The question that I want to take up tonight is the following, is Mid-Acts dispensationalism a cult? Now here's what happens you may have experienced this if you haven't yet, you probably will when someone comes to understand that you rightly divide the word of truth and you think that the part of the bible that's written to you today is Romans through Philemon and you don't think that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are written to you or 1st Peter or 1st John. Some people will lose their minds and then, if they learn that you think Peter and Paul had different gospels, which they did according to Galatians 2:7, when they hear that they may lose their mind. You think there's more than one gospel? There's only one gospel. Well Galatians 2:7 has two gospels in the same verse and so what happens is you may be accused of being in a cult, and so I want to take up that question tonight I want to think about it very carefully. So is Mid-Acts dispensationalism a cult? Well the first thing we need to do is we need to understand what the word cult means and so I’m going to read to you here this is from the Oxford English dictionary and I’ll just read you a couple of the definitions and we'll then analyze them and see how they apply. So definition number 1, the action or an act of paying reverential homage, homage to a divine being. Religious worship is now rare so that was an early usage of the word cult but that usage is now rare, I don't think that particular meaning is relevant for our purposes. The next definition is 2a. a particular form or system of religious worship or veneration especially as expressed in ceremony or ritual directed towards a specified figure or object. Frequently with of or modifying a word so the word the definition in 2a. is a particular form or system of religious worship and again, I don't really view that definition as the definition that is most relevant to the accusation that Mid-Acts dispensationalism is a cult 2b. or not to be is what Shakespeare said but in our case 2b. is the dictionary entry that I think is most relevant so let me read this one to you. A relatively small group of people, and people will say that, when they say how many people attend your church and you tell them the number they're like well you must be a cult right if you don't have at least 500, there you're a cult a relatively small group of people having especially religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister or as exercising excessive control over members and I would tell you that definition 2b. of the Oxford English dictionary is the meaning that people most typically use or intend when they refer to something as a cult and so if you are paying careful attention there are really two aspects to that definition the first is and I’m just going to read it again a relatively small group of people having especially religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister. So the first aspect of that definition is having beliefs that are considered strange then the second part, is or as exercising excessive control over members, so the first option is, if you will, beliefs that are strange or that are at least perceived as strange the second part is having excessive control over members so we're going to consider both aspects of that definition so let's first start with the view or the meaning a relatively small group of people having beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange now if you think about that for a minute it doesn't say having beliefs that are false it says having beliefs that are regarded by others as strange what that tells you is the term cult is often a term that tells you more about the person making the accusation than it does the group because it's how the person perceives them. So think about this if you would, Noah is not on here but if Noah was on the chart he would be right there, now if you take this definition into regard, beliefs are practices regarded by others as strange well you know what that tells you Noah and his family would have been regarded as a cult. Were they a small group? How many people got on the ark, eight of them right? So it's a pretty small group and were their beliefs regarded as true or were they regarded as strange? Perhaps they were even regarded as crazy. Now, think about this with me just for a minute how many years was the ark in preparing according to the scriptures 120 years according to Genesis 6. Now genesis 6 and let's just look at it so we see it but in Genesis 6 what God says here is Genesis chapter 6:3 And the lord said my spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be in 120 years. That's not a reference to man's lifespan because people lived longer than that Noah lived more than 120 years, it's a reference to there's going to be 120 years and then judgment will come when you think about second peter 2:2 Peter 2 says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness Noah was not just an architect you realize he was the first architect, he was also a preacher of righteousness. So what does that tell you? Noah preached for 120 years, he was a preacher of righteousness. How successful was he as a preacher? Well how many people joined Noah’s house church? No one did right because the people that got on the ark were Noah Mrs. Noah his three sons and their wives every single person that got on the ark had the last name of Noah that means in 120 years of being a preacher of righteousness Noah couldn't convince anyone hey guys look if you don't do this if you don't get on the ark of me you're going to drown so Noah was no doubt regarded as a cult leader and he and his family were regarded as in a cult so what can we learn from that just because others think you're in a cult doesn't mean that your beliefs are wrong because obviously about two minutes after it started raining a lot of people wished they were in the cult right too late though unfortunately if you then think about let's just get acts 17 acts chapter 17. so, in acts 17 we see Paul and Paul is in in Greece uh so acts 17 verse 18 acts 17 and verse 18. then certain philosophers of the epicureans and of the stoics two of the most famous philosophical schools in Greece encountered him and some said what will this babbler say other some he seemed to be a setter fourth of strange gods so you know this as the Greeks think about gods how many did they have well they had lots of gods right they had the god of war and the god of victory and the goddess of the hunt and they had this that and the other they had all kinds of gods so then they kind of they encounter Paul and they say well he's a setter forth of strange gods he was a setter fourth of the