Prophetic Cults: 6 Signs You Are Being Deceived

When cults are exposed, they make major news headlines.

Some ministries or churches accused of cult status are truly cultish, and others are not. But the flood of “Christian” cult activity should urge you to sharpen your cult identification skills. Most Christian cult followers had no idea what they were getting into until they were already brainwashed adherents to warped religions. Some escaped to tell their stories. Others died in their deception.

ABC’s 20/20 exposed the shocking truth about life inside Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints Church. The cult leader was convicted and jailed for sexual abuse of young girls. He’s known for ordering married couples to stop having sex and handpicked fifteen men to father all the church’s children. That’s clearly a cult. Yet his eight thousand followers continue to believe he’s a persecuted prophet.

ABC 7 reported on the Scientology controversy in Washington, DC. L. Ron Hubbard’s creation theory highlights a despot named Xenu sending surplus beings to volcanoes on earth. Scientology officials deny cult status, but this is clearly a cult. And Ontario officials investigated allegations of abuse and polygamy under the leadership of a “prophet” named Fred King from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Fox also sent undercover reporters to investigate the Church of the Endtimes and its cultish qualities. The list goes on.

Those are just a few of the “cult” headlines in recent years. You can find others by searching “cult church” on Google News. But the question is, would you recognize a Christian cult if you were in one? Would you know you’d joined a cult before you were effectively brainwashed? How can you discern a Christian cult?

Discerning Prophetic Cults

A wise prophet once said people are destroyed because they lack knowledge (see Hos. 4:6). One of the first steps to deliverance from prophetic cults is arming yourself with the knowledge that helps you discern prophetic cults. If you are in a prophetic cult now, chances are you have a feeling something is wrong but you don’t have anyone to talk to about what you are experiencing. That’s because, chances are, most of your friends or family are also deceived.

Remember, false prophets work in the realm of lies because they are serving the father of lies. But you are serving the Father of Lights, the Spirit of Truth, and His truth will set you completely free when you embrace it completely (see John 8:32). Decide to be a lover of the truth even if it means admitting you are deceived (see 2 Thess. 2:10). Once you break free, you can help others break free from prophetic cults.

Let’s start by defining a cult. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines cult as “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement or work; a system of religious beliefs and ritual.” Basically, a prophetic cult is on the fringes of Christianity with strange doctrine that doesn’t line up with Scripture. Typically, cults are driven by a key figure or personality, such as Jim Jones at Jonestown or David Koresh in Waco, Texas.

While Scripture doesn’t specifically mention prophetic cults, there are many warnings about cult-like figures such as false teachers and false prophets. Paul wrote:

For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears (Acts 20:29-31).

Paul was careful not to allow believers to drag him into the cult of personality. He once told the church at Corinth:

For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase (1 Corinthians 3:3-6).

Prophetic Cults Don’t Want You to Think

Prophetic cults have a culture of blind loyalty. Cults propagate thought control. They don’t want you to think for yourself or ask questions. This is dangerous. Proverbs tells us, “Only simpletons believe everything they’re told!” (Prov. 14:15 NLT). If you can’t find something in your Bible, you should question it. If you can’t have a healthy discussion with your leader about doctrine, there’s a problem.

Deception arises when critical thinking skills are shut down. Paul admonishes us to test all things and hold on to what is good (see 1 Thess. 5:21). He also tells us to detest what is evil and cling to what is good (see Rom. 12:9). Of course, John the apostle said, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). All this requires critical thinking and spiritual discernment, which prophetic cults subtly discourage.

Prophetic cults want to shape how you think about other preachers, teachers, prophets, networks, and ministries. They put out reputation hits on those they see as threats. Leaders of these prophetic cults spread rumors and breathe lies against those who see them for who they really are, hoping you will blindly believe them. We need to be good Bereans and search the Scriptures daily to see if what we’re being told is true (see Acts 17:11). People are indeed destroyed for lack of Bible knowledge (see Hos. 4:6).

Prophetic Cults Emphasize Blind Loyalty

I’ll always remember sitting around a table in an apostle’s office with five other staff members. The church was seeing a shaking. Many people were leaving. They had discerned what we had not yet discerned: the church was essentially a prophetic cult. The apostle’s wife suddenly announced we were making a lifelong covenant with the apostle, never to leave and always to defend. That meant blind loyalty. I wasn’t comfortable when it happened. And most of us who sat around that table finally woke up and left.

Prophetic cults at the extreme will demand you are more loyal to them than to Jesus Himself. I call that toxic loyalty. Scripture says we walk by faith and not by sight, but that doesn’t mean we’re blind to what defies the Word. Toxic loyalty looks for ways to justify unjustifiable actions. Toxic loyalty causes people to continue to stand by and stand up for people who use and abuse them. Toxic loyalty influences people to give the offender one more chance again and again. Toxic loyalty draws people back into prophetic cults after they’ve escaped.

Prophetic cult leaders weaponize Scriptures about loyalty, such as Proverbs 21:21 (NASB), “One who pursues righteousness and loyalty finds life, righteousness, and honor.” They point to Ruth and Naomi or Moses and Joshua or David and Jonathan as examples of faithfulness, but our faithfulness must be to Jesus first. While loyalty is a godly trait, blind loyalty can be the snare of witchcraft. Oswald Chambers once said, “Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ.” Wise words. We are supposed to hold fast to Jesus (see Col. 2:19).

