As a person who works with a counter-cults apologetics ministry in Africa, I meet so
many people - both lay and leaders - who ask me a very important strategic question. And
that question has to do with outreach to people involved in cults and false religious groups.
They ask this question out of compassionate concern.
Especially for their loved ones who are caught up in false religious groups. And they ask,
"How do I help my loved one who is involved in a cultic group? My sister is involved in a group
that is telling people that the end of the world is coming. And I do not know how to convince her,
or how to debate with her, because she usually wants to debate with me. Especially
in light of what her church or her group has taught her. How do I carefully, lovingly,
yet biblically, help somebody who is trapped in a cultic group so that they can come out?"
Now, in regard to this question, there are a number of things that can be said.
And there are a number of things especially that need to be remembered
as you engage into outreach to cults or to people who are involved in cultic groups.
One of the things that you want to remember is that most people who are involved in cultic groups
are not aware that they are. In most cases they are ignorantly or sincerely involved. They think
they have found truth but actually they haven't. They do not know that they are lost and in most
cases they think that you are the one who is lost. So, while you are praying for them, or looking for
ways to help them come out, they are also praying and looking for ways to get you to join them.
Remembering that is very important as you engage them.
Number two, you need to remember that cults have been taught not to listen to you. Especially if
you're not a member. Cultic groups will always teach their members that they are the only ones
that have the truth and anyone outside the group is misled, misguided or even lost. So, as you
engage them, they are already looking at you as somebody who has nothing important to teach them
or to share with them. They've been taught to come and teach you. Not to come and learn from you.
And because they are not good listeners, you're going to have to find ways in which you can
create motivation for listening in order for them to listen to what it is you have to say.
Number three: most of these cultic groups have been told not to accept information outside the
group. While most of these people are eager to give you their materials or publications or books
to read - like the Jehovah witnesses. They have been taught never to receive material from you.
Chances are, they won't want to read your tract or want to read the Bible with you.
But they will be eager to give you materials that their organisation has given them to pass on.
So, if these people are not accessing outside information from their group,
chances are, they are not even aware they are lost. They are not aware that there is
alternative information or truth claims that they could listen to.
And so you want to approach them sensitively and compassionately.
Knowing that they have not been given options in regard to what they should believe or not.
You must also remember, number four, that most cultists have not been told the whole information
about their group. They have been told good things that characterise the group. But they do not know
some of those skeletons in the group's wardrobe. So, when you share with them, chances are that
they will be eager to tell you how wonderful and how great the group is. But they don't know some
of those bad aspects of the group. You pointing out some of those things will not only shock them
into listening to what you have to say, but may actually reveal some of those
things they didn't know existed and therefore help them to want to come out of that group.
But number five, you must also remember that most followers of cultic groups do
not believe the same things. Some have been there for a long time. Some have just joined
and therefore do not understand the doctrines of this group. So, when you engage them,
do not engage them by generalising what you think they should believe or already believe.
But seek to ask strategic questions to find out at what stage they are
in the doctrines of that group. So that you can engage them at the level where they are,
rather than assuming that they believe certain things, which actually they may not be believing.
Another important thing that you need to know as you engage these people in cultic
groups is that for most of these cultic people it is very costly for them to leave a group.
Some of them have been there all their life and they do not know anything else to believe. Or
anything better to follow. So, you can understand why they are stuck in such a cultic group.
Some of them have been in groups that are aggressive and dangerous.
That to consider leaving might mean endangering their lives. And indeed,
some cultic groups can even kill followers who have deserted them.
Some of these people, when they leave these cultic groups, have nowhere else to go. Some of them may
be disinherited by their loved ones. So, you have to be thinking, "When I convince this person to
leave the group, what next? Where are they going?" If they are hunted or haunted by their family
members who are unhappy about their leaving, how are you going to help them to transition from
error to truth? Form the danger they are in to security that is found in the Christian faith.
Some of these people have paid a huge price to be part of this group. And by leaving they will be
saying bye-bye to a big part of their life and their identity that they have known for years.
You can understand why they are not eager to leave as quickly as possible.
