Wait, It's A Cult?

[Trapped]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I'm very confused about this post. Members are free to leave the local churches, and with hardly any attempt at contacting them after they leave, according to my main impression. I entered the church several years ago and have never had any problems with them. The church is really good and the saints are really good. The things we say should be accurate so as to avoid spreading misinformation.

Now, you may ask why this is only my main impression and not my entire impression. Because get stuffed, that's why. I have never experienced any kind of insidious retention of individuals. Also, I can successfully annoy everyone in the church without getting so much as a tiny reaction from them. This shows that they are truly of Christ.

Regards,
A brother, 24

A brother, 24:

I can guarantee you that asking why this is only your main impression and not your entire impression was the last thing on my mind.

But thanks for telling me to "get stuffed" anyway. Nice to meet you.

Sometimes getting a reaction from people is good, so you can learn how to interact with people less rudely. The wonderful non-reacting saints may be doing you a disservice long-term.

Now I'm going to put some words in your mouth, or at least make some assumptions about you that I admit may be 100% wrong:

Since you said you entered the church several years ago, and yet are apparently 24 years old, it seems like you may have entered during your college years, is this true?

If so, your entrance into the church was most likely highly designed to be warm and comfortable and enticing, and there has probably been much fellowship behind the scenes about you by those caring for you.

You have been in the church for several years and are 24 years old. You are posting on a forum composed of people many of whom were or have been in the church for decades and are older than 24, to say the least. Believe me, you have much to see and hear in the church. Don't presume to be an expert on something you are new in.

Yes, aspects of the church CAN be good and many times the saints CAN be good, otherwise no one would join or stick around. But there's more to it than that.

Your comment that people are free to leave "with hardly any attempt at contacting them after they leave" is actually an indicator of a cult. The reason few saints contact people who leave is because their entire relationship is totally based on what building they worship the Lord in, NOT on the shared life in Christ. If you don't meet with them, you are as good as non-existent to them. When you leave, you are considered negative or poisonous. That is not a normal exit process for a church. This is a marker of a cult.

Additionally, just because you haven't experienced or seen something certainly doesn't mean that it isn't there. Many saints have experienced the very things that are indicators of a cult. (Note: "cult" is a spectrum.....the local church is not a kooky off the wall cult but more of a legalistic controlling unhealthy church). Are all the teachings unhealthy? No. But there are plenty of unhealthy ones mixed in to the point where discerning between the two can be difficult. The unhealthy ones are designed to fly beneath the radar, keep people in submission, and rear their ugly head when the need to control people and shut people up arises.

The local church will not shackle you with physical chains, but with emotional and mental chains of fear that if you leave the church you will literally not be able to go on with God. Witness Lee himself said "...those who have come [into the church] and then left invariably find their end less than desirable. There is not one exception." (The Vision of the Age)

A brother 24 - according to the primary person's teaching that the local church follows (Witness Lee), if you decide to leave this church you will find your end less than desirable.

Do you believe that? Because they teach it.

If you don't believe it, do you want to be in a place that teaches it?

The only reason I am comfortable posting that quote is because I can safely say it is a complete lie and is not true. But many people grew up in that church who were told things like that, that amount to "if you leave us, horrible things will happen to you. There is not a single person who has left who hasn't suffered horrible tragedy."

That is a fear-based teaching designed to control you. Combine that with other teachings that "knowledge is death" and yes, "good is death", and that you need to "get out of your mind" and we get into dangerous waters. They are markers of a cult.

Regards.