By
Dr. Johnson C. Philip
Dr. Saneesh Cherian
Excerpts from page 17 of this popular book
" The claim to exclusiveness leads to bizarre spiritual behaviour. For example the CPM(TPM) and Exclusive Brethren usually do not participate in Lord's Table with other believers. Also, usually they do not allow other believers to participate in Lord's table in their churches. Though CPM (TPM) claims to be a Pentecostal church, these people rebaptize even Pentecostal believers before they accept them into the CPM fold. "
Cults are spreading rapidly at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Unless these movements are opposed,and unless believers are warned, too many people will fall into their clutches. Thus this book.Further, in the last half of the twentieth century almost all False Cults have adapted very deceptive strategies toinfiltrate major world religions as well as the Evangelical Christian groups. These psychology-based strategies cannot be detected or discerned without some sort of background. That is the second reason for this book --Here we aim to provide an insight into the strategies adopted by the Cults.This is to be considered only as an introductory textbook. Lord willing at least two more textbooks would follow. We are confident that this triad of books would introduce the subject in a comprehensive matter. Theactual detail of individual Cults would be taken up only after the three introductory works are finished.(Meanwhile, these three books plus details of individual Cults written by us would be available in one volume in Malayalam language).We consider it a privilege to dedicate this volume to a Bible-Teacher among us who has never compromised upon the fundamentals presuppositions of the Faith of our Fathers.
May God Help You To Escape The Snare Of Cults
The Biblical Position
Sola Scriptura (The Bible Alone) Sola Gratia (Grace Alone) Sola Fide (Faith Alone) Solus Christus (Christ Alone) Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)
Dr. Johnson C. Philip
Dr. Saneesh Cherian
Excerpts from page 17 of this popular book
" The claim to exclusiveness leads to bizarre spiritual behaviour. For example the CPM(TPM) and Exclusive Brethren usually do not participate in Lord's Table with other believers. Also, usually they do not allow other believers to participate in Lord's table in their churches. Though CPM (TPM) claims to be a Pentecostal church, these people rebaptize even Pentecostal believers before they accept them into the CPM fold. "
Cults are spreading rapidly at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Unless these movements are opposed,and unless believers are warned, too many people will fall into their clutches. Thus this book.Further, in the last half of the twentieth century almost all False Cults have adapted very deceptive strategies toinfiltrate major world religions as well as the Evangelical Christian groups. These psychology-based strategies cannot be detected or discerned without some sort of background. That is the second reason for this book --Here we aim to provide an insight into the strategies adopted by the Cults.This is to be considered only as an introductory textbook. Lord willing at least two more textbooks would follow. We are confident that this triad of books would introduce the subject in a comprehensive matter. Theactual detail of individual Cults would be taken up only after the three introductory works are finished.(Meanwhile, these three books plus details of individual Cults written by us would be available in one volume in Malayalam language).We consider it a privilege to dedicate this volume to a Bible-Teacher among us who has never compromised upon the fundamentals presuppositions of the Faith of our Fathers.
May God Help You To Escape The Snare Of Cults
The Biblical Position
Sola Scriptura (The Bible Alone) Sola Gratia (Grace Alone) Sola Fide (Faith Alone) Solus Christus (Christ Alone) Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)
Bible-believing Christians have always been weary of teachings, doctrines, movements, and organizations that take people away from the Biblical faith. Thus all conservative and evangelical churches have given unusual attention to false cults and false teachings and also to methods needed to fight these movements. This kept Cults away most Evangelical churches for a long time, but now they have begun to attack the evangelical believers with a renewed zeal. In the last few decades the false cults have given much attention to fishing or people-trapping. Using the latest psychological information, they have discovered the causes for resistance and also the methods to overcome it. Many of the groups have been producing massive handbooks on people-catching. These books explain religious-salesmanship in the minutes detail. Even the strongest objection that can be raised by an evangelical Christian is mentioned, along with the cultist strategies to nullify this opposition.
