Category Archives: Cults and Heresies

Group Snapshot: Bahais

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A Persian man named Mirza Ali Muhammad in 1844 proclaimed himself to be a specially chosen prophet of God, and began to call himself the Bab, which means “the Gate,” signifying that he was the open door to God. His followers were called Babists. The Muslims of Persia rejected this new prophet, putting him to death in 1850. However, before he was killed the Bab prophesied that a prophet would arise after him, who would be the greatest prophet of all time.

The successor to the Bab was another Persian named Mirza Husayn Ali, who proclaimed that he was the Chosen One prophesied by the Bab. He took the name Baha’u’llah, which means the “glory of God.” Baha’u’llah asserted that all religions were expressions of worship of the true God. The original prophets of each religion had taught the same truths. But their followers had corrupted the pure message God had given these prophets. His basic teachings focused on the harmony of all religions, and that an era of universal peace was approaching.

Baha’u’llah faced persecution and exile for many years. But he continued to proclaim his message until he died in 1892. After his death, his eldest son, Abbas Effendi, took over the leadership of the movement. He took the name Abdul-Baha. Effendi toured Europe and American in 1912, making quite a few disciples, Woodrow Wilson’s daughter being one of them. Since that time, Bahai worship centers and groups have been established throughout the U.S. and around the world. The international headquarters of Bahaism is found in Israel.

Although Bahai draws inspiration from all religions, it does have its own religious system. There are particular scriptures, the writings of Baha’u’llah. They have their own fast day at the Bahai new year (March 20-22). This is followed by a nineteen day period of feasting. They abstain from alcohol and all drugs. They stress the importance of chastity.

It can be difficult to witness to a Bahai, because they draw their inspiration from so many sources. However, like any cult, they deny the essentials of the Christian faith. They utterly reject the Trinity, the deity of Christ, His incarnation, His sinless life, His bodily resurrection, and salvation through grace alone.

Essential Beliefs
God: There is one God, proclaimed by all religions. There is no Trinity.
Jesus: Jesus was a prophet, but nothing more than this. He did not rise bodily. He is not deity.
Sin: Sin is an imperfection which can be removed through proper teaching.
Salvation: Based on human effort, good works, prayer and worship.
Scriptures: The Scriptures of all religions are honored. However, the Bible is not inerrant. The highest revelation of God’s will is found in the writings of the Baha’u’llah.
Afterlife: There is a hell, but it is only remedial, not eternal. There is a paradise for the righteous.
Truth: There is truth in all religions. However, the most perfect truth has been revealed by the Baha’u’llah.

Group Snapshot: Church of Satan

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Anton Szandor LaVey had to be one of the most interesting characters of the 20th century. A former circus performer, organist and showman, he was the perfect person to promote a dramatic and eccentric form of occultism. On Walpurgis Night, 1966, he formally announced the formation of the Church of Satan. The magical practices and rituals of this body were based on the traditions of Western occult belief. Such influences as the Golden Dawn, O.T.O. and Aleister Crowley are evident in LaVey’s form of occult practice.

However, there was somewhat of a twist here. While calling himself a Satanist, LaVey did not believe in a personal devil. Rather, he believed that Satan was the name of a spiritual force evident in nature and accessible to humans. The Church of Satan stood for everything that was the opposite of Christianity and traditional morality. Greed, anger, lust, selfishness, vengeance, sloth, sexual promiscuity, pride—all these are things to strive to enjoy. The two key concepts of LaVey’s brand of occult practice are materialism and hedonism. While practicing magic and sorcery, LaVey did not basically view these as supernatural practices, but as channeling the natural powers of the universe, and the power inherent in human beings.

The Church of Satan experienced several splits, the most successful splinter group being the Temple of Set. After a number of years of public worship and open events, the Church basically closed its doors as a public institution and went underground. LaVey died in 1997. However, his beliefs are still influential today, especially through his two primary works, The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals.

Summary of Beliefs

God: God is a weak, ineffective being. Satan is a deity to be worshipped and admired.
Jesus: Mostly disregarded. He is an example of all that is despised in humanity.
Salvation: The goal of life is to please and serve yourself.
Human nature: Man is selfish and self-centered. We should learn to accept this and enjoy it.
Sin: What the Bible calls sins are actually behaviors we should practice and enjoy.
Afterlife: There may be an afterlife, or not.
Scripture: The Satanic Bible. The Satanic Rituals.
Truth: Relative to the individual person.

Group Snapshot: Scientology

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From UFO Rejects to Reincarnated Gods!

Fasten your seatbelts, hold onto your hats, and get ready for the out-of-this-world, interplanetary, galactic-swooping, spiritually strange spaceship ride of your life (or lives). You are about the enter something weirder than the Twilight Zone. It is the world of Scientology.

