1 Kings 14:24 And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.

Have you ever noticed that the first four letters of the world culture is cult? That does not surprise me in the least, after all early Christians were called The Way, a cult according to loyal Jews. Even Roman called The Way a cult. In fact they were if for no other reason than they had a culture that was new, different and expressed a single obsessive component.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

This exclusivity is one of the signs we look for in cults. This one issue alone sets us apart from all other religions and we are hated for it as promised by Jesus himself. Labels are easy and it not fair to label believers a cult based on specific characteristics found in cults. Control issues are very common in a number of identified cults of this modern era. Controlling dress code, personal activities, finances, time dedicated to support, possessions and relationships are just some of those signs. Add to that total dedication to a leader.

Think about that list and be honest in your assessment, every major religion in the world contain some if not more than one element of control in these areas, if not overt at least persuasive control. So I will say again, we should not look to specific elements as signs of cult activity. We should look at the culture.

Galatians 5:22-24 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

This is the culture of The Way, my cult.

Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Do we have any cooking show fans out there? Deconstruct is a term for taking a well known dish and tearing it apart into its component parts and then putting them back together again to construct a new dish. The reason I use this term here is that the elements are not lost, just used in a new way.

Paul declares all but lost and all but dung here in Philippians. That means they are not lost and they are not dung. He has had to deconstruct his former life, his former training, his former thinking and put them into a new perspective, a new order, a newness of life, but they are not lost on him.

We all have a past. We all have done things we want to forget. We all had errors in our beliefs. It is a truth that this past life, while gone, while forsaken is not lost to us. Many of us find it difficult to do this very thing that Paul has done, to deconstruct in order to glorify God.

Galatians 1:17-18 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

While it is true in Acts 9 that Paul had a conversion story, the effort to deconstruct took much longer, at least three years. That being true, we need to understand that unlearning what we thought we knew is not as easy as merely changing our minds.

We suffered a past to glorify God and learning how to do that isn’t easy or instant.