KNOW THE MARKS OF CULTS

KNOW THE
MARKS
OF
CULTS
Dave Breese

The following is excerpted from the book/study guide on cults. I recommend this information, due to the fact that it helps distinguish cults & cult groups as they are in the process of apostisizing. This is intended so you don't get sucked into some cult unknowningly.)

Why do Cults Grow?
A cult is a religious perversion. It is a belief and practice
in the world of religion which calls for devotion to a
religious view or leader centered in false doctrine. It is an
organized heresy.
A cult
is impossible to define except against the absolute standard
of the teaching of Holy Scripture.
1. Love of Darkness
(John 3:19-21).
One of the chief reasons people refuse to believe the
true Gospel of Christ after they hear of the truth of God is
its ruthless illumination of sin and its call to repentance
and faith in the Saviour.
Despite this fact, there are those who foolishly go on
refusing to recognize the moral law of God. They choose
rather to embrace a false doctrine that excuses their im-

moral or self-centered lives. They foolishly prefer the ever
diminishing pleasures of sin and selfwill to the joy of
Christ's forgiveness and life.
2. Spiritual Immaturity
one of the great needs in the
[local] church today is for Christian growth. Nothing is more
important than spiritual growth in the life of the newborn
Christian. The spiritual babies mentioned in Scripture are
called upon to "desire the sincere milk of the word" that
they may grow as a result.
It is the
study of the Word of God which produces the knowledge
of sound doctrine.

3. Spiritual Subversion
Another reason sincere people are drawn off into the cults
is that traveling religious carpetbaggers work industriously
to subvert people from the true faith in Jesus Christ into a
religion that is contrary to the Word of God.
They doubtless commended them for believing
in the Gospel of the grace of God but then proceeded to
insist that they must become obedient to the law of Moses
in order to be true Christians. (Gal. 4:17).
The subverters of the Corin-
thian Church were advocating the heresy of phenomenal-
ism. That is, they were denying the Pauline thesis that the
just shall live by faith and rather insisting that the just
shall live by sight.
In Colossus, the troublemakers
came preaching the mysterious gnostic heresy. Therefore
Paul said, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philoso-
phy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" (Col. 2:8). (Col. 2:18).
4. Intellectual Pride
Intellectual pride has led many to feel that Christianity
is "not sophisticated enough" or "too simple" for their
perceptive intellects.
True wisdom consists in
simple obedience to God and His Word.
The first responsibility each Christian has is not to be an
expert on the cults, but on the Word of God. Few pursuits
are more exhausting than the attempt to get to the bottom
of the endless labyrinth of cult pronouncements.
A cultic religious point of view may be valuable in many
ways and even true in part. This is what makes it attrac-
tive to its followers. What makes religious practice a
cult, however, is not only the falsities which it believes
but also its fatal omissions of sound doctrine.

IDENTIFYING MARKS OF A CULT OR CULTIC PRACTICES

Extrabiblical
Revelation 2
How has God revealed Himself?
The Word of God, is therefore, God's final and complete
revelation, and this revelation can be supplanted by no
other. The cults have no such commitment, believing in
the heretical doctrine of extrabiblical revelation. They
claim that God has spoken and recorded words, through
whatever medium, since He gave us the New Testament
Scriptures. They assert that God speaks or has spoken
outside or apart from the Bible.
The first and most typical characteristic of a cult is that
it claims for its authority some revelation apart from the
clear statements of the Word of God. Most cults claim to
respect the teachings of the Bible. Many even attribute
divine inspiration to Holy Scripture.
Many religions have
invested divine authority in the person of a visible individ-
ual who speaks infallibly, his words having the same or
higher authority than Holy Scripture.
After giving us 66 books in the Old and New
Testaments, the Holy Spirit directed the Apostle John to
categorically close the verbal revelation of God at the
conclusion of the Bible, (Rev. 22: 18-19).
Final truth, therefore, is the Person, the Word, and the
work of Jesus Christ. No subsequent revelation as to the
nature of truth can supersede the revelation of Jesus
Christ.
They place
their arcane and mysterious writings on a par with the
Word of God.
A word of admonition is therefore in order. The Chris-
tian believes the Bible to be the final and only verbal
revelation of God. Believing this, he must give himself to
the study of the Word of God with a higher degree of
intensity than ever before.
One is at least being inconsistent and perhaps hypocriti-
cal if he professes a high view of Scripture but neglects to
dispel his ignorance of the truth of God through a serious
program of Bible study. The greatest single reason for the
advance of the cults in our world today is ignorance of
Holy Scripture on the part of Christians. The second great-
est is unwillingness on the part of the people of God to
transmit divine truth by way of a testimony for Christ to
others who need yet to receive salvation in Christ.
The life of a Christian will be firmly anchored against all
opposition when it is grounded in a working knowledge of
Holy Scripture.

