R380 How To Prevent Cults from Invading Your Home

Today on The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton, he takes on a remarkable subject about how to prevent cults from invading your home. I believe that God would have me this morning to preach on a subject that is absolutely vital and critical to the home. How to prevent a cult from invading your home.

How to prevent a cult from invading your home. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 22. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 22, wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

To make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it just as Christ does the church. For we are members of his body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh.

This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you must also love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Now I want you to turn with me back to Matthew chapter 24.

Wonderful to hear all those pages turning. Matthew's Gospel chapter 24 and verse 23. This is what Jesus said. Matthew chapter 24 and verse 23. At that time, if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ or there he is.

Do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear. Not may appear, could possibly appear. They will appear. And what will they do? They will perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. See, I have told you this ahead of time, said the Lord Jesus Christ.

May he write his words on our hearts today. What is a cult? We hear all different kinds of definitions about cults, don't we? The people who say this and there are people who say that. People normally associate cults with Jim Jones' People's Temple and the jungles of Guyana with Doe in California and 39 people.

What happened in Switzerland last year? Some of the radical groups like the Reverend Sun Young Moon and the Unification Church, which is unapologetically a cult. But there are many cults. Many people from cults come knocking on your door during the week.

They ride bicycles around the communities. They are many times wonderful people. In fact, some of them are some of the finest people that you could ever meet upon the face of the earth. They espouse family values. They have television commercials that hit right at the very heartbeat of everything that we are because they talk about things that are of value. They talk about important things. They talk about principles and about ethics and about morality.

They have an all-American look about them. Psychologists define cults as any group which deviates from cultural norms. In fact, the word cult comes from the word cultural and it's a deviation from the norm. In fact, cult is a shortened version, if you please, of cultural.

Anything that deviates from the norm of culture, but it goes further than that. The dictionary, if you want to look it up, defines the cult as a group of followers. I don't like that definition because if that were the case, everybody would be a member of a cult. Even supporters of the Atlanta Braves would be a member of the cult.

And some of you might say, well, they are what seems to be the problem. But it's not just a group of followers. Dr. Walter Martin, who wrote the book The Rise of the Cults, this is what he determined was a cult for a Christian. Let me quote it for you. A cult is a group of people polarized around someone's interpretation of the Bible.

And is characterized by major deviations from orthodox Christianity relative to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, particularly the fact that God became man in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. What is happening, dear friends, is that the cults are not a thing of the past. Most of us breathe the sigh of relief when over 700 people killed themselves in Guyana. We said that could never happen again in America. People are too educated. America, after all, is a Christian nation.

And yet time without number. We see the tragedies of Waco, Texas, and David Koresh. We see what's happening in New York with the Reverend Sun Young Moon, where literally thousands upon thousands of people are being duped every day into buying in to these mindsets and things that are major deviations, not just from culture, but from the word of God. What is a cult? I think in order to try and determine what it is the Bible would have us to do in order to prevent a cult from infiltrating our homes, we've got to understand what a cult really is. Let me share with you just eight marks of a cult briefly this morning.

We cannot do justice, obviously. Number one concerning Jesus Christ. If you were to say today, pastor, how can I know if a cult is a cult? You must begin at the point of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

Now that word begotten is key because it means that Jesus Christ is the only one of a kind. There is none like as unto him. He alone is Lord. He's the one who is the Son of God. He is not less than God.

He is God. And if you want to know what a cult believes, you go and begin to talk to them about the Lord Jesus Christ. When someone knocks on your door and you have the time to engage them in a conversation, focus the attention on the Lord Jesus Christ. But never be surprised that the first thing they will tell you is that they believe in Jesus Christ. Most cults will tell you they believe in Jesus Christ.

And that's how they take the wind out of the sails of evangelical Christians. But it's what they believe about Jesus Christ that is the most significant thing. Even the devil believes in Jesus Christ, my friends.

Satan believes in Jesus Christ. But it's what they believe to be true about Jesus Christ based upon his word. Number two, concerning theology. You see, friends, if you're going to find out what they believe about Jesus Christ, you're going to begin to uncover somewhat of an understanding of their theology. You see, their doctrine finds its root and its source in different means. The Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, they claim that one cannot understand the Bible without their publications.

The May 1st, 1957 Watchtower magazine stated, and I quote, God has not arranged for that word to speak independently or to shine forth life-giving truths by itself. Where does their theology come from? The Mormons, in their publication, The Pearl of Great Price, they announce, and I quote, on page 64, we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. What does that mean in terms of their theology?

It means, my friends, that they regard the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price as being far more reliable than the word of God. Question number one, Jesus Christ. Question number two, theology. What about the Unification Church led by Sun Yung Moon in its book Divine Principle on page nine? And I quote, the Bible, however, is not the truth itself, but a textbook teaching the truth.

