The
Role of the Cults
Elder
O. B. Mink
Texarkana,
Texas
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with
a hot iron. (I Tim. 4:1-2)
Since man's apostasy in Eden, theological error has steadily gained momentum,
and now experiences unparalleled acceleration whereby the corruptive ''commandments
of men'' have been supplanted by the damnable "doctrines of devils." In
the last decade there has been a revival of witchcraft (exorcism, as practiced
by the Catholic church is a form of witchcraft) . Soothsaying and sorcery
have reached new heights of popularity. The veracity of this statement
is seen by the wide acceptance accorded Jeannie Dixon. Necromancy, divination
and astrology are all experiencing phenomenal success. There are more people
in the world today who say, "I thank my lucky stars," than ever before.
To augment his religious forces in the world, and to further confuse the
already spiritually blinded minds of fallen men, Satan has preyed upon
the element of curiosity inherent in depraved nature, causing man to delve
into studies of the workings of supernatural forces. The result of this
intensified research by lost man into the occult has brought about the
ultimate evil: the worship of the devil. Hundreds of new cults have originated
as a result of these studies of the occult, and the tide has not yet crested.
The most popular and widely read book on the subject in our contemporary
period is entitled, Satan is Alive and Well on The Planet Earth
by Hal Lindsey. By this date there are probably a million copies of this
book in print. It has been lauded by baptists and is considered by so-called
fundamentalist christianity to be a literary masterpiece. While it is not
my purpose to offer a review of Mr. Lindsey's book, I do want to point
out some statements made by him which manifest his ignorance as to the
power and program of the supernatural forces of righteousness.
Mr. Lindsey says on page 47 in reference to Ezek. 14, "When this
passage was written in the original Hebrew, it was a song of sorrow. God
was mourning over this creature Whom He had created and loved." The creature
referred to in this text whom Mr. Lindsey says God loved, is Lucifer. If
God loved Lucifer when this text was originally written, He yet loves him,
and will, without ceasing, ever love him, seeing that God is immutable,
and His attributes can suffer no change. The fact is: God never loved Lucifer.
He was, from the beginning, a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction. Is
it not strange that God would create hell for His beloved Lucifer? (Mt.
25:41).
On page 48, Mr. Lindsey says, "When God created Lucifer He took a calculated
risk." The God of the Bible, and the God that can know risk are two different
Gods.
On page 54 Mr. Lindsey says, "God loves each person." If this be true,
then Esau, Jacob's twin brother was not a person, for God says in two places
in the Scripture that He hated Esau, (Mal. 1:3, Rom. 9:13).
On page 58, the author says, "God did not want man to fall." Poor, helpless,
feeble, failing God. To the contrary, the fall was an essential part of
God's overall design for mankind. It came about by God withholding His
restraining grace from Adam. Adam was not created in a state of moral equipoise,
such a theory gives Adam a will which is independent of God. Neither angel,
man nor demon ever knew or shall ever know that kind of independence. If
God did not want man to fall, as Mr. Lindsey contends, how was it then
that Adam fell, seeing whatever God's soul desireth, even that He doeth?
(Job 23:13).
On page 63 the author says, Christ bore on the cross, "righteous judgment
against the sin of the whole universe." If Mr. Lindsey is correct in this
statement, then Satan will be in heaven, for there is no condemnation to
them which Christ represented in His vicarious sufferings on the cross.
On page 248 Mr. Lindsey states, "Holy Spirit baptism is that ministry whereby
a new believer is joined to the church." In this statement, Mr. Lindsey
manifests that he has imbibed the double error of Scofield ecclesiology.
That is, the Holy Spirit by regeneration baptizes the penitent into the
universal invisible church. The two things wrong with this theory which
constitutes it total error is: first, no where in the Scripture record
was any person ever baptized by the Holy Spirit. Second, the universal
invisible church theory is as alien to the Scriptures as night is to day.
From the foregoing quotes it is apparent to the Holy Spirit-illuminated
mind that Mr. Lindsey is a propagator of error as relates to soteriology,
ecclesiology and his eschatology leaves much to be desired. For to allow
Satan any measure of independence, or freedom from the will of God, is
to say God's purposes could be aborted, His prophecies uncertain and leaves
the future of the earth undecided.
Satan is alive and well on the planet earth, but so is God alive and well
on the planet earth, and the saint needs to be ever mindful that "Greater
is He (Holy Spirit) that is in you, than he (Satan) that is in the world"
(I John 4:4).
Cult
Statistics
The role of Satanic occult is to produce cults. The United States has been
the birth place and breeding ground of all the major cults. By comparison
with other religious denominations in the U.S. the cultist membership is
small, but this fact alone is not sufficient ground for an apathetic attitude
toward them. For while they are few in number, they are plenteous in zeal,
and exert a wide and powerful influence over the whole country. Nearly
every family in America has been grievously affected by one or another
of the cults.
The following statistical information is taken from the 1974 Associated
Press Almanac.
