Cult Studies, Free Online, Course 3
Cult Studies, Free Online, Course 3, Lesson 1
Why Are Cults So Attractive ?
One questions that puzzles many people is, “why are the Cults so attractive”. What they mean is that after all the Cults distort the truth and lead people into bondage. Thus why should man, who is a lover of freedom, be attracted to these groups. Further, once the cult-members experience the slavery there why don’t more of them come out and join Bible-believing churches.
The question assumes that man has a love for divine truth and freedom. While outwardly almost everyone pays lip service to these concepts, ultimately man loves neither God’s truth nor divinely provided freedom. The human history is an adequate testimony to it. Much more authoritative that this testimony is the Bible, which also confirms that deep inside the heart humans are drawn more to error than to truth: “The light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not” John 1:5.
Since False Cults are the expression of some sort or other of human rebellion against God, they are able to cater to all kinds of the needs of the rebellious mankind. This is the primary reason why the False Cults are so attractive in spite of their false doctrines and oppressive governments. Thus some of the reasons that make the Cults so attractive to people can be said to be the following:
1-Man’s Rebellion Against God: Right from the moment of his fall, man has been characterized by rebellion. The murder of Abel, the unequal marriages of Genesis 6, the building of the tower, repeated murmuring of the Israelites, the eventual rejection of theocracy by Israel, the appetite and frequent relapse of Jews into idolatry, murder of prophets, and finally the outright rejection and murder of the Messiah Himself are a testimony to man’s rebellion against God.
Rebellion seems to intensity when everything is going on well or when there is an abundance of everything in life. This is seen in the lives of Joseph’s brothers, Miriam’s criticism of Moses, Eli’s sons, Saul’s first conquest, Absalom, Solomon, etc. It seems that man in his rebellion against God would accept anything except divinely inspired truth, specially when all is well.
Since the false Cults lead people away from God in a small measure or large, there is scope in the maze of Cults for any person to find a group that corresponds with his level of rebellion.
In the last ten years several prominent Protestant thinkers and writers have left their Evangelical churches to join the Roman Catholic church. Many of them have published lengthy justifications for this move, and an analysis of these testimonies immediately makes something obvious: most of them left the freedom of Evangelical churches and embraced Romish slavery because deep in their hearts they had been nurturing rebellion against the revealed truths of Bible !!
Thus their defection from spiritual freedom to religious slavery was not because of doctrinal reasons, but because of man’s rebellious nature against God. This nature abhors everything revealed in the Scriptures, and thus makes falsehood more attractive that truth. The same is the reason why many people find False Cults and isms very attractive: these movements and teachings have a great appeal to their rebellious minds.
2-Man’s Love For Darkness: Though humans talk a lot about light and also about their need to embrace light over darkness, most of it is only philosophical eyewash. The basic human inclination is towards darkness, and all the philosophical speculation about light is actually a cover for their ultimate love for darkness.
Thus when both light as well as darkness are available to people, it is not surprising that many of them voluntarily and aggressively choose darkness. They might use any number of ploys to justify their choice such as the caring attitude of people in the new groups, the selfishness and hypocrisy of the groups they abandoned, etc. Or they might laud the sophistication, the humanitarian activities, the influence, or any number of factors connected with the new group. Ultimately all of this is only an eyewash and self-justification for choosing evil over good.
If a person joins a Cult because thy teach the Scriptures correctly, then the person should have the courage to say so. But very rarely only do people cite doctrinal correctness as the reason for joining a Cult because deep in their hearts they know that the Evangelical groups that they left was doctrinally more correct.
The autobiography of many former Cultists also witnesses to the same fact. Most of the time that they were in the Cult they knew that they all were wrong, yet they did not leave immediately because great was the love for error or the hold of evil.
3-Ignorance Of What Is Significant: Man’s perception of truth has been so much affected by his sin nature that his entire approach to right and wrong, truth and error, are imbalanced. Thus what he often considers important might be trivial things while what he considers as insignificant might be most important. The Cults know this human tendency, and thus they exaggerate what the humans consider as important.
Thus tolerating all viewpoints has become an important consideration for many in our generation. In the light of the
Scripture, the Evangelical churches do not consider all philosophies as equal. At the same time the New Age Movement (a Cult) views all philosophies and religions as equal. Thus many people from the Evangelical churches move to the New Age Movement because deep in their heart they want to say that all religions are the same, contrary to what the Evangelicals say.
Many groups have gathered a large number of followers and made a big fortune by making health an important factor of spiritual life. Rather than trusting in God’s sovereignty, these groups promise immediate health and even wealth if people adhere to the principles of these groups. Ignorance leads many people into thinking that these are the things of primary importance, and fall into the clutches of those Cults.
There are others for whom emotional experience is more important than sober experience or thinking. Since emotional manipulation is very easy, many Cults lure these people by providing the ideal emotional atmosphere for them. Since emotionalism is just the opposite of balance, these people soon abandon the Scripture which instructs people to keep balance in their lives and thinking.
4-Satisfaction Of Baser Instincts: Right from Eden, the baser instincts of mankind have become very powerful and dominant. While growing believers learn to control these base passions with the help of the Holy Spirit, most people do not even realize that there is anything wrong with these instincts. Nor are they conscious that these passions are controlling them. Thus deep in their hearts they keep looking for a group that caters to their hidden passions, and promptly join the group that seems to offer it.
Pride, lust, and emotionalism are some such passions. Many Cults are experts in feeding the pride of followers. This might come through name, fame, institutions, or by the pride of being a special group. Then there are some groups where free mingling of opposite sexes is tolerated, permitted, or even encouraged. Then there are groups that appeal to other human passions like curiosity and fascination for the unknown. The occult groups fall into this category. The same groups also appeal to the human desire to be powerful beyond what can be achieved at the physical level.
Conclusion: Instead of being exhaustive, we have only hinted at some of the reasons that make False Cults attractive to people. The basic reason is human depravity and rebellion against God, which motivate people to accept anything except the truth. This attitude of rebellion is seen in many ways in the human hearts, and with full awareness of these things, the Cults have devised ways to offer to each one what he needs to remain away from God. Thus their attractiveness even to people who know that they are false.
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