Thus the cultist who knocks at our door today is a person vastly different from his predecessors of yesteryears. In the past it was a battle only of doctrines, but today it has turned into a highly sophisticated doctrinal-psychological assault from them. Yet the war can be won, and we can defend our faith (and the spiritual balance of our family-members), provided we are armed with a single weapon: the Sword of the spirit. Using the Sword of the Spirit requires a bit of preparation on two fronts. First, we should be thoroughly acquainted with the sword itself. Second, we should be knowledgeable about the enemy and his strategies. The first part is done by a thorough study of the major Biblical doctrines, and that is not the aim of this book. The second part is done by studying the cults in some detail, and that is what we propose to do in the coming pages.
What Is A Cult ?
A Cult is a religious group or movement that attacks or questions the major tenets of the historical Christian faith. Many minor subjects are also attacked, but these do not pose as serious a danger as the previous category. The purpose of such attack is not to expose any genuine errors in our doctrinal understanding, nor to reform any failure, but to destroy the cardinal doctrines. The ultimate aim of this destructive work is to replace Biblically sound doctrines with the petty, erroneous, and even blasphemous doctrines of the false cult. The Cultic phenomena has today become such a powerful means of gaining power and money that it is now seen even beyond strictly religious circles. Thus though originally cults were mostly of religious origin, today they can be of non religious origin too. Such divers is the origin of cults today that it has become necessary to classify them into four slightly overlapping groups. The details of this classification ate given in another part of this book. While we are still at the definition stage, it would be good to distinguish between religions and cults lest one wonder why we have included Transcendental Meditation, but not Hinduism, in this book. Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, etc. are classified as major world religious. These world religions exist by virtue of their independent world-views, and not by denial/building upon the foundation of any other major religion. Cults are smaller groups formed primarily upon denial of some tenets of major religions. The deviating path embraced by the cults and the major religion with which they compete are often very clear. There might be some religious as well as cults that do not fit the above definition. However, there are other factors like historical background and conventions that help us to distinguish even such groups.
One special aspect of the cults and movements discussed in this book is either their hatred for Christianity or for their competition with the true Christian faith. It is either this spirit of competition or their desire to eliminate the Christian faith that makes it important to study them. It is a battle in which there is no neutral position.
Eternal vigilance is the price to be paid for freedom.
Why Should We Fight The Cults ?
In the past millennia wars were fought and won often on the basis of brute force or larger army. But even during such periods some commanders understood the value of strategy. Thus many of them were able to defeat a more massive and powerful enemy force by sheer strategy. Eventually military-strategy developed into a complex and highly refined science and art, and today no commander ever dares to venture out purely on the basis of his fire-power.
The relationship between true Biblical faith and all kind of error is no different from warfare. Even if Bible believing Christians do not desire to fight, the other side has declared war. Unless we defend our territory, we will end up with a lot of our beloved people in the fold of the cults. Thus for the sake of our children, brothers and sisters, family, and the church members, we are forced to fight back. In this battle of information the first round was won by the cults. They came silently and stealthily and took away millions of people from among us. After these massive losses the churches awoke and fought back and won during this round. This was a battle of information, and we won by pooling up massive doses of doctrine and systematic theology. However, now we are in the third round of the information-battle. Raw information related to Bible was the ammunition in the first two rounds. The battle was also direct. Thus we won ultimately because of our more accurate understanding and teaching. However the situation has taken a dramatic turn in the present stage. Information continues to be the ammunition, but the enemy now depends more upon strategy. Instead of a face-to-face war, the cults now depend upon subtle psychological war and also upon reprogramming the minds of people. Only a new strategy that takes these factors into account would help us to hold the ground. The situation is complicated by the present condition of the church also. Biblical literacy was high among believers of past generations. But in spite of having better tools, today the larger percentage of believers in Bible believing churches suffer from spiritual ignorance as well as lack of commitment. Added to this is the deceptive influence of the present-day atmosphere. Right from the earliest days of a person's life the education system, the prevailing value system, and the perverted society condition people to reject good and accept that which is evil and wrong. This develops in us a kind of attitude that is very conducive to the infiltration and growth of cults. Thus in every way the present-day Christian community is in a disadvantageous state. Add to this the learned new strategies of the cults, and the time is ripe for the church to be the loser.
