The Death March of the Cults

Mark Finley: Down through the centuries, Satan has worked hard trying to get people to worship created things rather than the creator and to exalt man above God. In this way, he hopes to turn us aside from the true worship, from a life of obedience and faith to an attitude of rebellion and unbelief.
Guest (Male): This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message, The Death March of the Cults. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to hopelives365.com and stay with us for a free Bible study offer later in this program. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: One of his most successful strategies has been to lure people into a wide variety of false worship systems. One of these false worship system is cults. Interest in cults is exploding in the Western world particularly. Of course, cult movements are not something new or unique to our time. Back in the first century, the so-called Imperial cult involved worshiping the emperor, honoring him as God. In fact, that's how the Apostle John got to Patmos. He was sent there by the Emperor Domitian because he insisted on worshiping the God of heaven, whereas Domitian thought everybody ought to worship him as God and his statue in front of the building was 15 ft tall. The Apostle Paul was in Ephesus before Domitian's time, but he must have known about the Imperial cults. After he left there, he wrote to the church leaders and we read this in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 2 and 3. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. Paul did not believe the emperor could give the that kind of blessings and he added, now to him that is to God who's to do who's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think. That's the kind of God we read about in the Bible. No wonder Satan is so determined to turn people away from true worship. We might ask why these cults growing? Most of these cults still seem strange to us. We can't understand why people would give such blind devotion to their leaders. How could they be popular and growing? In the United States and Canada, for example, there's an estimated 5 to 7 million people involved in cults. Around the world, these cult like gro- groups are exploding with millions and in some places the percentage is even higher. The numbers continue to grow. Here are some thoughts on the reason why cults are popular today. Cults are popular and growing because people are looking for spiritual help in all the wrong places. Millions of people who formerly entered their lives with the idea of finding purpose and meaning. They centered their lives on getting wealthy, but they've discovered that materialism is not the road to happiness. That shouldn't surprise anyone because Jesus said a long time ago, a man's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses. Luke 12 verse 15. There's nothing wrong with wealth, but anyone who makes it the center of their life, anyone who hopes it will satisfy the deep longings of the soul is in for a serious disappointment. Why? Because we are naturally spiritual. That's how we're wired. No material thing, no amount of money or objects can ever fill that emptiness. So sadly, to fill the aching void within which materialism is not satisfied, thousands of people in their disappointment are turning to the deceptive cults. A second reason cults are growing is the failure of the Christian church to call for radical discipleship. When a church discards or downplays the authority of the Bible, when it does not stand firmly for the high standards and values laid out in God's word, it'll be weak and people will go looking for something else. Belonging of the heart is for genuine, authentic, heartfelt Christianity. People are longing for certainty. When biblical truth is compromised in the Bible, made simply a book of moral values rather than the authoritative word of God to guide and govern our lives, the average church member becomes confused, doesn't know what to believe. This leads some to seek truth in other places and the so-called certainty of the cults really attracts them. Cults will grow when the church is lacking in spiritual power. When drug addicts are not delivered and alcoholics are not being freed from their chains, when marriages are left in shambles and lives are not being transformed, it's because there's no power there and this leaves a vacuum. When that happens, people will follow some cult leader who preaches a message of power and holds out false promises of certainty. Cults also grow when the church fails to reveal God's love. The cults tend to be authoritarian, but they also offer a sense of identity and acceptance. People long to feel accepted. They want to feel love the way your family loves you. It is ironic that it in an age of cell phones and internet and instant communication, there's a great epidemic of loneliness. Millions of people are turning to cults for this sense of family, this sense of identity. When they do not find communion in the church, when they don't find a family of loving members who reach out to embrace them, they go looking for it someplace else. Now let's take a brief glimpse into the future. The Bible says that in the last days Satan will transform himself into an angel of light. