But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. - 2 Corinthians 11:3-4
As the media pundits delved into
the suicide of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult, they themselves seemed
to be mired in the same questions that lured these intelligent people to
mass suicide. They and the public are fascinated with everything about a
group that believed in UFO's and are unable to answer the question:
Why?
The members of the Heaven's Gate cult who committed suicide were not the
troubled teens taken in by a charismatic cult leader. They were middle-aged
men and women with enough education and sophistication to run a successful
Internet computer business. So, how can "nice, honest and decent" people
believe they were aliens briefly leasing human bodies, and that they would
soon join the mother ship trailing behind the Hale-Bopp comet? They believed
so fervently that they were willing to take their own lives to escape a
planet they thought would soon be recycled by aliens.
`I don't think they were crazy,'' said James Richardson, a sociologist at
the University of Nevada in Reno. ``I don't think they were brainwashed.
I think they were convinced of a set of beliefs that we can't wrap our minds
around.''
Experts point to the things that draw people to a cult in the first place:
a sense of alienation, a need for belonging, a search for meaning, people
in transition, perhaps between jobs or marriages, or a time of personal
crisis, the loss of loved one or, a medical problem, all of which can lead
us all to ask questions that are hard to answer.
For the Spirit filled Christian, he knows the answer.
They Have Rejected the Only Source of Truth
With objective truth replaced with relativism in our public
schools and society at large it comes of little surprise that a group of
people could come to believe that a spaceship was coming to take them to
a higher plane of conscienceness. When one rejects God's Word, he becomes
an open vessel for any kind of false teaching.
The present generation has become the inheritors of the belief that there
will never be a unified field of knowledge encompassing the physical universe
and the spiritual. They have been encouraged to take a leap of faith while
believing the new creed that the only faculty for making judgments they
have is their inner senses. Rejecting the revelation of God, the intelligent
man has no standard, no basis in truth, from which to make intelligent moral
and religious discriminations.
"We are now seeing the generation of 'baby busters' growing up with no hope,
no goals, no moral convictions, no sexual identity, no feelings of patriotism,
no identification with society, and no peace or even a capacity for happiness.
It is one of the most pathetic groups of people that has ever come up in
the history of the world. These are the people who are going to become our
future leaders. They are angry. They are angry at their parents for not
providing them with a safe, loving, stable home. They are angry at government
for not providing them with a good education or safe streets to play in.
They respond by taking their anger into the streets with indiscriminate
crime. Their only coping mechanism seems to be suicide. On average, they
have no religious faith to speak of, and they have no realistic concept
of God. They are syncretistic about spiritual matters - they will take a
little of this and a little of that. If they like the Christian view of
heaven, they'll take that, and if they like the Hindu concept of Karma,
they'll take that. Then they'll throw in a little spiritism, astrology,
and nature worship and believe they know about God." [Pat
Robertson, The Turning Tide]
The Heaven's Gate suicides, as with the recent Solar Temple cult and the
Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, 
are a public study in the power of suggestion
among humans in groups, say some experts. These incidents illustrate the
lengths to which people will go to sacrifice in the service of an idea they
feel is religious or spiritual. "It is a lesson again to all of us in how
strongly the power of what we believe can be enforced by those around us,"
says Allen Stone, an expert on law and psychiatry at Harvard University,
who studied the Branch Davidians. "It shows how our ability to separate
truth from the beliefs of the group are often fragile."
- These 39 men and women of the Heaven's Gate cult preached cosmic enlightenment and claimed they had the answers to such weighty metaphysical questions as who put humans on earth and why.
- They also claimed to be the two "witnesses" mentioned in the Book of Revelations who would eventually ascend to heaven in a cloud - interpreted by the group to be a UFO.
- A woman - known in the cult as Sister Francis Michael - posted a two-part diatribe in which the author claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus. The author claimed to have come to Earth some 2,000 years ago "as the expected 'Messiah,' or Jesus." For its current mission, the being returned to Earth and entered into a human body some 24 years ago. The author also said that before the being and its students depart via a "Next Level" mother ship, they will assist "my Father and His other Next Level helpers" in their war against misinformation perpetuated mainly by the "so-called Christians and Jews," and that the human kingdom was never meant to be anything but a stepping stone - "a realized hell that must be evacuated."