A False Basis
of Salvation 3
What must I do to be saved?
This longing for reality is the fuel that energizes the
growth of most of the cults in existence today. Because
they are involved in some form of exploitation, the cults
without exception obscure the truth and offer salvation on
some other basis than that of a free gift that comes to us by
the grace of Jesus Christ.
What is the true basis of salvation?
The clear teaching of the New Testament Scriptures is
that eternal salvation comes to a believer solely as a result
of faith in Jesus Christ.
(Rom. 5:1). (Rom. 3:23-25). (Rom. 3:28). (Rom. 4:4-5). (Gal. 2:16). (Eph. 2:8-9).
By contrast, Scripture teaches that all other forms of
supposed salvation, based on human efforts, are cursed by
God. "For as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall
live by faith" (Gal. 3:10-11).
When he comes in humble faith, he
receives the gift of God which is eternal life. And it is
exactly this, a free gift. When he believes the Gospel, he
receives eternal life and is justified in the sight of God.
To be justified, of course, means to be declared righ-
teous. This is a legal change in the attitude of God toward
the sinner and depends on the saving act of Jesus Christ
which is entirely independent of the individual experience
of the believer. Eternal salvation
comes to the believer because of imputed righteousness.
Imputed righteousness is righteousness that is placed to
his account in Heaven.
Personal righteousness is not, however, the basis of his
salvation. He is saved on the basis of imputed righteous-
ness. The total benefits of
Calvary come to the believer on the basis of grace.
No message is more viciously attacked by the cult pro-
moters of our present world than the Gospel of the grace of
God. It is absolutely maddening to the profes-
sional religious promoters that God saves individuals free-
ly, by grace alone.
Nevertheless, the promoters of the cults continue to
press their malignant doctrines of some other way of salva-
tion besides faith in the finished work of Christ on the
cross.
One of the most popular alternative doctrines of salva-
tion is that of salvation by membership.
Failure to keep
this membership intact incurs the damnation of the soul.
In many of these religious
programs, what a person believes is of little consequence;
it is what he does that counts.
By contrast to all of this we need to hear again the
finality of the words of Paul, "if righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:21).
(Acts
16:31). Few scenes are more tragic than that of a benighted
soul pursuing a false hope of salvation when Jesus Christ
offers all of this as a free gift.

Uncertain Hope 4
The soul that is in distress is also in bondage!
If a person's distress can be perpetuated by a religious
promoter, that promoter can be reasonably sure of keeping
a distressed soul in continued and ever increasing bondage.
The religious charlatan, therefore, must be very careful
never to produce a final cure. Rather he must push certain-
ty up into an unrealizable future in order to keep needy
souls continually striving today.
We ought not to be surprised, therefore, that a nearly
universal characteristic of the cults of our time is their
insistence that one can never be sure of eternal life while
in this world. The issue of salvation is never settled. The
follower lives in constant fear that he has not done enough,
given enough, prayed enough, worshiped enough to be sure
of salvation.
One suspects because of all of this that the cults are
really not talking about salvation at all, but rather are
pushing religious philosophies tied to a set of unrealizable
goals in the name of which they can extract every kind of
sacrifice from their hapless followers.
Because they are
interested in producing perpetual obligation as against spir-
itual freedom, they keep their followers in the hopeless
bondage of a continually insecure relationship with God.
A hope so uncertain is hardly a hope at all.
A thoughtful person who examines the preaching and
writing of the cults carefully is almost certain to sense a
frustrating indefiniteness. He is being strung along, be-
guiled up a primrose path to nowhere.
A common characteristic of the cults is that they are
devoid of a theological structure that offers to anyone a
sure salvation.
The reason is very clear: they traffic in anxiety.
The person who is anxious is also exploitable. To make
him fearful is the design of these religious leaders so that
they may use fear to create dependence upon the religious
view that they are promoting. Cult gathering places are
populated by frightened people who live in terror of falling
into the disfavor of their religious establishment.

