In the past as a young believer, I thought that a cult was a group of people who negated the deity of Christ, as their main doctrine. It was only as I began to read and study the Bible in my late 20's that I realized that a group of people don't have to deny Christ as God, to be a cult, they simply deny Him by their disobedience against His Word. We have modern "Christian" cults today who would strongly proclaim the deity of Christ, but violate much of God's Word.
Let me qualify that we are to submit to the governing bodies of a gathering, when they obey Christ, when they do not, then we do not have an obligation to obey them. If we find ourselves at logger heads with authority too often, then we should leave, they will not listen and they will not change, it is better to leave them alone and move on.
What would one of these cults look like?
1. Cults add to the Word of God with extra rules that were not written in the cannon of Scripture.
2. Cults have a leader or group of leaders that will not allow discussion on important doctrinal matters by their "underlings." They require complete allegiance to their doctrines without challenge. They monitor very closely the activities of those in their charge and will not allow discussion to clarify matters, they are always right, will not admit their own fallibility.
3. They camp heavily on the woman as one who should not speak of doctrine or spiritual matters to anyone, they are to be mindless and voiceless as they accept all that is fed to them by their superiors. They ignore the women as though they were unimportant and use intimidation to force submission even when their concern is valid. Of course there are cults too, that have women leaders in opposition to the Scriptures, some modern Christian cults have over reacted to the feminist movement by adding rules and twisting Scripture to keep from the pitfalls of our culture.
When we read the Word and pray for leading from the Holy Spirit, we do not have to overreact, we can simply obey God and leave all the results to Him. Christ never "controlled" anyone, He simply stated his truth and allowed others to make the decision. God does tell leaders to put out of the body a sinning brother, however, that has to do with blatant sin and disobedience against the Word. All matters must be diligently researched in the Word to make sure that the action taken is Biblical.
4. Often these cults place such authority over the women and children that they are not allowed to question anything, there is complete obedience to the men required, and even above God.
Acts 5:29 "But Peter and the [other] apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men."
5. One of the ear marks of a cult is that they demand complete submission to the governing body to such a degree that those who question them are disciplined through shunning and even putting out, if they do not obey all the rules of their organization.
6. Force, in one form or another, is a common tactic for the cult leaders. Force can range from intimidation by sordid looks to burning at the stake during the inquisition.
Jeremiah 1:8 "Do not be afraid of their faces, For I [am] with you to deliver you," says the LORD."
7. Cults often have clothing mandates for their people, that are not described in Scripture. I was once told by a group we were with that the ladies wore sleeves to their elbow, but above that was immoral, no pants at all for the women and the length of the skirt was to the ankles. When I asked for Scripture on this matter of clothing, they had only one to give that spoke of modesty, even though that scripture had no description of what that modesty looked like.
In this same group as mentioned in point #7, I was told that it was sin if one wore jewelry of any kind and watches were given for marriages instead of rings, presumably because watches were useful and rings were jewelry. Although some of the watches were beautiful. None of these rules were mentioned in Scripture. I brought up Ezekiel 16 to clarify that God blessed His people with jewelry and cosmetics, but the people misused these things. God does not bless with evil things, and the people misusing them does not make the things evil, only the hearts of the people were evil, not the things.
I was once told that the designation in the original language for woman's was "long and flowing", at closer inspection, that would have been the same designation for men, since all men wore tunics and robes same as the women. It became evident to me that if pants should be forbidden, on moral grounds for women, then the men should also never wear pants, but return to robes and tunics. I would not advocate pants for women, I tend to be more comfortable most of the time in dresses and skirts, however, I cannot judge another woman for her clothing unless it was blatantly immoral, most of us know what that looks like and respect for the brothers and sisters in Christ would drive us to be careful not to make a brother or sister fall by our actions.
The following passage pertains to food but the principle for all things still remains.
1 Corinthians 10:23-26
"All things are lawful for me, [fn] but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, [fn] but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's [well-being]. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience' sake; for "the earth [is] the LORD's, and all its fullness."
Cults enjoy very stringent rules, the same attitude of the Pharisees that required obedience to man rather than God. The people in these groups like rules because they can check their brains at the door and never have to make a decision about their own walk. Like little children, they do not read their Bibles, pray about matters or seek the Lord, they don't have to, they can just ask their elder and do whatever he says.
I am not against leadership, it is mentioned much in Scripture, I am against the abuse of power that uses meanness and self righteousness to control the people.
Leadership is not "control", it is serving by example, preaching and teaching, not forcing as the Catholic church, Calvin and others have done to force outward obedience rather than fostering inward transformation in Christ.
Obey the leaders when you can, but if they do not obey the Word, then confront them with their sin and if they will not listen, get out as fast as you can.
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