Being in this Cult is one of the Worst things that Happened in my Life!

[Curious]

I have been thinking about this and other testimonies like it, and the injustice that some have started their Christian journey in such a harsh and negative way.

I have a parallel to compare: I am going to use the experience of coming out of the LC or another Christian cult as an analogy for the Israelites and their exodus from Egypt. Let me explain:

Phase 1: the Entry.
As a young, unformed people, in fact just a family, not a people yet, (could be likened to being in a child form) they became members of the Nation of Egypt. They were respected, made welcome, made their home there, and had a good life in the shelter and provision of Egypt.

Likewise, a young or new convert or member of the LC. Happy to be a part of the system, welcomed in and treated well. Love-bombed, baited deliberately, yes. It would not be fair to say that Egypt did that to the Israelites, but the initial, happy stage, where Israel is young, innocent and unformed as a people are the points of similarity.

Phase 2: the Change.
Down the track, it all shifts. Fully emmersed and invested in the system they have entered, and done so in good faith. Even God lead them there. Nevertheless, the Israelites lose their status as equals in the nation they joined, and are denigrated to slave status. We don’t know if this shift happened suddenly, but we are not told otherwise.

How is it that they accept this? They could have rejected this and risen up quickly and decisively against it. They could have made plans to leave and escape away from Egypt, or fight against it. One thing is for sure, it’s a bad deal and it won’t get better, there will be no point in the future where it will all go away. The longer they exist in such a weakened way, the harder it would be for them to resist this, and the deeper the dependence of the Egyptians on their servitude. The time to resist is, immediately as it happened. They are passive at this point. Do they lack strong leadership? Do they not know their value, allowing this abuse? Did the Egyptian system promote a propaganda designed to weaken their confidence or actively condition them? We are not given this detail, and maybe it was as sudden as the account seems to convey.

I liken this to the stage where the LC member has come to the place where they are being devalued and exploited. Why does the person accept this treatment? How are they weakened/conditioned such that they accept it? (we know the propaganda used by the LC here).

Why God’s special people started out as an innocent people who through no fault of their own, become ensnared into slavery is an interesting question to ask. No wonder the Pharaoh that Moses confronted had little regard of a God who represented a people that were his pee-ons! What sort of god would be attached to a bunch of slaves, surely one who was at the bottom of the pecking order of deitys, and could only tolerate poor, dirty, smelly, helpless people. Pharoah’s people, after all, he owned them, not some second-rate deity. And it was a good, a great arrangement from his point of view! A god of a noble, wealthy, beautifully adorned and elegant people would be one he could consider. I can see why he didn’t take it all seriously at first.
Anyway, I digress a little. Gods people start out in the same situation as an unhappy trapped LC member, who has been innocently trapped into a damaging system, and there is no justice in it, and seems to make no sense as to why. And the pain is great. That’s my point in phase 2.

Neither the Israelites nor the unhappy exploited LCer has any healthy boundaries nor is permitted to within their system. And is conditioned to allow abuse.

Phase 3: Extrication.
The bold step of leaving! For the Israelites it is along drawn out process with much drama along the way. (This part of the biblical story is so well known I won’t detail it). For the LCer it may be an internally dramatic and stressful process, which may or may not be externally dramatic.

However, both end up in a period of isolation and removal from all they had known and depended on for their survival. For the Israelites it was physical provision, for the newly formed ex-LCer it may be social and cultural. This is a time to form dependence on God alone, the opportunity to come to know Him genuinely, and know His ways.

Hard to do as a survivor of abuse, but this period in the history of the formation of the nation of Israel, does relate to the period of time for an LC- exited person, directly after leaving. Those testifying of this time on this forum, passed through it in different ways. I hope I’m not suggesting a too-rigid frame. I just hope it might be an encouragement to see this general pattern.

Phase 4: finding Identity, Purpose and Strength.
Who they were, as a people, when they entered the wilderness was not who they were when they emerged on the other side! (That is the encouraging part of this long post).

They developed a sense of themselves, based on their submission to God, that made them a strong and conquering people. A force that could not be quenched or resisted. They conquered everyone they encountered and the people groups around them feared them. This was not the ramshackle collective of beaten-down slaves that left Egypt.

As a result of their time under God’s training, they now were strong, disciplined, organized, internally structured and had decisive leadership. They knew what they were about and where they were headed. They were certainly not a people to scorn or even think of treading down.

Crossing to the analogy of a person post LC: To be shaped from an amorphous, passive lump of clay, into a highly organized, clear-sighted and functional individual through the long-term process of having once been a servant to an evil system. It is actually a great long-term outcome. Its not an easy journey, but it is a valuable one, which delivers eternal rewards not just temporary ones. And creates something not just ordinary, but exceptional in the person (or nation) trained in such a way.

Take heart, God seeks to achieve something great in you, He is the same God that achieved this in his people, the Israelites!! Don’t be dismayed by the hardships in the journey, though they will be hard, there is an amazing goal at the end of it. That’s my final point.

Look at Balaam’s impressions as he looked out over Israel camped in the desert. How beautiful were their streets and homes. (I don’t think he was perceiving in the natural). Think of how Rahab longed to join them and leave behind the miserable existence she endured before. The Israelites had become something special, exceptional. A place of safety, shelter, and peace. This is my analogy in it's completion.

I hope it can encourage the discouraged, and inspire a prayer of faith and hope in God’s overall plan. And willingness to co-operate in it, above all the other offerings this life seeks to distract us with! Why it starts with Gods beloved coming out from under an abusive situation, I don't know. it will be a good one to ask when we get to heaven! I do know the result is good!