Posted on 02/10/2018 7:10:14 AM PST by tiredofallofit
When I tell people about my childhood church, they will usually insist that I was in a cult. While I strongly suspect that they are correct, I never thought of myself as a cult member. Sure, my church may have shunned the outside world and taught that it alone possessed “the truth” but we never had to swear our undying loyalty to the leaders or live in a compound or drink poison. Should you wish to stop attending the church, you were free to do so, but you had to accept that the members who remained were no longer your brothers in the Lord or even friends; you were automatically disfellowshipped and labeled an apostate.
Most who hear my story (and there is much more to it) shake their heads and tell me how unlucky I was to end up in such an “extremist” church. That is not normal they tell me. Why would your parents go to a church like that?
Frankly, I believe that these types of churches are far more “normal” then people think. Thousands of small independent fundamentalist churches dot the American landscape; you probably drive past a couple every week on your way to church. I know that I do. You don’t know about them because you don’t attend them; you have your own place of worship. But yet, these churches do exist and each one has a story. Granted, not every one has a story like mine – but many do.
“There are churches like that?” I remember a close friend of mine asking me a few months ago after hearing my story. “I’ve never heard of such a thing”. Well of course not. He grew up in a well-structured denominational church that had little contact with these smaller churches.
(Excerpt) Read more at runningawayfrommychurch.com ...
(Excerpt) Read more at runningawayfrommychurch.com ...
Not taking the clickbait. I’m taking your advice and running away from your church blog.
Don’t see the name of the church or organization here.
Good morning to you too.
Probably because it was an independent fundamentalist church.
Uh, alt left radical liberal extremists?
These things are true of any clubhouse..................
Democrat Party.
“What is a Cult?”
The Democrat party.
Not a word about the church name.
Honeybees work hard making their honey and when fermented into a honey mead, and sipped on a cold winter night by the fireplace, it is a great way to appreciate the hard work of the bees.
“Q”
Bump to that.
There are varying degrees of cultism. But one thing that is common in the extreme examples is when the leadership claim that you need them for your salvation. Oh, and send us money now!
Christ? God? Well I spoke to them and they told me to give the gospel. “I am the path to God.” People are extremely vulnerable to this.
Ask yourself, does your church do this? If it does, then you are a member of a cult.
Cults can have very subtle teachings, which draw in many sincere, Bible trusting Christians.
Cults are common indeed; look at ‘The Last Reformation’, led by Torben Sondergaard, a Danish preacher. They started small, but are now worldwide, with thousands of ‘followers’ in the USA.
A good link of cults:
https://revolutionforjesus.com/2016/06/11/torben-sondergaard-and-the-last-reformation/
There should be an 'Islam exception' to the 1st Amendment.
If a person truly read and understood the Bible they'd realize that they are being mislead. Unfortunately, most people get their Biblical education from the leadership and are pretty ignorant of the true meaning of the Bible.
A little bit of laziness, a little bit of “it feels right so it must be right.”
And there is always the desire to embellish on the message with man created ritual and mantra which eventually ends with the message being corrupted with a power structure and hierarchy created. And the longer a church exists, the more corrupted the message gets.
I don’t think naming the cult is the point but that one should be wary of one’s church turning into a cult.
Right on!
I’ve questioned as to whether the “faith” that I grew up in was a cult. I’m not sure what exactly qualifies as a cult, but it was far from any mainstream religion.
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