true god wasn't he, he seemed to be a center forth of strange gods why because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection we'll go back to the definition of cult if the definition of cult is someone having religious beliefs regarded as strange what did people think Paul was in they thought he was in a cult because he was a setter forth of strange gods so what you see happens throughout time is that god's people who are frequently described as a remnant, remnant meaning residue meaning small well they're often perceived as a cult but yet their beliefs are true their doctrine is true their teaching is accurate it's just that they are perceived by others as strange because they don't follow the conventional false theology so here's what's really happening this is my opinion when someone refers to a group as a cult what they're really saying is I think your beliefs are strange okay so what why should I care what you think about my beliefs of course what someone should do is if your beliefs are wrong what they should do is instead of saying you're in a cult which is really just a form of name calling is they should take you to a verse and prove that your teaching is wrong so when people refer to mid-ax dispensationalism as a cult what they instead of you know I get it you called us a name you're saying that we're strange I get it I understand your insult but why don't you prove that the beliefs are wrong from the word of god and if you can't do that then you don't really have anything do you all you have is calling names so that seems to me to be the right way to think about that so is mid-axe dispensationalism a cult well other people may perceive it as strange and they may think it occult but their perception really doesn't matter the real question is, is the teaching true or is it not Noah’s teaching was true Paul’s teaching was true so if someone says that we're in a cult because we follow Paul well Paul said follow Paul as I follow Christ it seems to me that we're just being scriptural but let's go back to the definition of cult for a minute so we dealt with the first part of 2b having strange beliefs but there's another part of the definition and that is this exercising excessive control over members and I’m just going to give you my opinion that's the aspect of the definition that is the most intriguing because what it goes to is it goes to the tactics of how cults operate so do Midax churches exercise excessive control over their members and I’m just going to tell you my opinion for the vast majority the answer is no that they don't and in fact what I would tell you is the typical grace church has very little control over its members because their members do whatever they want to do and the way I know that i can tell you the ones I’m familiar with the grace churches I’ve seen people come whenever they want and they don't come if they don't want to they don't feel compelled to come they don't feel the need to be there if they don't want to be there they're not there they're not intimidated they're not forced to be there if they don't want to be there they don't go the other thing I’ve noticed happens is sometimes people will just disappear and you won't see him again off sometimes, sometimes they tell you but most of the time they just disappear and it's up to the preacher to figure out over time that they've disappeared often you're never told why typically it's because you did something wrong but you just don't know what you did wrong but it's your fault but my point is that there's not excessive control the people do whatever they want to do I’ll give you another example what i find grace people do is they listen to any old thing they want on the internet which is fine it's their right to do it i don't want control over that but, but, but it's not something that is controlled because people do whatever they want to do and so mid-acts churches at least my experience typically don't use any of the tactics of cults they don't have excessive control over their people their people can do whatever they want and in fact they do whatever they want it's just the reality of what that is so mid-x churches do not practice cult-like tactics at least most of them don't and the ones you know that I am familiar with don't but allow me to transition then into a different point and that's this I want to talk about cultish tactics in terms of control because this is something that you just need to understand and if you let me pause for a minute and say this you do know of course that Satan is the god of this world and you do know that he has attacks against people that are doctrinal in nature and we know of course from john 8 44 that Satan is a liar and the father of it so if he's the god of this world if he's who this world worships if he's the prince of the power of the air and he's a liar what do you expect the world system to look like well you're gonna have to just embrace the fact understand the fact realize the fact that there's going to be deception throughout life and there's going to be people that try to manipulate you and they want to manipulate you because they want you to do something that they want you to do and that's just you know that's how life is it's how people are so what I want to talk about next is I want to talk about some of the tactics that cults use so this is not something that you see grace churches do very much at least that I’m aware but you will see individual people do these tactics because they want to control people and so the tactics to control people are used not just in church settings but they're used in other settings as well and for your own self-defense you need to understand how some of these things operate and so the single biggest problem with cults in my opinion is their use of tactics of mind control and so we want to understand the types of tactics the types of things that they do to brainwash to influence to manipulate people all right now when you see these tactics being used on you or someone trying to use these tactics on you, you should recognize them for what they are and you should get yourself out from under their influence because they cannot be trusted someone that uses tactics like this is not your friend they're trying to manipulate you so I’ll give an example here let's get into some specific tactics one of the things that colts do a lot of or that I’ll just call it a cult-like tactic let's put it that way is isolation and what they want to do is they want to separate people from their family and friends the reason why they want to do that is if you're trying to influence someone if you're trying to manipulate them you want them listening to what you have to say you