How To Know You're Joining A Cult
Four visible identifiers of wolves in sheep's clothing
“Young, what’s the difference between what you believe in and a cult?”
“Young, what if the beliefs you follow are actually from a cult and what you deem as a cult is actually the truth?”
These are just a few questions that I’ve gotten in my humble years of Christian ministry. Those questions and others alike were mainly from college students who were concerned about being duped into believing in something which may come off as the truth, but in reality, was a just a few degrees off from the truth.
I get it. No one wants to be tricked into believing in a religion that will lead them astray or into a strange community of people.
A Community of Wolves
I recently binge watched the three episode season of Netflix’s latest documentary show, “Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult”, and apart from it being a gripping modern day look inside an active cult, it grieved me deeply for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, the way God’s Word and name were being perverted by Robert Shinn (the cult leader and “pastor”) grieved me and bubbled up a righteous anger within me. Because by his mishandling of the Word, innocent people were traumatized and spiritually butchered by a man who claimed to understand the Way of Jesus.
Secondly, the painful experiences which the previous and current members of Shekinah Church endured under spiritual, sexual, and emotional abuse is something no one should have to go through.
Lastly, the families that have been broken because of this cult led me to shed a few tears while watching the show. My heart still breaks for these families.
It goes without saying that cults are dangerous.
They are dangerous because though they may start off with a wolf in sheep’s clothing, committed members who believe the false teaching, also put on the same garment and from one wolf in sheep’s clothing comes forth a community of wolves in sheep’s clothing. And watching this documentary reminded me that though we live in a world where information is literally at our fingertips, that does not translate to wisdom and discernment on what is true and what is not.
Four Identifiers of a Cult
So how does one identify if they are in the midst of a cult? If they are being invited into a cult? Or if you, a friend or a loved one is joining a cult? Though this is not a substantial list, these are my four go-to identifiers to turn the other way and make a run for the proverbial (or literal) door, if I think someone is about to accidentally join a cult.
1. If entrance into the group requires permission from an authoritative or “leader” figure.
I had a conversation with a friend several years ago. We grew up in the Church together, but he walked away from the teachings of Jesus and the Church during his collegiate years. To my surprise, when we reconnected in our twenties, he told me that he was attending a Bible study. To my additional surprise, he couldn’t tell me the name of the church nor could I join the Bible study with him until he asked his Bible study leader if I could join. Something was fishy to me right after he mentioned this. A couple of years later, we met up again when he was in town and he told me he ended up leaving the group after a year or so due to some strange teachings and ultimately found out it was a Bible study tied to the cult named, “Shincheonji,”1 a cult group that originated from South Korea and is now global.
Shincheonji is notorious for being closed off to the public, requiring permission from the leader of each group to join.
Let me quickly say there is a caveat here with this rule. For example, if your local Baptist church has a closed group for “men fighting sexual sin” and you need permission to join, that is a totally different situation and most likely that group is not a cult. Seems simple enough, but thought I’d at least mention it.
2. If you are explicitly instructed to begin cutting off communication with your friends and family.
In the aforementioned Netflix documentary, Shinn, the “pastor” of the cult ultimately pushed members of his group to cut communication with friends and family. For cults that resemble some form of Christianity, this false teaching primarily comes from a mis-interpretation and therefore, a mis-application, of a teaching by Jesus Christ where He says,
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” - Matthew 10:34-37
What did Jesus mean by this teaching? In short, Jesus isn’t mincing words. He acknowledges that for some disciples, there will be a time when it will be either following His Ways or departing from Him as Rabbi. For some disciples, it was at the cost of losing family. So in some sense, cult leaders get this passage right. But where they get this heretically wrong is in the application to abruptly cut off friends and family.