This third round is much more deceptive, all-pervasive, and comprehensive compared to the two earlier rounds.Whichever side wins today would remain victor for a long time. This battle cannot be avoided in any way. The challenge and aggression has come from the other side. This if we remain inactive or if we flee, they would simply come and conquer us and the classic statement would fit them. I Came, I saw, I conquered. There was no resistance. Eternal vigilance is the cost of freedom. If we do not fight back, very soon many of our children, brothers and sisters, family, and church members would end up as slaves in their camp. This has already been happening. Many of us have already lost many of our beloved one's to many kinds of cults and movements.
For the sake of our dear ones we have to fight back. For the sake of maintaining our freedom we have to fight back.
Why Should We Know About Them ?
Almost everyone has seen free-style wrestling at least on TV. There are almost no rules, and the wrestlers try to win by any method that they deem helpful. This often leads to much bloodshed and injury before one of them is declared the victor. Now let us assume a situation where one person attacks the other without being constrained by any rule. On the other hand, the other party has to fight back but only within rules. Obviously it is an unequal battle in which the `Free' wrestler has tremendous unfair advantage over his opponent who is rigidly controlled by rules. The first one can fight fair or foul while the second one cannot at any time cross the boundaries. The situation is so heavily loaded in favour of the first person and against the second person that the second wrestler can win only if a miracle takes place. We Bible-believing Christians are like the wrestler constrained by laws. Our integrity and ethics never permitting us to cross the boundaries of decency and propriety. Yet the cultists are often free to win converts at any cost. And they never spare any efforts to defeat us. Now consider a situation where the first wrestler (and his weapon) is totally invisible. Now even a miracle cannot conceivable help the second wrestler to win. Yet many times that is our situation. The cultists are already waging an unjust and unprincipled war against the Bible-believing people. On top of that they would become an "invisible" adversary if we remain ignorant about them and their tactics. Even the cleverest and most experienced war strategist cannot fight a battle when ignorance is coupled with inequality of rules.
There is no question of neutrality here. Either we defend our territory or they come and enslave us. In such a situation, it is a must to know about the enemy. They are not going to play fair, and we cannot force them to change their ways. However, they cannot easily prevent us from knowing about them. So at least in this matter we should not put ourselves in a disadvantageous position.
A committed believer should not only read this book, but should also read every book that he can get about the cultists.
Why Should We Prepare ?
Bible-believing Christians were known for their warrior mentally till a few decades ago. However a subtle change has been taking place since the last generation onwards. With increasing wealth and financial well-being a desire to "mingle" has been replacing the attitude of separation. Things have gone so far that many Bible-believing Christians have actively started desiring a union and communion between Christians of all shades right from the most orthodox up to Christians who are totally infidels. In such an atmosphere, ideas like separation and doctrinal purity are in danger of becoming anathema. Unfortunately this change has already swept at least some of the separatist churches into the bosom of the whore called Ecumenism, which is a technical sounding term to denote spiritual compromise. In such an atmosphere many people question the need for fighting back the Cults. After all, are we all not spiritual brothers, they say.
The Other Side Has Declared War
It is a shame that while many spiritually blind people and cowards from the Evangelical churches gush with love for our "brethren" in the Cults, none of those "brethren" feel the same way about us ! Else, they would have put a permanent moratorium on stealing sheep from the Evangelical churches. Instead of doing that, they continue to view and depict us as people who need to be brought immediately under the bondage of their Cult so that our salvation is ensured. Thus while the naīve emotionalists among us are busy with love gushing out for our little "brethren" in the Cults, the Cultists have declared an open, one-sided, and shameless war against us -- whom they consider as their enemies and totally lost.
Only a unwise person would overlook this kind of war and its predictable consequences -- if it is not fought back in a timely method.
We must therefore take note of the following :
1-It Is A Real War :Evangelical Christians of the present generation are totally reluctant even to think of spiritual warfare. Thus they neither declare war, nor desire to go to war, yet the war from Cults is real, and it is going on every side, every day. There is also a tendency to believe that it is not a real war if only one side has declared its intention to fight. This is foolish. War is war even if only one side has declared its intention to fight. What is worse, whether our side responds or not, the other side would keep on fighting till the end.
There is no reason for self satisfaction on the basis of one-sidedness. One side or two, it is a real war and the cultist side is wounding plenty of our people. It is high time to defend our people and territory.
