When reading the cult watch website you come across a section entitled: “How does the WMS Church of God brainwash its members?” In this section Ted goes through a checklist of what he calls “coercive techniques.” Ted considers these techniques as guidelines to qualify a group as a cult. However if we are going to judge what a cult is according to these techniques, then Christianity itself is the biggest cult to ever exist. How can this be possible? Let us see through verses from the Bible:
1) Cults Claim to Have all Knowing leadership:
John 21:17 {the third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.}
2) Cults only teach you up to what you are able to believe:
Hebrews 5:11 {We much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.}
3) Cults claim no room for differences (Everybody is the same):
Colossians 3:11 {Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.}
4) Cults claim to introduce a new and better way:
Hebrews 7:18-19 {the former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.}
5) Cult members should imitate cult leader:
Philippians 2:5 {your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus}
Also Colossians 3:11 of example 3.
6) Cults isolate you from your family:
Matthew 10:37 {anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me}
7) Cults Brainwash ignorant and people who have no critical thinking.
Acts 4:13 {when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.}
8) Cults Recruit people:
Mk 16:15-16 {He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned}
9) Cults always claim Persecution of the Leader:
Acts 22:6-8 {“About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked “ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied.}
10) Cults have ignorant leaders:
John 7:14-16 {Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”}
11) Cults try to keep members busy:
Acts 2:46-47 {every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
12) Cult leaders always try to gain your trust:
John 14:1 {“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me}
13) Cults believe that by your actions you prove your faith:
James 2:17 {in the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, Is dead.}
14) Cults claim salvation is through obedience before the end comes:
Matthew 24:42 {“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.}
15) Cults make members dependant to the cult leader:
John 15:5 {“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.}
16) Cults claim that there is no exit apart from the cult:
John 6:67-68 {“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.}
17) Cult members claim to have “Spiritual Battles”:
Ephesians 6:12 {for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.}
18) Cults try to keep things secret:
Matthew 17:9 {As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”}
19) Cult leaders claim to be the only way, and supreme authority:
John 14:6 {Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.}
And for the sake of space and time, I omitted the teachings of: Judaism, Mohammed, Buddha, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Copernicus, Galileo…etc.
If we are going to judge groups and organizations by these standards, then every single organization and religion is a cult. We should not judge the Church of God by these standards, rather we should see if the teachings that the Church practices come from God or not. To label the World Mission Society Church of God as a cult is no different from when the Jewish religious leaders called the Apostles a Nazarene sect. Please don’t commit the same mistake as 2,000 years ago.
