living in a modern day cult disquised as a church

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

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[Ghost]

Probably by far the biggest mistake that new Christians make after placing their faith (trust) in Christ is to immediately seek out a modern institutional church to join, and so what almost always happens is they quickly end up entrenched in what amounts to nothing more than a cult-like commercial business disguised as a church of Jesus Christ. Of course not all churches are bad, but the good ones, the real ones, can be very few and far between these days and therefore can be quite hard to come by. So great caution is warranted.

Obviously the enemy would not be too threatened by anyone becoming a Christian if that person can be immediately immobilized (by being tempted to join a false church) where their life and resources will be tapped and where they will be ineffective in expanding God's Kingdom. False churches are generally run by heavy shepherds who control "the sheep" with a tyrannical heavy handed rule. True churches (assemblies) are guided (not controlled) by loving men who do not take advantage of God's children. These are true shepherds not "leaders" from a commercial or corporate / business perspective. A heavy shepherd is no shepherd at all, but nevertheless with that term being a common designation for them, we'll go ahead and stay with it.  Today churches may be heavy shepherd run, commercial in nature or both, with both being the most common type.

When Christians join a heavy shepherd commercial based church (which tends to be most churches today), in such cases these Christians are actually in many ways working for and supporting the kingdom of darkness, not the kingdom of light. But of course they generally have no clue of what is really going on.

Commercial,  heavy shepherd run businesses disguised as churches are everywhere today. And by spiritualizing their business and control practices as being “ordained by God Himself”,..(example) self proclaimed messiah..prophet ..Mark Darling.......they form what essentially amounts to an abusive cult. They have no biblical basis whatsoever for their existence. In fact, there is not a single account in all of Scripture of Christ or His Apostles ever acting in any way that even remotely hints at the despicable, abusive, money-scamming ways of these more dangerous types of modern institutional churches. And worse, the vast majority of these so-called "churches" preach a false works-based Gospel, not the true free grace Gospel message of faith (trust) alone in Christ alone, which is the clear salvation message that we see in the Bible.

And by preaching this mess, these churches are usually able to manipulate and control their congregations by instilling tremendous amounts of fear in them, namely fear of loss of salvation due to non-compliance with the church's various man made rules. These type of churches typically also instill fear of loss of church privileges, fear of loss of membership, fear of peer disapproval, etc., not for any biblical reasons of course, but simply to threaten and enforce their legalistic regime of power and control. Many other unbiblical practices (as well as a myriad of false doctrines) are usually rampant among such "churches".

The good news in all this is you absolutely do not have to join one of these churches (cults) or any cult in order to become or remain a Christian. God requires no such thing of you. In fact, the Bible contains many clear warnings to avoid such people and to avoid their unbiblical doctrines and practices. It can actually be quite a dangerous thing to even visit one of these churches. The reason being is they often have many clever mechanisms in place to appear loving, caring, relevant and useful and thereby are able to attract many unwary people to join. And once someone joins and forms social ties, it is often very difficult for them to get free................

The truth is you can simply meet at home, read the Bible, sing praise and worship songs, pray, have communion and fellowship - all in peace and joy without any of the nasty entanglements awaiting the unwary. It's dangerous out there so you need to be very careful. Read the New Testament, especially the many letters (or Epistles as they are also called) in order to see the real picture of what the real loving and compassionate church of Jesus Christ actually looks like BEFORE daring to get involved with any modern church professing to be Christian. Otherwise you could end up becoming the next victim.......... dont be deceived of the likes of Mark Darling and Brent Knox...Deceivers..False Prophets..Charltons..False Leaders...Frauds..Deceivers..Snake Oil Salesman..Like Carnival Barkers setting the trap..with a low cost admission to see the wonders of the world..please don't be drawn in..fooled..deceived..set up big time for heart break..to be tormented...yes..Hell is real...

[Child_of_Arkham]

Thank you for posting this. We are called to be children of God, not someone who wants to play God over our lives. #TheGreatCollusion, as we may as well call them now, is a fake body of churches that makes every excuse to take over your life. In my case, they used already toxic relationships I was already abused in, like my dad and stepmother who are both sociopathic narcissists, to chastise, abuse, and control me. The whole congregation became a giant toxic relationship as I was given a “covenant” to correct some of my behavior, which is basically saying “you’re gonna give us bad PR so we are going isolate you.” Just another version of “the beatings will continue until morale improves” only just with you personally and with the church trying to use the Bible to justify it.

I am so glad I have left Candlewood Church and kept my relationship with God. I have been Christian for almost 10 years, and I will never look back regardless of the rocky start.

[BS Truth]

refuse to let others hold power over you...have you moved on yet...how many decades ago was that....come on now...

[Vince Capobianco]

Jim McCotter is live on a podcast every Friday at 4pm answering ALL questions asked of him about his past, present and future.  Why not stop all the guessing and gossip and slander and get your answers right from Jim?  Time to put your "money where your mouth is", and jump in and ask on behalf of yourself or others all the questions you want!  If you want to ask questions immediately, you can text them to 404-405-6358 24/7, and we'll que them up for the podcast, which you can watch at your convenience!  EVERY Friday at 4pm! 

Jump on through facebook or youtube...

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/JimMcCotterLIVE/

Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_-a-MOV_qjSKEpLcx9pR3g/featured

[Huldah]

Vince, what is your point in spamming multiple threads with the same information over and over, when you won't even engage with our replies? Do you really think you're persuading anyone?

[Therese]

Yes, they try to bring in people during their young years, college years, when people are more open to change and are often more easily manipulated. They hope you stay for life, being controlled by them and giving them as much of your income as possible. They are after control and money and will disguise it as church from God. They damaged both of our lives. Solid Rock in Columbus Ohio at the OSU campus. They are snakes disguised as servants of God. They do some good things but that's how much more dangerous they are cause even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Those who stay are truly brainwashed and generally don't know it.

[Therese]

Many cults are disguised as churches. When we try to talk to a current GCx cult member, they are 100% into the GCx cult and don't know it. They think they are sold out 100% to Jesus instead. They misinterpret some verses and ignore other Bible verses cause that's what the leaders say. They tell me to be patient but they are impatient when you talk to them. I even emailed John Hopler years ago to point out how he disregards the word of God and he just argues. It was evident from the emails that he puts the love of money way above loving Jesus. It's tragic. We pray for him.