Could a cult member really recognize manipulation if it hit him in the face?

Question

"Jesus Christ identified a first requirement when he said in prayer to his Father: 'This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you... Many have found the second requirement more difficult. It is to obey God's laws, yes, to conform one's life to the moral requirements set out in the Bible...A third requirement is that we be associated with God's channel, his organization...To receive everlasting life in the earthly Paradise we must identify that organization and serve God as part of it...The fourth requirement is connected with loyalty. God requires that prospective subjects of his kingdom support his government by loyally advocating his kingdom rule to others..." (four requirements for salvation as taught by the Watchtower magazine of Feb. 15, 1983, p. 12.

Achtung: "Jehovah's Witnesses teach that no salvation occurs without Christ..."
Well, hoeren Sie zu, Achtung, mich selbst zu wiederholen:
"A third requirement is that we be associated with God's channel, his organization...To receive everlasting life in the earthly Paradise we must identify that organization and serve God as part of it..."

You've demonstrated my point.

Answer 1

Trinitarians try to use the term "cult" like a sledgehammer to obliterate any thinking analysis of what the supposed "cultist" actually believes. Trinitarians embrace a bizarre, non-etymological, quite arbitrary definition of the term "cult" which includes anyone who does not believe that Jesus is God Himself, rather than the Son of God. Interestingly, pagans in the first century slandered Christ's followers with the insulting term "Atheist" (!) because the Christians had a somewhat different idea from the pagans about the nature of God.

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that no salvation occurs without Christ, that accepting Christ's sacrifice is a requirement for true worship, that every prayer must acknowledge Christ, that Christ is the King of God's Kingdom, that Christ is the head of the Christian congregation, that Christ is immortal and above every creature, even that Christ was the 'master worker' in creating the universe! Secular authorities in academia and government routinely acknowledge that Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian religion. With more than 16 million associating with Jehovah's Witnesses, the term "cult" seems very out of place in a fair discussion of Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians.

Sadly, Trinitarians seem more interested in perpetuating their human traditions, Greek philosophy, and Babylonish fetishes rather than reasonably examining the Scriptural definition of "Christian". In fact, the bible most closely associates being "Christian" with preaching about Christ and Christ's teachings. Review all the times the bible uses the term "Christian" and note that the context connects the term with:
"declaring the good news"
'teaching quite a crowd'
'open eyes, turn from dark to light'
"uttering sayings of truth"
"persuade"
"keep on glorifying"

(Acts 11:20-26) [The early disciples of Jesus] began talking to the Greek-speaking people, declaring the good news of the Lord Jesus... and taught quite a crowd, and it was first in Antioch that the disciples were by divine providence called Christians.

(Acts 26:17-28) [Jesus said to Paul] I am sending you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God... Paul said: “I am not going mad, Your Excellency Festus, but I am uttering sayings of truth and of soundness of mind. ...Do you, King Agrippa, believe the Prophets? I know you believe.” But Agrippa said to Paul: “In a short time you would persuade me to become a Christian.”

(1 Peter 4:14-16) If you are being reproached for the name of Christ, you are happy... But if he suffers as a Christian, let him not feel shame, but let him keep on glorifying God in this name


So why do anti-Witnesses try to hijack the term "Christian" and hide its Scriptural implications? Because anti-Witnesses recognize that it is the preaching work that makes it clear that the relatively small religion of Jehovah's Witnesses are by far the most prominent followers of Christ:

(Matthew 28:19,20) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded


Learn more!
http://watchtower.org
http://watchtower.org/library/ti/index.htm

Answer 2

Dear Suzanne,

Before giving my humble opinion I would like to call your attention to a question that Princess Yum Yum asked about whether or not the JWs are in deed a cult. I'll have to track down the link but I remember that the answer chosen for Best Answer claimed that they are not part of a cult but are pseudo-Christian.

Princess Yum Yum inadvertantly asked the question three times so she picked three Best answers. The linked question shows Sasi's Best Anwer.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ah2n36vw3qfQCovh8a86TUXsy6IX?qid=20070531142551AAVH3I8


Walter Martin wrote a very good book which is called Kingdom of the Cults and I highly recommend it in spite of the terminology.

I don't mean to keep harping on the point of Deuteronomy 18:20-22 where God tells all mankind how to figure out whether somebody / organization is speaking on His behalf or not but I have to do that precisely because the Watchtower Witnesses do NOT recognize said manipulation.

In the above mentioned verses God says "IF ... THEN". Those verses prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the JWs are FALSE prophets because the Watchtower has given specific dates for Armageddon. None of those predictions / prophecies panned out so that alone should have caused the walls of the Watchtower to fall outward just as it happened with Jericho.

That did not happen and the jws who come to my doorstep can rattle off those Armageddonless dates without batting an eyelash.

It surely breaks my heart and I pray with many others here on Yahoo Answers for each and everyone to see the LIGHT.

For His glory,
JOYfilled

Answer 3

You should have asked:
Could a person in religion really recognize religious manipulation if it his them in their face???

cult = religion;
religion is a cult of brain-washed / brain-dead believers in unproven false promises, lies and deceptions...

Here's the simple Solution for cults and religion:

Create a Private, Personal, Direct, Divine Relationship with Our Creator and save Your Soul from religion's and atheist's beliefs and start Your journey back home, to Heaven.

<<<<<<< Love is the only answer >>>>>>>

Love and Believe in Our Creator;
Love and Believe in Yourself.

"religion is Spiritual fraud";
"religion is the Worse invention of humanity";
"Universal Truth has eliminated religion from Spirituality",
quotes of Jesus Christ, Buddha and any one else with Spiritual intelligence.

"When a person is freed of religion, they have a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life." S. Freud

Here are some of my quotes:

Only with Our Creator's Love and Peace will we be Truly Free!
Without God, there is No Love; Without religion, there are No Wars!
Freedom of religion is Freedom from religion.

atheists = all the people in religion = all the ignorant fundamentalists = all the cults/superstitions = paganism = wicca = xians = homosexuals/lesbians = skinheads = politicians = lawyers.

Answer 4

Not likely. There is normally a serious disconnect between what they percieve of the cult and what they percieve outside the cult. It is like they recognize the manipulation freely in the actions of another cult but by not believing they are in a cult they can ignore that they are following the same instruction sets.
http://changingminds.org/techniques/cults/cult_methods.htm
http://changingminds.org/

Answer 5

That's odd. The bible states only one requirement. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

Answer 6

I don't recall the Bible saying you have to spend x number of hours hawking your faith door-to-door to get into heaven.

People do seem to have trouble distinguishing between what the Bible actually says and what man has inferred from the Bible or rules humans have come up with loosely based on the Bible.

Answer 7

So these are the ways to tell you are in a cult?

Jehovah's Witnesses are in a cult.
Christians are in a cult.
Muslims are in a cult.

Etc.

Answer 8

We talking with a sledgehammer here?