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that his quotations are verbatim read from the Bible. In short, you are mentally spoon fed
exactly what the cult leader wants you to have. You think that the "anointed man of God" is
giving you "special revelations" from God. Reserved, I might add, only for God's holy "last-
days remnant." That is because the "outside" world, including your friends and family, would
simply not understand "God's special revelations" to the group. You are indoctrinated into the
beliefs of the cult leader. Whether or not you want to admit it or even recognize it.
A couple of times you gently question the cult leader on what he has presented to you. You are
told that these are difficult spiritual concepts to understand. But, if you pray about them long
and hard enough, God will reveal Himself to you. You grow to understand that the cult leader is
"very" connected to God because of his intense prayer life and "walk with God."Once, you
think the cult leader has misinterpreted the Bible and you challenge him. You are told that you
don't have the spiritual authority to rebuke him. Furthermore, you apparently have a problem
with spiritual authority. Therefore, you need to repent and pray about it. You fail to do any
more mental homework. You acquiesce to the cult leader's viewpoint and decide that these
matters are best left to his judgment. They are, after all, difficult spiritual issues to understand.
You grow to a complete trust in the cult leader's judgment. Whatever he asks you to do, you do
because you feel that you are obeying God when you obey the cult leader. It makes life easier.
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The only differnce between the above two scenarios is time. A cult leader needs time to move an
individual far enough along mentally to the point that he or she will no longer question his
authority. I have added some Christian terminology to the above scenario because I have
personally witnessed the cult activities of a so-called Christian minister over a span of 3-4 years.
I have seen the movement in time between what was "right-on" spiritually to what became
"corrupt" spiritually. I have seen men and women of God who seek a deeper relationship with
Him -- surrender themselves to the mind control activities of a cult leader. A Christian cult
leader.
Think It Can't Happen Here?
Reflecting upon the "Heaven's Gate" cult suicide the day the information was revealed to the
public, I distinctively recall the thoughts: "Think it can't happen right here in Elk River?
Think again!"My mind was mentally directing the question to the editor of the local paper.
Later in the day, I ran across a friend. I remember the glazed look in her eyes as I mentioned why
I would not attend the church anymore. It was a very graphic and poignant moment as God
revealed the revelation that "the ability to be reasoned with" had no place in our discussion. For
her, there simply was no need to reason. Her mind was settled. I was on the "outside" and was
no longer "connected" to God's special revelations that were unique to "the inside of" her church.
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