Beware of Cults with Their Evangelical Trappings
HAROLD BUSSELL
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I have been confronted during 15 years of ministry in California, Europe, and New England with many evangelicals who either have come out of cults or are attracted to a cult. In all of my conversations with such people, the central issue has never focused on cultic doctrine. Usually, doctrine was an after-the-fact issue. What, then, makes our people in the evangelical community vulnerable to cults?
A close examination of every major cult today, with the exception of Eastern cults, reveals that many began in an evangelical church or with a leader from an evangelical background. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church (Moonies), was raised in a missionary Presbyterian home. Jim Jones, founder of the People’s Temple, accepted Christ in a Nazarene church and was pastor of an interdenominational charismatic church and a Disciples of Christ church. Moses David, founder of the Children of God, came out of a Christian and Missionary Alliance background. Victor Paul Wierwille, founder of The Way, was an evangelical, and a Reformed pastor. Many of the older, more established cults had evangelical roots, including Christian Science and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
What is common to these churches and church leaders who have been led to cultism?
First, they all started by describing themselves as in opposition to their local church or denomination, or to the church at large. They had discovered the ideal church. The foundation was always begun with an identity by opposition.
Second, in these systems the pastor or leader was placed in a position beyond confrontation, coupled with a tight discipleship or shepherding approach to instruction.
Third, these groups placed a high emphasis on group sharing, testimonies, spirituality, devotions, and in some cases, Bible study.
Fourth, in these groups the leader had gained some new spiritual insight emphasizing the last days, healing, community, or spirituality.
Fifth, these groups placed a high value on community and caring.
Finally, all such groups slowly developed their own subcultural spiritual language.
Many evangelicals who are drawn to cults are not drawn because of beliefs or doctrine but because of similarities to Christianity that we value as marks of spirituality. The members of the People’s Temple never expected to end up in Jonestown, as Mel White so clearly illustrates in his movie Deceived. It is easy for us as churches and as individuals to write off these groups and try to remove by remote control our responsibility to face our own vulnerability to cultic deception. If you think you or your church are not vulnerable to these dynamics, you are the most vulnerable. In all my conversations with former cult members, and with those presently struggling with cultic leanings, I have found five similarities between cults and evangelical churches.
Defining Spirituality
We evangelicals place a high emphasis on our experience of Christ. So do the cults. We have a tendency to witness to our conversion rather than of Christ. We often view our conversion experience as the gospel; it is not. The gospel is that Jesus Christ entered human history, died, and rose from the dead. If you believe in him as Savior, you stand before God totally in the clear.
Our overemphasis on subjective experience has some of its roots in the reactions to rationalism, naturalism, and liberalism that infiltrated the Protestant church during the past century. Lacking an apologetic base, gospel verification soon became a matter of subjectivity. Often religious telecasts, Christian magazines, and Christian biographies confuse the gospel with a person’s experience of the gospel. As a consequence, our criteria for determining spirituality are often confused, subjected to the criteria of personal experience.
www.christianitytoday.com
HAROLD BUSSELL
|
I have been confronted during 15 years of ministry in California, Europe, and New England with many evangelicals who either have come out of cults or are attracted to a cult. In all of my conversations with such people, the central issue has never focused on cultic doctrine. Usually, doctrine was an after-the-fact issue. What, then, makes our people in the evangelical community vulnerable to cults?
A close examination of every major cult today, with the exception of Eastern cults, reveals that many began in an evangelical church or with a leader from an evangelical background. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church (Moonies), was raised in a missionary Presbyterian home. Jim Jones, founder of the People’s Temple, accepted Christ in a Nazarene church and was pastor of an interdenominational charismatic church and a Disciples of Christ church. Moses David, founder of the Children of God, came out of a Christian and Missionary Alliance background. Victor Paul Wierwille, founder of The Way, was an evangelical, and a Reformed pastor. Many of the older, more established cults had evangelical roots, including Christian Science and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
What is common to these churches and church leaders who have been led to cultism?
First, they all started by describing themselves as in opposition to their local church or denomination, or to the church at large. They had discovered the ideal church. The foundation was always begun with an identity by opposition.
Second, in these systems the pastor or leader was placed in a position beyond confrontation, coupled with a tight discipleship or shepherding approach to instruction.
Third, these groups placed a high emphasis on group sharing, testimonies, spirituality, devotions, and in some cases, Bible study.
Fourth, in these groups the leader had gained some new spiritual insight emphasizing the last days, healing, community, or spirituality.
Fifth, these groups placed a high value on community and caring.
Finally, all such groups slowly developed their own subcultural spiritual language.
Many evangelicals who are drawn to cults are not drawn because of beliefs or doctrine but because of similarities to Christianity that we value as marks of spirituality. The members of the People’s Temple never expected to end up in Jonestown, as Mel White so clearly illustrates in his movie Deceived. It is easy for us as churches and as individuals to write off these groups and try to remove by remote control our responsibility to face our own vulnerability to cultic deception. If you think you or your church are not vulnerable to these dynamics, you are the most vulnerable. In all my conversations with former cult members, and with those presently struggling with cultic leanings, I have found five similarities between cults and evangelical churches.
Defining Spirituality
We evangelicals place a high emphasis on our experience of Christ. So do the cults. We have a tendency to witness to our conversion rather than of Christ. We often view our conversion experience as the gospel; it is not. The gospel is that Jesus Christ entered human history, died, and rose from the dead. If you believe in him as Savior, you stand before God totally in the clear.
Our overemphasis on subjective experience has some of its roots in the reactions to rationalism, naturalism, and liberalism that infiltrated the Protestant church during the past century. Lacking an apologetic base, gospel verification soon became a matter of subjectivity. Often religious telecasts, Christian magazines, and Christian biographies confuse the gospel with a person’s experience of the gospel. As a consequence, our criteria for determining spirituality are often confused, subjected to the criteria of personal experience.
Beware of Cults with Their Evangelical Trappings
I have been confronted during 15 years of ministry in California, Europe, and New England with many evangelicals who either have come out of cults or are attracted to a cult. In all of my conversations ...
www.christianitytoday.com
