1) Do your studies or training in the group seem to be endless?
2) Did you have to give up things that you liked doing in order to be accepted into the group? (e.g. music, places you used to go, clothes, family life, celebrations, etc.)
3) Have you been encouraged to cut off good friendships or close family ties with people from outside of the group?
4.) If you’ve belonged to the group all your life, are there things that you would have liked to have done but you couldn’t, as they were incompatible with the rules of the group?
5.) Does belonging to the group involve dressing in a certain way and using a particular terminology?
6.) Have you noticed a double moral standard in the group, where individuals pretend to be an ideal person in order to be accepted?
7.) Do you have to project or maintain an outward appearance of happiness within the group, although deep down you are sad or dissatisfied?
8) Do you have to make more and more of an effort to continue being an active member of the group or are you requested to give more and more money?
9) Is criticism within the group or listening to critics forbidden and punished harshly?
10) Can you reject any instruction or order from the group, although publicly it is phrased as a “suggestion”?
11) Can you question any teaching or doctrine of the group, although the criticism may be well founded and expressed respectfully?
12) Are those who reject or criticize the group or its leaders said to be rejecting God himself?
13) Are the leaders enormously relevant to the group members, and does their influence affect every aspect of the group members’ lives?
14) Are the leaders seen to be superior the rest of the members?
15) Do they claim to have divine authority or to have been appointed directly by God?
16) Do the leaders affirm that only they can communicate with God directly and receive his instructions for the group?
17) In the meetings of the group, are certain phrases or concepts reinforced periodically and topics repeated frequently?
18) Do expressions of love/brotherly affection within the group often seem fake, superficial or insincere?
19) Is it forbidden to date or marry someone who does not belong to the group?
20) As well as the communal meetings, is it obligatory to attend large conferences or other special events, and are members constantly kept very busy in activities related with the group?
21) Do you have the feeling that you’re never doing enough to reach the prize or recompense that the group promotes?
22) Out of loyalty to the group, are there things that you must not say or secrets that you must not reveal?
23) Are the members of the group the only ones who can please God?
24) In general, do the group members feel superior to those who don’t belong to it?
25) Does the group teach that they are the only ones who will be saved, and that God will destroy or punish all those who don’t belong to it?
If the majority of your answers to these questions are “yes” (except 10 and 11) you are definitely involved in a sect/cult.
What I had in my mind when I started this blogging site was to address the state of the Institutional Body of believers as well as sharing my research on how I came to see it’s ineffectiveness for believer’s today. Well, I won’t throw away my research and beliefs. They will be contained in my prior posts.
The Simple Believers Truth 