Was I in a cult?

[ToBeLoved]

Hi, I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I have a question.

As you can see I'm an atheist. That tag doesn't really do much service to what I am, though. I'm more of a nihilist, as you might guess, but more importantly I'm a former Christian.

After talking to some of you folks here and seeing the vast amount of shapes that Christianity can take and seeing so little of what I knew of as Christianity, I want to know if I was in a non-Christian Christ-based cult or if I was in a legitimate branch of Christianity (why are there even branches at all?).

I was a nondenominational Christian who believed in the imminent, literal, physical apocalypse in which Jesus would return. I believed that the antichrist would rise (possibly from the Roman Catholic Church?) and compel everyone to receive a computer chip in the right hand or forehead for the purpose of being able to participate in buying or selling. My stance on pre-trib/mid-trib/post-trib was noncommittal because I didn't think there was enough information. It didn't occur to me that there was such a thing as a non-trib Christian.

I was unsure of how it was supposed to work on a grand scale because if there are really over a billion Christians who surely all interpreted the book of Revelation in the same way as me, how would the antichrist pass this proposition? How could you pass something in the Western World if the majority of those people will refuse it outright?

I didn't think about it too much because I had the crutch of faith to lean on. But in high school when I was in a backslidden state (I would come back to Christianity from there) I was assigned a project in my economy class. I suppose the point of this project was to show us all how efficient our current monetary system is because we were tasked with completely reinventing money and we couldn't use a system anywhere near the current model of paper and coins. Each student would present his/her idea to the class, provide a visual aid, and the class would vote on the best idea. So I proposed the antichrist's mark, simply renaming it and presenting it as a subdermal computer chip, saying how great it would be to never have to worry about money, credit cards or even your driver's license since it will all be with you at all times. The teacher chuckled and asked if I got this from the Bible, but I didn't notice anyone in the class that seemed to recognize what I was doing at all. They all loved the idea and, if I recall correctly, I won overwhelmingly.

At the time I took this to be an indication that the mark could indeed be implemented on a grand scale, but now after reading these forums I'm starting to wonder if the majority of the class was simply Christians who had never heard of this interpretation of Revelation. Was I in a cult?

I remember in the 1990's there were a lot of books out about Revelation. I think it was tied to a certain degree with the year 2000. At that time I think many people did think that the Antichrist would do it somehow with a computer chip, but that seemed to be speculation and people just throwing out theories.

Many people love to focus on this Book of Revelation, because it is so hard to understand, no one can prove them wrong. lol. But anyway, it sounds as if the church of your youth was very zealous in their end-time understanding and maybe they tried to understand something and were wrong. That does not make them a cult, but it does make them unwise in that they chose to devote so much time to the end-time scenario. God wants us to live for Him each day. Live in the moment.

The Book of Revelation is the hardest book and the most often incorrectly interpreted because it is very symbolic.

Your faith should be on Jesus Christ. He will take care of His Children. Work on your relationship with God and do not let fear or the unknown throw you off. That is one of satan's biggest weapons is fear. And pride. Our ego.

But let it be known, God is in ultimate control. He gives satan some and then throw's him in the Lake of Fire.

 

[FireDragon76]

If you look at history, religious leaders that based their churches off apocalyptic predictions have tended to do so for control purposes and manipulation.

Most Christians throughout history have been non-millenialists and denied theology associated with "the Rapture". Chiliasm (millenialism) was a heresy in the early and medieval church, and still is in many historic Christian bodies: we confess in the Nicene Creed that Christ's kingdom "shall have no end".

 

[AGTG]

Beliefs don't necessarily define a cult, behavior does. Cults use specific tactics to deceive and control those within it.

You might suggest that Christianity does all of that through beliefs, but then I would reply, "So doesn't atheism."

The tenets of atheism do violence to real logic which would consider the possibility of there being a divine Creator. It is built upon lies which deceive many people. And it keeps people under the bondage of sin which will eventually be accounted for.

 

[Albion]

Beliefs don't necessarily define a cult, behavior does.

To a sociologist or any behavioral scientist, that's so. However, to the theologians and others working in the field of religion, it's doctrine...which fact can easily be seen by anyone who cares to examine the literature, studies, and so on.

Because this is a religiously-oriented forum ("Exploring Christianity"), that's the perspective that matters. This does not mean, BTW, that cultic behavior of the sort you are thinking of can't become part of the issue. Take Jonestown, for example, or the Hale-Bopp comet people. But if that is the exclusive focus of a discussion like this one, most cults will be exempted. What's more, the OP had a religious focus; the concern was not over sleep deprivation or financial exploitation, etc.

 

[Nihilist Virus]

Beliefs don't necessarily define a cult, behavior does. Cults use specific tactics to deceive and control those within it.

You might suggest that Christianity does all of that through beliefs, but then I would reply, "So doesn't atheism."

The tenets of atheism do violence to real logic which would consider the possibility of there being a divine Creator. It is built upon lies which deceive many people. And it keeps people under the bondage of sin which will eventually be accounted for.

Tenets of atheism?

 

[ToBeLoved]

To a sociologist or any behavioral scientist, that's so. However, to the theologians and others working in the field of religion, it's doctrine...which fact can easily be seen by anyone who cares to examine the literature, studies, and so on.

Because this is a religiously-oriented forum ("Exploring Christianity"), that's the perspective that matters. This does not mean, BTW, that cultic behavior of the sort you are thinking of can't become part of the issue. Take Jonestown, for example, or the Hale-Bopp comet people. But if that is the exclusive focus of a discussion like this one, most cults will be exempted. What's more, the OP had a religious focus; the concern was not over sleep deprivation or financial exploitation, etc.

I think you are right.

In Exploring Christianity it is only appropriate to discuss Christian principles.