“ Call up one by one the systems of tyranny and aggression and superstition which have cursed the earth, and which have long since disappeared. Call them out of their graves and ask them, ‘Who smote you? What made you pass?’ And one by one they answer, ‘Christ smote us and we died’.”
- Dr. C.E. Macartney
At first glance, the accusation of possible cultic activity transpiring within the hallowed non-walls of Xenos seems not only absurd, but laughably so.
But look at it from the perspective of an outsider:
1. They’re doing things I don’t understand.
1a. These things are making a difference in the attitudes and lifestyles of adolescents, written off by a culture who believes that no good is all an adolescent can be up to.
2. The difference, though positive, is of such depth and bears an all-encompassing aspect which is not easily shrugged off.
3. They keep saying the word “Grace.” As far as I know, grace is what you say before dinner. That’s it.
4. The group as a whole is very closely knit.
4a. I never had friends like that and look upon such groups with suspicion, as any American would.
The logical conclusion to anyone not familiar with the physical manifestation of a life lived completely as if Christ died once for all, is that the group must be a cult. I am convinced to some degree that this is because of the lack of association the typical (even a churched) American has with someone who lives in large part in accordance to biblical writ. To the outsider, whose experience with church was built upon rote, tradition merely for its own sake, clergy and layperson, earning your salvation, etc., a life lived under grace is such a foreign and unwelcome idea that it must be stigmatized in order to be justified.
I surmise that a great many people cannot abide the idea of a God who forgives all, because they know they do not forgive all, and “Who is more like God than me?”
However.
One has to ask if those accusing Xenos-goers of cultic behavior even took the time before their accusation to do any research to find out exactly what earmarks are displayed by a cult and whether Xenos actually bears any of them (which it doesn’t).
What makes Xenos not a cult? Several things.
1. Our worship of Christ
Cults are notorious for worshiping their current leader- who usually claims to be God incarnate. To my knowledge Keith has never done this. If we worshipped Keith as an incarnation of deity, that would be cultic.
2. Xenos’ subservience to the commands of The Bible
By and large, cults do not refer to any authority larger than themselves, subject to the domination and charisma of their leader who claims to be God and so has that authority. If we had cast off the input of Scripture, that would be cultic.
Also supporting this aspect of Xenos’ non-cultic behavior is our reference to church authority even outside of The Bible- D.A. Carson, Ravi Zacharias, Watchman Nee, etc. These writers and speakers are not cut of the Xenos cloth, yet we look to them for strategy, input, wisdom and insight. Our willingness to consider alternative points of view and then adopting the one which seems to be most founded in Scriptural truth makes us not a cult.
3. Cults typically adopt ideological statues looked upon by the majority as being false.
An example of this would be that “Heaven’s Gate” cult from the late 1990’s. Their belief that earth was going to be “wiped clean” was not adopted by the general public.
Christianity, in the United States of America, is generally considered to hold certain truth values (I do not also mean that generally speaking, most people live their lives as if it was true). Christianity is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an unfamiliar topic of conversation or something which the average person has not at least experienced in periphery.
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I hope this little blog encourages you. We aren’t a cult. Most everyone knows that without even a considering aside. But perhaps someone was wondering deep within the recesses of their mind. I hope this settles it.
“… The world today is a world that has been ‘turned upside down.’ Is the world’s labor today done by slaves? Is one-half the population of the world slaves? Are prisoners when taken in battle put to the sword? Are little children exposed and left to die by their parents on the hillsides, and in the forests? Is woman a plaything and chattel of mankind? To ask these questions is to answer them. The power that wrought this great change was the Gospel of Christ.”
-Dr. C.E. Macartney
