5/5 So who joins Cults away from Christian Foundations?
So far in our posts laying out the challenges to Christian Foundations, we have defined and explained how a Cult begins, along with a story of one Cult we have personally known.
In this post, we continue by looking at who are the most vulnerable to the Cult involvement and the usual Recruitment techniques used to gain members.
A. SO WHO ARE THE MOST VULNERABLE TO THE CULTS?
1. The general profile of someone caught in a Cult, or false Religion includes:
a. Someone who is disenchanted with the mainstream religious establishments,
b. Often people who are seeing some ‘truths’ the mainstream churches seem to ignore, such as using the pagan word ‘Easter’ to describe Jesus resurrection. Doubtless, some Cults do have some truth.
c. Intellectually confused over the truth found in the Bible but not willing to talk out the belief or philosophical issue with authorities – or has done so and been shut down and believes they have not been heard.
d. Sometimes, disenchantment society as a whole influences joining a Cult as they see answers in this new teaching.
e. Those who are already isolated and feeling alone, needed the comfort of a caring community.
f. Those who have no sense of purpose or been disillusioned with long term goals seem to find hope in Cults.
g. People who are financially needed or feeling hopeless in their place in life may turn to a ‘helpful’ group that turns out to be a Cult.
h. Physically ill or those fearful of the future many find a Cult provided what they think is to answer.
2. Everyone is vulnerable – except …..
a. In fact, just about anyone is vulnerable to the influence of a group of people who seem to have the answers, the compassion and caring words to fix a vulnerable person’s needs.
b. The rich, poor, educated, uneducated, old, young, previously religious, atheistic and so on, can be found in the Cult’s of today.
B. WHAT ARE THE CULTS RECRUITMENT METHODS THAT SUCK PEOPLE INTO THEIR GROUP?
1. They know the needs of the people around them and seek to fill that need in several ways:
a. Sometimes, there is a lot of physical contact like hugging, pats on the bad or touching.
b. The Cult members build emotional or intellectual support for someone in need. They seek to reassure them and make that needy person the center of attention.
c. The Cult may provide financial help. All this is done to instil a sense of indebtedness to the group, allowing the group to invite them into their ‘inner circle’ of love and peace.
2. Many Cults use their knowledge of the Bible to validity or confuse the ignorant person.
One common opening statement could be “So you think you are going to live in heaven when you die? What about the verse that says we will live on a new Earth? How do you reconcile that?”
a. Cults often take verses out of context or use their version of the Bible as a way of entering into discussions.
b. The person selling themselves as having ‘truth’ by misinterprets verses with their own philosophy and biases.
c. Gradually, the Cults adds more and more of their views as the person continues to listen and show interest. A slow process of reinforcing their beliefs convinces the person of this new truth as being valid.
d. New members are reinforced by other Cult members as ‘being on the right track’.
C. SO WHAT IS THE ANSWER TO THE CULTS?
The Only Answer to lure of the Cults and false Religions is to have a living relationship with the real, Biblical Lord Jesus Christ. Again it points back to knowing your Bible and being able to see the true from the false. We need to know the areas that the Cults have distorted, rewritten or ignored in our Christian Foundations.
Susanne Fengler, Blog Author
www.christianfoundations-jesus.treeoflife.info
Tags: Who joins Cults
Filed under: Challenges to the Christian Faith
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