2-Ignoring The War Will Not Do : Cowards often feel that a problem would be solved if they just ignore its existence. Many of them prescribe the same approach for winning the war on Bible-believing Christians declared by the Cults. No problem has ever been solved by pretending that it does not exist, and no war has been won by ignoring it. The same is the case here. If anyone feels that the Cults would not harm us if we do not react at all, he is just being naīve. The Cultist is a merciless warrior. Winning others to his side is a part of his preparation for salvation. Thus the more that we ignore him, the bolder that he becomes. Mercilessly he would take as many captives from our side as possible. Ignoring him will not solve the problem.
3-Carelessness Has Been Costly : Though Evangelicals generally close their eyes to the threat, this has not resulted in cease-fire. Rather, this has only helped the Cults to take a lot of captives from us. Except for one or two, most Cults prefer snatching people away from Christian Churches. This is easier for them than getting people from other world religions. Because of our inaction, the number of people lost by us every year is far greater than what any of us can imagine. By now, each one of the largest Cults have taken away millions of people from our churches. The smaller Cults have taken hundreds of thousands. Worse, many of the non-Christian Cults have also taken away millions of people from traditionally Christian societies like U.S.A., Europe, and Scandinavia. The same is beginning to happen in India also. Silence is golden, but not in this kind of war. Here we have already lost tens of millions to these Cults. Further, Hundreds of millions are already under Cultic influence through the New Age Movement and its countless offshoots. If we continue with our inaction, the losses would be far more greater than we can ever imagine -- and at least some of their blood would be upon us.
4-Preparation/Training For War Is A Must : Just as the days of direct warrior-to-warrior combat are gone, in the realm of spiritual war also the situation has changed totally. Today's Cultist is not just any Bible-wielding simpleton, but a highly trained warrior armed with weapons of psychological war. Just as the strongest human would fail in combat with a Karate Black-belter, even the strongest believer can fail in his opposition to today's Cultist guerrilla. The only answer is preparation. Fortunately, this preparation need not be very difficult. The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Thus what we need to learn is how to use this Sword, and it will fight the war for us. Today we lose millions of people to the false Cults because we are not training ourselves properly. Unless we reserve this trend, we will never win in this battle.
5-A Warrior Mentality Is Needed: As mention previously, Bible-believing Christians have mostly forgotten the warrior mentality of their Fathers. right from the time of Constantine, compromise has been easier for Christians than holy living. Holiness demands separation, and that is totally contrary to today's spirit of compromise. The Fathers of every Bible-believing movement were people who emphasized holiness, separation, and non-compromise. An aggressive warrior mentality was required for living and maintaining this holiness. The gradual loss of this warrior mentality has resulted in apathy, which in turn has encouraged Christians to overlook their own training. Training and Preparation are needed for winning this war. But we do not train ourselves in the art of counterattack because the desire for combat and defending the faith our Fathers is gone. Only a return to the warrior mentality of our Fathers would help us to undergo this training.
6-Fighting is Needed to Minimize Losses: As long as Bible-believing Christians would continue in their pacifism and escapism, there will be plenty of casualties. But once they begin to fight back, the losses would reduce to minimum levels. At present our unwillingness to fight, or the lethargy to defend our territory, makes the Cultists unnecessarily bold in their tactics. At the same time this coldness clouds the vision of our believers about the serious dangers, making them complacent and unguarded. Once we recapture the warrior mentality of our Fathers, others would greatly hesitate to steal sheep from our fold. Our believers would also become aware and alert about dangers. All this would reduce the number of casualties.
7-Preparation Helps In Offense As Well As Defense: Once we re-discover the warrior mentality of our Fathers, we would be able to invest in preparation. Once such a preparation is made, we would become competent in offense as well as in defense. And once that happens, the deposit of our Fathers is better protected. In essence, instead of continuing as cowardly spectators, we must get down to offence as well as defense. We lose if we do not fight back. We gain not only people but a deep commitment to our Faith if we fight back.
To be finished soon..............
