The Kingdom of the Cults

2 Cor 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Cult leaders use "facts" to convince us of things, but you will notice that their followers are immune to facts. You can show them facts that contradict what their leaders say, but it will not make any difference. Which shows you that the facts are not important but only the faith in the leader is important.

Voltaire: If you can make people believe absurdities, you can make them commit attrocities.

You see, the facts that a cultist might make you believe are subject to change at any time. They shift and evolve, because they are not the real issue. The issue is that once that leader has your mind, that leader can manipulate you into thinking that you are doing good no matter what you do as long as it is in support of or obedience to that leader's cause.

You've got a zombie army at your disposal if you can get people to stop believing their own lying eyes and believe you instead. Think of the flat-earthers. Disbelieve everything you know, everything you see, and believe this conspiracy theory instead. Forget about the fact that we can see evidence of a helio-centric solar system and other globes with orbiting satellites just like the Earth and the moon and that we have built nearly our entire global communication system on orbiting man-made satellites that can only work if the cosmological model of a global earth is actually how things are. No; space is a lie. NASA is a hoax.

Now that you have been trained to ignore all facts that contradict the narrative, you have been trained to believe whatever comes next. You have been isolated from reality and have become dependent on a group for your identity, and so whatever that group says is now your whole world.

This is true power. And that is what ever cult leader craves. Oh sure they like the money and the sex. But with power they can get whatever they want any time they want. It is this power they crave most of all. And the power over peoples' minds is the true power. They can literally manipulate reality and be as gods. Truly to be as God is their fondest wish. Every cult eventually reaches this ultimate conclusion. The leader is unquestionable, and reality is whatever they say it is. Once you have paid Scientology hundreds of thousands of dollars to go through all their advanced courses, the very end of the line is when they finally teach you that L. Ron Hubbard is God.

Joseph Smith and Brigham Young cannot be questioned. The current head of the Mormon church is a prophet whose word is law. The Pope is God's representative on the earth. Charles Taze Russell being proven a liar on the witness stand (he did not actually know the Greek language as he claimed) has no effect whatsoever on the faith of the Jehovah's Witnesses, who predicted the coming of Christ several times and failed and who deny the deity of Jesus. Most of these cults have very severe problems with child abuse, which they mandate their followers keep secret from the outside world. Because, having a form of godliness, they deny the power thereof.

With Jesus, on the other hand, we have a humble Son of God Who emptied Himself of all His own rights and privileges, Who washed His disciples' feet, Who gave His own life for us, and Who rose from the dead, proving that He was Who He said He was and that His words are the surest foundation that we could ever build our lives upon.

Phil 2:6 (NIV) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Matt 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."

Matt 7:24 "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock"

Lots of cults prey on Christians by pretending to have secret knowledge and use unique interpretations of scripture to dazzle and confuse the minds of their victims.

This is nothing new. The heresy of Gnosticism was already active in the time of the apostles. Gnostics preached that they had secret knowledge that was superior to the doctrines the apostles preached. The Gnostics taught that spirit and matter were anathema to one another, that spirit is "good" and matter is "evil." Therefore, Jesus could not have had a physical body, since physical matter is evil. But if Jesus was not truly human, how could He have redeemed humankind through His body, as the scripture tells us?

Col 1:21-22 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight

Paul had to deal with plenty of false teachers; in fact he was beset by them. There were some who went around teaching that new converts had to get circumsized in order to be saved. He took this matter so seriously that he went to Jerusalem to get the entire apostolic body to make an official ruling on it (Acts 15). Also, we note in the book of 2nd Timothy that there were some who were teaching that the resurrection had already passed. Let's read this entire section of Paul's letter to Timothy for context...

2 Tim 2:14 through chap 4