Are Sincere Cultists Lost?
Most Christians have no trouble believing that non-Christians
who completely and straightforwardly reject Jesus Christ are lost. However,
they do often find it difficult to believe that someone might sincerely
believe themselves to be following Jesus Christ and yet -- as in the
case of members of heretical pseudo-Christian cults -- be lost. Jesus
Himself promised, "seek, and you shall find" (Matt. 7:7); should not
those who seek for Christ find Him? And do not many sincere members
of the cults truly want to find Christ?
They read the Bible more studiously than many
and obey Him; they zealously proclaim the message of Christ and they
have been taught it. Are they not, therefore, seeking Christ, and will
they not then, in accordance with His promise, find Christ? And if so,
how can evangelicals regard cultists as lost?
This legitimate question may be answered by
keeping the following biblically-based theses or principles in mind.
While it may be that an occasional exceptional cultist may, for reasons
perhaps unknown to us, actually be saved, our presumption should be
that any member of a cult is in darkness and needs to be reached with
the light "of the glory of God in the person of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).
Our only assumption in what follows is that the Bible gives us absolutely
reliable information on this and any other subject it addresses.
THESIS
#1: Not everyone who acknowledges Jesus as Lord will be saved.
This principle may be derived directly without
commentary from Jesus' own words in Matthew 7:21. Thus, we should
not fall into the mistake of thinking that if a cultist acknowledges
that Jesus is his Lord, then he is saved. Two reasons why a person
might be unsaved who acknowledges Jesus as Lord can be imagined. One
is that their acknowledgment does not go beyond lip service, as demonstrated
by their refusal to obey Him as Lord (Luke 6:46). The other is that
what they understand by the meaning of calling Jesus "Lord" is so
different from the biblical meaning that their acknowledgment is not
what the Bible means by confessing Jesus as Lord. This leads us to
our second thesis.
THESIS
#2: Many who claim to acknowledge Jesus actually believe in another
Jesus, and are either deceiving or deceived.
Again, we have the simple words of Scripture
to prove that this is the case, in 2 Corinthians 11:4. Evidently,
the apostle's meaning is that many will speak of faith in "Jesus,"
but their understanding of who and what Jesus is differs so much from
reality that in truth they do not have faith in the real Jesus at
all. Some of these individuals are no doubt insincere, and Paul warns
of "deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ"
(2 Cor. 11:13). Yet, Paul also tells the Corinthians that he is concerned
that some of them might actually be "led astray" (2 Cor. 11:3b) by
such deceivers.
Thus, it is possible for sincere people,
even people who were a part of the fellowship of true Christians,
to be deceived into following "another Jesus." Not that they are not
to blame and are perfectly innocent; rather, they are like Eve, who
though deceived by the serpent (2 Cor. 11:3a), was guilty of sin and
held accountable by God (Gen. 3:1-6, 13-16).
THESIS
#3: Zeal in religious matters, such as the pursuit of a right standing
with God or the winning of others to one's beliefs, does not guarantee
or prove that one is or will be saved.
Two texts of Scripture in particular bear
on this point. In Romans 10:2 Paul says of his Jewish brethren who
rejected Jesus, "they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with
knowledge." Zeal, of course, implies what we call sincerity -- that
is, the mental state of believing that what one is promoting is based
on truth. The Jews who rejected Jesus were for the most part zealous,
and therefore sincere; but they were still lost (9:1-3; 10:1). Their
zeal was in particular for a right standing with God; but they sought
it on the basis of their own works rather than the righteousness which
was available in Christ (10:3-4), and as a result were lost.
The second text that bears on this point
is Matthew 23:15, which graphically illustrates the truth that zeal
in seeking converts does not prove that one's beliefs are correct
or that one is saved.
THESIS
#4: No human being truly seeks for God unless God's Spirit draws that
individual; therefore, those that appear to seek for God but do not
come in God's way are not seeking for God at all.
In Romans 3:11 Paul quotes Psalm 14:2 to
the effect that "there is none who seeks for God." In context, Paul
is speaking of the universal hold that sin has over the human race;
and his point is that sin has so perverted our desires that none of
us, by our own wishes, is looking for God. This is because "the mind
set on the flesh is hostile toward God" (Rom. 8:7). Of course, some
people do seek for God, otherwise God would not call upon us to seek
Him (Isa. 55:6, etc.). But when people seek God, it is only because
God has first sought them and drawn them to Him by His grace (Luke
19:10; John 6:44; 15:16).
Therefore, when people appear to be "seeking
God" -- when they study the Bible, attend meetings, pray, change their
lifestyles, attempt to obey the commandments, even speak of their
love for God and Christ -- yet worship a false God or honor a false
Christ, or follow a false way of salvation, we must conclude that
they were not really seeking God. Rather, they may have been seeking
spiritual power, or security, or warm relationships, or knowledge,
or excitement, or anything other than simply God. And in saying this,
we are not claiming that all genuine Christians on the other hand
were seeking purely and simply after God. No, our testimony must be
that we were following our own divergent path, when God sought us
and stopped us in our way, and led us up a new and narrow path leading
to salvation in Jesus Christ (Matt. 7:13).
THESIS
#5: Any member of a cult who truly desires to know the truth about God
and His way of salvation above all else can and will be saved.
Jesus promised that "the one who comes to
Me I will certainly not cast out" (John 6:37). However, we must come
to the true Jesus, and on His terms. Judas came to the true Jesus,
but he did not come on Jesus' terms, and was lost (John 17:12). The
cost of leaving a cult is great -- the loss of friends, the embarrassment
of admitting error, the threat that all who leave the cult are lost.
For anyone who puts truth and the One who is truth above these things,
however, salvation is available.
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