Source and Aim of True Education
winnyto...@my-deja.com
forfeited. Through sin the divine likeness was marred, and well-nigh
obliterated. Man's physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity
was lessened, his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to
death. Yet the race was not left without hope. By infinite love and
mercy the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation
was granted. To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back
to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of
body, mind, and soul,that the divine purpose in his creation might be
realized--this was to be the work of redemption.
This is the object of education, the great object of life. Moral
Standards ; Both Men and Women Must Keep Their Place and Live Above
Reproach.--The mind of a man or woman does not come down in a moment
from purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes
time to transform the human to the divine, or to degrade those
formed in the image of God to the brutal or the satanic. By beholding we
become changed.
Though formed in the image of his Maker, man can so educate his mind
that sin which he once
loathed will become pleasant to him. As he ceases to watch and pray, he
ceases to guard the citadel, the heart, and engages in sin and crime.
The mind is debased, and it is impossible to
elevate it from corruption while it is being educated to enslave the
moral and intellectual powers
and bring them in subjection to
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grosser passions. Constant war against the carnal mind must be
maintained; and we must be aided
by the refining influence of the grace of God, which will attract the
mind upward and habituate it to
meditate upon pure and holy things. Revelation Unmasks the Cult
Deception: An anonymous caller tipped off police on an otherwise typical
Wednesday afternoon in March, 1997. "You might want to check on the
residents," he said and gave an address. A squad car rolled up to a
palatial mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California, in quite an exclusive
neighborhood- tennis courts and swimming pools everywhere. This mansion,
set on three hill-top acres, had nine bedrooms. What sheriff's deputies
discovered made headlines around the world: 39 bodies, some dead for
three days, lying on their backs on bunk beds, cots, or mattresses. They
wore identical black shirts and pants. Some
had handwritten notes with instructions on how to mix the vodka and
Phenobarbital that killed them.
This was the tragedy of the Heaven's Gate cult. Its victims believed a
special spaceship following the Hale-Bopp comet was coming to get them
and transport them to a higher level of existence after their suicides.
Some of the dead had been with the cult since its beginning in the 70's.
These individuals had once led ordinary lives. But something made them
vulnerable and needy. Searching for something to fill the holes in their
lives, they had the misfortune of meeting a charismatic cult leader and
falling under his
influence. Gradually more and more isolated, they were indoctrinated
into the mind-set of the cult.
A lot of people are searching today. Some are looking for something new,
something different. The American Bookseller's Association recently
reported a 73% increase in the sale of New Age books over a two-year
period! Beliefs within the New Age movement are like entrees in a long
cafeteria line- there's something for every taste. But New Agers have
this in common: they're all searching for knowledge WITHIN themselves.
They believe self-knowledge is God knowledge, that to know one's self is
to know
God. But people are being deceived while trying to sort all this out.
They assume that all belief systems are more or less created equal. They
assume they can just pick and choose according to their personal
preference. But Heaven's Gate is just one example showing it makes a big
difference who you follow.
A belief system is a lens through which you see God- any distortion in
that lens results in distorting your picture of God. Some groups help
you, others exploit you and leave you deeply disillusioned. Can you tell
the difference? Identifying false religious teachers isn't quite as easy
as, "The good guys wear white hats, the bad guys wear black." More often
than not, the bad guys come galloping up with their black hats
whitewashed. But let me show you five clear features that separate a
cult from a healthy religious group. And Revelation highlights these
same features, identifying them as Satan's ways of
working- especially in the end times.
Identifying Feature #1: Cults have a single powerful leader who becomes
the cult's messiah. The leader is a charismatic individual who focuses
attention on himself and becomes more of a source for truth than God. It
becomes increasingly difficult for cult members to separate what he says
from what God says. The leader manipulates the minds of his followers
and eventually sets himself up as a substitute savior, a counterfeit
messiah. Heaven's Gate cult leader Marshall Applewhite believed he and
his co-leader
Bonnie Nettles came from "an evolutionary level above human (the Kingdom
of Heaven) incarnated in two human bodies." Applewhite believed he'd
been temporarily placed in a human body in order to show people how to
get to "the next evolutionary level." Applewhite went further. In
September of 1995 he issued an online statement entitled, "Undercover
'Jesus' Surfaces Before Departure." This man began to refer to himself
as Jesus. He was a messenger from God, just like Jesus, on the same
level.
