It’s not hard to spot the craziness
If you live in a small town or big city, chances are there’s a lovely public park where you can have a good time. There may be a space for entertainers to display their talents and provide pleasant diversions. But occasionally this space may be used by religious folks who want to proclaim the message about their one true faith. There’s no harm in hearing what they have to say, right? But anyone who is in touch with the realities of the modern world can quickly identify the weird ideas that are being proclaimed.
There are several cult enthusiasts who take turns at the microphone. And this is what we hear from several of them:
One:
“For our holy hero himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of our god’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet our holy hero in the air, and so we will be with him forever.”
How many of the people enjoying the sunny park on that afternoon are keenly anticipating their dead relatives rising from their graves to join them in greeting the holy hero in the clouds?
Two:
“For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the message that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin, for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation from our holy hero himself.”
Cult fanatics are commonly proud that their precious religious truths are based on direct revelations from on high, that is, their imaginations and hallucinations; they aren’t based on what other humans have told them.
Three:
“For in those days—when our holy hero will appear in the sky—there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that god created until now and never will be.”
The arrival of the holy hero in the clouds will, in fact, be a catastrophe with colossal human pain and suffering.
Four:
“At the time of the arrival of our holy hero, siblings will betray sibling to death and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Here we have more details about the extent of the suffering.
Five:
“Our holy hero once said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake …who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields…’”
If you’re in the cult—genuinely loyal to the cult and its demands—you will be abundantly rewarded for the things you have given up.
Six:
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me…”.
This cult fanatic wants its followers to minimize attachment to family. Divided loyalties are not permitted.
Seven:
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
But this fanatic, who steps to the microphone next, has a more severe interpretation of this demand. He claims that hatred of family and life itself is required.
Eight:
“I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
This cult’s god pays super careful attention to every human deed and utterance—and will hand out punishment accordingly.
Nine:
“Call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven.”
There are strict rules to follow as well. The word father applies only to the cult’s heavenly father.
Ten:
“I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze!”
Here the cult fanatic quotes their holy hero, who wants to set the world on fire.
Eleven:
“Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
Here again a cult fanatic quotes the holy hero uttering a threat to those who do not “abide in him.”
Twelve:
“For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Yet another quote from the holy hero, who demands that his followers must listen to his voice.
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It’s not hard at all to spot the craziness in these twelve quotes. The irony, of course, is that these quotes are all based on New Testament texts. I have paraphrased some of them, but the basic content is there.
One: see Paul’s first Letter to the Thessalonians, 4:15-17.
Two: see Paul’s letter to the Galatians 1:11-12.
Three: see Mark 13:19.
Four: see Mark 13:12-13.
Five: see Mark 10:29-30.
Six: see Matthew 10:37.
Seven: see Luke 14:26.
Eight: see Matthew 12:36-37.
Nine: see Matthew 23:9.
Ten: see Luke 12:49.
Eleven: see John 15:6.
Twelve: see John 18:37
The ultimate irony, of course, is that many (most?) devout Christians aren’t familiar with these texts, because Bible reading has gone out of fashion—in competition with massive entertainment options available on television. The gospel writers were cult propagandists, and Christian clergy follow in that tradition, in their case promoting an idealized Jesus. Moreover, the clergy differ far more than the gospel writers did—these four authors had conflicting ideas about Jesus, different agendas—but the clergy today are scattered across thousands of conflicting church brands. Their overwhelming concern is to preserve a positive, loving image of Jesus; most of the texts I’ve cited above undermine that concept. I see so much nonsense on social media about how Christians ignore their Jesus who was so filled with compassion, love, caring. The website for my book, Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught, includes a list of 292 examples of Jesus-script that are not so wonderful, falling into four categories: Preaching About the End Time, Scary Extremism, Bad Advice and Bad Theology, and the Unreal Jesus of John’s Gospel.
Oh how I wish we could get Christians to read their Bibles—and grasp they are indeed in a cult advanced by many different brands of fanatics and propagandists.
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes:
• Guessing About God (2023)
• Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available.
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.
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