 people love to bash the church. But we have to recognize that the church is the bride of Christ. So I want you to side with Christ. I want you to publicly declare that you love the church. Write it in the comment section right now. I love the church. That's not saying that the church is perfect. That's not to say that the church hasn't made its mistakes. That's not to say that there are some so-called churches misrepresenting what it means to be a church. That simply means that you love the true church, the true body, the collective of genuine believers who all love Jesus. Write it in the comment section. Don't be ashamed. Don't echo the voice of worldly culture. Instead, resist that. Come against that. Come against that lie right now publicly and write those simple words. I love the church. Now, we all know that as believers we should be planted in a local body of like-minded fellow Christians. But so many believers struggle to find that place to call their church home, whether from past hurts or maybe theological differences. There is a struggle sometimes. We have to acknowledge that when it comes to trying to find your church home. So what I want to do is I want to take a very balanced, very biblical, very grace-filled look at this particular topic. Signs that you may be in more of a cult than a church. I'm going to tell you some things that maybe open your eyes about the way the church operates. Remember this. Pastors are there for spiritual guidance, not for spiritual dictatorship. Your pastor is a covering, not a lid. So here are some signs that your church can be red flagged. Now, keep in mind that some churches may have some of these issues that they're working through. Maybe in the culture there are some unhealthy dynamics that they're trying to fix. So give some grace with these, but do be aware of them, okay? The first one I'll give you is that righteousness is equated with an extra biblical adherence to a specific set of rules and expectations. Colossians 2.16 says, don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or sabbots. Interesting. So be careful when they try to put extra biblical restrictions on you and then condemn you for not keeping what they say you need to do to be spiritual, but what the Bible doesn't. So in other words, oh, I didn't see you at Bible study on Friday. Are you a true disciple of Jesus? Well, who's to say that they're to set the schedule for your spiritual life? Again, this is not a complete red flag, but watch for this. Here's another red flag, right standing with God is connected to right standing with a certain man or woman of God. In other words, if you have a disagreement with the pastor, you have a disagreement with God. That's not the case. Be careful of language like that. Here's a major red flag. Leadership is constantly over-emphasizing ideas like submission to leadership. Now, submission to spiritual headship, that's biblical, but if there's an overemphasis on this, like every guest speaker is talking about it, every guest speaker is talking about how to honor your pastor, respect them, listen to them. It's probably because the pastor is telling the guest speaker to say that. And the pastor talking about it every sermon and he ties, he or she ties your spiritual well-being to your relationship with them. Very, very dangerous. Another red flag. Leadership is above healthy, respectful questioning. Now, I'm not talking about the Facebook theologians and the YouTube apostles and, you know, the keyboard warriors. I'm talking about people with genuine concerns and questions who are coming with these questions to leadership and you're being respectful about it. It's healthy, it's respectful, genuine concerns, and they just shut you down and rebuke you for bringing that up. If it was actually respectful and sincere and in love and grace and honor, they should actually address those questions. Here's another one. Members are kept tired, overworked, and unable to do much else besides church and ministry. You feel guilty for taking a family vacation. You feel guilty for taking a night out to take your wife to dinner. You feel guilty for going to see your children graduate. You feel guilty for going and being a part of something in your child's life. You feel guilty for not keeping to the program 100 percent. Dangerous because cults like to keep people overworked because if they can keep you exhausted, they can keep you susceptible. If they can keep you exhausted, they can keep you compliant. So if they're constantly looking to fill your full schedule, red flag. And they condemn rest. That's big. They condemn rest. The next red flag here is members are afraid to make life decisions without the permission of leadership. Oh my goodness, this is major. So you want to marry someone. You want to pursue a degree. You want to get a job. Leadership is there to counsel you, not permit you. You're not a child. You didn't ask permission. You didn't tell me you were going after that degree. You didn't tell me you changed jobs. You didn't tell me you started dating that person who's godly and who meets all the requirements of biblical standards, but you still didn't pass it by me. Dangerous because leadership is there to counsel and guide, not control. And if members are afraid to make life decisions without the permission, very different than counsel, you should get counsel from leadership. But if members are afraid to make life decisions without the permission of leadership, dangerous. Another red flag, members who leave no matter the surrounding circumstances are labeled as rebellious or outside of the will of God. So if your church just has a long line of people who are all labeled rebellious and if people are constantly leaving and not just anybody, look, every church has people who come who handle things inappropriately, who rebel against leadership in actual rebellious ways and leave. Every church has that. And then they try to trash talk the pastor. Every church, every ministry has that. But look at the track record. Look at the track record of the individual. Like for instance, people criticize a ministry. Look at their track record. Is that all they do is criticize ministries? Okay, you can probably dismiss what they're saying because they're just gossips, they're slanderers. But if that person has a track record, maybe they went to that church for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. And this church has a track record of people who were there 5, 10, 15, 20 years constantly leaving and saying, I can't do it anymore. It's just an unhealthy environment. You better pay attention because if there's a long line of people who are all, although they were all rebellious, really the people who were most loyal to you for decades, leaving your church constantly, they're all rebellious. That constant revolving door of people leaving because of problems with controlling leadership, they're all rebellious. Think again. So members who leave no matter the surrounding circumstances are labeled as rebellious or outside the will of God. And by the way, if a man or woman ever tells you that you can't fulfill the call of God without their influence, that's control. That's witchcraft. That's manipulation. And that is a red flag, major red flag, major red flag. If they tell you that you can't fulfill God's call without their influence, major red flag. Another red flag, members are discouraged from fellow shipping with believers from other churches and ministries. I'll leave that one right there. I think that's clear enough. Members are afraid of missing any church function for any reason for fear of being rebuked, looked down upon, or otherwise ostracized. Next, members are seen as belonging to a man or woman of God. In other words, pastors fighting over people as if their property. Hey, you didn't tell me so-and-so was going to your church. That's my couple. That's my family. Those are my members. No, they're not. They're God's people. You know the difference between Moses and Pharaoh? Pharaoh thought the people belonged to him. Moses knew the people belonged to God. That's why one was a great leader and one was a dictator that God had to overthrow. Pharaoh didn't understand that the people didn't belong to him, they belong to God. So this idea, you're my people because you somehow were directed here to sit in the pew. Now you're mine. And if you go anywhere else, that's rebellious. And that pastor better call me dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, major, major red flag. When pastors fight over people as if their property, that's a red flag. If you're afraid to assess or even consider these signs that I'm giving you, because you are afraid of being embarrassed, rejected, or rebuked, that's a red flag. You can't even consider what I'm saying. You can't even ponder these things I'm bringing to your attention. Dangerous. Thank you for watching Encounter TV. Don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell. Also, help us spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.