Presumptuous
Messianic
Leadership 5
Only Jesus Christ deserves disciples!
This towering fact is ignored by most of the religions in
the world today.
The cults are replete
with the stated or implied suggestion on the part of leaders
as to some unusual divine capability that might well in-
spire worship on the part of their followers.
One of the marks of a cult is that it elevates the person
and the words of a human leader to a messianic level.
Their [followers] easy
mental acquiescence has led them to seek a leader who can
give them all of the answers and personalize or objectify
their religious needs. They want someone to speak to
them with authority, even finality.
The temptation to change from a simple servant
to an exalted messiah can be very strong in the life of a
charismatic leader.
Another form of presumptuous messianic leadership in
the religious scene of our time is the claim of some leaders
to their own ability as special intercessors with God. Their
followers are asked by them to "believe in my prayers" and
to "give me the opportunity to pray for you." There is a
general build-up of presumption that the leader, because of
his special gifts or deep spirituality, has some unusual
powers with which to gain leverage before the throne of
God. This
shameful doctrine is false and foreign to the teachings of
the New Testament.
The clear teaching of
the New Testament is that each person who has been
justified by faith in Jesus Christ has access to the Father in
prayer and needs no human mediator.
One of the great promises of the Bible to
every believer is found in Paul's words to Timothy, "For
there is one God, and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5).
Every believer in Jesus Christ is himself a priest and has
access to the Father because of the work of our great High
Priest, Jesus Christ. (Heb. 10:19-22).
Distant hands laid on stacks of
letters are as nothing compared to present believers meet-
ing in prayer with Jesus Christ before the throne of God.
The great relationship for the Christian is that
personal one which he has between himself and his Lord.
This relationship continues, made viable by the Holy
Spirit who lives within the heart of every believer indepen-
dent of any human mediator.
The fearful contrast is apparent in the cult scene today
as cult leaders labor to produce idolatrous dependence
upon themselves.
This tragic development is
only made possible because of the ignorance on the part of
many people as to the teaching of the Word of God. The
message of Scripture is that the individual must not com-
mit himself to "infallible" human leaders. Rather he must
become a follower of Jesus Christ, who alone is the head of
the [local] Church.
The cult leader also strengthens his presumptuous lead-
ership by arrogating to himself the position of being the
only repository of divine truth.

Doctrinal
Ambiguity 6
If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare
himself for the battle?
Doctrinal ambiguity
is a mark of a cult. One of the very fascinating characteris-
tics of the cults is the interesting and sometimes hilarious
changes of doctrine through which they pass. Their doc-
trines are being continually altered in order to adapt them-
selves to new situations, arguments, or the whims of their
leaders.
The word
"doctrine" has no meaning in the fever swamps of the
mind which are inhabited by the cults, for doctrine means
a systematic presentation and understanding of truth. The
idea of doctrine is therefore virtually unique to organized
Christianity.
By contrast what passes for doctrine in the cult is really
a sub-rational set of disconnected thoughts and practices
that only serve to confuse the mind and the emotions as
well. Emotions were never
intended to be an end in themselves and are totally un-
trustworthy as the custodians of truth. Any religion, there-
fore, that deliberately bypasses rational doctrinal under-
standing and seeks to build upon the emotions will
inevitably deceive rather than enlighten.
This "mindlessness" of the cults is a most useful device.
The cult promoters are not truly appealing to the mind but
rather are attempting to set the mind aside and to appeal to
a set of religious emotions.
The words of the cults are the products
of a corrupted language. The words themselves have no
real meaning. They have become emotional triggers con-
noting to you whatever they want them to mean. The cult
promoters have denied the doctrine of objective value as
relates to the words they use.
Indeed, unlike the religions of the world, Christianity
commits itself to careful details of all kinds.
Like no book in all of the world, the Bible is a book of
careful historic detail.
In addition to this, important theological propositions in
the Bible are stated in many ways so that there can be
simply no question about the meaning.
The Christian who studies the Word of God becomes
spiritually mature, a defender of the faith, and able even to
teach others.
Fables, predicted in Scripture, are one of the marks of a
cult. One can listen endlessly to cultic representatives on
radio and television and never be sure what they are talk-
ing about. They pose questions which they do not answer.
The answer cannot be found even
by reading hundreds of pages of his literature. Rather, the
reader is led into an ever deeper labyrinth of confusion.
The tendency of the cults is to move away from the
objective, categoric truth as taught in Scripture.
The great need in the religious establishment of our time
is for the candid preaching of sound doctrine as against the
tantalizing sentences of those who never do quite get to
the point. Thank God for the faithful Christian expositors
of the Scriptures in our time (Acts 20:20-21).
Ambiguity is the devil's gospel, whereas clarity is divine.

