When “Cult” Becomes a Shield Against Scripture
Why the predictable reactions of church leaders reveal something much deeper — and far more dangerous
Shalom, brothers and sisters in Messiah,
It’s amazing how predictable the reactions have become.
A friend of mine recently shared my article The Truth About Why Your Pastor Really Doesn’t Know His Bible with one of his church leaders. The man, a deacon named Leonard, replied:
“This looks like the same cult teaching that Les Feldick’s ministry tries to peddle. I don’t agree with it.
2 Peter 1:20–21.
You should get Pastor Cook’s opinion too.”
I could’ve written that response myself before even seeing it. I’ve heard it hundreds of times, almost word for word.
The accusation of “cult.” The convenient citation of a verse pulled from context. The quick appeal to authority — “get the pastor’s opinion.”
It’s so routine it feels rehearsed, like a liturgy for the insecure.
But it’s more than a bad habit; it’s a psychological reflex that tells us something about the state of the modern church. Because when truth confronts a system built on repetition instead of revelation, the system does what it always does: it protects itself.
The Predictable Script of Fear
Whenever someone challenges the status quo of Christian tradition — not by rebelling, but by returning to Scripture — the system responds with a familiar triad:
Label it. Call it “cultish,” “Jewish mysticism,” or “legalism.”
Discredit it. Quote a verse out of context to sound biblical.
Defer it. Pass the responsibility upward — “ask the pastor.”
It’s eerily consistent because it’s not a spiritual response; it’s a psychological one. It’s defense by avoidance — the mind protecting its sense of certainty by labeling anything unfamiliar as dangerous.
This isn’t new. In psychology, we call this cognitive dissonance. It’s the discomfort we feel when truth threatens a deeply held belief. The easiest way to resolve that discomfort isn’t to change, but to dismiss.
So when Deacon Leonard called it “cult teaching,” what he was really saying was, “I’ve never heard this before, and it makes me uncomfortable.”
He wasn’t defending the Bible. He was defending his framework.
And that reference to Les Feldick? That’s a label people use when they don’t have the language to engage the argument.
Feldick was a self-taught Oklahoma Bible teacher known for his Through the Bible television series and for a system called ultra-dispensationalism—a theology that separated Israel from the Church and rejected Torah for believers.
Ironically, Feldick and I stand on opposite sides of the spectrum. He dismissed Torah as irrelevant; I hold it as the very foundation Yeshua came to fulfill.
But in the minds of many church leaders, any teaching that doesn’t fit their grid gets thrown into the same bucket.
So they use “Les Feldick” as shorthand for “something different,” even when the comparison makes no sense.
Why the Church Reacts This Way
Modern Christianity was built on repetition — not of Scripture itself, but of interpretations passed down through centuries of theological echo chambers.
The earliest believers studied the Hebrew Scriptures daily. The modern church studies denominational statements of faith.
Over time, the church replaced the pursuit of truth with the preservation of tradition. And tradition, when left unexamined, becomes an idol.
So now, when someone reintroduces Scripture in its original Hebraic context, it doesn’t sound familiar — it sounds threatening. It sounds like a new doctrine when it’s actually the oldest one of all.
This is how cultural programming works. It doesn’t require conspiracy; it just requires time. Tell a lie long enough — even unintentionally — and eventually it becomes the baseline for reality.
The modern Christian’s instinct to label Hebraic truth as “cultish” isn’t random. It’s the byproduct of centuries of conditioning:
A Western worldview that separated faith from its Eastern roots.
A Greek mindset that prioritized philosophy over obedience.
A Roman system that merged church and empire.
A Protestant legacy that reformed ritual but kept hierarchy.
By the time you reach today’s pulpit, what’s being preached often resembles a Christianized Rome more than a redeemed Israel.
That’s why Scripture studied in its Hebrew context feels like rebellion. The system has trained believers to see the truth of their own Scriptures as foreign.
The Comfort of Certainty
People derive identity from their community, and religion is often the deepest layer of that identity. When you challenge the theology of the group, you don’t just threaten ideas; you threaten belonging.
So rather than test the teaching, people defend the tribe. It’s safer to keep harmony than to question the narrative.
That’s why when my friend’s deacon felt uncomfortable, his reflex wasn’t, “Let me search the Scriptures,” but “Let me call the pastor.”
He outsourced discernment to authority.
This is how control perpetuates itself. It trains people not to think, but to submit — not to study, but to quote.
But Scripture never gave discernment to pastors. It gave it to the people.
Acts 17:11 says the Bereans were noble because they tested everything Paul said against the Scriptures.
Think about that: they tested an apostle.
Paul didn’t rebuke them for “private interpretation.” He praised them for integrity.
If today’s church praised Bereans instead of branding them as rebels, we might actually see revival.
The Psychological Grip of Religious Culture
When a person is repeatedly told that questioning doctrine equals rebellion, their brain literally wires around that belief. The body responds to doctrinal challenge as a form of threat — triggering anxiety, defensiveness, and often hostility.
So when you quote Jeremiah 31 or Matthew 5:17 or the Hebrew meaning of Torah, they don’t just disagree; they feel unsafe.
That’s why logic alone rarely breaks through. You can’t reason someone out of a belief that was never reasoned into them in the first place.
You have to speak to the fear underneath.
And the fear is this: What if everything I’ve believed about God isn’t entirely accurate? What if I’ve spent years defending the wrong things?
That’s a terrifying thought. And unless the heart is humble, fear wins every time.
So people cling harder to what’s familiar, using the word “cult” like a safety blanket.
