Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2, 1998, page 50
Garden with no forewarning. They see the fruit on the tree. It looks so good. The serpent is
dangling from a branch and says, ―This is good fruit, eat it.‖ They eat it and then God comes
along and says, ―Hey, you two! You just sinned!‖ They say, ―What? We sinned? How did we
sin?‖ ―You should have known better than to eat that fruit.‖ ―Why should have we known
better?‖ ―You were spiritually deceived.‖ ―Well, you never told us not to eat that fruit!‖ ―But
if you were more spiritual you would have known.‖
If cult joining is simply a problem of spiritual deception, then the sword cuts both ways. If
cult members are responsible because they lack discernment, why is not the Church also
responsible for lack of discernment? Why hasn‘t the church been able to recognize the
wolves and warn the flock? Where was the church speaking before Jonestown? Where was
the church when Hitler came along? Where was the church when Mao Tse-tung came along?
Where was the church when David Koresh came along? Where was the church when Jeffrey
Lundgren came along? Who was warning the people who followed these leaders?
There was great silence in the church. There is still great silence in the church. So, if it is
only a deception issue, then we‘re all wrong, we‘re all deceived. To say that one group is
more deceived than the other when the church has consistently sat on its hands in the face
of this cult problem and has provided virtually no resources for cult victims is to engage in
self-righteous blame-shifting.
Hardly anything is taught about cults in seminaries and Bible schools.12 Pastors know very
little about cults, apart from some of the major doctrinal aberrations of the Mormons and
Jehovah‘s Witnesses. Currently, there is only one cult rehabilitation center in the world, and
that is Wellspring, and it receives very little support from the church. If we are going to talk
about discernment, then we better talk about the discernment of the church and heeding
the prophetic voice that warns about cults and spiritually abusive churches. That has not
often been the case. The church usually speaks out only after the fact. The responsibility for
the appalling silence and even complicity of the church in Nazi Germany rests on the heads
of evangelicals as fully as it does on those of liberals and Catholics. The appalling silence of
the evangelical church with the rise of Red China rests on our heads, too. We could just go
down the list. The discernment issue applies equally to other abuses besides those relating
to cults. As we write this, the church is experiencing more persecution worldwide than at
any time in history. To be sure, some Christians are sounding the alarm, but too few know
of the problems. Again, discernment is an issue for those in leadership, not just for the
victims.
Mind-control (or thought reform, coercive persuasion, or whatever one may call it) is not
merely a secular concept. It is also a biblical concept related to the problem of evil and how
all men and women are affected by evil. No group of Christians or non-Christians is any less
immune to thought reform than any other. What produces discernment? Is it obedience? Is
it more Bible reading? Is it going to seminary? Is it education? Are the discerning more holy
or righteous?
The Passantinos appear to be answering this last question in the affirmative. If so, their
argument runs counter to the Reformation concepts of the grace of God, the corruption of
sin, and justification by faith alone --all of which beliefs the Passantinos hold. Their
argument appears to imply that humans are capable of unassisted evaluation of data
concerning God, and making unassisted free choices in relation to spiritual matters. Thus,
they castigate cult members for being ―undiscerning.‖ But according to the Bible in the
Reformed tradition, revelation and grace are paramount. Humans may examine the
universe and their own nature to learn its complexities, but they may only know about God
as he has revealed himself. Furthermore, they may only make free choices for or against
that revelation by the grace of God. Without grace, they are only capable of rejecting
whatever revelation they might receive. Any other view denies the utter sinfulness of the
Garden with no forewarning. They see the fruit on the tree. It looks so good. The serpent is
dangling from a branch and says, ―This is good fruit, eat it.‖ They eat it and then God comes
along and says, ―Hey, you two! You just sinned!‖ They say, ―What? We sinned? How did we
sin?‖ ―You should have known better than to eat that fruit.‖ ―Why should have we known
better?‖ ―You were spiritually deceived.‖ ―Well, you never told us not to eat that fruit!‖ ―But
if you were more spiritual you would have known.‖
If cult joining is simply a problem of spiritual deception, then the sword cuts both ways. If
cult members are responsible because they lack discernment, why is not the Church also
responsible for lack of discernment? Why hasn‘t the church been able to recognize the
wolves and warn the flock? Where was the church speaking before Jonestown? Where was
the church when Hitler came along? Where was the church when Mao Tse-tung came along?
Where was the church when David Koresh came along? Where was the church when Jeffrey
Lundgren came along? Who was warning the people who followed these leaders?
There was great silence in the church. There is still great silence in the church. So, if it is
only a deception issue, then we‘re all wrong, we‘re all deceived. To say that one group is
more deceived than the other when the church has consistently sat on its hands in the face
of this cult problem and has provided virtually no resources for cult victims is to engage in
self-righteous blame-shifting.
Hardly anything is taught about cults in seminaries and Bible schools.12 Pastors know very
little about cults, apart from some of the major doctrinal aberrations of the Mormons and
Jehovah‘s Witnesses. Currently, there is only one cult rehabilitation center in the world, and
that is Wellspring, and it receives very little support from the church. If we are going to talk
about discernment, then we better talk about the discernment of the church and heeding
the prophetic voice that warns about cults and spiritually abusive churches. That has not
often been the case. The church usually speaks out only after the fact. The responsibility for
the appalling silence and even complicity of the church in Nazi Germany rests on the heads
of evangelicals as fully as it does on those of liberals and Catholics. The appalling silence of
the evangelical church with the rise of Red China rests on our heads, too. We could just go
down the list. The discernment issue applies equally to other abuses besides those relating
to cults. As we write this, the church is experiencing more persecution worldwide than at
any time in history. To be sure, some Christians are sounding the alarm, but too few know
of the problems. Again, discernment is an issue for those in leadership, not just for the
victims.
Mind-control (or thought reform, coercive persuasion, or whatever one may call it) is not
merely a secular concept. It is also a biblical concept related to the problem of evil and how
all men and women are affected by evil. No group of Christians or non-Christians is any less
immune to thought reform than any other. What produces discernment? Is it obedience? Is
it more Bible reading? Is it going to seminary? Is it education? Are the discerning more holy
or righteous?
The Passantinos appear to be answering this last question in the affirmative. If so, their
argument runs counter to the Reformation concepts of the grace of God, the corruption of
sin, and justification by faith alone --all of which beliefs the Passantinos hold. Their
argument appears to imply that humans are capable of unassisted evaluation of data
concerning God, and making unassisted free choices in relation to spiritual matters. Thus,
they castigate cult members for being ―undiscerning.‖ But according to the Bible in the
Reformed tradition, revelation and grace are paramount. Humans may examine the
universe and their own nature to learn its complexities, but they may only know about God
as he has revealed himself. Furthermore, they may only make free choices for or against
that revelation by the grace of God. Without grace, they are only capable of rejecting
whatever revelation they might receive. Any other view denies the utter sinfulness of the