The Claim
of "Special
Discoveries" 7
"I have found the secret!"
Religious fantasies that are presented as
special spiritual discoveries are dangerous.
The careful teacher of sound doctrine is rarely as electri-
fying as the mysterious religious promoter who, usually for
a price, will let us in on his "secret." Under the spells he
casts, we are often tempted to forget that the best things in
life are not only free, but they are usually obvious.
It would be
impossible to have a cult without mysterious, otherwise
unavailable inside information. In one way or another,
each of these dreadful religions traffics in such
hallucinations.
The Christian must remember that there is no discovery
in the entire universe that anyone could possibly have that
is superior to his discovery of salvation in Jesus Christ.
There is no higher information, no better revelation, no
deeper truth-nothing is greater than the knowledge of
Christ. The person who turns from this greatest discovery,
this ultimate revelation, to pursue the delusions of a cult
leader is a fool. Despite this obvious truth, the cults con-
tinue to beguile unstable souls with their false claims to
special discoveries. No discovery is more special than Jesus
Christ.
People willingly flock into the train of
the religious leader who has "discovered the secret" and is
willing to pass it on to them.
The claim to special discoveries and "repeatable-on-de-
mand" revelations from God is the point where the cults
tend to move off into the occult. Witchcraft, spiritism, and
Satan worship are nothing more than religions which
claim to be able to call for the incursion of the metaphysi-
cal in the realm of the physical. This is surely one of the
reasons why the cults are often but a stopping place where
a disturbed soul lingers briefly before dropping totally into
the pit of the occult.
Nevertheless, the almost universal base of each cult
religion is the purported revelation that one person re-
ceived. These persons claimed divine authority for a pri-
vate, unauthenticated religious event.
The fundamental characteristic of the faith of
Christ is that it is based on historical fact.
There
were hundreds and in some cases thousands of witnesses
to the open and public facts of the Gospel.
Often those to whom the Gospel was preached were
reminded that they knew of their own knowledge the
truth of these things (Acts 26:25-26).
The
truth of Christianity does not depend on private knowl-
edge or secret, unconfirmable relationships on the part of
individuals.
We notice that the heresies being brought in by false
teachers are secret and destructive.
It is a fair generalization to say that it is the duty of the
true minister of the Gospel to take the mysteries of God
and make them plain. The normal direction of the cultic
promoter is to take the plain truth of the Word and turn it
into as mysterious a message as possible. Many deadly
pitfalls lie along the path of the dark and the mysterious.

Defective
Christology 8
Who is Jesus Christ?
In all of the history of the [local] Church, the most grievous
heresies have been those which have advocated a view of
the person of Christ other than that which is taught in the
Word of God.
A
false view of the Saviour produced a false religion which
presented no salvation at all.
Most of the cults that are active
in our time deny the true deity of Christ, the true human-
ity of Jesus, or the true union of the two natures in one
Person.
It is clear then that the test of a true representative of the
Gospel has to do with his definition of the person and the
work of Jesus Christ. The central doctrine of Christianity
is Christology, the doctrine of the nature of the person of
Jesus Christ.
Many today who claim to be Christians deny the true
deity of Christ. Religious liberalism can be judged as he-
retical on the basis of its denial of the sure deity of the
blessed Son of God.
The thoughtful Christian will carefully analyze the doc-
trine of a cult that is being pressed upon him, paying
special attention to the Christology of that alternative
religious message. The message that in effect declares
Christ to be the automaton of the Father and not a real
person in Himself is a cult. The message that denies the
virgin birth of Christ, holding Him to be merely the natu-
ral son of Joseph and Mary, is a cult. An examination of the
doctrinal base of any religion in the light of its views on
the person and the work of Jesus Christ can be most
revealing.
Closely related to the fatal heresy of defective Christol-
ogy is a denial of the trinity of the Godhead.
These critical doctrinal problems concerning the nature
of the Godhead should come to each Christian as a new
reminder of the need for Christian scholarship.
The cults will have a field
day in exploiting experience-oriented saints who have no
time for the study of Christian doctrine.