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 14. He'll appear as if you were Christ. He'll come with authority and power and even something that looks like love. And if people are not grounded in Jesus Christ, if their faith is not anchored in the word of God, they will certainly be deceived. There's a curiosity about spiritual matters and a heart cry for spirituality that the evil one can play on to mislead, but it doesn't need to happen. How can we How can anyone build a firewall that will protect them now and in the future from Satan's overwhelming lie? How can you identify a cult? There are at least five characteristics that make it possible to identify a cult. The Antichrist of the future will exude that every one of them. By observing them, we can learn the tactics and identifying characteristics of a cult leader and how the devil is preparing the mind of people today to receive the Antichrist. The biggest deception in the history of the world is soon to come upon us. The Antichrist will come. He will enforce a union of church and state. The mark of the beast will be enforced where no man can buy or sell. He is the great cult leader, the great cult deceiver. But let's look at these five identifying features of a cult. First, cults have a single powerful leader who becomes the cult's Messiah. What does that mean for you and me? We may not belong to a cult, but if anybody in our life becomes our Messiah, if anyone becomes our source of religious information and we do not have a sure personal knowledge of Jesus and his word, we're setting up our minds to believe the counterfeit. I thank God for all the religious leaders who are faithfully teaching his word, but I will say this to you. If you have discovered God's truth in the Bible and you go to your pastor, religious leader and they say to you, do this or do that, don't do this, don't do that. If they give their own beliefs instead of the word of God, do not be deceived. Don't surrender your mind to the personal opinion of a religious leader when the Holy Spirit is convicting you to do something different. If their teaching is not based clearly on the Bible, but you follow them anyway, you'll definitely be deceived by the Antichrist when he comes. Any person that places their priest, their pastor, their rabbi, their religious leader ahead of what the Bible teaches is setting themselves up for deception. Now maybe somebody is thinking, oh, but I'm so sincere. We have to remember what it says in Proverbs 16 verse 25. Quote, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. You may believe something is right, you may be sincerely convinced it's true, but that doesn't make it so. A wrong belief is still wrong no matter how sincerely you believe it and a decision based on that wrong belief can lead to disaster. Suppose you're out driving and you decide to exercise your freedom by zooming through a red light. A few seconds later, you hear a siren and a policeman pulls you over. Are you going to smile and say, oh, but officer, I was very sincere. When I interviewed the young man who was in the compound with David Koresh, you remember David Koresh led his followers to Waco, Texas and there as a cult leader Koresh said, I am the lamb of God and ultimately scores of people died with him in the fiery inferno there in Waco, Texas. But I interviewed a young man who was there with him and I asked him, what was it that led you to Waco? Why did you leave his from Australia? I said, why did you leave Australia to come to America and enter a compound with a cult leader like David Koresh? I'll never forget his answer. He said, rather than study the Bible for myself, I simply listened to David Koresh and what he said. I accepted it. He then added, Koresh apparently knew the Bible and we studied late into the night for hours listening to his personal spin on scriptures. We were so exhausted and so enamored with Koresh that our minds were open for deception. It would be hard to think of anything more dangerous than that. There is only one Messiah, only one savior and one eternal source of truth that is Jesus Christ and his word, the holy Bible. In second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 3 and 4 we read, let no one deceive you by any means. This is a warning for our time. Watch out. Don't be deceived. Let no one deceive you. And he can and Paul continues, for that day, he's talking of course about the day when Jesus will return and he says, don't let anyone deceive you because that day will not come unless there's a falling away first. Now what's this falling away? Paul explains it by saying that the man of sin, that's the Antichrist of course, will be revealed, the son of perdition. Now what's the Antichrist and how do you suppose he got that name? He got it because he wants to take the place of Christ. Anti doesn't necessarily mean against. It can mean another, a substitute. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 3 and 4 opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worship. He sits as God in the temple of God showing himself he is God. Why will millions fall for the Antichrist deception in the future? They will fall because they're not studying the Bible. They are depending on someone else to study it for them and make their spiritual decisions. It may be somebody close to you. No matter who it is, we cannot allow anyone else to make spiritual decisions for us. If that ever happens, we are developing an Antichrist mentality. We're developing a mindset that will lead us to accept the Antichrist when he comes. The only way we can be safe is to commit our lives personally to Jesus and make a clear decision to follow him and his work. In the book of Revelation, there's a picture of God's last day people. What it says about them is exactly the opposite of what we just read about the Antichrist.
Guest (Male): We'll be right back with Pastor Mark Finley. We thank you for listening and hope you're enjoying today's message. Our mission is to attractively present the Christ-centered biblical truths of scripture in a practical, relevant way to people around the world so that they may experience the abundant life that Christ offers. If you want to learn more about the Bible, check out our free Bible series at globalbibleschool.org. That's globalbibleschool.org. Discover answers to your deepest questions straight from God's word. And now back to Pastor Mark Finley.