Scientology was founded, developed and formed from the incredibly creative mind of L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard was somewhat of a minor celebrity as a popular writer in the world of S-F (science fiction) during the golden era of pulp magazines and really bad B-movies. He switched from S-F to pop psychology in the 1950’s when he developed a system of therapeutic treatment called Dianetics. Dianetics taught people that they had latent within them emotional and psychic traumas that affected their health, mental welfare, and ability to function and succeed in life. These traumas were buried deep in their minds as something called engrams. Through Dianetics, a person could be taught to expose, identify and get rid of these dangerous and debilitating engrams. This was accomplished by holding onto to two metal cylinders (think of a tin can with no label on it) attached by wires to something called an E-meter. (E-meter is short for “electropsychometer.”) A trained person called an “auditor” asked you questions and took notes of the needles on the E-meter, thus identifying your engrams. This process, called auditing, helped you get rid of the engrams, and set you on the road to mental health. The goal is to become a “clear,” that is, someone who has no longer has any engrams hanging around. But before this happens, you must face the challenge of being a “preclear.” (Of course, during the process of going from preclear to clear, you must spend many hours and thousands of dollars on being audited.)

The only problem with this auditing process was that it smacked an awful lot of psychological therapy. As a result, Hubbard and Dianetics started running afoul of the official medical groups and governmental agencies. So to avoid these problems the principles of Dianetics were transformed from psychological theory to religious practice. And thus was born the Church of Scientology in 1952. With the change to a religious system, other teachings were added to the theories of Dianetics.

For example, Hubbard taught that all human are actually immortal, spiritual, god-like beings called “thetans.” If we are little gods, how did we get into these mortal bodies and become plagued by all these nasty engrams. The answer lies in the far distance history of our race. Originally we thetans living on another world under the tyrannical rule of a being called Xenu. Xenu was lord of the Galactic Confederacy. 95 million years ago (yes, I said 95 million) Xenu was facing a colossal problem, overpopulation on multiple worlds. He solved this problem by bringing the thetans from these worlds to the earth. Here he dumped them en masse near active volcanoes. He then set off the volcanoes by exploding H-bombs. This caused the thetans to cling to each other, and (horror of horrors) the material worlds. (Remember, thetans are spiritual beings.) The thetans became entrapped in matter, and began a process of incarnation and reincarnation through the evolving creatures of this planet. This ongoing process has continued to this day.

To sum up, you are a god-like being called a thetan, trapped in a mortal body, and struggling because of the thousands and thousands of psychic engrams you have have collected through millions of years of reincarnations in various evolving life forms. If all this sounds totally wacky, remember that Hubbard began his career as a science fiction writer.

Scientology is a unique and rather odd religion. Beginning in the science fiction realm with overtones of bogus psychological theory, Hubbard added a variety of concepts and ideas from many sources, including Gnosticism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and a lot of imagination. Mixing all this together, Scientology now claims that it has a belief system superior to any other religion, and a practical philosophy that ensures success, health, and complete well-being—in addition to achieving your own divine status as an “Operating Thetan.”

Summary of Beliefs

God: There are many gods in the universe.
Jesus: One avatar of the divine, but not even an Operating Thetan.
Salvation: Release from the cycle of death and reincarnation. This is achieved through your
own efforts in the practice of Scientology.
Human nature: Man is basically good. We are fallen in the sense that we are spiritual beings
entrapped in matter.
Sin: There is no such thing as sin or evil. These are illusions.
Afterlife: There is no heaven or hell in the Christian sense. Man may advance to a deified state.
Scripture: The writings of L. Ron Hubbard.
Truth: Relative, individual and existential in nature.

Sources:

Martin, Walter. The Kingdom of the Cults. Ravi Zacharias, ed. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany
House Publishers, 2003.

Mather, George A. and Larry A. Nichols. Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993.

Lewis, James R., ed. The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects and New Religions. 2nd ed. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2002.

UFO Cults

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Earth Versus the Flying Saucers

It all began on an ordinary day in June of 1947. The pilot of a small plane named Kenneth Arnold saw some unusual objects flying near Mt. Ranier in Washington state. They were not circular in space—actually more crescent-like. But he described their motion as being like saucers skipping over the surface of the water. Later this would result in people calling these objects “flying saucers.” Thus was born not only a new entry in our popular vocabulary, but a cultural phenomenon.

It was only a month later that another incident occurred near Roswell, NM. Something crashed in the desert there. The government officially declared that a weather balloon had come to earth. Others thought it was something more otherworldly—that an alien spacecraft had smashed into the desert sands. Whatever these two incidents really were, the fact is we had now entered the age of UFO’s, ETI’s and close encounters.

Fascination with flying saucers exploded on the American scene. It has never gone away. Through the late ‘40’s and the 50’s, it was the stuff of science fiction and B-grade movies. Not something to be taken too seriously. But then came George Adamski, who claimed that in 1952 he saw a flying saucer land and an alien being emerge from the craft. The alien was supposedly from the planet Venus, and was named Orthon. He communicated via mental telepathy. And he began to teach Adamski all about the universe, including many ideas of a religious and philosophical nature. This was beginning of another phenomenon—UFO religion.

Since the ‘50’s and 60’s there have been waves of interest in extraterrestrial life and UFO’s. According to the accounts of many contactees, the UFO occupants have come to earth with a specific purpose—to aid us in our evolution as a species. They come bringing not only advanced technology, but superior mystical knowledge. They are here to teach us the ways of God (or the gods), to help us in our search for enlightenment, and ultimately to realize our spiritual potential.

