How to Identify a Christian Cult

Some people came from Judea to Antioch, and on arrival, began to teach the Christians that they could not be saved unless they were circumcised according to the custom of Moses. This caused considerable uproar and dispute between them and Paul and Barnabas, and the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas, and some others from their fellowship, to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, to try to sort out the problem.

Acts 15:1-2 NTFE

If you are or were part of a cult at some point, there is no cause to be ashamed. Cults exist because life is challenging and the human psyche is complicated. We get confused as we wrestle with complex issues inflamed by common anxieties. Sometimes, the person most worried about “all those cults” is the real cult leader, but genuine inner peace is the purest mark of a follower of Jesus.

Cult activity and mentalities flourish when misunderstandings concerning the Gospel exist. Jesus promised, "You will know the truth and the truth will free you.” John 8:32. Many Christians enter cults and lose their freedom, or never fully find it, because the truth of the Gospel is muddled in heavy mental, spiritual, and emotional traffic. The way out of the confusing prison of cults is to return to the beginning and reorient ourselves around the front door of the Gospel.

Finding the Door

Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”

John 10:9 NASB

You can identify a cult by the location of the entry door. Jesus said, “I am the gate,” but a cult says, “We are the gate.” In Acts 15, as quoted above, a group of people caused an uproar because they moved the front door of the house away from Christ and imposed circumcision. Paul and Barnabas set the record straight by arguing that since God gave the Holy Spirit to Gentiles through faith, He clearly made no distinction between Jews and Gentiles based on ethnicity. Circumcision (which was enforced to make Gentiles Jewish) was no longer a requisite for inclusion. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Adoption, inside humans makes them a child of God. Nothing remained to be said if God granted the Holy Spirit through faith. But cults always add something because that is how they invent themselves. By adding something, whatever it is, a special way of baptizing, a specific behavior or dress code, submission to a particular leader, the day you worship, or whatever, they move the authority of arbitration away from Jesus and place it on themselves. Every cult and cult leader does this—every single one.

Cults Big and Small

Catholicism is the largest cult in the world because they have moved the door away from Christ and given it to their institution. On the other end of the spectrum, many house churches devolve into cults when the leaders start trying to exercise dominance over the group they oversee or when the group decides that worshiping in their format is the only acceptable way to do it.

Many Protestants will point the finger at Catholics, saying, “They are in a cult!” and thereby conclude that no Catholic can be a true Christian. But if God wrote us off for not understanding everything correctly, we would all be excluded. I know many Catholics who have the Holy Spirit residing in them, which is the irrefutable evidence of their adoption into the family of God. Christians who don't understand this point are dealing with a cult mindset themselves.

Being part of a cult does not mean that you aren't a true Christian or aren't going to heaven; it only means that you have forgotten or not fully understood the Gospel. Anyone can fall prey to a cultish mindset. I believe there is at least a little cult mentality in everyone because the cult mentality is rooted in rejection, which is a universal experience.

What do we want?

Nobody likes to feel left out, left behind, or excluded. Whenever we feel anxious about acceptance in a group, we should stop and ask ourselves, “What am I seeking? What do I believe acceptance in this group will give me?” The odds are that we seek something Jesus freely gave us: love and acceptance.

In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

Psalm 56:11 NASB

The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.

Proverbs 29:25 NASB

Whenever we fail to find our identity in Christ, we are susceptible to cults and cult mentalities. When we are more worried about which tribe we belong to instead of to Whom we belong, we will have trouble. The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the love of God will feel safe.

The Apostle Paul pointed out that cults exist to keep people out, so they will seek inclusion.

They eagerly seek you, not in a commendable way, but they want to shut you out so that you will seek them.

Galatians 4:17 NASB

If you know God’s love already includes you through Jesus's blood, the threat of exclusion loses its power.

Jesus does not accept you nor deny you based on your denomination, whether Catholic or Protestant. Jesus accepts you because He loves and cleanses you with His blood. Whether or not you trust the love and sacrifice of Jesus is up to you. What you choose to trust will determine your experience.

The power of a cult or cult leader is the lie that you need them to be acceptable

to God. Cults can't keep you if you believe the truth, for the truth really will set you free. As long as we live, lies try to reassert themselves, which is why we must stay rooted in the Gospel and constantly celebrate with the Apostle Paul, who said,

“…the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

Galatians 2:20 NASB

Why Do Cults and Cult Leaders Exist?

They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them.

Galatians 4:17 NASB

Cults and cult leaders want you to seek them for acceptance in their group. In an episode of the classic TV show “Andy Griffith,” some boys decide to start a club and discuss who will be allowed in the club. One boy says, “We can't let just anybody in. What is the point of having a club if you can't keep people out?!” He is exactly right. The main point of a cult is to keep people out so that they will seek entrance. The desire for entrance fuels the cult and the cult leader’s ego and sense of importance.

Christian groups and leaders devolve into cults when those involved fail to appropriate the Gospel fully. To put it another way, we often receive the Gospel in a flash of revelation which brings joy and freedom, but after a time, old ways of thinking and familiar habits of the heart reassert themselves. A cult leader will be a person carrying profound rejection and hurt, and who desires leadership as a means of healing themselves, which is what makes them so controlling. Cults develop when the leaders of a group start trying to find their value in something other than the fact that “the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Cult leaders draw to themselves other people with similar hurt and rejection who desperately want to be included. The cult replaces faith with tangible and practical acceptance in a group. Rank, respect, and authority become increasingly crucial in the group because they provide the dopamine hit the members crave to soothe (but not heal) the wounds in their souls.

Cults provide false affirmation, security, and assurance. Eventually, the members of the cult feel the reality of the prison bars that were meant to keep people out, holding them in. Idolatry of acceptance, power, control, and affirmation is the root sin of a cult. Anyone involved in a cult will have some measure of demonic oppression in their lives. Where idolatry exists, demons exist.

The way out of a cult is the same as any emotional or spiritual danger: You must believe the Gospel. Our acceptance does not come from man but from the Son of God, who loved and gave Himself for us. Jesus didn't exclude us so that we would seek Him; rather, Jesus included us while we were unworthy.

6For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:6-8 NASB

We can't earn our way into acceptance before God. God included us before we knew His name. God sought us out like a lost sheep. God doesn't need our affirmation and praise as leader (though He does deserve it!) but freely affirms our value. God desires us even though we were enemies with Him. God is not insecure but freely gives Himself away, even to those who abused Him by pulling out His beard, spitting in His face, stripping Him naked, and nailing Him to a cross.

Satan is the ultimate cult leader who promises great things but only steals, kills, and destroys as cults always do. Jesus is the author of freedom, and entrance into His Kingdom is voluntary and free. He will not imprison you but will make you free. And if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free.