Mark Finley: It says, they followed the lamb wherever he goes. Revelation 14 verse 4. That is my friends the only safe plan. We need to follow the lamb, follow Jesus. When the Holy Spirit convicts you to do something, don't hesitate, don't wait, step out in Jesus' name and do it. So the first principle that we find is that cults look to a human leader. The second principle is this, cults substitute human teachings for the word of God. The teachings of cults and cult leaders are usually not blatantly false. They're usually subtle because they present a mixture of truth and error. If they taught only error, nobody would believe in them. Jesus prayed for us in John 17 verse 17 and he says, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. My goal is to lead you through these broadcasts to know the word of God more deeply because if your faith is anchored in the word of God, it can't be shaken. That's why the Bible says his word is truth. I was preaching in Moscow's Olympic Stadium. About 18,000 people were coming to the meetings each night and each time I get up to preach, a number of ladies following the tradition in Russia, which is so wonderful, would get up out of the audience and bring us bouquets of flowers. They just were so thankful for Jesus, so thankful for his life-changing power, so thankful for his word. I was bending over picking up the flowers and handing them to my wife or someone else on the stage standing nearby and just then a woman came down the aisle strangely dressed and bringing wilted flowers. I didn't know it at the time, but she was a cult leader who called herself Mary David Christ. Mary because she believed she was the mother of God. David because she believed that the son that she so-called was bearing would be the new Christ child and be a king like David. She had something like 22,000 followers in Russia whom she called white knights. When I bent over to accept her wilted flowers, she grabbed the microphone out of my hand and began to scream, this man's the Antichrist. This man's the Antichrist. The white knights, the young men in their late teens, early 20s in a pre-planned move rushed the stage in an all-out attack. There probably were between 10 and 15 of them. They ran toward the stage. Now I was glad that previously we had baptized many Russian army and KGB officers. They had come to Christ. Well, I'll tell you the truth, they hadn't forgotten their skills. There was quite a tussle before these cult young men were subdued. The cults have a leader that substitutes for Jesus. The leader's word substitutes for the word of God and thirdly cults often manipulate minds. They don't use logic but manipulative tactics to lead members into submission. The Bible says Joshua 24 verse 15, choose you this day whom you'll serve. In the pure religion of Jesus Christ, there's freedom of choice. There is light. Let me talk to those of you who are young people who are listening to this. If you cave into social pressure at school, if you compromise your Christian values in order to be popular, you are preparing to stand with the Antichrist at the end of time. You're preparing to be deceived by some cult. There's nothing wrong with popularity, but there's something far more important and that is following Jesus every day and obeying his word. There may be times when following Jesus means we have to step out of the crowd and be different. And if we are giving into social pressure now, we are surely going to be in trouble in the days ahead. One of the Bible symbols for the Antichrist is the beast power. It's found in the book of Revelation. In in future presentations, I'll talk more specifically about who the beast is, but here I want to see the principles he represents. In the book of Revelation, we read about that Antichrist who causes all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. Revelation 13 verse 16. What does this mean? The hand is a symbol of doing. The head is a symbol of thinking. Some people would be deceived by the Antichrist. They'll actually believe what he says. These individuals receive the mark in their forehead. Others don't fall for his lies. They're not fooled, but even so they are not willing to stand up against the pressure. They know it's false, but do what the beast wants anyway. They yield to the coercive pressure. The prophecy says no one can buy or sell unless they have the mark. Revelation 13 verse 16 and 17. This false religious system based on the teachings and traditions of man rather than the word of God will one day restrict religious freedom to anyone who opposes it. They will try to get everyone into line and notice this is very important. It doesn't matter whether they receive the mark of the beast in the forehead that is they're intellectually convinced or in the hand that is they're pressured, they're coerced. If they actually believe the beast or they don't, the end result is the same. Both groups will be destroyed when Jesus returns. So it's a warning. If you sell out your faith today because of the pressure of your job, the pressure from your friends or your spouse or if you're preparing to sell out Jesus some day and accept the Antichrist, the ultimate result is the same. It's eternal loss. So before us is eternal life or eternal loss. Now often cults not only will have a leader that takes the place of Jesus. Not only will the leader's words take the place of Jesus, not only will they be manipulative and enforce, but these cults indeed often will be characterized by false miracles worked by Satan. Does God work miracles? Of course he does. He does it often. He does it in answer to fervent prayer. James chapter 5 verse 16 describes that, but miracles are not a proof that any given religion is true because the Antichrist of the future will perform miracles too. He will even make quote fire come down from heaven on earth in the sight of men and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs or miracles which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast. You find that in Revelation 13 verse 13 and 14. People who depend on miracles to establish their faith are preparing to be deceived. Jim Jones of