When Bible Christianity Becomes a Cult

      This Ramble is likely going to upset some, but I believe this needs to be said and talked about. 

     I was reading a couple of posts by friends on Facebook earlier today. This, in and of itself, is not unusual. I read Facebook every day, several times a day, and far more than I actually should for my own mental health. But there was something about these two, somewhat contrasting posts that I haven’t been able to just let go of. As I thought more about it, I realized there was a profound and uncomfortable truth which Bible churches in the United States frequently ignore or don’t want to see.

     The first post I read was about “Christian Cults” and how to identify them. Of course, the usual suspects were identified: The Latter Day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Seventh Day Adventists. The friend who re-posted the article is a Calvinist and subscribes to Reformed theology so none of this surprised me. The author of the article then went on to define a cult as a group or theology that does not subscribe to one or more of the theological positions so listed:  

1) the full deity and perfect humanity of Christ, 

2) His substitutionary death on the cross for our sins,

3) the Trinity,

4) justification or salvation by faith alone apart from works,

5) the virgin birth of Christ,

6) the Bible as without error,

7) the Bible as the only book that God has given, and

8) the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

     I couldn’t say I disagreed necessarily with any of these theological positions, but there was something about this article which didn’t sit well with me for the rest of the day. Honestly, I couldn’t put my finger on why, but something within me kept saying this definition of a cult was wrong and incomplete.

     A little bit of scrolling through Facebook later and I came across the very personal and courageous description by a friend of the physical abuse she, her mother, and her siblings suffered at the hands of her father. I had known this friend and her siblings from youth group at the church we both grew up in, and knew nothing about this. Her father was a deacon in the church we attended.

     After a while, another realization hit me. I knew the author was wrong about what really defines a cult, but only then did I understand why. Cults, as we understand them in modern society, aren’t defined by the doctrines and teachings they hold necessarily. They’re defined by the secrecy they keep. They’re defined by the half truths they tell their members which then become outright lies meant to keep them submissive and in line. They’re defined by leaders in the church who abuse their power, and a church system that sweeps everything under the rug to protect them. Do we see this in the aforementioned “cults”? Yes. Not everyone though, and not every local church and chapter. But there is no question that it is present, especially in their historical foundations. Do we see this in many Bible churches? The answer there, unfortunately, is also yes. We see this almost as much in “theologically sound” churches as much as we see it in “heretical” churches.

     Many Bible churches discourage reading anything, watching anything, or ingesting any “media” or information of which they do not approve, or of which they disagree. They also tend to discourage honest questions which arise when either history, science, or even Scripture itself plainly contradicts their approved theological viewpoint or point of practice (and often political alignments as well). The truth is that such questions are threatening to them because, frequently, they themselves do not have the foundation or background to answer them sufficiently. Such questions then become a threat to the established theology or ideology which forms the foundation of the members’ faith. When that theology becomes threatened with reasonable questions, the usual response is to attack the questioner and question their faith. I still remember overhearing a conversation between two teenagers about how one’s mother practically silenced him on influence and pressure from her church when he simply asked why he shouldn’t read a certain author’s book. The name of the church he mentioned is part of a well known Bible church “franchise” in California. The teenager was adamant he would never return to that church.

    Pastors and church leaders are frequently placed on pedestals, and there are more than a few that are willing to take advantage of that for personal and financial gain. This is just as true in Bible churches as it is in any other religious body, and especially with very large “megachurches” with well known “celebrity pastors.” Their writings, and most such do publish books, become a kind of deutero-canon for their churches which is virtually never challenged or questioned any more than the Christian practice or “Christlikeness” of the pastor is questioned or challenged. When the pastor uses his position to his advantage to abuse a congregant, frequently the congregant is too frightened to speak up. If they do, they are disbelieved, shouted down, and excommunicated for daring to accuse such a godly man.

    What good does it do for a church if they have a correct doctrine, but their leadership keeps the people uninformed, ignorant, and at times frightened in order to maintain power and cover up their own abuses?

     Christianity, true “Biblical” Christianity as Jesus Christ, St. Paul, St. John, and the rest of the New Testament authors taught is not a set of theological doctrines but a discipline and a practice of submission to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ so that His life would express and manifest within and through you. It was seen and on display for the world to see in the Apostolic Church, and in the pre-Nicene Church of the first three centuries C.E. It was defined, not by one’s theology per se, but by the love, compassion, and power of Jesus Christ manifesting within and through the Christian. They didn’t care what a person said he believed, or even what he taught. They wouldn’t call a person a Christian if that person didn’t live, practice, and act like Jesus Christ.

     Cults teach that everything depends on them, and you can’t be saved without them. Christianity teaches that everything depends on Jesus Christ, and that salvation can only be found with union and submission to His death, burial, and resurrection.