“And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many.” (Matthew 24:11)
The NIV Translation of the New Testament has seven verses about false prophets. Interestingly, the Lord spoke five of those verses. In fact, the Bible’s strongest warning about them came from the Lord Himself, who said, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)
Jesus called them false prophets, but today we refer them as cult leaders. He tells us to “Watch out”. In others words, learn to recognize them for what they are, a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
How do you recognize a cult anyway? What are some of its more important characteristics?
Cults are not just the off-the-wall religious groups that commit mass suicide, thinking that eternal life is going to depend upon an alien spacecraft shadowing the tail of a comet. Many of today’s cults mask themselves behind the very same traditions and values to which we all hold. But there’s something different when you unmask just what it is they believe.
One characteristic that is fairly common among cults is they almost universally deny that everything in God’s Word is true. In other words, they take exception to the Bible’s claim that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
Cults tend to focus on one verse or several verses of Scripture to the exclusion of others, without regard for the context in which those verses are found. They are well trained and will even use Christian terms and other Scripture references to make their point. This Cut and Paste Theology is exactly what the Apostle Peter was referring to when he said, “They will secretly introduce destructive heresies.” (2 Peter 2:1)
A cult will teach you that eternal life depends on something other than the finished work of Christ. They don’t agree with Paul who said at Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast.” Instead, the salvation message of today’s cults often requires that we work our way into eternity. They may even suggest that you should shun certain obligations and practices like paying your bills or obeying your parents.
Finally, a cult will drain you of both your time and money often at the expense of members of your own family. This is a common tactic that even Jesus recognized when he said, “A house divided against itself will fall.” (Luke 11:17)
The Apostle John gave some great advice about how to determine if you or a member of your family is becoming involved with a cult: “Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is the way to find out if they have the Spirit of God: If a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ became a human being, that person has the Spirit of God. If a prophet does not acknowledge Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist. You have heard that he is going to come into the world, and he is already here. But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won your fight with these false prophets, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. These people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God; that is why those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.” (1 John 4:1-6)
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