don't want them considering other opinions you don't want them receiving other sources of information you don't want other people in their life that are important influencing them because you want to control them and so one of the things that is a cult-like tactic is to isolate people and try to separate them from their family and friends related to that one of the things that they'll do is then they'll say well you can spend time with this person but not this person you can see this person but not this person you can go here but not there because what they're doing is they're trying to control what information is available to you they want to limit that information again because they want to control you what they'll then sometimes do is they'll tell you here's who you can communicate with you can't communicate with these people you can't text them you can't call them you can't visit them because they're trying to control they're trying to control and shield you isolate you from other influences and what they're really trying to do in that is they're trying to control your access to information because some of those folks may say things that are contrary or that even expose the manipulation that's being used against you if someone is trying to brainwash you they want to control what you hear they don't want you to listen to something that would expose what they're doing so they'll have lots of rules as to what you can do or not do another thing that that sometimes happens is uh cults will want people to give up their personal possessions why do they want to do that well it makes you makes the person dependent upon them it's a form of control another thing it does is it does away with in some sense part of your identity I’ll give you I’ll give you an example of that I’ve worn this on the show in the past and what is this this is just a little tie tack it's a spider-man tie tack now what is the value of a spider-man tie tack probably not much do you think that's worth 50 cents I don't know maybe it's worth 50 maybe it's worth 25 i don't really know but it means a lot to me do you know why it means a lot to me there was a very dear saint who gave this to me several years ago a brother that's in heaven he was a grace preacher a real defender of the faith he was just a great guy and he gave this to me and did he give this to me because it's you know the worth of you know 10 tons of gold no he gave it to me just as a kind-heated gesture and this little thing that is in some ways worthless means a lot to me because it reminds me of my friend and so what happens is one of the reasons that people that want to control you want to get rid of your personal positions possessions or encourage you to do that is a lot of the things that you have remind you of the influences of people that are important in your life and I’m not going to give up this I like having this so I just want you to sort of recognize some of these tactics so now let's turn to the next question so what do you do you see someone trying to manipulate you, you can tell they're limiting who you can interact with what you can listen to you can't listen to this preacher you can't talk to this person you can't visit these relatives you can't be with these friends so you perceive the tactics that are being used against you to control you so what do you do and let's understand from the scriptures what the response should be so get with me second Corinthians chapter one second Corinthians chapter 1 verse 24 not for that we have dominion over your faith but are helpers of your joy for by faith ye stand now think about that just for a minute the apostle Paul is writing to the saints in Corinth and this is Paul the apostle the apostle the gentiles and he says not for that we should have dominion over your faith even the apostle Paul in dealing with believers said i don't want dominion I don't want control over your faith your faith is up to you that's your free will choice that's a matter of your conscience I can't dictate to you what you should believe I can't force you to believe what I believe and I shouldn't try that's the real point in other words it's your right to believe you have liberty in Christ and it is wrong for someone else to say well you got to do this you have to believe that that's having dominion over your faith and the apostle Paul himself wouldn't do that and he wouldn't stand for that because he was insistent that believers have liberty in Christ so I’ll tell you I’ll give you a perfect example if someone told me well you can't read this you know the first thing I might do I might read it now if they told me you can't listen to this guy you know what I’d probably do probably listen to that guy and the reason why is this when they say you can't listen to this or read that they're trying to limit your exposure to information and it seems to me that the right way I should think about that is well I have liberty to listen to or read whatever I want I might learn something in that and you're trying to keep it from me maybe I won't learn anything in it maybe it's garbage you know that that sometimes is the case but the point is I need to have the liberty so that someone else doesn't have dominion over my faith anyone that starts to tell me you can't listen to this you can't read that I don't trust and in fact what I would do because I don't trust them is I do the opposite of what they want me to do because if they're telling me don't read this then I’m probably going to read it because there might be something in there that I need to know now what's the next step get with me 2nd timothy chapter 2. now this is a very important point and I and I hope you get this second timothy chapter 2 verse 24 and the servant of the lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves fascinating phrasing there you know what happens when you believe false doctrine the person you heard is yourself you're not hurting the apostle Paul you know you're not hurting me um when you believe something that's false what you end up doing is you harm yourself because it is destructive to believe things that are spiritually incorrect so that's why Paul says in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves because they're in false belief now notice what it says if god pear adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth what happens is when it talks about the acknowledging of the truth the truth is there it's present it's available and what people need to do is they need to just acknowledge it they need to admit it now notice verse 26 this is absolutely fascinating so in verse 25 it's those that oppose themselves it then talks about god giving