"You belong to me!"
While these are not exactly the words of a grand old hymn, this is a song title that nicely represents the point of view of almost every cult leader. Cults actually bring their followers into psychological and spiritual slavery.
A very interesting description of the believer in Jesus Christ is found in our Lord's statement, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). We may well sympathize with the response of Nicodemus, the well organized Jewish religionist, when he said, "How can these things be?" Nicodemus was astonished both with the assertion of Jesus Christ about the necessity of the new birth and with this remarkable statement of Christian freedom.
This same theme -- the freedom of the believer in Jesus Christ -- is echoed in many places through the New Testament. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). "Let every man be fully persuaded [what is right about doubtful things] in his own mind" (Romans 14:5). "Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men" (1 Corinthians 7:23).
So important to the writers of Scripture is the preservation of Christian freedom that we are not only advised that we possess it, but we are carefully warned never to lose it. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galations 5:1). The reason we must work to avoid entanglement in the yoke of bondage is "for, brethren, you have been called unto liberty" (Galations 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. No doubt there are and always will be individuals whose physical, mental, or spiritual inferiority make them vulnerable to the dominance of others. The religious leader has a solemn obligation to refuse to take advantage of that vulnerability. He must not use his gifts or talents as the leverage to power. He must avoid like the plague the temptation that will surely come to him to organize followers around himself rather than around Christ.
The Word of God is clear; spiritual leadership is to be 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 representing another Christ than the One presented in Holy Scripture.
The promoters of the cults obey no such rules as Scripture 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 leaders' 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. To them the purpose of a religious organization is not that it becomes a living segment of the body of Christ but a personally exploitable syndicate.
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 victory over or subjugation of the people.
The exaggerated distinction between "clergy" and "laity" 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. The super organizers were already appearing in the days of early Christianity. The program of the subjugation of the people had begun! Already the "laymen" were considered exploitable commodities to be mastered by their religious leaders.
We can well imagine the efficient organizers of the churches at Ephesus and Pergamos conversing. "Well, we obviously cannot trust the ignorant men and women who came to our church from the normal pursuits of life to study the Bible for themselves. It is surely our responsibility to interpret God for their lives. After all, that is the responsibility of our exalted leadership."
Power corrupts! This is not only true in the realm of politics, it is tragically true also in the area of religion. We can be very sure of the attitude of God in that He complimented the church at Ephesus for literally hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans, about which He said, "I also hate." The religious ascendancy of a group of spiritual elitists over the mass of the people is a belief that is hated by God. The Lord is emphasizing to us that the subjugation of the people is despised by God.
How quickly do people work to give official doctrinal sanction to activities which are merely personal or organizational inventions. Who can doubt but that many religious organizations of our time are simply efforts to organize people around some central loyalty other than Jesus Christ Himself. The church at Ephesus was warned that it had fallen and must repent because 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 demands total commitment by its convert to an entangling organization, enmeshing him in an impossible set of human rules. Like a fly, he moves into the web. Soon comes the spider.
Whatever else the cultic leaders may be, they are super-organizers. It is impossible for a cult to succeed without conserving its gains and enrolling its followers with increasingly demanding obligations to the leader and the organization. The cult is usually represented to the captured 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 involvement 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. (2 Peter 2:19).
Organizational initiation is followed by peer group pressure until finally the pitiful devotee is terror-stricken at the prospect of dropping out of his suspicious entanglements.
There are large religious groups in the world which preach the doctrine of damnation for all outside their particular organization. When people have repeatedly announced that all others beside the members of their Church are lost for eternity; they are merely exerting pressure for membership in their organizations.
The Christian has been delivered from all such nonsense. He knows that the word loyalty is only applicable in a final sense when applied to our relationship to Jesus Christ Himself. The devotion that Christians have for one another is in loving response to the indwelling Holy Spirit, not submission to an enslaving external organization.
It is a truism that the less truth a movement represents, the more highly it must organize. Truth has its own magnetism 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 Christian is well advised to heed the advice of the Apostle Paul, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galations 5:1).
The only imperative membership which the true Christian recognizes is membership in the body of Christ. While he may well belong to a group which places great emphasis on membership in the local church, being a Christian he places no confidence in this as the basis for his eternal life. The perceptive Christian is a unique kind of an individual in that he is unable to be "organized" in the same sense as others who place life-and-death importance on their organizational involvement. Jesus Christ has set him free, and no one is entitled to take this freedom from him.
Free indeed!
(from Know the Marks of Cults - the 12 Basic Errors of False Religion by Dave Breese)
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