Meditation - How to Avoid Living in a Cult
by Isaac Overton
Imagine what it would be like to live in a cult? I have a friend from Canberra, Elizabeth Coleman, who didn’t need to imagine. She had spent a chunk of her life experiencing it. Let me share a few excerpts from her book, Cult to Christ, to give you a feel for it’s like to live in a cult. And, by the way, her book is worth a read!
“I was born in 1974, in Canberra, Australia. My parents already belonged to this closed religious group that refused to give itself a name. In fact, I was fourth-generation one side and third generation the other. We referred to our group as The Way, The Truth, The Fellowship or The Meetings, and called each other The Friends or professing. We refused a formal label, seeking to emphasize the point that we were not just another church, but the One True Way”.
Elizabeth goes on to describe what it was like to live as a member of this community: “Like most cult adherents, I was strongly convinced that our way was the only ‘right way’ of salvation on earth. I did not, of course, identify myself as being in a cult… The inner world of the cult is a parallel world, an alternative reality, where we were aliens even within our own nation, race, culture and society. The first allegiance was not to God, family or friends, and submission was not firstly to the law. Above all else was submission to the leaders, and allegiance to the system, protecting its reputation at all costs… The fundamental nature of a cult is about authority reinforced by fear and control. The designated leaders wield extraordinary power over their underlings, who have no option but to respond in submission unless they want to risk being cast out into the world…”.
Imagine if you’d been born into this kind of community? Your life is completely shaped by the only society you’ve ever known, the rules are unspoken but dominant. The way you live your life is subtly controlled by patterns of behaviour and words so wily that you barely even realise you’re under their influence. Fear and control direct your lifestyle, though a lot of the time you wouldn’t really realise that. How could you even break out of this fog when you were born into it? As far as faith and salvation are concerned, it’s even more murky. Elizabeth goes on to describe her experience on this as well:
“It is very hard to define the doctrines of The Way, as we claimed to have no written creeds, doctrine or theology. The workers always said, “our doctrine is in the Bible.” Most importantly, we did not have an earthly founder. No mere mortal had initiated our group…despite being cosily ensconced in the nest of God’s true people, the possibility of actually gaining salvation seemed as uncertain and fleeting as a shadow...There was a chance of salvation by virtue of being a professing member of The Way, but we still had to meet many conditions and live by many unwritten rules”.
Most of us don’t live under the entrapment of a cult, but life under the control and fear of a cult is, in one sense, nothing more than a uniquely concentrated form of the bondage into which we are all born. And which one of us could truly say that we have never felt the pulling power of the fear of man? Fearing men represents a spiritual snare to us (Prov 29:25). It pulls on our desire for accolades from other people (Jn 12:42-43).
The doctrine of scripture’s sufficiency gives us protection from the bondage that comes with being bound by the rules of men. Jesus gave us a warning against this danger in Matthew 15:8-9, which says: “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” God teaches us in scripture that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments (Ecc 12:13). There is neither need, warrant, nor safety in adding the rules of men to our Christian duties, and we must jealously guard the boundaries of what duties we place upon ourselves. In fact, we are commanded to keep ourselves free from being in bondage to mere men: “You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men” (1 Cor 7:23). Article 6 of the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church captures this well: “Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.”
Guarding those boundaries will mean that we need to be serious, prayerful, active students of scripture all the days of our lives. And when I say serious, I mean serious. The kingdom of heaven is taken by force, not by those who don’t bother to pick up their Bibles and feed on God’s word daily. “Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so” (Deut 4:10). The psalmist’s example shows us what this looks like in real life: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps 119:9-11). Is that what you are like?
SDG.
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Pastor Isaac Overton