FANATICAL "church" Spirits !!

DEFEATING THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT
OF THE WRONG SPIRIT

In every wholesome pursuit, imbalanced ones impose their
fanatical views.

by Brian Knowles


I don't know about you, but I believe there is such a thing as a
"religious spirit." It can be a mere mentality or an actual
spirit that manifests itself in obsessive fanaticism. The net
effect of such a mentality is to turn others off to God and true
faith. The religious spirit is not limited to Christianity; it
can manifest itself in any religion. It can also find expression
in political ideology, science, religious humanism, or even
medicine. We've all known excessively religious Christians who
indiscriminately follow television personalities as though they
were in the place of God. This "follower" or "true believer"
mentality encourages cults of personality that can wind up in a
People's Temple/Jim Jones-style cult, which proved fatal for
hapless hundreds. In the latter half of the twentieth century, we
saw a number of such cults arise: the Moonies, Branch Davidians,
and Heaven's Gate, to name a few. These groups were egregiously
fanatical. Others are less overt but equally obsessive.
Typically, they have circled the wagons around the teaching of
some domineering leader, upon whose every word they hang. All
that drips from the self-important leader's lips is viewed as
gospel. Followers accept his or her teaching as though it were
straight from God himself.

The leaders of such groups will often claim that their teaching
comes directly from God. To challenge them is to challenge God.
Followers are cowed into cringing submission, and the noose of
cultic rules is drawn ever tighter. The faithful are forbidden to
have contact with "outsiders," even if they are family members.
Leaders take charge of their followers' money, time, and
activities. Most importantly, they commandeer the minds of the
faithful.

Every religion, including secular ones, has its dark side. Every
one can lead to an obsessive religious spirit and mindless
fanaticism. Follow the money, follow the power, and study the
control freaks of the world, and you'll see what's happening.

Here are some scriptural guidelines for avoiding possession by,
or involvement with, the religious spirit.

Key questions

Is it idolatrous? Any movement that puts anyone or anything ahead
of God is idolatrous. Avoid it. God says, "I am the LORD [YHVH];
that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise
to idols" (Isaiah 42:8). True faith is centered on God, Yeshua,
and divine instruction, not on human personalities, movements,
ideologies, and cults - environmental or religious.

Does it tend to freedom or bondage?

"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, 'if you hold to my
teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the
truth, and the truth will set you free'" (John 8:31, 32). If
something is truth, it does not bring you into bondage. Jesus
came to "set the captives free," not to enslave them to anything
or anyone. If we are Jesus' disciples, then we are His "bond
slaves" and no other's. "Don't you know," wrote Paul, "that when
you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are
slaves to the one whom you obey ... ?" (Romans 6:16). If we
submit to no bondage but Christ's, then we will be free indeed.

What are the fruits?

Said Jesus, "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree
cannot bear good fruit" (Matthew 7:18). Whether something is good
or bad can be determined by what it produces (v.20). If a leader,
a movement, an ideology, or even an idea produces bad fruit,
avoid him, her, or it. If it produces death, destruction,
bondage, loss of freedom, enslavement, economic collapse,
pollution, the destruction of the traditional family, Ponzi
schemes, etc. etc., avoid it. In fact, if you have the means,
actively oppose it.

Beware of isolation

Many religious cults seek to isolate their members from the
world. It is true that Paul warns against unhealthy alliances
with unbelievers, citing Isaiah 52:11 to make his point (2
Corinthians 6:14-17). But Paul's instructions are qualified by
Jesus' own prayer that the Father wouldn't take His followers out
of the world, but protect them from the evil one (John 17:15-19).
Jesus did not want His followers physically separated from the
world. Rather, He sent them into the world to preach the gospel
and to be light and salt. In Greek, there is a play on words
here: "I do not make request that thou shouldest take them out of
the world, but that thou shouldest take them out of the evil." 1
As Christians, we do not participate in Satan's domain or the
evil that it produces. In our lifestyle we are separate, but
physically we live in the world, not in an isolated compound near
the Dead Sea, or Guyana. The word translated "sanctify" is
hagiazo in the Greek. It means to "make holy, consecrate,
sanctify." 2 Bauer says the last sentence of verse 19 could be
translated "I dedicate myself for them (the disciples) ......" 3

Jesus lived in the world, and He fully participated in it
occupationally as a carpenter, socially as a Jew, and spiritually
as a rabbi. He engaged people at every level. He had done so from
childhood. His Father did not hate the world; He loved it so much
that He gave Jesus as a sacrificial gift to save it (John 3:16).
Our possession of the truth of God sets us apart. We march to the
beat of a different drummer. We take our cues from heaven, not
from the spiritual darkness of this world. We are here
collectively to preach the gospel, live kingdom values, and set a
Christ-like example. We do not hide our light under a bushel. We
do not cringe in a corner, geographically separated from those to
whom we are called to serve. As Jesus taught in Mark 2:15-17,
while He dined at Levi's house, it's not the healthy who need a
doctor, but the sick. Jesus and His disciples did not isolate
themselves from these people. They freely mixed with them and
ministered to them. It was such people, and worse, who made up
the church (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

Perilous plague

The religious spirit is a plague in the world. It is destructive,
isolating, fanatical, crazy-making, alienating, and distorting.
It invites the "darkness of this world" to express itself. It
manifests itself in Christian cults, in fanatical Catholics and
Protestants, in all the world's religions, in the global warming
and environmental movements, in animal and gay rights movements,
in feminism, in Neo-Nazi groups, in evangelistic communism, in
terrorism, in the natural health movement, in political
ideologies, in science, in the medical profession ad nauseum.

The religious spirit represents a loss of balance, a closing off
of any other possibility. It is exclusivist, saying, "My way or
the highway." It is "zeal, but not according to knowledge." It is
obsessive, closed-minded, and bigoted. It needs to be fought and
defeated at every turn.
..........

Once managing editor for Plain Truth magazine, Brian Knowles now
writes for The Sabbath Sentinel and other publications from his
home in Monrovia, CA. Scripture quotations are from the New
International Version.

1. The Englishman's Greek New Testament, p.297
2. Walter Bauer, "A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
and Other Early Christian Literature," p.8
3. Ibid., pp.8-9


This article was taken from January-February 2012 "Bible
Advocate" - a publication of the Church of God, Seventh Day,
Denver, CO. USA.
......

THOSE WHO WERE ONCE PART OF THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD LED BY
HERBERT ARMSTRONG, WERE IN THE END PART OF A CULT, AS HWA BECAME
A CULT LEADER. THOSE IN SOME OF THE OFF-SHOOT ORGANIZATIONS NEED
TO MEDITATE ON THIS ARTICLE AND DETERMINE IF THE OFF-SHOOT IS A
CULT. I CAN TELL YOU WITH CERTAINTY THAT FLURRY'S PCG AND DAVE
PACK'S ORGANIZATION ARE CULTS....WHICH YOU NEED TO RUN OUT OF AS
FAST AS YOU CAN, IF YOU ARE CAUGHT UP IN EITHER OF THEM.
YOU NEED TO GO TO MY WEBSITE AND READ THE BOOK "CHURCHES THAT
ABUSE" BY RONALD ENROTH. YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT PART
OF A FANATICAL CULT. THERE IS MUCH INFORMATION ON MY WEBSITE
ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE RECOGNIZE A CULT AND HELPING THEM TO GET OUT
FROM UNDER THE POWER OF A CULT.

Keith Hunt
......