CULTS! WHAT ARE THEY? The answer is saddening and yet in some respects rather amusing – so, read on!

As March of 1997 drew to a close so did the lives of 39 deluded Heaven’s Gate members in Rancho Santa Fe, California. As the Hale-Bopp comet drew closer to earth, cult leader Marshall Applewhite told his followers that now was the time to treat their bodies as “disposable containers” and leave them behind to move to a “Next Level” of existence. The comet’s appearance meant their time had come. On a video the cultists expressed pleasure that they were going to a better place. Persuaded that they were to have a rendezvous with a UFO trailing Comet Hale-Bopp, the victims, all with closely cropped hair and wearing identical black outfits, took phenobarbital and alcohol, covered their heads with plastic bags, lay down, relaxed — and died! They died in a mansion, thinking a spaceship would convey them to a beautiful world, only to awaken in the blackness of darkness — eternally lost!

LED by Jim Roberts, an ex-marine, the Garbage Eaters, wearing long hair and backpacks, roam the West Coast rummaging in dumpsters for supper and spiritual salvation. Eating moldy food, they blame their stomachaches on Satan. They are poor deluded souls!

Spiegel’s 33 Spaceships

NEAR San Diego, an old deluded, retired psychology professor, Charles Spiegel, eagerly awaits the 1,000 aliens who will descend from “Myton.” He believes they will land in 33 spaceships on the mythical lost continent of Atlantis, which will arise from the depths of the Caribbean. These aliens, Spiegel teaches, will look like humans and will cure cancer. His former prophesies have failed and skeptics have laughed. However Spiegel says, “We will have the last laugh. We just speak the truth and let the truth take care of itself.”

POOR Spiegel actually thinks that he is speaking the truth, when in reality he is flatly contradicting the Holy Scriptures. So where does his so-called truth come from? The answer is simple, my friend. It comes from that one of whom the Lord Jesus said, “The devil…there is no truthfulness in him…When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh it out of his own resources: for he is a liar, and the father of liars” (John 8:44 R.V.).

A CULT can be defined as a group of people gathered about a specific person or person’s misinterpretation of the Bible. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses are, for the most part, followers of the misinterpretations of C. T. Russell and J. F. Rutherford. The Mormons adhere to the writings of Joseph Smith, and Christian Scientists are followers of Mary Baker Eddy. All cults contain many major deviations from historic Christianity and most claim to be the only source of salvation. The attitudes of most cultists are characterized by closed-mindedness. They are not interested in a rational evaluation of the facts. Cultists also have an attitude of hostility toward those who reject their interpretations. They insist that they are entitled to be classified as Christians, but the Bible terms them, “false teachers.”

Delusion’s Source

IT is most saddening to see sincere people so deceived, thinking that all is well, when in reality, God says they are lost and in need of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. How can souls be so deceived in such an educated world? The answer is simple. The delusion comes from Satan. Notice what God says about him. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3,4). Yes, Satan deceives with a religion that declares that Jesus Christ is not God; that He is not the only Saviour; that His sacrifice on a cross at Calvary is not enough to put our sins away; that He never rose physically from the dead; that He is not presently in heaven as a resurrected Man.

I trust that you’re not a cultist! However, let me kindly ask you, are you born again? Are you saved from the penalty of your sins? Are you absolutely sure of heaven as your eternal home after death? With an open mind, please consider the following God-given facts.

God Says It!

THE Lord Jesus Christ is, “God…manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). Even though “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), yet “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; …He was buried, and…He rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

FRIEND, don’t look to a cult or to a church for salvation. Look to Christ alone, trust Him with all your heart and God’s salvation will be yours – for God has said it! Amen!