Prophetic Cults Move in False Revelation

Prophetic cults thrive on secret knowledge and special revelations. That’s not surprising, given the definition of occult. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, occult means “to shut off from view or exposure: secret; not easily apprehended or understood; mysterious; matters regarded as involving the action or influence of supernatural or supernormal powers or some secret knowledge of them.”

Look at Jim Jones, David Koresh, or Marshall Applewhite. They all claimed special revelations that completely contradicted Scripture. While we value the prophetic and supernatural encounters with God, too much focus on these without the truth as an anchor can lead us into deceptive waters.

Prophetic Cults Move in Spiritual Error

Prophetic cults form around error. Of course, prophetic cults aren’t always as dramatic as Jonestown. The problem is, spiritual error sounds good and right to the hungry heart that isn’t rooted and grounded in the Word. One example—and this one is purposely far out to make a point—is an overemphasis on strange manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I’m not against unusual manifestations, but when we emphasize the manifestations over Jesus we get in trouble. And sometimes the manifestations are anything but holy.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am all for experiencing the authentic power of God. I am all for valid manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the gifts of the Spirit. I love to witness signs, wonders, and miracles. I expect to see more of that in the days ahead. But I am concerned that some are ill-equipped to discern the difference between the Spirit of God and strange fire.

I’ve been to prayer meetings where a woman’s eyes were rolling into the back of her head and her eyelids were fluttering rapidly as if she was under demonic control. (Are you going to tell me that the Holy Spirit rolls your eyes in the back of your head when you pray in the Spirit?) During service I saw that same woman up on the platform singing, then she abruptly stopped worshiping to prophesy utter nonsense for 10 minutes. The pastor did nothing.

I’ve seen people “toking” imaginary marijuana cigarettes and passing it down the line as if the Holy Ghost is some sort of drug. Again the pastor did nothing. People meow like cats, grown men lay on the floor in a sweaty huddle for hours, either unconscious or in some sort of funky haze, and teenagers twitch and shake uncontrollably as if having a seizure. I am aware of the Quakers, but this is far beyond that.

Again, I’m all for genuine manifestations of the Holy Spirit and I’ve participated in plenty of them. But I never read about Abel’s eyes rolling in the back of his head when he brought his offering to God. There isn’t anything in the Bible about Enoch’s eyes fluttering rapidly and uncontrollably as he was raptured. Noah wasn’t passing imaginary joints to his family in the ark. Abraham didn’t have pile- ups with the 318 men trained in his own house. The Bible doesn’t record Isaac, Jacob, or Joseph meowing like cats (or even barking like dogs or hissing like snakes). Moses didn’t shake and twitch uncontrollably for an hour as if having epileptic seizure when he saw the glory of God.

If these heroes of faith didn’t record such strange manifestations of the Spirit of God, how can we be so quick to say it’s the Spirit of God? Can we automatically endorse hissing, writhing, and barking just because John said many things Jesus did weren’t recorded in the Bible? Shouldn’t we test the spirits, like the Bible says?

At the end of the day, I look at Jesus. You don’t get any fuller of the Holy Spirit than Jesus. And I never saw my Jesus rolling around on the ground pretending to smoke imaginary weed or rolling His eyes in the back of His head or making animal noises. I haven’t seen one record of Spirit-filled saints acting that way in the Bible. You would think if such mad manifestations were genuinely of the Holy Spirit and fell on those who were desperately seeking God’s face, we would see them recorded in the Book of Acts. Yes, we see strange miracles, but that didn’t include hissing, barking, writhing, etc.

I believe an unbalanced pursuit of supernatural experiences opens the door to demon-inspired encounters and emotions that validate a person’s erroneous theology. Some in the prophetic movement claim to hold regular conversations with angels, which become the source of their prophecies and sermons. Yes, angels are prophetic messengers, but most often the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us into all truth Himself. And our sermons should be based on the Word of God—and our prophecies from the Spirit of God—not mystical revelation that doesn’t line up with the Bible.

Chasing the supernatural above the God of the supernatural is not the only example of emotionalism gone amuck. The prosperity gospel can also get out of balance. I’ve read about merchandising evangelists leading people into financial devastation after a so-called supernatural promise that gave them false faith to believe their debt would be canceled in thirty days. Yes, I believe in supernatural debt cancellation, but there is an abuse of these truths and it can become a profitable gimmick. People fall for it because they are in their emotions rather than in the Word of God. They tap into the hype and the shyster taps into their pocketbooks.

Prophetic Cults Isolate You From Others

When I was part of the cultish church I mentioned, I had to ask permission to go home for Christmas. A friend of mine had to ask permission to get married. Prophetic cults work to isolate you—cutting you off from family and friends who might discern what is really going on.

You may have heard of controlling churches with an approved reading list or a blacklist. The leaders are working to control what you read. It’s one thing to try to protect your church or network by warning them of materials that contain error. It’s another thing altogether to keep them from healthy content or ministries that will fuel their spiritual life. Proverbs 18:1 tells us when we isolate ourselves we rage against sound wisdom.