Return to homepage
Thus the cultist who knocks at our door today is a person vastly different from his predecessors of yesteryears. In the past it was a battle only of doctrines, but today it has turned into a highly sophisticated doctrinal-psychological assault from them. Yet the war can be won, and we can defend our faith (and the spiritual balance of our family-members), provided we are armed with a single weapon: the Sword of the spirit. Using the Sword of the Spirit requires a bit of preparation on two fronts. First, we should be thoroughly acquainted with the sword itself. Second, we should be knowledgeable about the enemy and his strategies. The first part is done by a thorough study of the major Biblical doctrines, and that is not the aim of this book. The second part is done by studying the cults in some detail, and that is what we propose to do in the coming pages.
What Is A Cult ?
A Cult is a religious group or movement that attacks or questions the major tenets of the historical Christian faith. Many minor subjects are also attacked, but these do not pose as serious a danger as the previous category. The purpose of such attack is not to expose any genuine errors in our doctrinal understanding, nor to reform any failure, but to destroy the cardinal doctrines. The ultimate aim of this destructive work is to replace Biblically sound doctrines with the petty, erroneous, and even blasphemous doctrines of the false cult. The Cultic phenomena has today become such a powerful means of gaining power and money that it is now seen even beyond strictly religious circles. Thus though originally cults were mostly of religious origin, today they can be of non religious origin too. Such divers is the origin of cults today that it has become necessary to classify them into four slightly overlapping groups. The details of this classification ate given in another part of this book. While we are still at the definition stage, it would be good to distinguish between religions and cults lest one wonder why we have included Transcendental Meditation, but not Hinduism, in this book. Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, etc. are classified as major world religious. These world religions exist by virtue of their independent world-views, and not by denial/building upon the foundation of any other major religion. Cults are smaller groups formed primarily upon denial of some tenets of major religions. The deviating path embraced by the cults and the major religion with which they compete are often very clear. There might be some religious as well as cults that do not fit the above definition. However, there are other factors like historical background and conventions that help us to distinguish even such groups.
One special aspect of the cults and movements discussed in this book is either their hatred for Christianity or for their competition with the true Christian faith. It is either this spirit of competition or their desire to eliminate the Christian faith that makes it important to study them. It is a battle in which there is no neutral position.
Eternal vigilance is the price to be paid for freedom.
Why Should We Fight The Cults ?
In the past millennia wars were fought and won often on the basis of brute force or larger army. But even during such periods some commanders understood the value of strategy. Thus many of them were able to defeat a more massive and powerful enemy force by sheer strategy. Eventually military-strategy developed into a complex and highly refined science and art, and today no commander ever dares to venture out purely on the basis of his fire-power.
The relationship between true Biblical faith and all kind of error is no different from warfare. Even if Bible believing Christians do not desire to fight, the other side has declared war. Unless we defend our territory, we will end up with a lot of our beloved people in the fold of the cults. Thus for the sake of our children, brothers and sisters, family, and the church members, we are forced to fight back. In this battle of information the first round was won by the cults. They came silently and stealthily and took away millions of people from among us. After these massive losses the churches awoke and fought back and won during this round. This was a battle of information, and we won by pooling up massive doses of doctrine and systematic theology. However, now we are in the third round of the information-battle. Raw information related to Bible was the ammunition in the first two rounds. The battle was also direct. Thus we won ultimately because of our more accurate understanding and teaching. However the situation has taken a dramatic turn in the present stage. Information continues to be the ammunition, but the enemy now depends more upon strategy. Instead of a face-to-face war, the cults now depend upon subtle psychological war and also upon reprogramming the minds of people. Only a new strategy that takes these factors into account would help us to hold the ground. The situation is complicated by the present condition of the church also. Biblical literacy was high among believers of past generations. But in spite of having better tools, today the larger percentage of believers in Bible believing churches suffer from spiritual ignorance as well as lack of commitment. Added to this is the deceptive influence of the present-day atmosphere. Right from the earliest days of a person's life the education system, the prevailing value system, and the perverted society condition people to reject good and accept that which is evil and wrong. This develops in us a kind of attitude that is very conducive to the infiltration and growth of cults. Thus in every way the present-day Christian community is in a disadvantageous state. Add to this the learned new strategies of the cults, and the time is ripe for the church to be the loser.