On April 8, 1966, Time devoted its cover story to
the question "Is God dead?" By casting doubt on God's existence and preeminence,
society was cut loose from scriptural moorings and historic restraints.
Thereafter, "each man did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6).
As we all know, vacuums do not exist in human thought. When one dominant
idea begins to fade, another will rush to take its place. Thus, when the
theologians surgically removed the belief in God from the minds of the vulnerable,
a wide range of New Age propaganda quickly tumbled into that void. As faith
in Jesus Christ subsided, astrology, psychic readings, crystal influence,
pantheistic theologies, Eastern mysticism, Satan worship and all the nonsense
taught by Shirley MacLaine gained influence.
Some reporters are stumbling around part of the truth, but they don't understand
the significance of what they've found. Ronald Enroth, a sociologist at
Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., said, ``In a certain sense, our
culture has predisposed some individuals in the direction of these more
extreme things.'' To the unregenerate world, it's nothing more than bizarre
teachings drawn from Eastern and Western religions, New
Age philosophies, UFO rumors and Star Trek wistfulness and have ignored
them as "fringe groups." But, folks, they're not "fringe." For years we've
heard statments by members of similar groups about reincarnation, UFOs,
comets and religion. What they've stumbled onto is a New Age mix of reincarnation,
spiritual evolution and a false Gospel where Jesus was "the Captain" and
God was "the Chief of Chiefs." It's not new either! The ancient Gnostics
believed they could escape from earth and be saved by certain mysterious
knowledge that only they had.
- Throughout history, signs in the sky have been interpreted as omens. The Branch Davidians believed that a guitar-shaped nebula was a sign that David Koresh, their leader, was the true Messiah.
- A young member of the Unification Church told his family that he was compelled to become a Moonie, as members of the sect are often called, after having a dream about the moon.
- Since the 1950s, an increasing number of people have come to believe that UFOs are real and that aliens are in regular contact with humans, even conducting experiments on them, or helping to guide them into more enlightened states of being, says Richard Lucas, editor of Nova Religio, a journal in Deland, Fla., on alternative religious movements.
The Salvation Church, whose
members include doctors, engineers and teachers, is typical of the kind
of religious groups that are springing up towards the end of the century.
After God failed to appear on television, members of God's Salvation Church
was told by their leader, Chen Heng-Ming, "Because we did not see God's
message on television tonight, my predictions of March 31 can be considered
nonsense." The group dressed all in white had also built what they called
a spaceship out of radial tires and plywood, and stocked a shrine with
fruit, cola and crackers for God's arrival. Chen claims he fathered Jesus
2,000 years ago and now talks to God through a ring on his finger. "Teacher
Chen," had said that God would appear on television channel 18 worldwide
at 12:01 a.m. CST, and in person via flying saucer on March 31, 1998.
"It's very much something drawn from a generation fed by 'Star Trek' and
'Star Wars,' " says David Reed, professor of pastoral theology at the University
of Toronto. "The people in these cults have had their world view altered.
They have reconstructed a spiritual world that draws from popular culture."
Most Americans don't realize how many people there are out there who believe
ardently in such visions. The material world is a place of corruption, and
it is perfectly rationale to try and leave the body or escape the 'prison
of the soul,' as they would call it, to leave the earthly family for the
heavenly family.
As this country continues down the slippery slope of rejection of the Truth,
these kinds of tragedies will only increase. It's not surprising to many
of us when these mass suicides occur. If you talk to junior high and high
school age kids today you find that most of them don't expect to be alive
at age 30. They don't see a future. Even Gallup polls have shown that.
Rich or poor, young or old, people are seeking an anchor in a storm-tossed
society that threatens to overwhelm them. They feel inadequate and yearn
to be a part of something bigger than themselves. So, where do they turn?
The Church has largely been absent or unavailable to people, so turn to
alternative beliefs, drugs, promiscuity and suicide.
