It may not be much of a shock for
me to tell you that, every day people are recruited into new religious movements. You may find it a little more shocking, when I tell you that a some
of these converts were once sat in our pews. How can that be?
This is the first of two articles where I will consider three reasons why a person may leave the church and join a cult.
1) The
Church
Our first question should be: Was
this person ever a member of the church they attended? To answer this question,
we need to consider two further questions. Firstly, what is the church? and
secondly, how does a person become a member of the church?
You may have heard it said that the church is not the building it’s the people, this is true. The word translated ‘church’ in the Bible is the Greek word ‘ekklesia’ (ἐκκλησία). It can also be rightly translated as ‘assembly’ or ‘congregation’. Ekklesia is made from two words ‘ek’ meaning ‘out’ and ‘kaleo’ meaning ‘to call’. The church then is a group of people who have been called out, but called out from what and to what?
The church is made up of people who have been called out from
the world and who now belong to God. Called out of the darkness they are now in the
light. But how does this happen? How does a person become part of the church?
Church – The Building
Our church buildings may be full of
people on a Sunday, but how many of these people have been called out and belong
to God? How many of these people have repented, received Christ as their Lord
and Saviour and been forgiven of their sin? Those who have, now find themselves
to be members of the ekklesia – the church. In all probability the group of people gathered in our church buildings on a Sunday morning will most likely be made up of what Jesus called
the wheat and the tares. It is not our place to judge which are which,
but we know that those who do belong to Him will bear the fruit of repentance.
Because we know that not everyone
who attends church gatherings are truly part of the ekklesia, we must keep the
gospel message front and centre.
What is the Gospel?
In a nutshell, the gospel is the
good news about Jesus. The gospel message tells us that we are separated from
God because of our sin. God became man in Jesus. His reason for doing so was to
take the punishment that our sin deserves, and, through His resurrection, He
defeated death. God offers salvation and forgiveness to anyone who repents and
believes in His Son.
“For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life. John 3:16
2) The Teaching
On more than one occasion I have
had a cult member tell me that they used to be part of a church. They perhaps
grew up attending Sunday School or even held a position within the church. They
say something along the lines of: ‘Well I never really understood (fill in the
blank) when I was in church – but I do now’. Usually, with Jehovah’s Witnesses
you hear: ‘Well, I never understood that trinity stuff - it was so confusing. But
now I realise the word ‘trinity’ is not in the Bible because it is an
unbiblical pagan doctrine. Now I know the truth, I am no longer confused.’
How sad it is to hear these kinds
of comments, but they are very telling.
Deeds not Creeds
We are living at a time when what a
person does is valued far more highly than what a person believes. I will
consider this further in my next article, but it is enough to say here that this
is a false dichotomy. Surely, what we do flows from what we believe.
The problem for the church is that in
following suit it pushes doctrine, as if unimportant, to the side. The
resulting effect is that members of the church are not taught the
biblical, historical, orthodox teaching of the Christian Church.
Catechism
Catechesis is a practice forgotten by many in the modern
church. In the not-too-distant past believers would catechise their children
and new converts. This means that each person would be taught the beliefs and
practices of the Church – usually by a series of questions and answers.
Sinclair Ferguson, in his book ‘Faithful God’ reminds us
that:
Christians in an earlier generation rarely thought of writing
books on guidance. There is a reason for that (just as there is a reason why so
many of us today are drawn to books that will tell us how to find God’s will).
Our forefathers in the faith were catechised, and they taught catechisms to
their children. Often as much as half of the catechism would be devoted to an
exposition of the answers to questions like the following:
Question: Where
do we find God’s will?
Answer: In
the Scriptures.
Question: Where
in particular in the Scriptures?
Answer: In
the Commandments that God has given to us.
Why were these questions and answers so important? Because these
Christians understood that God’s law provides basic guidelines that cover the
whole of life. Indeed, in the vast majority of instances, the answer to the
question ‘What does God want me to do?’ will be found by answering the
question: ‘How does the law of God apply to this situation? What does the Lord
require of me here in his word?’[1]
Throughout its
history the Church has seen the need to formulate creeds (statements of belief)
to not only equip the saints with doctrinal truth, but also to arm the brethren
against falsehood.
If a so called
‘church-goer’ leaves to join a cult, it has to be that they have either not
been taught, or not understood the great truths upon which the church stands. It
is vitally important that we do not just affirm these truths, but we are able
to defend them, and say why they are true.
It is my conviction that those who
leave a church and join a cult have never truly known, nor understood, true
biblical doctrine.
Next time we will consider a further reason why a person may leave the church to join a cult.
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