This third round is much more deceptive, all-pervasive, and comprehensive compared to the two earlier rounds.Whichever side wins today would remain victor for a long time. This battle cannot be avoided in any way. The challenge and aggression has come from the other side. This if we remain inactive or if we flee, they would simply come and conquer us and the classic statement would fit them. I Came, I saw, I conquered. There was no resistance. Eternal vigilance is the cost of freedom. If we do not fight back, very soon many of our children, brothers and sisters, family, and church members would end up as slaves in their camp. This has already been happening. Many of us have already lost many of our beloved one's to many kinds of cults and movements.
For the sake of our dear ones we have to fight back. For the sake of maintaining our freedom we have to fight back.
Why Should We Know About Them ?
Almost everyone has seen free-style wrestling at least on TV. There are almost no rules, and the wrestlers try to win by any method that they deem helpful. This often leads to much bloodshed and injury before one of them is declared the victor. Now let us assume a situation where one person attacks the other without being constrained by any rule. On the other hand, the other party has to fight back but only within rules. Obviously it is an unequal battle in which the `Free' wrestler has tremendous unfair advantage over his opponent who is rigidly controlled by rules. The first one can fight fair or foul while the second one cannot at any time cross the boundaries. The situation is so heavily loaded in favour of the first person and against the second person that the second wrestler can win only if a miracle takes place. We Bible-believing Christians are like the wrestler constrained by laws. Our integrity and ethics never permitting us to cross the boundaries of decency and propriety. Yet the cultists are often free to win converts at any cost. And they never spare any efforts to defeat us. Now consider a situation where the first wrestler (and his weapon) is totally invisible. Now even a miracle cannot conceivable help the second wrestler to win. Yet many times that is our situation. The cultists are already waging an unjust and unprincipled war against the Bible-believing people. On top of that they would become an "invisible" adversary if we remain ignorant about them and their tactics. Even the cleverest and most experienced war strategist cannot fight a battle when ignorance is coupled with inequality of rules.
There is no question of neutrality here. Either we defend our territory or they come and enslave us. In such a situation, it is a must to know about the enemy. They are not going to play fair, and we cannot force them to change their ways. However, they cannot easily prevent us from knowing about them. So at least in this matter we should not put ourselves in a disadvantageous position.
A committed believer should not only read this book, but should also read every book that he can get about the cultists.
Why Should We Prepare ?
Bible-believing Christians were known for their warrior mentally till a few decades ago. However a subtle change has been taking place since the last generation onwards. With increasing wealth and financial well-being a desire to "mingle" has been replacing the attitude of separation. Things have gone so far that many Bible-believing Christians have actively started desiring a union and communion between Christians of all shades right from the most orthodox up to Christians who are totally infidels. In such an atmosphere, ideas like separation and doctrinal purity are in danger of becoming anathema. Unfortunately this change has already swept at least some of the separatist churches into the bosom of the whore called Ecumenism, which is a technical sounding term to denote spiritual compromise. In such an atmosphere many people question the need for fighting back the Cults. After all, are we all not spiritual brothers, they say.
The Other Side Has Declared War
It is a shame that while many spiritually blind people and cowards from the Evangelical churches gush with love for our "brethren" in the Cults, none of those "brethren" feel the same way about us ! Else, they would have put a permanent moratorium on stealing sheep from the Evangelical churches. Instead of doing that, they continue to view and depict us as people who need to be brought immediately under the bondage of their Cult so that our salvation is ensured. Thus while the naīve emotionalists among us are busy with love gushing out for our little "brethren" in the Cults, the Cultists have declared an open, one-sided, and shameless war against us -- whom they consider as their enemies and totally lost.
Only a unwise person would overlook this kind of war and its predictable consequences -- if it is not fought back in a timely method.
We must therefore take note of the following :
1-It Is A Real War :Evangelical Christians of the present generation are totally reluctant even to think of spiritual warfare. Thus they neither declare war, nor desire to go to war, yet the war from Cults is real, and it is going on every side, every day. There is also a tendency to believe that it is not a real war if only one side has declared its intention to fight. This is foolish. War is war even if only one side has declared its intention to fight. What is worse, whether our side responds or not, the other side would keep on fighting till the end.
