EXAMINING MINISTRY: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL (21 OF 26)
by Rick White
Scripture: II CORINTHIANS 11:1-15
This content is part of a series.
Examining Ministry: Up Close and Personal (21 of 26)
Series: Truths That Transform
Rick White
2 Corinthians 11:1-15
06-26-94
Introduction: It is doubtful than any of us will ever forget the name of David Koresh of Waco, Texas. The world witnessed a hellish inferno that took the lives of more than eighty people, including innocent children. It was an event in world history and religious history that will leave its mark on the minds of many. Have you ever given any thought as to how the men and women of that compound actually got there? What is that draws intelligent men and women into some cult or commune?
False teachers and false religions have been around as long as there has been true faith. Listen to the exhortation of Jude, the brothers of our Lord:
Jude 3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
In his book, The Mindbenders, Jack Sparks, identifies three methods used to lure people into cults:
1. Deprogramming: Reject the past. It is wrong, wrong, wrong!
2. Capture by the cult: Habitual patters of behavior and response will be broken and a new program put in its place.
3. Concentrated reprogramming: Intensive teaching or indoctrination is the prime means. In all of this the convert is hardly aware anything is taking place.
SIX WARNING SIGNS OF FALSE MINISTRIES
1. Authoritarianism: lack of grace and mercy, absence of servant's heart.
2. Exclusiveness: this is the only right way, all others are wrong.
3. Greed: Manipulation to get money.
4. Sensuality: moral impurity.
5. Unaccountability: secrecy, irrespon ...
Series: Truths That Transform
Rick White
2 Corinthians 11:1-15
06-26-94
Introduction: It is doubtful than any of us will ever forget the name of David Koresh of Waco, Texas. The world witnessed a hellish inferno that took the lives of more than eighty people, including innocent children. It was an event in world history and religious history that will leave its mark on the minds of many. Have you ever given any thought as to how the men and women of that compound actually got there? What is that draws intelligent men and women into some cult or commune?
False teachers and false religions have been around as long as there has been true faith. Listen to the exhortation of Jude, the brothers of our Lord:
Jude 3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
In his book, The Mindbenders, Jack Sparks, identifies three methods used to lure people into cults:
1. Deprogramming: Reject the past. It is wrong, wrong, wrong!
2. Capture by the cult: Habitual patters of behavior and response will be broken and a new program put in its place.
3. Concentrated reprogramming: Intensive teaching or indoctrination is the prime means. In all of this the convert is hardly aware anything is taking place.
SIX WARNING SIGNS OF FALSE MINISTRIES
1. Authoritarianism: lack of grace and mercy, absence of servant's heart.
2. Exclusiveness: this is the only right way, all others are wrong.
3. Greed: Manipulation to get money.
4. Sensuality: moral impurity.
5. Unaccountability: secrecy, irrespon ...
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