Segmented Biblical
Attention 9
There is no book in all the world like the Bible.
Variation and diversity are not marks of error.
But herein lies a potentially serious problem.
They take some important but not critical em-
phasis of Scripture and move it to the exalted position of
an imperative doctrine.
It is easy to see how a religious group can move from the
true to the false by small steps of defection from the
teaching of Holy Scripture.
Too
often, however, this special emphasis becomes the critical,
all-important point. When a theological eccentricity
moves to the very center of the attention of a group of
Christians, that group, often without sensing it, becomes
eccentric and potentially heretical.
Its attention
to an interesting portion of Scripture has been carried to
the point where it has isolated this passage of the Word of
God from the corrective modifications found in other por-
tions of the Word. Its segmented biblical attention has cut
it off from the body of divine truth.
Virtually every cult in existence today has followed the
unwise course of segmented biblical attention out beyond
the pale of reason into the production of a destructive
heresy.
The lesson for all of us is very clear. While we may be
fascinated with the words of one of the personalities of
Scripture and with the emphasis of a given book of the
Bible, we must not fail to pay attention to the message of
the entire Word of God.
It is therefore of great
importance that the doctrine by which a Christian orients
his faith and his life come from all Scripture.
He remembers also that revelation is progressive! God
presented truth in a cumulative fashion, moving from the
basic theistic concepts of the Old Testament to the final
revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. Christ brought life
and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Tim. 1:10),
and His doctrine was explained to us by His apostles who
wrote the letters of the New Testament.
We must also never forget that the proper interpretation
of the Bible must be based on text, context, and greater
context. The biblical interpreter must ask, "What does this
verse mean? In what setting is it given to us? How does it
relate to the whole Bible?"
Some who pretend to be experts on demonism fall into
the same error. Knowing of demon influence, they proceed
to attribute all forms of aberrative behavior to the presence
of demons.
There are others who find a verse in the Bible about God
having given to some prophet a vision. They use this as the
scriptural base for a notion that all sound religion is there-
fore conducted on the basis of God revealing Himself in
visions and dreams.
Another leader may greatly encourage Christians by his
emphasis on a relaxed and positive mental attitude. While
this message may be of value, if taken as ultimate truth, it
can cause a naive person finally to deny physical reality.
It is a grave temptation for any group to find a verse in
the Bible about holiness, the kingdom, law, grace, works,
faith, or something else and use it for a substitute for the
whole counsel of God. Even zealous Christians have fre-
quently fallen into the trap of segmented biblical interpre-
tation, thereby creating a cultic influence in their system
of doctrine.