them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and notice what verse 26 says and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will so when it talks about the snare of the devil it's a trap so ponder that just for a minute how do traps work well what traps have is they always have some sort of concealment to them in other words there's something that's going to bind or grip the victim but it's not immediately obvious prior to the trap being activated it it's covered up its concealed now notice what this then says and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by his will so what happens is there's a trap people are taken captive and the part that I want to emphasize here is this that they may recover themselves there's only one person that can get you out of satanic deception and you know who that is it's you I can preach all day long other people can preach all day long we can show you verse after verse after verse after verse you know the only person that can get you out of the trap of deception it's got to be you because you know what the truth of the matter is you have free will to remain in deception as long as you want there are people that spend their entire lives believing a false gospel it's tragic it's sad but it is their free will choice and people sometimes choose to do that the only way you can get out of a trap the only way you can get out of a false belief is you have to recover yourself so how's this relevant to cults well the cult the cult-like tactics of mind control and isolation and controlling access to information and all of those things you know the only person who can get you out of it your best friend can't your parents can't they may love you they may want you to come out of it but you know the person who has to choose who has to make the choice to come out from under the influence of cult tactics it's the person who's the victim that's the only person who can do it it's just how it works because you have free will to choose and then the next point I’ll make on this is what you do is when you see when you perceive that these tactics are being used against you and you perceive that people want to control you they want dominion over you, you then understand I’m the only person that can resolve this I’m the person that's got to get me out of this situation so the thing you need to do once you realize that is you need to get out from under the influence of those that are trying to manipulate you now when you do that are they going to like it well they're not going to like it because they're trying to control you and so when you say well I want to do this well no you don't want to do that they're going to try to talk you out of it they're going to tell you, you can't do it they're going to tell you why it's a bad idea but the thing is this the moment you perceive that those brainwashing isolation tactics are being used against you, you need to understand that you've got to get out of that situation it is dangerous it is harmful you are less likely to perceive the truth in that situation because your information is restricted so what you do is you say I’m not sure what I’m in right now I don't know but the best way for me to figure out is to get outside of the situation and look at it from a fresh vantage point right now here in the bubble where my information is controlled and my access is limited I’m not going to be able to see clearly I’m not going to have the perspective to do it so what do I need to do I’m going to step outside of it they may not like it well that's okay that's too bad listen if they're completely sincere if they have your best interests at the center of their motivation they won't they won't mind because they're doing nothing wrong so you can step outside and won't look any different but if they won't let you step outside they've got a reason why so what you need to do when you find yourself in these situations is you need to get yourself out of the situation as quickly as possible so you can look at it from the outside and perceive it for what it really is maybe you'll get outside and you'll think everything's hunky-dory but oftentimes when you're being manipulated and you get outside you now see what was really happening you owe it to yourself to get outside so you can see the truth let me make another point on this you realize that as you go through life the ongoing challenge is to figure out what's true right because the world is so full of lies and deceit and so what you're periodically going to have to do is you're going to periodically have to think through things and re-examine things and you need to be in a position where you have liberty to do that anyone that wants to take away your liberty does not really have your best interests at heart that's just the truth of the matter you need to accept that it doesn't matter if they smile doesn't matter if they act like they're protecting you if they are restricting your liberty your freedom of thought your access to information they don't have your best interests at heart that's the truth of the matter that's just the way it way it is you need to accept it for what it is and figure out a way to get out from under it what if you're in that situation you say well you know I’m not sure are they using tactics to manipulate me or are they not I mean they seem real nice I’m not I’m not really sure I’m not I don't know if I’m in I don't know if I’m in that situation or not I don't know I don't know well what do you do well if you're not sure the best thing to do is step out of outside of it and get sure right because if it's completely innocent you'll step outside you'll say this is legit no problem but it's so it's so often the case that when you step out and you get a different perspective you just see things a little differently than how you perceived them before so that's just some encouragement if you will we live in a very um a world that has a lot of deception we live in a world that has a lot of manipulation and what we need to do what we what we owe to ourselves is we owe it to ourselves to protect our liberty and Christ we owe it to ourselves to have the ability to think for ourselves and to associate with who we want and to have access to what inform whatever information we want so just some encouragement in that regard we appreciate everyone tuning in let me close us in a word of prayer father god thank you for this time we thank you for the truth of your word we thank you that your word is such a safe and reliable guide we know lord that we should put no confidence in man but we can put complete confidence in your word we thank you lord for everything you've given us in the lord Jesus Christ and it's in his name that we pray amen.