Many people have been greatly impressed by cults. Designed to be an introduction to the Torah through talks, video presentations, small-group discussions and a special weekend-away, lots of synagogues are now employing cult approaches as part of their outreach.
Cults have been a run-away-success, and their fame has spread far over the whole world,
Cults have been adapted so as to be accessible to young people, and have also proved versatile enough to be used in prisons, schools and places of work.
Are the popular cults leading people astray?
Synagogues in cities and rural areas have found cult teaching sufficiently flexible for their needs. Future plans for expansion suggests that cult teaching is very much here to stay. What is more, many people claim to have been helped through going to cults and believe they has bought them an understanding of God and how to respond to Him. Accounts of wonderful things that have happened to individuals abound; In the light of all this, surely there cannot be anything wrong with it?
With so many in today's society gripped by materialism and atheism, can cults be anything other than good things? As young people become hopelessly enmeshed in a godless culture, should we not applaud the efforts of cults and help make them a success?
We wished that the answers to these questions could be an emphatic Yes. But closer examination of cults prevents such a clean bill of health being given. Why this concern? There are vital reasons I would like to bring to your attention.
1. The God of cults is not the God of the Abraham Isaac and Jacob.
Cults quote from the Torah a lot. But for all this, they do not present us with the God who has revealed Himself in the Torah. There is much we could say about the God of the Torah. He is the Creator of the universe and the one who upholds it and maintains it. He is a great King and Sovereign over all He has made. We are challenged to ponder:
" To whom then will you liken me. Or to whom shall I be equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of his might and the strength of his power; Not one is missing." (Isaiah 40:25-26)
Now of course much more could be said. But you will have to search hard and long in cults to find a God that resembles the One just described. Nothing about Him as Creator, nothing about Him as a great King. He is assumed to be everything.
5. The Ruach Hakodesh (unholy spirit) of cults is not the Ruach Hakodesh (holy spirit) of the Torah.
It is because cult's unholy spirit is the agent for giving to people an 'experience'.
The main focus for this is the cults People doing cults are told to expect all manner of things might happen to them.
This is all very interesting but it has nothing to do with the Torah. Nowhere are any phenomena such as these attributed to the spirit of God. Cult's unholy spirit appears to work in ways that lie outside the confines of Torah. Whoever it is that people are 'introduced' to at the cults, it is not the Holy Torah.
For all their efforts, cults do not help us to know God. They do not describe the true and living God for us. They does not diagnose man's condition accurately enough. They substitutes an un-Torah view of God. To cap it all, the whole issue of Torah is grievously misunderstood.
The needs of our souls for the living waters of the Law of Moses and life-saving truth are far too precious and important to be ought down to this level. WE need the unvarnished truth of the Law of Moses.
To leave someone believing they are in Torah when they are not is an awful prospect. Yet that is what we are risking using defective tools such as cults, 'having a form of rituals but denying Torah We must do better. Failure is too high a price to pay.
Cults have been a run-away-success, and their fame has spread far over the whole world,
Cults have been adapted so as to be accessible to young people, and have also proved versatile enough to be used in prisons, schools and places of work.
Are the popular cults leading people astray?
Synagogues in cities and rural areas have found cult teaching sufficiently flexible for their needs. Future plans for expansion suggests that cult teaching is very much here to stay. What is more, many people claim to have been helped through going to cults and believe they has bought them an understanding of God and how to respond to Him. Accounts of wonderful things that have happened to individuals abound; In the light of all this, surely there cannot be anything wrong with it?
With so many in today's society gripped by materialism and atheism, can cults be anything other than good things? As young people become hopelessly enmeshed in a godless culture, should we not applaud the efforts of cults and help make them a success?
We wished that the answers to these questions could be an emphatic Yes. But closer examination of cults prevents such a clean bill of health being given. Why this concern? There are vital reasons I would like to bring to your attention.
1. The God of cults is not the God of the Abraham Isaac and Jacob.
Cults quote from the Torah a lot. But for all this, they do not present us with the God who has revealed Himself in the Torah. There is much we could say about the God of the Torah. He is the Creator of the universe and the one who upholds it and maintains it. He is a great King and Sovereign over all He has made. We are challenged to ponder:
" To whom then will you liken me. Or to whom shall I be equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of his might and the strength of his power; Not one is missing." (Isaiah 40:25-26)
Now of course much more could be said. But you will have to search hard and long in cults to find a God that resembles the One just described. Nothing about Him as Creator, nothing about Him as a great King. He is assumed to be everything.
5. The Ruach Hakodesh (unholy spirit) of cults is not the Ruach Hakodesh (holy spirit) of the Torah.
It is because cult's unholy spirit is the agent for giving to people an 'experience'.
The main focus for this is the cults People doing cults are told to expect all manner of things might happen to them.
This is all very interesting but it has nothing to do with the Torah. Nowhere are any phenomena such as these attributed to the spirit of God. Cult's unholy spirit appears to work in ways that lie outside the confines of Torah. Whoever it is that people are 'introduced' to at the cults, it is not the Holy Torah.
For all their efforts, cults do not help us to know God. They do not describe the true and living God for us. They does not diagnose man's condition accurately enough. They substitutes an un-Torah view of God. To cap it all, the whole issue of Torah is grievously misunderstood.
The needs of our souls for the living waters of the Law of Moses and life-saving truth are far too precious and important to be ought down to this level. WE need the unvarnished truth of the Law of Moses.
To leave someone believing they are in Torah when they are not is an awful prospect. Yet that is what we are risking using defective tools such as cults, 'having a form of rituals but denying Torah We must do better. Failure is too high a price to pay.