There are numerous cults and religious groups that center around UFO’s and the message these otherworldly visitors want to convey to us. These include cults like Unarius, the Raelians, Ashtar Command, the Order of the Solar Temple, and Urantia. We all remember Heaven’s Gate, the weird cultists who received messages through episodes of Star Trek, whose members committed corporate suicide, enabling them to leave their bodies and take a ride on a comet. Both Scientology and the Nation of Islam have theology rooted in the idea of aliens being involved in human history. In addition, many New Age groups believe strongly in UFO’s—some even asserting that the next World Teacher may come to us via an alien spacecraft.

When it comes to the belief systems of the UFO religions there is a true hodge-podge here. There is sometimes a veneer of Biblical religion, a lot of the occult, Eastern mystical ideas, New Age beliefs, paganism, and a host of imaginative and wacky ideas from science, pseudo-science and science fiction. UFO’s devotees believe in everything from the Greys (the small, bald, bug-eyed, large-brained aliens) to invading alien reptiles—who are disguised as humans and hide in plain sight, e.g., as members of the British Royal family.

This all may seem somewhat odd, but not too threatening. But don’t be fooled. There is much spiritual error, and not a little of the diabolical in the UFO’s cults. For example, I remember watching the video of one contactee channeling an alien intelligence. It was obvious that there was a demonic presence at work speaking through this individual. Scary!

Summary of Beliefs
God: Varies from group to group. The most common ideas are some form of pantheism, or the
belief in many deities.
Jesus: Usually believed to be either an alien visitor, or a contactee.
Salvation: Usually some form of enlightenment experience, similar to Eastern or Gnostic
concepts. Some believe in reincarnation.
Human nature: Man is usually seen as basically good, often divine.
Sin: Varies. Usually the greatest sin is our ignorance of spiritual truth, cf. Gnosticism.
Afterlife: Varies. May be an advancement to another planet, or another dimension.
Scripture: Many different writings, often channeled via demonic agency.
Truth: Generally relative, individual and existential in nature.

Sources:

Mather, George A. and Larry A. Nichols. Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult.
Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993.

Lewis, James R., ed. The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects and New Religions. 2nd ed. Amherst,
NY: Prometheus Books, 2002.

New Age Movement

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Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron… take some pagan mythology, mix in a little Eastern mysticism, two parts occult philosophy, a good sized dose of Gnosticism, a dash of alternative medicine, some crystals, a pinch of UFO lore, a few shakes of karma and reincarnation, a hefty sprinkling of the human potential movement, some right brain/left brain studies, a heaping portion of pseudo-science, a good sized portion of astrology, season it with folk magic to taste, then blend it in a container made of Mayan calendar prophecies and the quatrains of Nostradamus and… Ta-da! You have a modern witch’s brew called the New Age Movement!

This cultural phenomenon burst on the scene in the early 1980’s. Though discounted at first (and often since) as a fringe spiritual movement, the followers of the New Age Movement have consistently held lofty goals. They see themselves as part of a universal human happening that is literally ushering in a new spiritual era. The promise of this New Age is the end of war and violence. All nations will join together and do away with nationalism and divisions. All religions will come together into one world religion. The leader of this new world religion will be the World Teacher, the next great spiritual leader anticipated by all individual religions. He will be the Messiah of Judaism, the Imam Mahdi of Islam, the Christ of Christianity, and the Lord Maitreya of Buddhism. And the good news is that he is already here, on the earth, waiting for the appropriate time to reveal himself to the world.

Although a very contemporary movement, the roots of the New Age concept are in the revival of occultism and Eastern mysticism that occurred in the late 19th century. If there is a grandmother of the New Age, it has to be Helena P. Blavatsky and her Theosophy. (See Truth Builders newsletter issue # 3 for more info on Theosophy.) Other influences include groups such as the Golden Dawn, the Lucis Trust, New Thought, the I Am movement, Christian Science and Wicca. People such as Alice Baily, Krisnamurti, Edgar Cayce, David Spangler and Benjamin Creme are looked on with esteem and respect.

When it first became known in Christian circles the New Age Movement was often presented as a secret political conspiracy to take over the U.N. and the U.S. In the ensuing years, it has proven to be something even more dangerous. It has become a social phenomenon has subtly, gradually and yet effectively changed our culture and affected the worldview of many Americans, even Christians.

Summary of Beliefs

God: God is an impersonal deity. The New Age is pantheistic in theology.
Jesus: A mere man, who was possessed by the Christ spirit. A vessel for the World Teacher.
Salvation: The goal is to achieve spiritual enlightenment.
Human nature: Man is essentially divine, and has unlimited potential.
Sin: What the Bible calls sins are errors and misconceptions. Spiritual knowledge and
experience will free man from these errors.
Afterlife: Reincarnation is a fact. Salvation will come when we are absorbed into the divine all.
Scripture and Texts: Various texts, including the Bible, Eastern religious scriptures, books by
Alice Bailey, H. P. Blavatsky, Edgar Cayce, David Spangler, Krishnamurti, Mark and Clare Prophet, New Thought writers, etc.
Truth: Relative to the individual person.