Planting Seeds of Self-Doubt

As I was pondering my last post on how cults love to preach about submission, it dawned on me that another one of the key ways they try to deceive you into thinking you need to rely upon their guidance is by planting the seeds of self-doubt into your mind. In other words, you would be lost without them. And once again, I have seen firsthand another Bible Verse they all love to take out of context:

• Jeremiah 17:9 ESV – 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

They take this out of context by ignoring the two previous verses:

• Jeremiah 17:7-8 ESV – 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Those who trust in the Lord need not worry about their heart. Only by pursuing injustice does one have to fear the state of their heart:

• Jeremiah 17:11 ESV – 11 Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool.

The Prophet Ezekiel reminds us three times:

• Ezekiel 11:19 ESV – 19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
• Ezekiel 18:31 ESV – 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?
• Ezekiel 36:26 ESV – 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

The only one whose heart is desperately sick is the one who likes to amass control by getting you to doubt your salvation without their aid.

As in my previous post, run for the hills far away from church leadership that likes to remind you how sick your heart is, so you need the guidance from their heart to live your life. They are the ones who gather by injustice, by getting the newbie in the faith to trust more in them rather than the Lord.