People's Temple in San Francisco, we get up and say somebody over there in the fifth row in the back, the man with the green shirt, I know you have heart disease, get up, you're healed. The lady over there on the other side with the blue dress with the long brown hair has cancer, get up, you're well. It was later revealed that a lot of these so-called miracles were staged. He had people prepared ahead of time to fake it, but the miracles Satan is allowed to do at the time of the end will not be faked. There'll be real events that nobody can explain by natural means. And if our faith is based on miracles, we are setting ourselves up to be deceived. God can and does work miracles, but genuine miracles are never a substitute for God's word. That's why Jesus in John 17 verse 17 said, sanctify them through thy word. Thy word is truth. And that's why John and Jesus said in John 8 verse 32 where he said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Cults often try to separate converts from their families and they separate them so that they can control them or manipulate them. One day Jesus delivered a man from demons that haunted him by the Sea of Galilee and he said, Lord, I want to stay with you. That's what this man said. I want to be your follower forever. But Jesus said, no, go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and has had compassion on you. Mark 5 verse 19. If we truly want to witness for Christ, our own home is the place to start. Sometimes people say to me, Pastor Mark, I'm coming to the meetings, but my grandfather belonged to this certain religion. So did my great grandfather, my great great grandfather. I've I've got such a heritage in this religion I can never change. I tremble when I hear these words because I think that's precisely the attitude that prepares people to receive the mark of the beast. That's what the religious leaders and Jesus they said, look at our heritage. It always goes well with us. It goes back to the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And in the end, they rejected Jesus and crucified him. When we stand before the judgment bar of God, he's not going to ask, what did your father believe? What was your mother's religion? How did your aunt and uncle worship? He will say, what did you read in the Bible? Did you obey what you found there? Remember, in Romans 14 12 it says, every one of us must give account of himself to God. In summary, you become vulnerable to cult deceptions when you look to any human authority rather than Christ. You when you accept the teachings of tradition rather than the word of God, when you're saved by an odd, by spectacular miracles, when you fail to live up by your own personal convictions and you instead are molded and shaped by the traditions of the past or the religion you were brought up in. And fifth, most of all you become vulnerable to cult deceptions when you fail to do what God puts in your heart to do. The key Bible text in all of this is Matthew 6 verse 33. Seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Do you want to win your family for Jesus? Yes, of course you do. Seek first the kingdom of God. Are you afraid you might lose your job if you step out for Christ and obey his commandments? Seek first the kingdom of God. You don't know how to relate to friends at work. Seek first the kingdom of God. That's the answer. Making God first in everything is the answer. Back in the first century, Christians were being persecuted in the ancient city of Smyrna. The authorities brought in an aged old man called Polycarp. They told him he could save his life if he was willing to renounce the faith and burn incense to the image of Caesar. The Roman proconsul tried to persuade him. He said, just burn the incense, old man. And Polycarp spoke up in a clear strong voice. 80 and 6 years have I served him and he has done me no ill. How can I now blaspheme my king who has saved me? He was burned at the stake that day, but his witness has touched the hearts of men and women to this day. It's echoed down the centuries calling each of us for faithfulness. The death of the martyrs was the seed of the gospel planted in the soil of tens of thousands of hearts inspiring them to faithfulness in Jesus. Jesus is speaking to you right now through his word. Will your commit Will you commit your life to me? Will you follow me? The world is filled with evil today and deceptions about on every side. Things are building toward a climax. The day is coming when people everywhere will be swept away by the big lie from the mouth of the Antichrist. There is only one refuge. There is only one place of safety and that is in the word of God. Now as never before we need to study it. Now as never before we need to obey it. We need to stand for Bible truth in the face of opposition and ridicule.
Guest (Male): You've been listening to Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you enjoyed today's message and that it increased your faith in God and his word. If you'd like to learn more, Pastor Mark invites you to visit globalbibleschool.org for an inspiring interactive Bible study experience. That's globalbibleschool.org. And now a final thought from Pastor Mark.
Mark Finley: Now as never before we need to study it. Now as never before we need to obey it. We need to stand for Bible truth in the face of opposition and ridicule. Soon, very soon now just before the return of Jesus, the Antichrist will appear and claim countless millions of lives as his own. These are people who are already compromising their integrity by living by his principles and denying the convictions of their conscience and resisting the claims of the Holy Spirit through the word of God on their lives. But praise God. Praise God, my friend. The Lord also will have his own, his elect, his chosen one. No one needs to be lost. That's why the word of God sends us a clear call and an invitation in a commitment to his holy word. This is why Jesus says, him that cometh to me, John 6 verse 37, him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out. Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, come to Jesus. He will not cast you out.