There is no reason for self satisfaction on the basis of one-sidedness. One side or two, it is a real war and the cultist side is wounding plenty of our people. It is high time to defend our people and territory.
2-Ignoring The War Will Not Do : Cowards often feel that a problem would be solved if they just ignore its existence. Many of them prescribe the same approach for winning the war on Bible-believing Christians declared by the Cults. No problem has ever been solved by pretending that it does not exist, and no war has been won by ignoring it. The same is the case here. If anyone feels that the Cults would not harm us if we do not react at all, he is just being naīve. The Cultist is a merciless warrior. Winning others to his side is a part of his preparation for salvation. Thus the more that we ignore him, the bolder that he becomes. Mercilessly he would take as many captives from our side as possible. Ignoring him will not solve the problem.
3-Carelessness Has Been Costly : Though Evangelicals generally close their eyes to the threat, this has not resulted in cease-fire. Rather, this has only helped the Cults to take a lot of captives from us. Except for one or two, most Cults prefer snatching people away from Christian Churches. This is easier for them than getting people from other world religions. Because of our inaction, the number of people lost by us every year is far greater than what any of us can imagine. By now, each one of the largest Cults have taken away millions of people from our churches. The smaller Cults have taken hundreds of thousands. Worse, many of the non-Christian Cults have also taken away millions of people from traditionally Christian societies like U.S.A., Europe, and Scandinavia. The same is beginning to happen in India also. Silence is golden, but not in this kind of war. Here we have already lost tens of millions to these Cults. Further, Hundreds of millions are already under Cultic influence through the New Age Movement and its countless offshoots. If we continue with our inaction, the losses would be far more greater than we can ever imagine -- and at least some of their blood would be upon us.
4-Preparation/Training For War Is A Must : Just as the days of direct warrior-to-warrior combat are gone, in the realm of spiritual war also the situation has changed totally. Today's Cultist is not just any Bible-wielding simpleton, but a highly trained warrior armed with weapons of psychological war. Just as the strongest human would fail in combat with a Karate Black-belter, even the strongest believer can fail in his opposition to today's Cultist guerrilla. The only answer is preparation. Fortunately, this preparation need not be very difficult. The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Thus what we need to learn is how to use this Sword, and it will fight the war for us. Today we lose millions of people to the false Cults because we are not training ourselves properly. Unless we reserve this trend, we will never win in this battle.
5-A Warrior Mentality Is Needed: As mention previously, Bible-believing Christians have mostly forgotten the warrior mentality of their Fathers. right from the time of Constantine, compromise has been easier for Christians than holy living. Holiness demands separation, and that is totally contrary to today's spirit of compromise. The Fathers of every Bible-believing movement were people who emphasized holiness, separation, and non-compromise. An aggressive warrior mentality was required for living and maintaining this holiness. The gradual loss of this warrior mentality has resulted in apathy, which in turn has encouraged Christians to overlook their own training. Training and Preparation are needed for winning this war. But we do not train ourselves in the art of counterattack because the desire for combat and defending the faith our Fathers is gone. Only a return to the warrior mentality of our Fathers would help us to undergo this training.
6-Fighting is Needed to Minimize Losses: As long as Bible-believing Christians would continue in their pacifism and escapism, there will be plenty of casualties. But once they begin to fight back, the losses would reduce to minimum levels. At present our unwillingness to fight, or the lethargy to defend our territory, makes the Cultists unnecessarily bold in their tactics. At the same time this coldness clouds the vision of our believers about the serious dangers, making them complacent and unguarded. Once we recapture the warrior mentality of our Fathers, others would greatly hesitate to steal sheep from our fold. Our believers would also become aware and alert about dangers. All this would reduce the number of casualties.
7-Preparation Helps In Offense As Well As Defense: Once we re-discover the warrior mentality of our Fathers, we would be able to invest in preparation. Once such a preparation is made, we would become competent in offense as well as in defense. And once that happens, the deposit of our Fathers is better protected. In essence, instead of continuing as cowardly spectators, we must get down to offence as well as defense. We lose if we do not fight back. We gain not only people but a deep commitment to our Faith if we fight back.
To be finished soon..............
Return to homepage