Enslaving
Organizational
Structure 10
"You belong to me!"
Cults actually bring their
followers into psychological and spiritual slavery.
So important to the writers of Scripture is the preserva-
tion of Christian freedom that we are not only advised that
we possess it, by we are carefully warned never to lose it.
(Gal 5:1). (Gal. 5:13).
The consequent emphasis of the New Testament is that
Christian leaders who have power or persuasive ability
must be careful never to overly control or dominate the
faith of others. The Apostle Paul never said that the strong
should control the weak but rather that the strong should
support the weak.
Few passages are more indicative of
the divine concern for the proper pastoral attitude than his
earnest words, "Neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3).
The Word of God is clear; spiritual leadership is to be the
leadership of example. In simplicity and godly sincerity,
the leader is to be an imitator of Jesus Christ and pray that
his very life will furnish, before his onlooking flock, an
illustration of the Christian life for all to see. When the life
of a Christian leader illustrates only arrogance, groundless
authoritarianism, and human imposition, he is represent-
ing another Christ than the One presented in Holy
Scripture.
The promoters of the cults obey no such rules as Scrip-
ture lays down for leaders. Indeed, they know that their
success is directly dependent upon their ability to trap
followers into a permanent entanglement. This association
is almost invariably formed with the bonds of fear. The
leader's preaching, teaching, and efforts are dedicated, not
to the production of individual competence and freedom
on the part of his followers, but to create dependence. The
leaders of the cults are working to promote, not liberty, but
slavery.
Thus an almost universal characteristic of the cults is
the creation of a monolithic, merciless, and entangling
organizational structure.
"So
hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolai-
tans, which thing I hate" (Rev. 2:15).
Who were the Nicolaitans? What were their deeds and
their doctrine? We have only one definite indication as to
the nature of this group and that comes to us from the
meaning of the word itself. The word Nicolaitan comes
from two Greek words, nicao and laos which means vic-
tory over or subjugation of the people.
The exaggerated distinction between "clergy" and "la-
ity" had begun in the early stages of Christianity. Some
were already thinking it spiritually necessary or practical
to subjugate the people of God and become masters over
them.
Power corrupts! This is not only true in the realm of
politics. It is tragically true also in the area of religion.
The religious ascendancy of a group of spiri-
tual elitists over the mass of the people is a program and a
belief that is hated by God.
...the subjugation of the people is a program
despised by God.
We may note also that the Nicolaitan trend was merely
a set of deeds in the church at Ephesus. By the time we
come to the church at Pergamos, however, what had been
deeds has turned into a doctrine.
Religious institutions today are filled with whole sets of
catechisms, disciplines, liturgies, and stated methods
which are basically nothing but the doctrine of the Nico-
laitans.
The program of subjugation of
the people kills the true work of Christ.
This kind of killing organizational structure is one of the
reliable indexes of the cults of our time.
The cult is usually represented to the cap-
tured devotee as synonymous with the kingdom of God
itself.
One of the normal connotations of the word "cultic" is
that of passionate devotion to a cause to the point of the
irrational. The cult hopes to bring its hapless followers to
the place where they think of little else except their in-
volvement with the movement and its human leader. The
average cultist is as much a slave to his present religious
involvement as he ever was to the sin of his former life.
Certain large religious groups
in the world, some of them thought of as legitimate,
preach the doctrine of damnation for all outside their
particular organization.
It is a truism that the less truth a movement represents,
the more highly it must organize. Truth has its own mag-
netism producing loyalty. The absence of truth makes
necessary the application of the bonds of fear.
A cultic leader may present his wares by saying, "Come
to Jesus," but his real theme song is "You belong to me."
The only imperative membership which the true Chris-
tian recognizes is membership in the body of Christ.
Jesus Christ has set him free, and
no one is entitled to take this freedom from him.

Financial
Exploitation 11
The marvelous message of the Gospel of Christ is that
one may receive eternal salvation "without money and
without price."
The Word of God makes it clear that the Christian is
never put under obligation to do, give, sacrifice, or expend
himself in any way in order to be more sure that he has the
gift of God which is eternal life.
The Word of God, however, is clear that service for Christ
is a voluntary proposition on the part of the Christian, and
nothing that he does will increase his own guarantee of
eternal life. He is saved by grace and kept by the power of
God. His eternal life came to him without payment on his
part. It is dependent on the work of Christ on the cross.
They [Apostles] taught that
sacrificial Christian leaders thereby gave evidence of their
faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul, again leaving us a shining example,
was very careful never to accept gifts from the churches for
his own personal use.
(Acts 20:34). He did this for the purpose of making the
Gospel of Jesus Christ totally without charge.
What a contrast we see in the cultic practitioner of
today! He strongly implies that money contributed to the
cause will buy privileges or gifts or powers for the recep-
tive follower. The follower of the
cult is often promised that he can escape the many purga-
tories in this world and the next through the investment of
his money.
In the financial structure of the average cult, tithing is
but the beginning. Then comes the real pressure.
Enamored of his new spiritual leader,
the head of the house forgets the clear teaching of Scrip-
ture, "if any provide not for his own, and specially for
those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is
worse than an infidel" (1 Tim. 5:8).
It is fair to say that an almost universal characteristic of
the cults is an insatiable financial appetite in the leader-
ship.
The false religions of the world are characterized by
lavish temples, overlaid with gold and studded with dia-
monds. Most of them stand in the midst of a sea of poverty
which the cults themselves have caused. Their apparent
prosperity is nothing more than the shameful result of
their cruel exploitation of frightened people who seek their
favors with financial gifts.