Revelation 17:13 talks about people in the end times joining themselves
with Satan's great ally, the beast: "These are of one mind, and they
will give their power and authority to the beast." Here is a fearful
union of minds! It's not about fellowship and mutual support- it's about
giving up your mind to follow another's and allowing this other person
to have complete power and authority over you. That's what Satan works
hard to make happen through false messiahs. But there's only one Son of
God. There
are no substitutes; there are only counterfeits. Acts 4:12 says Jesus is
the only Source of salvation. Never let any religious leader take the
place of Christ.
Identifying Feature #2: The cult leader's word, his teachings, become
absolute truth. They over-shadow the teachings of the Bible. Marshall
Applewhite of the Heaven's Gate cult concocted a theology having very
little relation to Scripture. He made up his own little world- which
included bodies called vehicles, souls called deposits, and a
metamorphosis from one evolutionary level to the one above it.
When we're confronted with charismatic leaders, Isaiah 8:20 points us
"to the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this
word [the Word of God, which contains His law and His testimony], it is
because there is NO LIGHT in them." So check everything you hear against
the teachings of Scripture. Never put anyone else's teaching higher than
the principles of the Bible.
Identifying Feature #3: Cults manipulate. Cults use pressure tactics and
deception to recruit members, and they coerce members into submission,
into staying. Satan uses pressure, coercion, and force. Revela-tion
13:16-17 tells us that will surely happen in the last days: "He causes
all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a
mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy
or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast." Economic
coercion! This beast figure is
really the ultimate cult, the ultimate attempt at mind control. But
Christ won't use force or coercion to persuade people. God offers us
love, eternal life, and a place in His kingdom. But the choice is ours.
No one has the right to stand between you and God or to interfere with
your moral choices.
Identifying Feature #4: Cults appeal to miracles as a sign of their
"divine" credentials, especially when their teachings contradict Bible
truth. They hope you'll close your eyes to the teaching of Scripture and
just focus on the razzle dazzle of their religious performance. But
miracles are no test of TRUTH, for Satan himself is a supernatural being
and can perform great wonders, deceiving many through miracles, as 2
Thessalonians 2:9, Revelation 13:13-14 and 16:14 teach us. So don't just
go for the glitter. Judge the
miracle by the teaching- not the other way around! Signs and wonders may
seem impressive, but God's Word alone provides a solid foundation for
faith.
Identifying Feature #5: Cults isolate. Cults isolate converts not only
from the outside world but even from their families- a very dangerous
thing. The cult leader wants to immerse you completely in the cult
environment so the cult becomes your one source of information and
affirmation. Forget about family and friends- you have to concentrate on
this new life. Cults often foster a fear or hatred of those outside the
group. Everyone else is conspiring against them, everyone else is full
of error. Most Heaven's
Gate cult members contacted their families only once or twice- in twenty
years! One cult member's father said: "There was nothing we could say or
do to get her back. They had kidnapped her mind." Cult leaders do that,
but not Jesus. Jesus doesn't kidnap our minds, He enlightens them. Jesus
doesn't cut us off from relationships, He nurtures them.
Matthew 24:5 & 24 Jesus warns us of false teachers and prophets.
Proverbs 23:23 "Buy the truth, and sell it not."
John 17:17 God's Word is Truth. John 8:32 Truth in and through Jesus
sets us free.
þ Identifying Feature #1 Psalm 146:3 Cults often have a single, powerful
human leader who becomes the cult's messiah.
Isaiah 45:22 But Jesus is the sole Source of our salvation. (Acts 4:12)
þ Identifying Feature #2
Mark 7:7 The cult leader's word and teachings become absolute truth.
Isaiah 8:20 But if they speak not according to God's Word, there is no
light in them.
þ Identifying Feature #3
Joshua. 24:15 Each cult uses "pressure" tactics to coerce its members
into submission.
Revelation 22:17 But Christ invites us to come freely, with no
compulsion.
þ Identifying Feature #4
Romans 6:23 Each cult denies the central truth of the gospel that Jesus
Christ is the divine Son of God. (Ephesians 2:8)
John 8:24 But Jesus declared, "If ye believe not that I am He [the
Messiah Savior],
ye shall die in your sins."
þ Identifying Feature #5
1 Cor. 7:13-14 Cults often urge their "converts" to leave their
families, but God gives
the opposite advice. (Ephesians 5:22 & 25)
2 Thess. 2:10-12 Many will be deceived because they would not receive a
love of the truth.
John 14:6 Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. When we discover
the way of
salvation, He leads us into His truth so we can follow His way of life.
John 12:35 Our only safety is to walk in the light of His Word as He
reveals it.
Psalm 119:105 God's Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
1 John 4:1 God asks us to evaluate all religious claims critically:
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but TEST the spirits, whether
they are of God; because many false
prophets have gone out into the world."
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