I was watching Jesus talk about the emotions that create cults. He said that a cult leader takes responsibility for the actions of the people in the cult.
Here is the video if you're interested: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9QG5HeSIH4Q&list=WL&index=3&t=0s
This is something that Jesus does not do but it is something that the founder of the religion I grew up in did.
His name was Sun Myung Moon and he claimed to be the Second Coming of Christ. He talked about indemnity for sin - which was all about the price you had to pay to be absolved of your sin. He claimed that he paid the price for humanity - that he came before God and offered himself in his life as a willing sacrifice to pay for the sins of others. Even as a young man hearing this, I felt the error in it. Now I know why.
The truth is that you can't pay for someone else's sin. You can only seek restitution for your own. There are two ways to do this. One is to experience all the negative consequences that come to you as a result of the sin you committed. That is the slow way of paying for sin fulfilled through the Law of Compensation. The faster way is to repent. That is where you develop a desire in your heart for God to remove the error, and then feel all the pain that you have caused others or yourself.
When I examine this issue, I can see how Christianity is in many ways a cult. It was by no fault of Jesus that the doctrine of Jesus' so-called blood sacrifice was created and disseminated. Nonetheless Christian leaders used this doctrine to satisfy the desire of congregants for someone else to deal with the negative effects of their sinful decisions. Incidentally, this is impossible.
What Jesus really instructed is for people to repent for, as he would say, "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
The reason this topic interests me is that I have for a long time shied away from calling the religion I grew up in a cult. I must now change my tone and say that it was in fact a cult indeed.
How many other religious persuasions would also fit that bill?
Here is the video if you're interested: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9QG5HeSIH4Q&list=WL&index=3&t=0s
This is something that Jesus does not do but it is something that the founder of the religion I grew up in did.
His name was Sun Myung Moon and he claimed to be the Second Coming of Christ. He talked about indemnity for sin - which was all about the price you had to pay to be absolved of your sin. He claimed that he paid the price for humanity - that he came before God and offered himself in his life as a willing sacrifice to pay for the sins of others. Even as a young man hearing this, I felt the error in it. Now I know why.
The truth is that you can't pay for someone else's sin. You can only seek restitution for your own. There are two ways to do this. One is to experience all the negative consequences that come to you as a result of the sin you committed. That is the slow way of paying for sin fulfilled through the Law of Compensation. The faster way is to repent. That is where you develop a desire in your heart for God to remove the error, and then feel all the pain that you have caused others or yourself.
When I examine this issue, I can see how Christianity is in many ways a cult. It was by no fault of Jesus that the doctrine of Jesus' so-called blood sacrifice was created and disseminated. Nonetheless Christian leaders used this doctrine to satisfy the desire of congregants for someone else to deal with the negative effects of their sinful decisions. Incidentally, this is impossible.
What Jesus really instructed is for people to repent for, as he would say, "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
The reason this topic interests me is that I have for a long time shied away from calling the religion I grew up in a cult. I must now change my tone and say that it was in fact a cult indeed.
How many other religious persuasions would also fit that bill?
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