We must not regard the textbook as absolute in every detail. What about Christian scientists? I'm going to quote for you on page 139 of their book Science and Health with a Key to the Scripture, a material and mortal sense stole into the divine record with its own hue darkening to some extent the inspired pages. No wonder that Christian science founder Mary Baker Eddy uses all these means and methods to remove the hue and the darkness of the inspired pages in any way that she seems fit. What is their theology?

Where does it come from? Number three, concerning leadership. You see, leadership is the third characteristic and perhaps the greatest hallmark of a cult. Always a charismatic leader will be in the center. Whether it's Jim Jones, whether it's David Koresh, whether it is Smith, whether it is Sun Yung Moon, it doesn't matter who it is, where they come from, Doe in California, there is always a charismatic leader who rises up to form a cult.

What is he doing? He has accepted to undertake Christ's aborted messianic mission. What do these leaders say? These leaders say that they have received a special revelation from God. Whether it be the angel Moroni, whether it be they were on a mountain somewhere, whether it be they had a vision, whether it be they were doing this or doing that, the fact of the matter, if you want to know if a cult is a cult, always look for a charismatic leader. There is always going to be somebody somewhere who is going to claim that they have taken the place of Jesus Christ.

Always. There is a proverbial denial of John 14 verse 6 where Jesus said, I alone am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come unto the Father but by me. Number four, concerning freedom. Concerning freedom, cults will always take away human freedom. The denial of the individual to exist. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 23.

You were bought with a price. Do not become the slaves of man. Do not bow down to any man. The Bible says thou shalt have no other gods before me. That is idolatrous. And when you have no other gods before you, never become subject to a denial of the special relationship that God gives to you with Jesus Christ as an individual person.

I've got some good news for you today, my friends. My relationship with Jesus Christ is not based on what I do for or with anybody. It is a personal one on one eyeball to eyeball relationship with a personal Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And it is to Him that I owe all praise, all homage, all adoration.

It is the Lord Jesus Christ. A cult takes away that freedom. Number five, concerning isolationism.

Concerning isolationism. One of the hallmarks of a cult who would try to invade your home is that they would try to shut down your individuality within your home and they would cause you to retreat. Now if you're a parent here today and you say, well, how do I know if my child could become prone to cults?

If your child increasingly withdraws, shuts off, you're talking about a prime candidate. There are many other offshoots of that related to depression and suicide and all other kinds of things, but we're talking about cults here, folks. We're talking about the home. What do these people do? It is an us versus you mentality. It's us versus the world. They cultivate a kind of pseudo-elitism through their cultish personality. They put parents against children, grandparents against their parents and on and on it goes and it goes. It divides asunder. Number six, concerning belonging. Belonging is a sixth mark of a cult. You see, they establish a brotherhood. Everybody wants to belong, don't we?

People do that. We gravitate to those areas where we're going to belong most of all. I'm going to talk about what to do about this in just a moment. In the light of God's Word, they have a brotherhood and a sisterhood. They create a paranoia with regard to anybody else and it was in the context of their particular organization or cult that one achieves unity and oneness to the exclusion of everybody and anything else.

Number seven, concerning bizarre acts. A cult is always characterized by bizarre acts, whether it is the way they cut their hair, the clothes that they wear, the manner with which they sing, the content of the songs they sing, the sacrifices they make. I remember being up in Alberta, Canada many years ago and dealing with cults up there. One of their characteristic hallmarks was the issue of sacrifices.

You see what they do, folks? They go back and they study the Old Testament and they take out certain things that they believe would be uplifting and edifying to their group and one of those things is sacrificing. Many cults today are getting into animal sacrifices and I hate to tell you this but it's true. Many cults today go to extremes and get into human sacrifices. We know that witchcraft and Satanism, the occult, and I'm not preaching on these subjects at this point in time but they're involved in all kinds of bizarre acts but there's an eighth final but not conclusive mark of a cult concerning love. Love is always the single fact that merges in the middle of a cult and dear friends, most of the time, love related to a cult deals with human sexuality. In different forms, you can go from the sublime to the ridiculous.

There are extreme forms and there are mild forms. Let me share a couple of you concerning cults and the matter of love, human sexuality. One of the groups, many of them, believe in the no gender approach. One of the things that cults want to do in your home is they want to tell your children that if you want to be a real man, you need to look like and behave like a woman. Then they're going to tell your daughter that if you want to be a real woman, you need to look like and behave like a man. One of the agendas of the cults, my friends, is to eliminate male and femaleness.

It is to deny the very essence of the creation of God. That's one of the great battles we're facing in the world today. There's the other extreme which is free love. That means that your body doesn't belong to you.

It belongs to anybody and everybody else. This came out of some of the hippie movements and existed all the way back into the Roman Empire times. This is the ultimate promiscuity. This is the ultimate sexual revolution but finds its expression within a cult that would seek to infiltrate into the homes and to destroy the lives of men and women and boys and girls. Another group would believe in polygamy.

