S
Hello All,
I have been thinking about the question of why cults appeal to some seekers, and why they end up as cultists.
As a young seeker, I was drawn into a Sabbath and festival seeking cult called Worldwide Church of God (Armstrongism). Worldwide Church of God no longer exists, but many splinter groups that teach the same doctrinal error exist.
My mother was a member of WCG so that probably gave them more credibility than they would have had otherwise. However, that wasn't the only reason they appealed to me.
Here are some of the things I've come up with in terms of reasons why they appealed to me at the time.
One, the Christian church is full of incompetent pastors and teachers. As I write this, I want to be careful when I say this, as I think that most of those who are incompetent and teach foolishness are tares and goats, and not true believers.
For a seeker whose only view of Christianity is the television set or Youtube, though, they are assaulted with all kinds of truth claims from "teachers" who claim to be Christians, yet hold the craziest theologies. TBN is a good example of that. There's little intellectual content to much of what they teach. For individuals who value well-reasoned teaching, some of the cults are more appealing as they provide "answers" to important questions regarding faith, even if their "answers" are wrong.
If such seekers were exposed to sounder teaching, such as that of RC Sproul, John MacArthur, David Platt, Tim Keller, Francis Chan, Ravi Zacharias, and many others, they would not develop a caricature of Christianity like some of the more extreme charismatic and Word of Faith elements present. They would be less attracted to bad sources of information like the cults.
Two, the theology of cults appeal to human pride and vanity. One of their doctrines was that those who were members of WCG would be kings and priests in the Millennium. In addition, they would be God beings in the resurrection.
I realize more and more as time goes on that my intellectual pride and vanity had a role in my entrapment into Armstrongism. That is a factor that the Christian church cannot eliminate, as intellectual pride and vanity is part of our own psyche, so I have to take the blame for that one.
Three, I believe that Christian teachers are inflexible when it comes to some issues which are peripheral and this creates opportunities for cults to use those issues to their advantage. For instance, take the subject of eternal torment versus annihilationism. I take no position on this issue, as I see arguments for both sides. The annihilationist reads the scripture and sees language such as "perish", "death", and "destroy" and this indicates finality for him. The traditionalist looks at the same scriptures and sees Lazarus and the Rich Man and references to eternal torment such as "gnashing of teeth" that indicates suffering, as well as the weight of church history on this topic.
Cults are quick to use disputable topics like this to make accusations about other Christian teachings. They convince the seeker that their position on this issue is correct, and use that to gain credibility with the seeker. They then seek to discredit other doctrines, which are solid and indisputable, such as the Trinity. If the Christian church was more yielding on peripheral issues, this opportunity for using them as a lever would not be present.
Four, I believe there is a sincere desire amongst some young seekers to follow God as fully and devotedly as they can, and these cults are extreme. For example, it was basically required for me to attend weekly Bible study, Sabbath services, and a mens' club, as well as singles activities whenever scheduled, despite a 35 mile drive each way. So, groups like this demand participation. For a young person who is seeking to serve God, this is appealing in a way. Their youthful energy and enthusiasm is exercised within such groups. Spending a lot of time together develops camaraderie unlike many churches have (although I have attended some orthodox churches that have the same camaraderie and activity level..the funny thing is they get accused of being cults too by some).
Five, the morality level of some within the Christian church is lower than it should be, and this leads to accusations or insinuations of antinomianism by cults. Works oriented cults will accuse Christians of being "loose livers" because of their position regarding salvation by grace through faith alone. They insinuate that this focus results in immorality. If they view the church as a whole, they see statistics which seem to prove their point, however they do not realize that these statistics reflect a lot of tares and goats.
The more rigid lifestyles that some of these groups impose appeals to those who are seeking to pursue a moral lifestyle. However, the reality isn't as ideal as their portrayal of themselves. The sin may not be as visible, but it's still there. For instance, I remember a story about some students at Ambassador College, WCG's college, who were having a party and ordered pizza. They were very indignant when the pizza guy brought pizza with pepperoni on it, which would have violated the clean/unclean meat laws. Never mind that they were engaged in various levels of fornication prior to his arrival.
These are just a few thoughts I have when comparing cultic groups with the Christian church. I think there is some room for improvement within orthodox Christian circles on these points. I don't want to be too critical as the church has wheat and tares, sheep and goats in its midst and I might be addressing the behavior of tares and goats more than genuine believers.