Denunciation of
Others 12
When one announces himself as the true Messiah, all
others of course are false and must be put down. Some of
the most bitter imprecations in print are the scathing
calumny of cultic messiahs upon all who do not believe
their views and join their organizations.
True Christians are forbidden to judge one another
(Rom. 14:13) and are given the liberty to be persuaded in
their own minds as to how to live unto the Lord (Rom.
14:5). They are even told to "judge nothing before the
time" (1 Cor. 4:5).
The cultic attitude is a fearful contrast.
The sincere Christian will conduct himself very careful-
ly when it comes to criticism of others.
We are therefore reminded in Scripture that one is guilty
of the most forbidden kind of arrogance when he presumes
to judge the activity of his brothers who labor for the Lord.
(Rom. 14:4) (Rom. 14:10) (Eph. 4:3). (Rom. 14:19).
We are often warned in Scripture to be very suspicious of
those whose first calling seems to be to produce divisions
within the [local] Church of Christ.
Much unsettlement has been caused in the ranks of
Christians by those with pretended convictions who de-
mand a hearing and who are often purveyors of a new
discovery of truth. (Rom. 16:17-18).

Syncretism 13
We must become all things to all men!
The loving concern for spiritual
accommodation can be pressed to the point where it com-
promises the Gospel of Christ, sometimes beyond recogni-
tion. This kind of accommodation involves one in a griev-
ous sin called syncretism.
Syncretism describes the attempt to gather together
what some would call "the best qualities" of various reli-
gious points of view into a new and acceptable faith. It is
the attempt to "synchronize" the otherwise diverse reli-
gious elements currently believed by people so as to make
a new religion attractive. The definition of syncretism
from a religious point of view is "the process of growth
through coalescence of different forms of faith and worship
or through accretions of tenets, rights, etc., from those
religions which are being superseded" (Webster).
Syncretism is a favorite cultic device. Both the older and
the emergent cults, almost without exception, have ac-
commodated themselves to existing religious points of
view, incorporating older doctrines into their systems of
faith along with new and creative heresies. Few cults of
our time present much that is really new in the world of
religion. Almost invariably they are a rehash of existing
concepts, orthodox and heretical. They present warmed-
over elements of Protestantism, Catholicism, paganism,
pantheism, idolatry, local fetishes, and some pure idiocy.
Sensing some new, exploitive possibilities, the cultist
glues together a bewildering array of religious components,
knowing that some of these will strike a chord of response.
In-
corporating these in the same package with a few
theological terms, he is off and running with another cult.
A similar thing also happens on the mission fields of the
world. Missionaries, some of them with merely para-
Christian backgrounds, arrive in an area already steeped in
religion. Animism, ancestor worship, religious paganism,
or raw heathenism are flourishing. Hoping to minimize
the offense of their "Christianity," the missionaries ac-
commodate themselves to the local religious climate.
Sometimes the resulting religion brings together a regional
god, an animal sacrifice, the virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ
all in the same system. Syncretism on mission fields is
becoming one of the scandals of the religious world. A
syncretistic religion is not Christianity at all; it is a cult.
We
hear talk in churches today that may open the door to
acceptance of a religious potpourri that is something other
than Christianity.
the
Gospel does not of itself promise to change the social
structure, the political climate, or the physical environ-
ment of those who, even after faith in Christ,
live in the midst of a fallen world.
Many
groups of Christians today rejoice in the gospel plus a
wonderful religious heritage. The sacred traditions of
many religious groups have been a significant source of
stability as they guide their way through the new problems
of this current generation.
Looking to the past, however, can produce subtle decep-
tions in our Christian thinking. Surely what the [local] Church
needs today is not so much the "faith of our fathers," but
the faith of Jesus Christ as expressed in the changeless
Scriptures of the New Testament. Heritage can become a
dangerous element in the thinking of Christians because it
is almost always applied to a human tradition which, at
best, is only partially biblical. Indeed, great, time-spanning
religious traditions are ordinarily formed to protect by
custom certain theological propositions which are un-
voiced in the Word of God.
Another syncretistic tendency has been the movement
of the great denominations to include "the imperative of
social action" in their preaching of the Gospel. This has
been true to the extent that they have been legitimately
accused of preaching a social gospel.
The Gospel may indeed have social implications (fewer,
I think, than are commonly touted), but this is another,
infinitely less important subject than the death of Jesus
Christ on the cross and His glorious resurrection. The one
produces eternal salvation; the other, endless discussion.
The point is that Christians need an understanding of
Christian doctrine adequate to discern the difference be-
tween what the Gospel is and what the Gospel implies.
Europe resembles a vast cemetery of the Christian reli-
gion; it is now dead but has left behind its grave markers.
Little of Christianity remains in the countries of its origins.
As churches
grew older, they seem to have given themselves to the
spirit of accommodation while forgetting their heavenly
calling. They set up ecumenical movements, national con-
ferences of Christians and Jews, and endless other move-
ments to make their situation more legitimate. The opted
for political change, social action, and worked with sincer-
ity.... Time, money and irreplaceable human energy went
into these "worthy causes" and salvation from sin seemed
pale by comparison.
Syncretism, the attempt to synchronize the Gospel of
Christ with a godless world, is a deadly virus from which
almost no institution recovers.