Polygamy means that a man can marry as many wives as he wants to. Where do they get this from? They get it from their theology, folks. They get it from the divine revelation to the leader where the leader decides that he's had a revelation from God that they need to multiply and have as many babies by as many women as possible.

Why? Because what's the reason for a polygamous approach to a cult mentality? It is so that the souls of those who are in captive can inhabit the bodies of those who are born so that they too can be elevated to the celestial city.

No different from Hale Bop. No different from wanting to die so that you can be scooped up in the U-Haul trailer that follows Hale Bop Comet and therefore be elevated into the kingdom of God. Polygamy, my friend, finds its root in a perverted and a twisted theology. And you go back and you ask, what do they believe about God? What do they believe about Jesus Christ? Where is their theology?

Who is the charismatic leader? Powerful questions and forgive the interruption. We'll be back with those answers from Dr. Don Wilton here on The Encouraging Word in just a moment. But Dr. Don wants to remind you that we're available to pray with you to connect you with great resources any time at this phone number. Jot it down.

Store it in your cell. It's 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. We're also connecting on our website at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don. There are other groups who believe in the seed of David. Jim Jones was like that, a church I served in South Louisiana.

We had a man in our community who wrote me letters, threatened me, sent everything you could imagine for about four years of my six-year ministry until one Sunday morning he dropped dead at the age of 44 outside of his home. But before this man dropped dead outside of his home in that little community in Louisiana, he began to create a cult that was based upon the seed of David. Basically this theology which comes according to him through a revelation of God means that he is the seed of David. What does that mean in terms of human sexuality? It means exactly what Jim Jones did.

It doesn't matter if she's your wife. She must sleep with me because, Jim Jones said, the greatest blessing in her life would be to receive the seed of Jim Jones or to receive the seed of the cult leader, thereby procreating and developing and reproducing the seed of David, thereby retaining the Abrahamic covenant. I don't have time to get into all this theology, folks, but I can tell you something. It's not based upon the Word of God. There are others who practice extreme celibacy.

One of the tragedies of this latest effort was that we know that many of the men were castrated and muted. There were all kinds of practices that came out of this cult group, and it all comes down concerning love. Jesus Christ, theology, theology, leadership, freedom, isolationism, belonging, bizarre acts and love. What does it all amount to? Well, it amounts to four things.

A mathematical equation. If you say, what is a cult? You've got to think of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. A cult, addition.

Does the religious group under consideration add to the Word of God through indispensable publications that claim to give the Bible clear meaning or through present-day direct revelation from God? That's addition. Number two, subtraction. Does the examined group, the cult, subtract from the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ by making Him less God than His Father or by elevating man one day to become like Him? That's subtraction.

Number three, multiplication. Does this group multiply the requirements of salvation by making works a necessary condition for redemption? The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Do they multiply the conditions for salvation?

And fourth, division. Does this group in question divide the loyalty of its members between God and itself and its leaders? Does this group make devotion to the organisation a test of faith and consider adherence to itself the vehicle for salvation for its followers?

God said, thou shalt have no other gods before me. And so how does this all boil down, beloved, this morning? What can we do to prevent a cult from invading our home? I want to give you nine action words, nine things that you and I can do. Number one, pray. We need to pray for one another. I know it's simple and yet it's so profound. We need to pray for one another, folks. Number two, love.

Oh, that's a magic word, isn't it? Love, just love one another. Make sure that in your home, love is the name of the game. If you're not loving your mom or your dad, your son or daughter, your brother or sister, revisit the issue of love.

I'm talking about just good old fashioned down to earth, I love you. Number three, belong. That's the third action word. Develop a sense of belonging. Number four, gather, gather. Gather together, embrace. It speaks of embrace.

It speaks of warmth. Number five, teach. Number six, memorize. Memorize, we've forgotten what it means to remember Scripture. Number seven, disciple. Number eight, cultivate conviction. And number nine, invite others to come and hear the word about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Invite others. And that invitation continues. Would you open your heart now as Dr. Wilton steps into the studio to share what's on his heart next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just prayed with Dr. Wilton moments ago to give your life to Christ or rededicate your life to Jesus, welcome to the family and let us put resources in your hands that will help you grow. Call us at 866-899-WORD and let us put these in your hands. 866-899-9673 or meet us online at www.tewonline.org Just know that we'd love to connect with you. You know, I'm so glad that we've been able to share together by means of radio today. You just mean so much to me and how thankful we are for the word of God together. You can call right now and connect with me at 866-899-9673. Did you get that? 866-899-9673 Call and connect with me right now. Be sure and join us again tomorrow for The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton as he talks about husbands and wives. It's tomorrow's Bible study here on The Encouraging Word.