WHAT IS A CULT LEADER
Ever since the fall of man it has been many peoples lustful desire to rule over others, to serve their own purposes. We see this exemplified from world leaders to preachers. I am not against leaders if that is what they are really trying to do is lead. A good leader will get people to volunteer. A bad leader provokes and has to brow beat and manipulate to get anyone to do anything. The Bible talks about wolves in sheep's clothing. A wolf try's to separate its prey from the other sheep so its prey has no protection.
Here are some signs and characteristics of a cult leader. This is in no way exhaustive.
Note: I am not trying to get anyone to disrespect or rebel against their pastor. I believe that if your pastor asks you to do something then go ahead and do it, if it does not violate your convictions and as long as it is not illegal or immoral.
1) Does the person say, "Never question me?"
2) Does the person say, "What ever I say just do it?"
3) Does the person say, "If I tell you to do something and you do not do it then you are not humble?"
4) Does the person try to embarrass people who do not do exactly what he wants?
5) Does the person contradict themselves allot?
6) Does the person make promises and then reneges on those promises at later point in time?
7) Does he say that he is responsible to God but behaves in a manner that he is accountable to no one?
8) Does he provoke and intimidate to get people to do what he wants?
9) Does he have to flatter people to get people to look over what he does wrong against people?
10) Does he behave as though he is the mouth piece for God? The Bible gives plain warnings about adding and taking away from the Bible.
11) Does he behave and talk like he is the Holy Spirit?
12) Does he behave like he does not care what people think and behaves like he does not respect peoples convictions?
13 Does he demand respect instead of trying to earn respect? Cult leaders have very little patience and expect everyone to serve them. Cult leaders have very little time for people only for their own aims.
14) Does he seem to have a pre-occupation with preaching at the congregation to give him more respect.
15) Does he wear a phony cheesy grin all the time, and acts like everything is all right all the time when things are falling apart in your church. This means he does not know how to handle problems that he has probably caused so he try's to overlook them thinking they will all just go away.
16) Is he always trying to make himself look good in front of the congregation?
17) Is he so dogmatic (eccentric) about soul winning that he ignores the spiritual health of the church members?
18) If he has knowingling done something wrong does he blame it on the devil? That means he is not really sorry about what he has done wrong. He is simply passing the buck.
Misunderstood scripture
(Heb 13:17 KJV) Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
(1 Sam 24:10 KJV) Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD'S anointed.
It does not take a dictator or cult leader long to find this piece of scripture and use it to bully people for their own aims. I believe everything about this scripture, but I do not believe what many fallible men are saying about it.
I have been in a few churches where the pastor has a pre-occupation with these verses.
First of all lets say you have children and you tell your children to do certain things and your pastor tells your children to do something else. According to the bible who should your children obey, you the parent or your pastor?
(Eph 6:1 KJV) Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
(Eph 6:2 KJV) Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
(Eph 6:3 KJV) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
I do not read anything about your pastor in these versus.
Second of all lets say you are a married female; your husband tells you to do something but your pastor tells you something contrary to what your husband asked you to do. Who does the wife obey, the pastor or her husband?
(Eph 5:22 KJV) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
(Eph 5:23 KJV) For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
(Eph 5:24 KJV) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
(Eph 5:25 KJV) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
You cannot argue with that can you?
Lets say you have a pastor who is very domineering and he tries to get you to do things against your convictions. What does the Bible say about that.
(Acts 5:29 KJV) Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
So what does Hebrews 13:17 mean? First of all lets talk about what it does not mean. Lets say for example: I am at home and my pastor calls my on the phone and tells me to go clean the church or tells me that he wants me to be a Sunday school teacher and I say "no". Am I violating Hebrews 13:17? This part of the verse is a dead give away when it says "...for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you." this has absolutely nothing to do with refusing to clean the church, or refusing becoming a Sunday school teacher etc. This has to do with the pastor teaching the word of God. Teaching the word of God is how he watches for your soul. Cleaning the church has nothing to do with the pastor watching for your soul.
Note: I am not trying to get anyone to disrespect or rebel against their pastor. I believe that if your pastor asks you to do something then go ahead and do it, if it does not violate your convictions and as long as it is not illegal or immoral.
Now what about 1Samuel 24:10 when it says do not touch the Lords anointed?
This verse is really talking about prophets who were being murdered. We must remember that in the old testament days people did not have Gods word, so God spoke audibly to his prophets and then the prophets would relay the message to the people. Today we have Gods word. So we don't need that kind of prophet to know what God says. The Bereans were more noble because they checked out everything Paul taught. This is a perfect example of people questioning a preacher. Yes, you can respectfully question a pastor. you show me a pastor that says you cannot and I am going to show you a cult leader/dictator. At one time in history in the Catholic church if you questioned the Pope you could get burned at the stake.
(Acts 17:11 KJV) These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
Keep this in mind.
(2 Pet 1:20 KJV) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
How to deal with Cult Leaders
Do not accept ambiguous, cryptic answers.
When dealing with serious answers do not accept cryptic answers and don't read what you want to hear into ambiguous statements. Get an explicit answer.
A spiritual leader who is worthy of his name will let his "Yes" be "Yes" and his "No be "No"
Do not accept a spiritual leader who gives you the desired answers. This type of leader is hiding his true colors.
Beware of a spiritual leader who cultivates dependency upon himself. As opposed to encouraging plurality of leadership and the exercise of others gifts.