So, with this background and with these identifications of who they
are and how they respond to us, how do we strategically, yet sensitively, evangelise them?
Number one, I said earlier, that we need to ask strategic questions. When we ask questions,
we understand who these people are. We understand where they are in terms of their theological
understanding. We understand whether they are sincerely in error or whether they are
the leaders and the manipulators of others. It helps us to know how to share the gospel
with them. Rather than assuming that they all are lost, or they all don't know. Or they are
all deliberately in a cult and then missing the point on how to sensitively evangelise them.
Number two. Among the important things is that in every way possible we must communicate the
gospel of God's grace to people in cultic groups. Most of these groups are legalistic in nature.
They have been taught the do's and don’ts of religion. What you do in order for God to save
you, or to love you, or to be happy with you. And most of their lives they have been approaching
God through their human effort and works. Helping them to see that it is finished,
that Christ has paid it all and once for all indeed, will go a long way in helping
them to appreciate what God has already done and therefore most likely being eager to receive it.
Number three. Your message must not only be a message of truth, it must also be a
message of love. Proclaiming the truth in love. Someone has said that people don't care how much
you know, but people want to know how much you care. That when you proclaim the gospel sometimes
the temptation is to specialise on sharing the facts and the truth claims of the Christian faith.
And you forget that you are talking to people who have emotions, to people who have
feelings, to people who have a background where they are coming from. Treating them
as individuals, as respected people, as people created in the image of God, showing them that
you preach to them in the first place because you care about them and their eternal destiny,
will not only prepare them to eagerly listen to you but they will take whatever you are saying
seriously and urgently. Because they recognise that you communicate the truth out of love.
You must also remember that in engaging people in cultic groups usually there
is a likelihood that you will be disagreeing with each other and debating with each other.
And their goal in most cases is to prove a point that you are wrong and they are right.
So, how do you engage in a meaningful winsome conversation? Where defences
are pulled down so that people are eager to listen, to engage and to identify with you?
You do what we call establishing common ground. You need to be thinking about some of those things
that you can share with people in cultic groups. That are identical or closely related
to what it is that they already believe. That can form the basis of common ground,
from which you can now share the truth of the Christian faith.
Maybe somebody has recently lost a loved one. If you come to share the gospel,
you want to talk about what it feels like to lose a loved one. You want to begin by
talking about the process of grieving, or maybe you want even to talk about death.
And because they have recently lost a loved one, they will quickly identify with the topic at hand,
they will quickly share some of their experiences on how they have addressed death,
or how they have gone through the grieving process. And from that foundation you may
want to talk about God who lost His son. You open up into now John 3:16 "For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." But because you have
been talking about something that they identify with, they are likely going to listen to you.
If you just come and start from anywhere and they don't see anything you have in common with them,
they might disregard you. They might dismiss what you are saying as of less
importance or urgency. So, establishing common ground is a very important aspect
of engaging in dialogue with people in cultic groups.
But another important point that is worthy of note is the aspect of prayer.
That as believers, when we engage in evangelism to people involved in cultic groups,
we must remember that this is not just an intellectual engagement.
As much as they believe certain things, or are rationally convinced about certain
truth claims in that cultic group, the battle against cults and false teaching
is ultimately a spiritual one. That these people are not just
intellectually captive, but they are also spiritually bound. That Satan, who sows
seeds of deception and distortion, is at the heart and behind whatever it is they believe.
And therefore, praying for them that God will open their hearts, that God will open their ears
and their minds to understand the deception that they are involved in, goes a long way.
Someone said, that before you tell people about God, you should tell God about those people. That
the engagement with people involved in cultic groups begins on our knees. We pray for them
first and foremost and then we go and share the gospel with them. And when we do that,
we find - when the Spirit of God has prepared their hearts to listen to what the Spirit of God
is saying through the Scriptures, but even more so by praying with and for them - we show that
we understand the source of the battle conflict which is ultimately spiritual. And therefore we
appeal to God, who is the only one that is able to overcome and overwhelm the forces of evil and
spiritual deception, to bring people out of this bondage into the glorious truth of the gospel.