The Great Irony
One of the greatest ironies of our age is that people who claim “sola scriptura” — Scripture alone — often mean “my pastor’s interpretation of Scripture alone.”
When I read Pastor Cook’s words —
“He is a very intelligent man. However, he leans very hard on Jewish tradition and takes the Torah over Scripture.”
— I couldn’t help but sigh.
That statement is so backward it exposes the entire sickness of our system. The Torah is Scripture. It’s not a competing authority; it’s the foundation the rest of Scripture stands on.
To say someone “leans too much on the Torah” is like saying a builder “leans too much on the foundation.”
Yeshua Himself leaned entirely on Torah. Every time He was tested, He answered, “It is written.” He wasn’t quoting new doctrine; He was quoting Deuteronomy.
The apostles didn’t have a New Testament. They taught the Gospel straight from the Torah and the Prophets.
To pit the Torah against Scripture is to separate the Word from itself.
But centuries of theological insulation have trained people to see Torah as “Jewish” and the Gospel as “Christian.” That division doesn’t exist in the Bible — only in the mind of man.
Cultural Drift and the Loss of Discernment
When culture replaces Scripture as the compass for truth, people begin to see tradition as sacred and context as suspect.
So the moment you bring Hebrew context, covenant continuity, or divine law into the conversation, the walls go up. Not because you’re wrong, but because culture has trained them to hear ancient truth as modern threat.
It’s like waking a sleeper who’s been dreaming his whole life — he doesn’t thank you for shaking him; he calls you cruel for interrupting his peace.
But real peace doesn’t come from staying asleep. It comes from waking up.
The Spirit of God is still speaking, still writing Torah on hearts, still calling His people out of systems that domesticate faith and sanitize obedience.
Yet many believers have been so conditioned by Western Christianity that conviction now feels like condemnation.
That’s how far the drift has gone.
The Wake-Up Challenge
Brothers and sisters, it’s time to wake up.
If you claim to love the Word, then trust the Word. Test everything you’ve been taught — even the things that feel sacred — against the text itself.
Ask your leaders why they teach what they teach. Ask them why obedience is mocked while complacency is praised. Ask them why a covenant written by God’s own hand has been traded for a man-made system of traditions, programs, and personalities.
If their answers lead you deeper into dependence on them instead of deeper dependence on Scripture, you already know what spirit is guiding them.
We are standing in a moment of spiritual crisis disguised as comfort.
This is not the hour to be passive.
It’s the hour to be courageous.
Stop outsourcing your faith. Stop defending denominations. Stop calling “cult” what you’re too afraid to study.
Truth doesn’t need a gatekeeper — it needs a seeker.
The Word of God is living, breathing, and able to stand on its own!
It doesn’t need institutional permission or pastoral approval.
It simply needs hearts that are willing to believe it again, as it was written.
This is your wake-up call.
Open the Scriptures.
Question the system.
Return to covenant.
Because the days of borrowed faith are ending.
A Personal Note
This message is not about going after Pastor Cook or Deacon Leonard.
They are simply examples of a much larger issue — symptoms of a system that has shaped nearly every corner of modern Christianity.
I don’t hold anger toward them; I hold concern for them, and for every pastor and leader still caught in the same web of inherited tradition.
So pray for them.
Pray for your pastors, your elders, your churches.
Pray that the entire body of Messiah would awaken to the Word itself — not to man’s version of it.
Because this isn’t about winning arguments.
It’s about seeing the Church healed.
Truth doesn’t fear examination. It invites it.
And those who walk in truth have nothing to hide and nothing to prove.
So let the systems keep labeling.
Let the fearful keep quoting their favorite verse to silence their conscience.
You just keep searching. Keep studying. Keep returning to the Hebrew core of the faith once delivered to the saints.
Because the same Spirit that carried the prophets still carries you.
And the covenant they foretold — the Torah written on the heart — is the very one you are living in right now.
With courage and conviction,
Sergio
Scriptures for Reflection
Acts 17:11 – The Bereans who tested all things
Jeremiah 31:31–34 – The New Covenant written on hearts
2 Peter 1:20–21 – The divine origin of prophecy
Romans 11:18 – The root supports the branches
Matthew 5:17–20 – Yeshua fulfilling Torah
John 14:26 – The Spirit teaching us directly
1 Thessalonians 5:21 – Test all things; hold fast to what is good
Side note: the friend of mine, who sent me the messages, went through some really hard times personally, and the Church was nowhere to be found. He sent this article hoping for engagement and feedback — this was the Deacon’s final response:
“You speak as a man with a bitter heart.
Let HBC (the church) know when you decide to repent of your sin.”
Not all churches fit this model… but sadly, the majority do.
Shalom.
I don’t really know enough about your views or beliefs to speak on that.
But, your example of Deacon Leonard passing the buck is quite common.
The vast majority of people in churches have never read the Bible or maybe read it once. ‘Everything they know comes from sermons and Sunday School.
That sort of limited training does not prepare a person for spiritual warfare with Satanic forces, or false teaching.
They run to the pastor because they do not feel capable of dealing with things. But, honestly most of the pastors are just as incapable, they just have a college degree and were voted into the position.
Believers should be able to give an account of why they believe and stand up to most basic types of false doctrine, at the very least. If sermons and sunday school are not preparing saints for war, then what good are they?
As I read your last posts about the Pastors of today's western church, I imagined what an honest Israelite must've felt when they heard the prophet of YHVH lay a covenant charge against the corrupt leaders of their time.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. You have a clear case of neglect of duty and breach of covenant against the majority of the western leaders of the body of Christ and I hope they correct their attitude toward the requirements of the Law of Christ which is made explicit in the Torah.