Beware of a spiritual leader who rejects authority over himself. Even Jesus ministered under authority. The apostles were not exempt from correction from one another. Your pastor is not above the members of your church. Don't be fooled by a pastor who claims to be under Gods authority but answers to no one.
Beware of the spiritual leader who favors certain church members. This spiritual leader lacks self-examination and honesty.
Beware of a spiritual leader who flatters you. Flattery should always make you suspicious of ulterior motives. The true prophets of old were anything but flatterers.
Beware of a spiritual leader who does not follow his own teaching. If he does not live by it he is a FALSE PROPHET and you need to get him a train ticket out of town.
I believe that a preacher can teach the salvation message and still be a false prophet. Why? Because Judas Iscariot did (I am not saying that Judas was saved). Remember he was one of the twelve. He probably prayed before his meals. We need to learn from this.
The Antichrist will also appear as a Christian at first sight.
One thing I have learned from knowing about problem pastors is that many pastors who are claiming abuse from the members are sometimes bringing it on to themselves because they believe that they are the last word in everything. These kind of pastors are provokers. They use the pulpit to manipulate the congregation instead of leading them from the Bible, this is called pulpit abuse.
Why are we sometimes so easily deceived by unqualified or false spiritual leaders?
It is because we have not died to our own sinful lusts.
(2 Pet 2:14 KJV) Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
(2 Pet 2:15 KJV) Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
(2 Pet 2:16 KJV) But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
(2 Pet 2:17 KJV) These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
(2 Pet 2:18 KJV) For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
(2 Pet 2:19 KJV) While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
(2 Pet 2:20 KJV) For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
This article may seem a little to sensational to some but I want you to understand something I am a member of a local church that was badly wounded by a former pastor who nearly ruined the church. While he was the pastor he did some very deceptive things. The church was super patient with him putting up with nonsense for over two years. He had to be voted out before he could run more people off.
I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt those where the hardest years of my life. I don't want those false dictator pastors to keep getting away with these things. Its not right, it hurts peoples lives, and it hurts the work and cause of Christ.
Don't take me wrong I am for loving, gracious, God called pastors. Ever since this happened in my church I have done a series of investigations as to why anyone who believes that they are called of God to pastor a church could be so selfish, so head strong and behave in such a deceptive manner.
This false pastor would preach out against back biting while he did most of the back biting and provoking.
I am challenging churches to do three things.
1) to ask themselves a question how is it that members of a particular church like the one I am a member of could have hard working members for 11+ years serving God and then get a pastor who claims to love God and then runs off those hard working members who does not agree with him without batting an eyelash? Actions speak louder then words. It is a fact that kind of a pastor only cares about his own aims and obviously has an agenda.
2) Keep the Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life out of your church. The Purpose Driven Church should be titled The Highjacking of a Church. The Purpose Driven Life should be called The Purpose Driven Lie, Nightmare or Deception. All Rick Warren did in these books is popularize the old liberalism and compromise of the New Evangelicals. He was the first one used by Satan to sneak compromise into the back door of local churches successfully through the seduction of the Bible. The Purpose Driven Church actually teaches prospective pastors to become pastors of churches smaller then 50 members. Because it is too hard to completely reconstruct a church that has over 50 members to the pastors desires.
3) I am serious when I say this. I am not being alarmist or sensational. I beg of you! If you are a church that is looking for a pastor then check him out thoroughly. If he has pastored a church before don't be dumb and nieve; go talk to some of the members of the church he pastored even if he pastored a church along ways away. Find out what Bible college he went to. If he went to Hyles Anderson College be very carefull. If he was trained by another pastor find out what kind of a pastor he is.
I don't want this sort of thing to happen to you. I feel very sorry for those people and churches who are legitimately harmed by a false pastor. In my opinion there are are very few things that are worse then a pastor who is supposed to be a shephered of the flock and instead he ends up fleecing the flock instead of feeding the flock. I believe that when this occurs it is at least as bad some of the wicked world events that are going on around us because when the families go bad the pastors go bad when the pastors go bad the churches go bad and then the country goes bad. That is exactly what is happening.
I know for a fact that this is happening in alot of churches in the United States. This is another sign of the end times predicted in Mathew stating that many false prophets shall arise deceiving many. This is why I wrote these articles.
This article is no way against pastors. Some of my best friends are pastors. In any calling, profession and job there are going to be those people who abuse their jobs.
A false prophet wants no other authority over him. He wants to be the final authority in his life (2Thess. 2:4). Furthermore, he turns children against their parents, citizens against their government, wives against their husbands, employees against their employer all in the name of religious duty. There are times when Christians must refuse to obey authorities who command something contrary to Scripture (Acts 5:28, 29). God's authority is always higher than man's authority. This is by far the exception to the normal rule of reverently submitting to them. Read 1Peter 2:13. We are told there to "submit yourselves to every ordinance of man." A false prophet wants to maintain domination and control over his followers by having them submit to him in a dictatorial rule. We are warned that spiritual leaders should not constrain their followers to obey them but by a godly example and godly teaching lead the way (1Peter 5:2, 3). Jesus explained that the greatest leader of all is not the one who demands to be served by his subjects, but the one who is servant of all (Mark 9:33-37; 10:42-45). Those religious teachers that are teaching their followers that they have no obligation to pay their taxes are an example of how false teachers encourage rebellion towards authority (Matt. 17:24-27; Romans 13:6; 1Peter 2:3).
