Cults are prevalent. There are religious cults, political cults, online forum cults, corporate cults, personality/ individual cults around a singular person, and etc. All cults have some common elements and we shall examine them.
Do Not Ask Questions
The first sign of a cult is when you ask a question or are inquisitive, they will at first either use the brain washing mantras, and mind twisting answers to hook you, but then if you persist in asking questions you will be demeaned, told you are being subversive or that you are in disharmony.
Jesus encouraged questions, “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.”
(Matthew 16:13-20).
Always ask questions, and raise concerns. Any person or group who tries to quell that in you is a cult.
Leader, Cult of Personality
Every cult has a charismatic leader or leaders who’s absolute certainty and revelatory words is intoxicating. They will seduce you, groom you, and then when you show any signs of free thinking or that you may break from their control they punish you with rejection, persecution, ghosting or they will show favoritism in the form of new titles offered to you, new roles, romantic interest, and etc.
People fall for the leader to fill a vacuum of a parent they needed, a mentor, and etc. The truth id you need to fill those deficiencies with The Holy Trinity, let your Father in Heaven to replace a bad father, Jesus to be your Master Mentor, and The Holy Spirit to be your Comforter. Its fine to have a mentor, but be careful of cultists who want to worm into your life as mentor figure, a good mentor lets you be you, ask questions, and has the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
Powers of Suggestion
Many cult leaders, ‘prophets’, revelatory leaders, enlightened ones will use Counter Insurgency Brain Washing tactics to change your reality, hypnosis, witchcraft, gaslighting (telling people a false or different reality till they believe it), Rewriting History, and using techniques that make you trust the cult leader and become their property.
Stick to the truth, your history you know not matter their rewriting, stick with Scripture, if you feel off about someone in a church, corporation, and etc; pay attention to that discernment, and leave if they are a speaker or do not associate with them.
Making You Doubt Your Inner Voice, Holy Spirit, and Conscious
The leaders need you to have a low self esteem, insecurity, and self doubt. So they stroke your insecurities, telling you that any alarm or caution or concern you have is “being too sensitive,” that your judgement is not enlightened or faulty,” and that you must stick to their judgement and reality.
Stick to your judgment, and the Scriptures, which will affirm your discernment and teach you how to sense evil spirits in people manipulating you.
The More Trap
Most cults promise “more,” as in”more prosperity,” “more of God,” “learn to live more a righteous life in Christ,” “be more like the New Testament Church if you follow our total lead,” the promise of more plays on the self help interests. We want to improve, but these predators use your desire for growth to groom you into their slaves.
The trick to avoiding The More Trap is contentment. Stick to The Scriptures, and your relationship with Christ, and find contentment in realization you are already a child of God (Galatians 3:26), kings and priests (Revelation 1:6, 2000 Jubilee Bible), and a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9).
Capitalizing on Crisis
Many cult leaders get people who are very smart, intellectual, and wise under their thumb when a crisis happens such as a a death in the family or friendom, disease, or other trauma that shakes the person up to be vulnerable enough to suggestion and the cultic tentacles.
So when you are in trauma, crisis, and etc do not seek out some guru, life coach, or religious leader who has a little group. Instead get a certified counselor or Christian therapist (though they too could be a cultic controller, [I encountered one once] so if they raise the red flag signs in this post like making your doubt yourself & etc, get a different counselor), pray, and seek The Lord.
Group Think
Cults whither in news, churches, and etc need you to be saturated in their thinking, so they have you listening to their ideals and never checking the critics, you are encourage to stick with their brand and never listen or read or watch a different group, station, and etc. The goal is to keep your mind closed, saturated in their propganda, and to rebuke, rage at, and hate any other view point or teaching or personality that is not in the group.
So read the criticisms of the cult, read the ex-cult members, and study what others say outside the cult.
Financial and Time
Most cults and their leaders will require you to contribute money and or time. They want you to invest in their brand and power, so either they will use your donations or your energy, if you don’t give them stock options they will turn you into an ox. If you are eloquent and smart they will use that to write and preach, but if you are that smart the risk of you seeing through their bull manure is higher.
Any group that wants you to be generous from the get go with your money and time is a huge red flag, “run!”
Personality Change
Most people who get seduced by cults change. The person they were, who they really are must mold to the model of the cult and so a kind hearted person may become domineering, a gracious person will become judgemental, and so on; they change from who they are to play act and play the role in the cult, which can lead to a split personality, the role they have learned to play, and who they really are.
It is crucial to get post-cult and deprogramming counseling to remove the role and return to who you really are that was suppressed.
Oversight
Many cults have no oversight, the cult leader or leaders have no authority over them and so whatever they say is “from God,” and there is no means to correct them from above. Now some cults do have complex hierarchy like The Roman Catholic Church Cult. So oversight isn’t always a benchmark of a cult free environment, but it is more unusual for a cult leader to answer to anyone above them. So this requires discernment.
Emotionalism
Most cults will use emotional experiences, Holy Spirit like outpourings, witchcraft, and other stuff to give you a high feeling to get you addicted. Now The Holy Spirit does pour out, but we test if its from The Spirit by the fruit of the Spirit, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..” (Galatians 5:22-23), if you have no self control, it ain’t The Holy Ghost, for “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,” (1 Corinthians 14:33), and if what is being done isn’t kind, its not from God either. We are called to test the spirits, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (1 John 4:1-3).
Family, Feeling of Belonging, Group
This is one of biggest reasons people join a cult. Many people have dysfunctional families, no family, and sense of no communities, the cult gives a sense of family and community but at the expense of your conscious and the self. It is hard to break from the cult because their major punishment is excommunication, ghosting, and the threat of cutting you off from the family and community. So people will often despite their doubts and questions that have former about the cult will stay for community.
I cannot promise you will evade a cult. But armed with these signs and red flags you will be able to better catch a cult trying to seduce you ahead of time. I hope it helps. Amen.
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