What Shall We Do? 14
1. Understand Christian doctrine. The chief single reason
for the success of the cults is the spiritual naiveté on the
part of many. Too many Christians are content with a
superficial knowledge of the Word of God and think of

themselves as thereby being spiritually intelligent. Noth-
ing could be farther from the truth!
The Christian must give himself to a detailed study of
Scripture and must understand the Bible from a doctrinal
point of view. He should have valid biblical information
that answers the questions: Who is God? What is man?
What is sin? What do we mean by biblical inspiration?
We live in a time when doctrine has been played down
in favor of Christian experience. This is the most foolish
course imaginable because experience has little or nothing
to do with Christian truth.
2. Separation from spiritual subversion.
(Eph. 5:11). Many people
ask whether they should not attend meetings of cultic
religious organizations and give themselves to an exten-
sive reading of subversive religious literature. With rare
exceptions, the answer to this question is no, a thousand
times no!
It is not

true that we cannot speak critically of false doctrine unless
we have read everything that the leadership of these cults
has to say.
The statement that says, "You cannot know what it is
until you have tried it" is a satanic doctrine, and it is the
very one that he used to subvert Eve and bring the terrible
cancer of sin into all the World.
3. Refuse profane points of view. (1 Tim. 4:7).
Rather the
Scripture commands again and again that he must be
careful, take heed, watch, remember. He is called upon to
be very sober because his satanic adversary continues to go

about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).
4. Do not encourage cultic practitioners.
...many deceivers have
come into the world who do not believe the Gospel of
Jesus Christ and are in fact enemies of the Lord.
The Apostle John wrote: "Whosoever transgresseth, and
abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He
that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the
Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring
not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is
partaker of his evil deeds" (2 John 9-11). This is the hard
but the necessary course of action for one who would
protect himself and his family from spiritual danger.
5. Be willing to contend for the faith. Scripture calls upon
us to earnestly contend for the faith, which means of
course to be willing to defend the truth of the Gospel in
the face of satanic adversaries (Jude 3).
The true servant of
Jesus Christ must be careful that his friendship with Jesus

Christ's the association that is absolute. By comparison to
this, all human associations are relative.
The first principle of the universe is truth and this must
be defended even at the cost of our lives. (Eph. 6:10-20).
Our spiritual sentiments, and this is the most sentimen-
tal age in the history of the [local] Church, would lead us many
times to feel that contention for the faith of the Gospel is
somehow unspiritual or undignified. Nothing could be
farther from the truth. The analogy of the Christian being a
soldier of the cross is one that is repeated many times in
Holy Scripture. The world is described as a battleground
and the essential struggle on that field of conquest is the
struggle between truth and untruth.

[Christian Helps Ministry (USA)] [Christian Home Bible Course]