Major
Cult Membership In The United States
Christian Scientist
500,000
Mormons
287,000
Spiritualist
164,000
Jehovah Witnesses
1,336,000
Seventh Day Adventist
434,000
Total Major Cult Membership
2,721,000
So as not to overlook Unitarianism and other lesser cults which now exist,
we will double the number of the total membership of the five major cults
to give them fully the benefit of all doubt. This brings their total membership
to just over five million. So as to accommodate any exaggerated figure
they might bring forth, let us double their membership again, which makes
them ten million strong. With the inflated membership of the cults as given
above they are yet two million less than the Southern Baptist Convention
membership. This information should not serve as a means of minimizing
the importance of standing against these weird, and wicked workers of spiritual
whoredoms. It might help if we remembered it was thirty million communists
which took half of the world away from eight hundred million professing
Christians.
Satanic
Stratagem
Satan is the culprit behind the cult and he is the one who has given rise
to the worlds interest in the occult. But a question has arisen in my mind:
Why is it that all of a sudden there is unbounded interest by mainline
christendom in the occult powers?
The presses of fundamentalist Christianity are running night and day producing
books and pamphlets by the hundreds of thousands in an effort to counter
the advances of the cults. I believe this newly created interest in the
cult and occult is a satanic stratagem. Satan is the ultimate strategist
in the war against God. He is generating interest in the cult and occult,
and using it as a diversion to draw God's people away from the main front
of battle. While this maneuver of Satan is having a great measure of success,
there is yet a people who "are not ignorant of his devices," and who know
what the Scriptures teach concerning the consummation of this age. They
know that the cult and occult movements do not have a principle part to
play in the closing out of this age. They know that all the cults in one
form or another deny the deity of Jesus Christ, and they invoke the word
of God (I John 7-11) in keeping their doors closed to the cults.
Holy Spirit enlightened people will not be deceived by this satanic stratagem
and concentrate all of their spiritual energies on this mock front and
neither will they become apathetic toward the cult, but will keep their
spiritual weapons deployed according to the strength of the enemy, in its
place.
The
Ecumenical Movement
The gigantic and main religious thrust Satan is going to use in his effort
to overthrow God at the close of this age is the One World Church, or Ecumenical
Movement. The One World Church in its ultimate state will be comprised
of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, including the nominal and mediocre
baptists. Ten years ago there was some strong opposition against the Ecumenical
Movement, but it seems now that the fronts have been shifted and the resistance
once used against the advances of the Ecumenical Movement are all rallied
in an effort to stem the tide of the cultist flood.
Let us note a few facts about the Ecumenical Movement in the United States.
1. There are twelve million members in the S. B. C. and the S. B. C. has
one foot already on the ecumenical band wagon.
2. The United Methodist Church, with its ten million members, is a strong
pillar in the ecumenical movement.
3. Combine the other Protestant bodies in the U. S. and you will arrive
at a figure above 75,000,000 who either directly favor, or indirectly favor
the ecumenical movement.
4. Add to these figures the 50,000,000 Catholics in the U. S. and you will
get the sum of 125,000,000 professing christians who are already incurably
addicted on the wine of ecumenism.
What is true regarding the Ecumenical Movement in the United States is
true of the whole western world. It is these great masses in so-called
christendom brought together in a one world church that Satan uses in bringing
to power the false prophet, and the personal Anti Christ, (Rev. 13 5-17).
I hope NO one after reading this paper will conclude that the cults are
not a serious threat against New Testament churches, for to do so would
be equally destructive as seeing them as the primary danger.
Baptists believe in a personal devil, not as one in whom they may place
their trust and confidence, but as one who is the arch rival of righteousness.
They know that the devil is more than an evil influence. They know that
he is a mighty spirit, the father of lies, and they know that the cults
are off springs of the devil, and are borne along by this most evil of
all spirits. Baptists, being exercised by the admonition to "try the spirits"
have weighed the cults on Scriptural scales and found them fatally wanting.
The heresies of the cults are infinitely obnoxious to the spirit regenerated
by God, and the heresies of ecumenism are equally absurd when viewed in
the proper light. We could detail the pernicious beliefs of the cults,
but will not subject the readers to a belaboring of the obvious. Instead,
we will share with you a satirical rhyme which goes a long way in rebuke
of this diabolical system.
"The
Seventh Day Adventist with their Ellen G. White,
claim
to bring to fore what the Holy Spirit forgot to write.
Upon
the Lord's second coming they make a play,
and
cling to Sinai with its sabbath day.
The
Jehovah Witnesses so-called,
the
Bible doctrine of hell have outlawed.
They
say, bodily resurrection of Christ could not be,
they
laugh at, and ridicule the doctrine of the trinity.
The
Mormons with their celebrated Joe Smith
are
propagating a colossal and fatal myth.
They
deny both the trinity, and Christ's deity,
but
approve of, and encourage polygamy.
The
Christian Scientist, so-called,
say,
by the mind we stand or fall.
For
the judgment of God they are not ready,
They
are duped by the philosophies of Mary Baker Glove Patterson Eddy."
While the devil uses the cults to deceive thousands of people, and cause
the would-be defenders of the true faith to spend themselves opposing cultist
advances, the Ecumenical Movement goes merrily on its way. The Ecumenical
Movement is too wise to adopt the blatant heresies of the cults, but they
are the perpetuators of the ancient heresies which are just as effective
in damning souls as cultist doctrine.
The least degree of affinity with the Ecumenical Movement calls for an
irreparable compromise on the part of the regenerate person. Every solicitous
overture extended by ecumenism toward the Lord's true churches should not
only be refused, but rigidly repulsed, so as "not to be condemned with
the world," the Ecumenical Movement.
(Sovereign
Grace Advocate - October, 1977)
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