets of the Bible. This is very sophisticated type of blasphemy.
3-Rejection Of Justification By Grace: Justification by grace is that great doctrine that sets aside Biblical Christianity from all other world religions, Cults, and philosophies. It was the rediscovery and renewed teaching of this most fundamental doctrine that freed millions of Christian believers from Roman Catholic slavery. This is the Doctrine that resulted in the glorious and God-honouring Protestant Reformation. Yet all Cults reject this doctrine, or at least deny and suppress it.
Justification by faith implies that a sinner is declared “not guilty” solely on the basis of his “faith” in Christ, and not on any kind of work or merit. Justification is totally a divine provision, based solely in God’s grace and mercy. Cults and erroneous movements reject or suppress this doctrine because it takes away their ability to control and manipulate people. Once they reject or suppress this doctrine, they can convince their sheep that keeping the commandments of the Cults, and remaining in slavish obedience to its dictatorial leadership, is essential for justification.
Almost all false Cults are multi-national spiritual slave-makers. They can do so only by suppressing the biblical message of freedom. Thus almost all Cults reject justification by faith alone, or Sola Fide.
4-Devaluation of Christ: Jesus Christ is not only the central focus of the Christian faith, but also the ultimate authority in all matters of faith and conduct. Further, He being God-man, is the only one person of this kind in universe. He demands total submission and obedience by virtue of His position and work. Cultists cannot run their heretical movements as long as Lord Jesus is acknowledge for what He is. They need to dethrone Him or devalue Him in some way or the other before Cult leaders can elevate themselves and their teachings above that of Christ.
All Cults talk about Jesus, even if they are totally non- Christian Cults. Yet this is a devalued or dethroned Jesus. Some do it by denying His deity, others by denying His true humanity. Still others deny even His personhood. The net result is the denial of Jesus of Bible, who is substituted by a Jesus or Christ who is less than what the Bible portrays Him to be.
Some Cult leaders are so brazen in their attitude that they claim to be giving advises to Lord Jesus about how to conduct world affairs.
5-Exclusive Claim To Truth: In spite of the claim that salvation can be obtained only through Christ, true Christians recognize that this salvation is available to anyone and anywhere who is willing to accept Christ. Though a born-again person is expected to join a group of believers, this is only a post-salvation activity. Joining a group is not essential for salvation. The Cults deny this great truth.
For their survival and growth it is necessary for the Cults to portray themselves as the exclusive custodians of truth. This automatically leads to the claim that salvation is possible only and only through membership in this group. While true Christians believe that a Hindu, Muslim, or even an atheist can be saved by accepting Christ (say, by hearing a radio message) even before personally meeting any Christian, the Cults deny it. Many of them deny the possibility of salvation even for Christians if they are outside their Cult. Eventually this leads to exclusivism and pride. They begin to claim that only they have the truth, only they are the children of God, and that they are a spiritual elite.
The claim to exclusiveness leads to bizarre spiritual behaviour. For example the CPM (TPM) and Exclusive Brethren usually do not participate in Lord’s Table with other believers. Also, usually they do not allow other believers to participate in Lord’s table in their churches. Though CPM (TPM) claims to be a Pentecostal church, these people rebaptize even Pentecostal believers before they accept them into the CPM fold.
6-A Central Role in Eschatology: Eschatology is an inseparable part of theology, and no Bible-believing group can neglect it. Biblically speaking, Christ is the center of eschatology. He is the author and finisher of history, and He does not need the help of humans to fulfill His plans. Nor can any human interfere with His escatological chronology or time-table. Most Cults deny this central truth of Bible.
The false Cults need to project themselves as important, and this requires them to suppress the Christ-centered eschatology of Bible. Further, if the group can somehow connect their achievements with the end-time events, this would infuse great expectations and group-loyalty among their people. Consequently many Cults project themselves as “the” group around which worldwide escatological events unfold. This takes many forms.
Many Cults present their leaders as the returned Christ. Others claim that with the initiation of their Cult, the millennium is here. Some of them stealthily appropriate the 144,000 mentioned in revelation for their own group and deny this presumed privilege to all outsiders. In some of the worst cases the Cult leaders even claim that they are God’s replacement for Christ because Jesus failed in His mission.
All in all, these false claim reinforces the Cult’s vice-like hold upon its members.
7-A God-Like Human Leader: Every Christian knows that only God is God, and no human can, or should, ever attain that position. Even the Cultists know this. In spite of this, all cults glorify certain individuals to such levels, and give them such absolute allegiance and control over members, that eventually these individuals rise even above God in the esteem of the followers.
While few cultists would directly equate these human leaders with God, yet the way in which they treat these leaders is something that ought to reserved only for God. Thus in many cults the followers indulge in important activities only and only after the leader’s approval. This includes permission for taking up a job, marriage, other major decisions, and even the schooling of children. Some cults even required all brides to spend their first night with the leader.
Though cults are quite careful not to directly equate their leader with God, the God-like respect given to the leader amounts to deifying them.
The more dynamic, charismatic, or even demon-possessed that the leader is, the greater seems to be the God-like respect and reverence commanded by him. Some of these people even succeed in eliciting the title “God” from their followers. An interesting variation of the same theme is to claim that God resides in each human irrespective of his religious affiliation. Eventually this
claim is interpreted to imply that each person is God. This blasphemy has its origins in the New Age movement and Eastern philosophies, yet these claims are now being heard from Christian pulpits also.
Most notably, radical Christians, Christians, self-help gurus, and some of the extreme faith-healers have readily fallen into this trap. whatever the precise form, any movement that elevates a human and places him on par with the divine is a false cult.
8-Missionary Zeal: Since the time that Jesus gave his Great commission, the children of God have been characterized by their missionary activity. Thus there is a possibility of misunderstanding when missionary zeal is mentioned as a characteristics of cults too.
Though both groups show zeal, their goals are not identical and a recognition of his fact can clear much confusion.
An evangelical Christian exhibits zeal because of his love and obedience to Christ. On the other hand, the cultist exhibits this zeal because of his commitment to the cult, and also for the sake of his own ultimate work-based salvation.
The evangelical Christian shows missionary zeal basically to bring people to salvation. On the other hand, the cultist shows similar zeal basically to strengthen the cult, to solidify his standing with the hierarchy, and also to fulfill a compulsory quota imposed upon him.
A close examination of their methods and motives will reveal that the cultistic missionary zeal is there because of non-biblical reasons. Thus one should not count them as evangelical Christians merely because of their missionary zeal.
9-Suppression of Freedom: Freedom to know and think is the greatest enemy of all dictators. Consequently all such people deprive others of knowledge and their right to independent thinking. The Roman Catholics forbade reading the Bible and killed tens of thousands for the crime of possessing Bibles. The Children of God do not allow their recruits to ever have free and unsupervised time. The CPM uses peer-pressure to force people to speak in “tongues” and also not to use medicine.
Many Cults allow people to interpret the Bible only according to the dictates of the superiors. Others use powerful brainwashing techniques. Still others use peer-pressure and unending supervision. The sum total result is the suppression of individuality and a zombie-like behaviour.
Conclusion: Cults are experts in camouflaging their identity, and this is essential for their survival. Yet in this information-rich world none can hide themselves totally. A careful examination would reveal most of the points mentioned above, and many more. All of them take people away from true Christian faith. We must be discerning. We should identify them fast and counter them so that cultistic even does not spread among us.
Cult Studies Free Course 2, Lesson 1
Basic Characteristics of Cults
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