Re "Cult" -- differentiating the members, from the
Date: March 29, 2007 10:15PM
Hi, AJG and Polar Bear. The leader of either a small or large group will have a given purpose, which obviously can be non-cultic. On the other hand, the group will always have within it, some members who tend to make the leader [b:41bc58e9d1]into[/b:41bc58e9d1] a cultic figure, put him on a pedestal, right?
Then there are those who, having put him on that pedestal, furiously knock him down. The leader might not even know he's on a pedestal, to start with.
God of course wants no cults, but that doesn't stop us from creating them and giving godlike or demonlike status to the pastor or leader.
So you, AJG, had this experience with two domineering leaders, yet for all that they wouldn't be cult leaders, you said.
So you, Polar Bear, wonder if we are the ones making the idols, or whether the person tricks us. God says yep, both things happen, golden calf and the deceivers in Romans 1, Eph4:14, 1Jn2.
So it begs the question of when a "cult" becomes a cult, like AJG said. Term is overused, he said. And we all know that's true, huh. When someone doesn't like someone else's beliefs, "Cult!" is used as a kind of condemnation of them. So doesn't Matt7:1-2 counsel we be careful?
Of course, we sheep need leaders, Polar Bear. I don't recall God saying what political system we ought to have (i.e., democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, etc). What form it takes should be what we as a polity or other group, determine, right?