Featured Fundamental Baptists: At What Point Does a Church Become a Cult?

Hello everyone! Glad to be here talking with you guys. This is my first post in the Fundamental Baptist board, so please take my questions with a grain of salt. I'm quite new. But I was hoping you all could help me understand some things better.

So I've been going to a KJVO, Fundamental Baptist Church for about a year now. I like the core values of the church in regards to using the King James Bible, and I love everyone there. I think the Pastor is a good man in terms of not being a wishy-washy, politically correct kind of guy. He speaks his mind and isn't afraid to preach out of the bible. And when he does stick strictly to scripture, he does a great job!

However, recently I've been starting to have questions.

First and foremost, I do believe that the King James bible is completely true, and the inspired word of God. As God is infallible, so is the Holy Word. And as God is infallible, I also understand that men are absolutely fallible and prone to making mistakes, especially in regards to interpretations of the bible. It is very easy to take what is written in scripture and push it to the extreme. Oftentimes there are people in the congregation who can have disagreements with the pastor based on what is written in scripture.

Is it okay to disagree with the pastor? Well...it depends on what it's about. If the pastor is speaking against what is explicitly a sin in the bible, ie. Adultery, fornication, drunkenness, etc. Then I find it foolish to try and contradict the Holy Word of God. When God says that something is wrong, it's wrong. Period.

However, what about topics that aren't explicitly spoken against? For an example, dancing is a topic that the pastor has spoken against. While I completely agree that there are inappropriate forms of dancing that are meant for being lewd and dirty, one can point specifically to scripture that encourages dancing as a form of worship and examples where it is used as such. That's just one example, and this post isn't about dancing so bear with me here. But I've even heard of the pastor speak on the pulpit about there being Fried Chicken vs Tacos at the Wedding Supper of the Lord. (He had described a conversation he had with a Mexican, and was adamant that there would be Fried Chicken at the Wedding Supper, not Tacos. I mean...I like both and I can't find any scripture that supports either or neither.)

It's not that my problem is that the pastor may have different opinions that aren't based in scripture. Again, this post isn't about dancing or fried chicken. But, recently the pastor gave a message that was unsettling to me. He preached about talking about the pastor outside of church. I understand that you shouldn't maliciously slander the pastor, or anybody for that matter, but he went as far as to hint that talking at all about the pastor is wrong. For instance, if you've got kids and your family does something that the preacher speaks against (Let's just use eating tacos as an example) and your kids ask you at home if eating tacos as wrong, that even then you shouldn't "make them doubt the preacher" by saying that the preacher may have gone a bit far on that one. I know for one that if and when I ever have kids and they ask me something like that, I'll point them to the Bible. I believe it's very important to teach kids that no, pastors aren't always right, but that's why you always need to be reading the Bible which is the Truth. You should always follow the Word of God instead of blindly following a man. And while I am a woman, I fully believe that the father is the head of the household, not the preacher. A man should not have his head covered, and the head of the man is Christ.

So what I'm wondering is, at what point in a church do you have to say that things have gone too far? Again, I love that church and I think the pastor is a good guy, but talk like that concerns me. If you're in a place where you can never question the leader, or raise your own kids according to what you believe, isn't that a cult? I'm not entirely sure if my church has gone that far, but talk like that makes me wonder what I should look out for. At what point do I have to say, "Nope. This is a cult and I'm out."? What are the signs and how should I respond?

I hope I didn't bother anyone by asking about this, and I value your time and advice. Thank you in advance for answering my questions and God Bless all of you!

 

I don't know if he was taking a jab at Mexican culture or just making a joke about personal tastes. Honestly I couldn't tell if he was serious or not, but I think it sounded a bit odd to me. He mentioned that at two different sermons, too.

 

Do you mean that they do that as a ritual or metaphorically?

 

I completely understand what you mean. However, I tend to work better with pastors that speak what's on their mind instead of keeping their opinions and beliefs to themselves. I can disagree with opinions, but it's hard to find out if a church is on the right track if you don't know what the pastor is really about.

Which is why I started to worry about what's going on when the pastor started preaching about talking about the pastor outside of church. Granted, he has gotten some undue harassment from someone (he won't say who, I don't think they go to our church) and I think that may be what started this. But again, there is a big difference between slandering someone and having biblically-founded disagreements. I especially don't think the Lord is going to punish someone for disagreeing with the preacher. It is not anyone's place to look at someone in hardship and determine what the Lord is doing in regards to them. We aren't Him, we don't know His plans for people, and we have no right to make those kind of assumptions. And yes, he did talk about that too. Like I said, I like the guy as a person, but biblically I'm starting to wonder what's going on. He's very young, mid 30s, so I'm hoping the "no-questioning-the-almighty-preacher" concept doesn't continue. I'll certainly be praying for him and his family in this.

 

Okay, because I would be concerned if they literally held it over their heads and did that at every service. We have "Revivals" every so often where churches come to visit and the visiting pastor will preach, and there was this one church that read the verses in unison. And it was very monotone, too. Like they were all zombies or something. I mean, there isn't exactly anything biblical speaking against doing that, I won't necessarily knock it. But imagine someone walking in and seeing a room full of people talking in unison like that. That and you kind of lose the tone of the passage when everyone drones on like that.

I mean, I understand if you want to do that, I can't find anything that speaks against it nor can I find anything commanding to do it. But does a practice like that make you stand out in His eyes? I know it doesn't save you, only the salvation through Christ's blood can do that.