I have been thinking about the question of why cults appeal to some seekers, and why they end up as cultists.
As a young seeker, I was drawn into a Sabbath and festival seeking cult called Worldwide Church of God (Armstrongism). Worldwide Church of God no longer exists, but many splinter groups that teach the same doctrinal error exist.
My mother was a member of WCG so that probably gave them more credibility than they would have had otherwise. However, that wasn't the only reason they appealed to me.
Here are some of the things I've come up with in terms of reasons why they appealed to me at the time.
One, the Christian church is full of incompetent pastors and teachers. As I write this, I want to be careful when I say this, as I think that most of those who are incompetent and teach foolishness are tares and goats, and not true believers.
For a seeker whose only view of Christianity is the television set or Youtube, though, they are assaulted with all kinds of truth claims from "teachers" who claim to be Christians, yet hold the craziest theologies. TBN is a good example of that. There's little intellectual content to much of what they teach. For individuals who value well-reasoned teaching, some of the cults are more appealing as they provide "answers" to important questions regarding faith, even if their "answers" are wrong.
If such seekers were exposed to sounder teaching, such as that of RC Sproul, John MacArthur, David Platt, Tim Keller, Francis Chan, Ravi Zacharias, and many others, they would not develop a caricature of Christianity like some of the more extreme charismatic and Word of Faith elements present. They would be less attracted to bad sources of information like the cults.
Two, the theology of cults appeal to human pride and vanity. One of their doctrines was that those who were members of WCG would be kings and priests in the Millennium. In addition, they would be God beings in the resurrection.
I realize more and more as time goes on that my intellectual pride and vanity had a role in my entrapment into Armstrongism. That is a factor that the Christian church cannot eliminate, as intellectual pride and vanity is part of our own psyche, so I have to take the blame for that one.
Three, I believe that Christian teachers are inflexible when it comes to some issues which are peripheral and this creates opportunities for cults to use those issues to their advantage. For instance, take the subject of eternal torment versus annihilationism. I take no position on this issue, as I see arguments for both sides. The annihilationist reads the scripture and sees language such as "perish", "death", and "destroy" and this indicates finality for him. The traditionalist looks at the same scriptures and sees Lazarus and the Rich Man and references to eternal torment such as "gnashing of teeth" that indicates suffering, as well as the weight of church history on this topic.
Cults are quick to use disputable topics like this to make accusations about other Christian teachings. They convince the seeker that their position on this issue is correct, and use that to gain credibility with the seeker. They then seek to discredit other doctrines, which are solid and indisputable, such as the Trinity. If the Christian church was more yielding on peripheral issues, this opportunity for using them as a lever would not be present.
Four, I believe there is a sincere desire amongst some young seekers to follow God as fully and devotedly as they can, and these cults are extreme. For example, it was basically required for me to attend weekly Bible study, Sabbath services, and a mens' club, as well as singles activities whenever scheduled, despite a 35 mile drive each way. So, groups like this demand participation. For a young person who is seeking to serve God, this is appealing in a way. Their youthful energy and enthusiasm is exercised within such groups. Spending a lot of time together develops camaraderie unlike many churches have (although I have attended some orthodox churches that have the same camaraderie and activity level..the funny thing is they get accused of being cults too by some).
Five, the morality level of some within the Christian church is lower than it should be, and this leads to accusations or insinuations of antinomianism by cults. Works oriented cults will accuse Christians of being "loose livers" because of their position regarding salvation by grace through faith alone. They insinuate that this focus results in immorality. If they view the church as a whole, they see statistics which seem to prove their point, however they do not realize that these statistics reflect a lot of tares and goats.
The more rigid lifestyles that some of these groups impose appeals to those who are seeking to pursue a moral lifestyle. However, the reality isn't as ideal as their portrayal of themselves. The sin may not be as visible, but it's still there. For instance, I remember a story about some students at Ambassador College, WCG's college, who were having a party and ordered pizza. They were very indignant when the pizza guy brought pizza with pepperoni on it, which would have violated the clean/unclean meat laws. Never mind that they were engaged in various levels of fornication prior to his arrival.
These are just a few thoughts I have when comparing cultic groups with the Christian church. I think there is some room for improvement within orthodox Christian circles on these points. I don't want to be too critical as the church has wheat and tares, sheep and goats in its midst and I might be addressing the behavior of tares and goats more than genuine believers.
