The Cult of Reformed & Evangelical Churches?

On more than one occasion, I have heard the CREC and particular churches within the denomination labeled as “a cult.” This puts us right there with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Jim Jones, and David Koresh. Apparently, we are a dangerous heterodox group of over-zealous extremists following some sort of charismatic personality. Our Book of Confessions puts us in the stream of Reformational Christianity, but somehow, we are still labeled as a cult. Maybe it is our acceptance of paedocommunion, but that is far from new to the Christian faith. Maybe it is our optimistic eschatology, but many Christians have been optimistic about the kingdom of God in history. Perhaps it is because we have Doug Wilson, and, well, they just don’t like him. I don’t really think any of those particulars cause people to label us as a cult.

From my own observation (and this is my personal opinion), what seems to chafe the average American Christian about the CREC is the commitment. The commitment level of the average CREC family to attend worship regularly, participate in the church’s life, and live out the faith in a counter-American-cultural way is staggering for the modern American Christian.

For many American Christians, attending worship is nothing but a boon to my personal relationship with Jesus. Consequently, worship is optional, one of many things I can do to enhance my spirituality. Listening to a podcast or going to worship on Sunday has equivalent value. (If you don’t believe me, look at the pre-and post-Covid stats on church attendance after the great online church started.) Anyone not willing to say “no” to the American cult(ure) of church in which worship is easily neglected for vacation, family reunions, Suzie’s ballet, or Johnny’s baseball has probably “drunk the Kool-Aid.” (For you young ‘uns reading this, search for Jim Jones and the Guyana tragedy to understand that reference.) If the church and church life are taken seriously so that my family’s life is centered on worship and the life of the church, relativizing all other activities, then it must be a cult. Zealots.

The CREC, on the whole, wants to build strong families that will multiply fruitfully and build culture centered in joyful and faithful worship of the one true and living God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. In our presbytery and Council meetings, we do all this without manbuns or skinny jeans (or whatever emasculating style is “in” now). We don’t have women pastors or women leading worship in local churches or at our presbytery meetings (as I have witnessed elsewhere). We take strong, biblical stands on creation, government schools, marriage, and many other cultural issues. Yes, we really believe this stuff. We have our weird uncles, but all churches and denominations have those. (If you don’t know who the weird uncle is, then he’s probably you.)

Life centered around the gathered worship of God is a theme in Scripture from Genesis through Revelation. Beginning in the Garden in which God’s holy mountain was the center of the world, moving through to the Tabernacle where all Israel was arranged around the tent, and then at the end of Revelation where the New Jerusalem, the church, the bride of Christ is at the center of the world, the Scriptures are plain that the gathered worship of God’s people is the center of the world and the only proper foundation of culture. Neglecting this worship is a sin (cf. Heb 10:25). All of life moves out from and back into worship. The fact that a strong commitment to worship and all that flows from it is strange to American Christians says more about their misunderstanding of Scripture than it does the oddities of people who really believe it.

Taking seriously the discipleship of our children by understanding that education is never neutral but always has an agenda and pulling our children out of government education is obeying the command to bring up our children in the discipline of our Lord. The fact that it is not “weird” for Christians to have our children being taught by people who hate God is strange.

For men to take on the masculine responsibility of loving leadership in the church in homes, not caving to the Feminist agenda that controls American culture, shouldn’t be controversial for Christians. Yet churches who do this are labeled misogynistic when the exact opposite is true. Churches that treat women like Adam treated Eve are seen as enlightened and compassionate. They are the mainstream.

These commitments don’t make us a cult. They make us biblical.