Often times, cult leaders will prop up their teachings as that of being faithful to the Way of Jesus and therefore, if a family member or friend says for someone to leave the group, it is therefore an affront to Jesus Himself. All of this is a half-truth, which in reality is no real truth at all. Compare this to when people will leave a local church because their friends and family may not like the church, and yet, the call to cut off those family members or friends is rarely at all used as a tactic to keep them in. Why? Because Bible-believing, Jesus following pastors and leaders know that people never belong to a church or ministry, but solely belong to Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:10-17).
If any ministry or group instructs to cut off family or friends, that directive should be me with strong speculation and scrutiny because although Jesus may teach to do this at some point (if need be) He also teaches to be peacemakers in a world that would be quick to divide and isolate. Followers of Jesus should not rush to cut off people from their lives.
3. When the leader is deified or if salvation comes additionally through him/her.
You’v seen it all if you are into researching cults like me. It’s not just the spinoffs from Christianity that have this identifier of a cult. But we see this frequently in places such as yoga cults where a yogi or a guru is elevated to a transcended status among the group and that through them alone, is there a form of salvation or escape from the world, pain, etc.
Among cults that resemble Christianity, the “pastor” of the cult will often preach some form of legalism (e.g. you have to work your way toward salvation) as a method to get their foot in the door to trust them to remedy the situation. Often in cults like these, you will find the “pastor” preach in such a way where it is necessary to believe in them, in addition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ for one to be saved. Or to believe in another human figure, in addition to Jesus, to be saved.
When the “pastor” or an additional human being is the one who holds the door to your salvation (and not solely Jesus Christ), at the “very least” that is heretical and at the very best, you have found your way into a cult.
4. When the leader says they can [only] hear directly from God or a god-like essence/figure.
Lastly, be wary of the leader who claims to hear directly from God or a god-like essence/figure. It is of the utmost convenience for the leader of a group to get some form of “divine revelation” in which only they can hear and receive. Often times, this tactic is used to coerce and manipulate followers to believe a certain doctrine or ideology, to mis-apply an interpretation of a religious or modern day text or current event, or in short, do whatever the leader desires to do.
As it pertains to “Christian cults”, again, for the individual wondering if a group they have joined is a cult or a Jesus-following, Spirit-empowered, Bible-believing group, we thankfully have the closed canon of Scripture to be the, “lamp unto my feet, and light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). We need not a leader who directly hears an audible voice from God when the living Word of God is readily accessible to us all to vet the various voices that would claim God is speaking through them.
Cults, A Deformed Community
Cults deform people away from the likeness of Christ Jesus because their desire is for people to be conformed into their image and their crooked ways. When the standard is then another sinful human being, how then could anyone be led to Christ-likeness? It is only when our gaze is set upon the beauty of the Lord (Psalm 27:4) will then the trajectory of our lives be toward that of reflecting Jesus Christ.
Cults deform people away from the likeness of Christ Jesus because leaders grasp for power and control. Unlike Jesus Christ - the One who “came to serve and not be served”, the One who emptied Himself on the cross, the One who found power in weakness - cult leaders want instant authority. As a result, instead of the easy and light yoke of Jesus placed upon them, a modern day yoke of slavery is placed around their necks. Instead of freedom in Christ as their call and identity, the shackles of legalism and trauma bind them down. Instead of hope in Christ, there is fear in death and hell.
Cults deform people away from the likeness of Christ Jesus, and yet, the grace of God and the love of Jesus can heal anyone from the profound sense of shame which would envelope a person who finds themselves realizing they are or were in a cult. Although it may be hard for former cult members to trust in any organized religion, the comfort that exists within Jesus Christ is that He does not ridicule nor judge anyone who may have thought they were following Him, when they were in fact following a faulty replica of Him.
Cults may deform people, but the grace of God and the Spirit of God is mighty to save and can actually reform and transform us into the image of Jesus Christ, we just simply need to trust in Him and in Him alone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shincheonji_Church_of_Jesus
This documentary was wild!
Watching this documentary was gut-wrenching. I was happy to see former cult members speak out, but I still feel so bad for Melanie and Miranda. Hoping Miranda and her husband can see the light sooner than later!