Do you know someone who has left a church to join a cult? Sadly, I have heard many stories of those who have left behind Christian fellowship to join Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, or some other cultic group. Why does this happen?
I want to suggest three possible reasons:
i) Those who leave were just Church attenders.
ii) Those who leave were Church members but not members of the Church.
iii) Those who leave were ill-informed believers.
They were just Church attenders.
You may have heard it said that just as going to McDonalds doesn’t make you a Big Mac, so going to Church doesn’t make you a Christian. We may smile, but we understand the truth of this. Attending somewhere is not evidence of affiliation.
Many people will attend church because of tradition. It is something they have always done. Perhaps they were brought to church as a child, perhaps they were christened and confirmed and have just continued with church because that’s what they do. For such as these, the church is a place to gather socially, to catch up with friends or somewhere to take the kids on a Sunday morning. Yet they rarely get involved in anything else in the church. For example, you would never find them in a midweek Bible study group, nor would they be able to tell you anything substantive about the Christian faith. This should not surprise us. Jesus warned that amongst the wheat there would be tares.
Those in this category need to hear the gospel and to be convicted of their sin. They need to be called to true repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus. Once born-again, they then need to be taught the basics of the Christian faith. After which, they need to be trained in how defend the faith which was once and for all delivered to the Saints.
They were Church members but not members of the Church.
This second group is a step along from the church attenders. They are church members. These people do get involved in the life of the church, but usually only in social ways. They volunteer for most things, making the tea, cleaning the church, collecting, and sorting charitable donations. They may even have a job-title and a position in the church. Their face and name may even be on the noticeboard. They feel very much at home in the church, and it plays a big part in their life, but they don’t really connect with all that ‘bible stuff’. If they do, they only ever have a very superficial understanding of the Christian faith. They know that God loves them, and that Jesus died on the cross, but they are not sure why. When asked ‘Who is Jesus?’, they may respond by saying that he was a good person, a prophet, an example to follow but they don’t understand, or believe, that Jesus was God.
Such as these have never truly been born-again and understood the faith. Though they are seen as ‘members’ of the local physical church, they are not members of the worldwide spiritual Church, that which is the body of Christ, of which He is the head. They too need to repent, put their faith in Christ and be taught biblical truth.
They were ignorant believers.
This final group is the most troubling of all. Here we have those who have seemingly repented of their sins and put their faith in Jesus. They have perhaps been involved in church and bible study groups for years and attended numerous Christian conferences. They may have a testimony of coming to Christ. They can speak of a time when they were convicted and saw their need of Jesus, but they have only ever had a superficial understanding of Biblical truth. They never grew in the Word of God and so, at best, became stunted disciples. They could perhaps articulate Christian teaching but have never been able to defend it. Because of their lack of understanding, they left themselves exposed to falsehood. Though they should have been on solid food, they never progressed from milk, so when they opened the door to the cultist, they had no defence and were led into untruth.
Many are called, but few are trained.
When I was in my teens, I was invited to join a basketball team. I had never played basketball in my life, but my friend thought I would be good because I was tall-ish. I went along and was welcomed into the team. I began to be trained how to play the game. I was taught the rules, taught about offense and defence, how to hold the ball, catch the ball and throw the ball etc. How strange it would have been for me to be received into the team and then not be trained, yet this is what happens time and again in the church.
We welcome people into our churches, we encourage and celebrate their attendance and then act like they have arrived. They are never trained or instructed in the way of the Lord. In the past, new converts were trained through a process named catechesis.
Catechize Me
Catechism (from the Greek word catechesis) is simply instruction in the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. Instead of replacing or supplanting the role of the Bible in Christian education, catechism ideally serves as the basis for it. For the practice of catechism, as properly understood, is the Christian equivalent of looking at the box top of a jig-saw puzzle before one starts to put all of those hundreds of little pieces together.[1]
Catechesis a pattern of religious instruction. Newly converted Christians would be instructed in the Christian faith, and so become competent in their use of the Scriptures. This took place often in the form of questions and answers.
The advantage that the cultists have over the average Christian is that they have usually been catechised in what they believe. This means that they not only know thoroughly what they believe, they also know how to defend it. The untrained, untaught Christian is no match for the informed cult member. So many times, I have heard those who were once in our churches, who have later joined cults, say things like: ‘Well, I never did understand that trinity stuff anyway. I now realise after looking at the bible with… (fill in the blank), that it is not Biblical doctrine.’
How sad it is when the church loses people to cults because they have never been properly taught, discipled, or catechised. Friends, we must do better. It is not enough to only inform believers what to believe, but they also need to know why they should believe it. That way, they won’t be tossed back and forth, by any wave of cultic doctrine, but rather they will be able to stand firm, competent in the Scriptures having been instructed in the way of the Lord.[2]
[1] The Importance and Practice of Catechism — Christ Reformed Church
[2] Acts 18:24-25
How sad it is when the church loses people to cults because they have never been properly taught, discipled, or catechised. Friends, we must do better. It is not enough to only inform believers what to believe, but they also need to know why they should believe it. That way, they won’t be tossed back and forth, by any wave of cultic doctrine, but rather they will be able to stand firm, competent in the Scriptures having been instructed in the way of the Lord.[2]
[1] The Importance and Practice of Catechism — Christ Reformed Church
[2] Acts 18:24-25
Comments