So my friend Ramon was
saved last week. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. That is so wonderful.
BUT.... There is bad news.
He has been sucked into a church that I now strongly believe is a
cult.
Let me go back to the beginning...
Last Wednesday, as Ramon and I were talking on the phone, his brother asked him to ask me a question: "Do you believe that salvation is once and for all?"
I answered a resounding yes. Then there was silence, followed by Ramon telling me that his brother "made a face." Hmmmm....
Then I started having a very sinking feeling. The Holy Spirit was stirring within me. Something was not right about that question. Time to do some research on their church, The
Potter's House Christian Fellowship (not to be confused with TD Jake's church,
The Potter's House).
What I found was quite disturbing.
This website really breaks it down. Here are the most troubling doctrines:
·
You will learn that God has appointed your pastor to have authority over you and that you must be submitted to him in order to be in a right relationship with God. (So your pastor is the Head over you instead of Christ now?)
·
You will be taught that The Potters House members are your real family and that you don’t need any other friends or family members.
· You will be taught that the fellowship is the greatest move of God on earth and that other churches are inferior and luked out, not possessing the special purpose/anointing the fellowship has.
· If you don’t go on church outreaches, attend every service in a week long revival, or be a part of everything the church does, you will not be treated like you fit in and your walk with God and commitment to God will be questioned. Even over the pulpit. (Fear and isolation tactics.)
· You will subtly be presented with the doctrine that you were saved by faith but now maintain your salvation by works. (Totally contradictory to what the scripture says about being saved by grace through faith and not by works. WOW!)
·
You will be taught that if you were saved in a fellowship church in a certain location, then it was God who planted you there, and you are called to stay there for the rest of your life, with the exception of being sent out to pastor. (So you have to stay even if what they are teaching is contrary to the word of God. You are shackled to that fellowship.)
·
If you consider leaving the fellowship, you will be told that you will likely end up backslidden, loose your salvation, live under a curse, have your family destroyed, or at minimum that you have lost your destiny in God. (So God isn't really in control?)
· People who express doubts or disagree with fellowship standards or the way the fellowship operates are considered rebels. (Cult much?)
·
If you voice disagreement with something your pastor says or does you are considered to be practicing witchcraft against that pastor and they will threaten to turn the witchcraft back on you and something horrible will happen to you, thereby silencing anyone from questioning their practices.
· You will lose almost all, if not all of your friends, if you leave. People who were your friends will no longer associate with you for fear that you will defile or work some kind of “witchcraft” against their minds that might make them backslide or leave. They often believe that a spirit has deceived you into leaving and that by associating with you, that spirit will get on them.
· You will find out that all those who leave are consistently slandered. The church believes that those who leave are running from accountably, are bitter, or in rebellion. There is simply no way to choose to attend church elsewhere with their blessing and your reputation in tact. (You are not free to seek the truth out anywhere but there. Talk about control.)
·
You are taught that if you don’t pay close attention to your salvation, you will loose it, like you can loose your salvation the way a person looses a set of car keys. (Again, fear tactics.)
·
You have to ask your pastor's permission to date and marry. (Again, the Pastor is not God or the Holy Spirit who is to guide and direct you.)
· You will be discouraged from dating any Christian who is not a member of the same fellowship.
· In order to participate in church ministry you can not go to movies, own a TV, or watch any kind of movie in your home.
· You can not be in ministry and have a beard. It is said that if you have a beard, “you are hiding something”, even though Jesus had a beard.
· You are generally discouraged from fellowshipping or co-laboring with Christians outside the fellowship.
· The church has a practice of returning curses 7 times worse on people. (Wait. What happened to "bless those who curse you?")
If you are reading this and are a praying person, please lift my friend up. I wanted his salvation more than anything, but I didn't want him to get sucked into something like this. These people believe that you can lose your salvation through sin. They are living under the bondage of legalism. This is not what Christ died for. He loved us more than that. God is not a petty god who just plays around with us. He gave us a gift.... When we are saved through faith (NOT WORKS), our names are PERMANENTLY written in the book of life. Nothing can take that away (
Romans 8:38-39)
Lord, please use your Holy Spirit to shield Ramon from the lies of the enemy... Give me the words to speak Your TRUTH at the appropriate time. Thank you, Lord.
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