"Things are going to reach fever pitch for what we refer to as apocalyptic
(cults)," said one Baptist minister. "They are all very convinced that the
end of the age has to come by the year 2000." And they will follow their
charismatic leader even to their death. These leaders, "are able to persuade
their followers that they represent God . . . and that their followers can
trust everything they say to them."
Heaven's Gate seems to be close cousins of the Solar Temple cult, which
embraced a stew of beliefs borrowed from New Age philosophy, the Western
occult tradition, gnosticism and other apocalyptic religions. Solar Temple
members, also professing a desire to flee the world of matter for the world
of the spirit, have taken their own lives in three mass suicides recently,
in Switzerland, France and Canada.
- On March 22, 1997, in St. Casimir, Quebec, five members of the Order of the Solar Temple died in a fiery mass suicide. Cult devotees believed suicide transports them to a new life on a planet called Sirius.
- On Dec. 23, 1995, 16 members of the Order of the Solar Temple were found dead in a burned house outside Grenoble, in the French Alps. Most of the bodies were arranged in a star shape on the floor.
- On Oct. 5, 1994, Swiss authorities found the bodies of 48 people linked to the cult in a farmhouse and three chalets, all consumed by fire.
- On April 19, 1993, Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and 80 followers -- including 18 children -- died by fire or gunfire, six hours after the FBI started filling their cult compound near Waco, Texas, with tear gas.
- On Dec. 13, 1990, in Tijuana, Mexico, 12 people died in a religious ritual, apparently after drinking a poisoned sacrament.
- On Nov. 18, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana, more than 900 followers of the Rev. Jim Jones died after he ordered them to drink cyanide-laced grape punch.
What Can We Do?
Ultimately we know that another charismatic
leader will rise to power and will sweep millions into his firey pit.
We must hold on to the Truth. We must diligently tell others and we need to pray for
the wisdom, strength and power to continue to fight the good fight. We should
also do all that we can to strengthen the essential truths of our faith,
within ourselves, and any to whom we are called to serve by leading.
We are called to overcome evil with good. We cast out darkness with the
light. Allow the Lord to search your heart for any way you might be deceived.
Let us now judge ourselves, lest we be judged. If we will humble ourselves
now, He will lift us up at the proper time.
Many Americans, and people throughout the world, are experiencing spiritual
enslavement and oppression. These people are crying out for answers and
the Church must address them. We must always remember that we are not warring
with flesh and blood, but we are actually fighting the forces that deceive
and bind them. Regardless of how deceived someone may be, they are the very
ones our Savior gave His life to save. For decades the Church has compromised
its beliefs to appease the offenders. This tack will only make the ultimate
cost of the inevitable changes much greater. The longer we compromise with
them the more costly their ultimate removal will be. The Church must delay
no longer and be willing to fight the forces of spiritual slavery and oppression.
The unity of the Church is one of the most important issues with the Lord.
This was one of His own most pressing prayers on the night before He laid
down His life for the church. However, He also prayed that night for us
to be "sanctified in truth" (see John 17:17). He gave His life to
set us free from the yokes of the evil one. The unity He prayed for was
based on truth, not just political expediency, or compromises fashioned
in order to keep the peace at any cost. Peace at the cost of truth, or the
liberty of the Spirit, is a yoke of bondage that will only lead to even
greater division.
"We have to stop sugarcoating reality and help people take charge of their
lives," said the Rev. J. Langston Boyd, pastor of Shorter African Methodist
Episcopal Church. "We need to say to people that God still cares, and people
need to rid themselves of the insatiable desire to control everything."
Preachers should preach "the unadulterated truth" of the Bible, said the
Rev. Leon Emerson, pastor of Now Faith Church.
To simply "preserve our way of life," or "traditions" by ignoring the challenges
will eventually lead to our downfall. This was a primary reason why the
Pharisees, who loved the word of God, and esteemed both the traditions and
a hope in the coming Messiah more than anyone else, rejected and opposed
Him when He came. They were worshiping their traditions more than God, so
when He came without having the same regard for those traditions that they
did, they could not receive Him. There is a huge portion of the church which
is held in bondage to the same religious spirit that manifested itself in
the Pharisees.
