Signs of a Controlling Church<<<
 

Signs of a Controlling Church

http://youtu.be/IYZ9xVoRDTY

Signs of controlling leaders:
1. Does the leadership teach that God will speak to the leader before He will speak to you?
2. Does the leadership curse people who leave the church?
3. Does the leadership teach that they are the only "true church" and that all other churches are wrong?
4. Are you forbidden to talk to anyone who has left the church?
5. Are you forbidden to fellowship with your family if they are not saved, or do not belong to your church?
6. Is there an overemphasis of teaching on submission to authority?
7. Are you discouraged from reading books that are not approved by leadership?
8. Are you forbidden to attend or visit any church that is outside your denomination or fellowship?
9. Are people publicly embarrassed or humiliated by leadership?
10. Are people afraid to voice any opinion contrary to leadership?
11. Are marriages being broken by leadership?
12. Are people manipulated in their giving by leadership?
13. Does every decision people make in your personal life have to be approved by leadership?

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Eckhardt recognizes these things as emanating from a controlling spirit of witchcraft.

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God

Family

Church

If you live under that priority, you'll have none of the above problems.

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Oh yes you will......maybe not within yourself or your family, but with a large percentage of leadership........just tell your pastor you want to skip church on a weekend because you need to spend some time with your family, and see what happens......vacations allowed, family time in town - not so much.

At least with many, not all.......

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Yeah.

Not in my church.

That is just silly.

Futhermore, my pastor doesn't require me to inform him when I am going to miss.

And I'm in ministry.

But the point is, if YOU hold that priority list, then YOU shouldn't have a problem.

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Thankfully, I do believe the churches that exhibit this type of behavior are become fewer and fewer. There will always be some here and there but not like it used to be even a few decades ago (like when we were attending).

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I would agree with that.

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I do agree with the above completely, unfortunately I have seen something similar to a game of Rock/Paper/Scissors take place with the order. For instance God IS first and since church attendance is mandated by God then church is defacto placed ahead of family.

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The two points I would be concerned with is #3 & #8.
If he is speaking of a local church being the only true church I would agree but if he is saying folks outside the Apostolic church are saved then he is in error and a false prophet.
We commanded not to fellowship the unfruitful works of darkness which would be false churches.
Outside of those two I see no problems. He had some odd treachings himself through the years just saying.

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The church we took over (where the records were not what they were supposed to be) some of the people int he church were told not to talk to other people in that very church and, of course, they were instructed to not speak to people who left after the church split. I thought that was very tragic. My daughter had a hard time deciding if the UPC was a cult or not. Later, she decided that the church we took (pastored) had been led by a cult leader before we arrived and she decided that that church had been a cult but that the UPC is probably not. (I don't believe it is but some of the churches are.)

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If they refer to the 'church' building as "the house of the Lord" or some such phrase suggesting the building is somehow the dwelling place of God and therefore holy, you can be assured that a controlling spirit is at work. It's a spirit which has been around as long as the romanist system of religion has been around, which was long before the sudden appearance of the oneness pentecostal sect in 1913. Their humanist promotion of the concept that a building is to be served and coddled because it's somehow the dwelling place of God has it's roots directly in the romanist system of religion.

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But you are not concerned with the others?

**Does every decision people make in your personal life have to be approved by leadership?

Really? That does not concern you? Are you ok with it?

11. Are marriages being broken by leadership?
12. Are people manipulated in their giving by leadership?

Really? Bro Epley, surely you don't approve of marriages being broken by anyone right? Surely you believe giving should be from a giving willing heart and not by manipulation?

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The UPC itself is not a cult in that sense of the word but there have been a number of cult like leaders within our ranks.

The fact is, in my opinion, they either started out right and went bad or they were never really the right personality type to be a Pastor.

Some might be called to preach or evangelize but don't have the right leadership skills to Pastor and so when they are thrust into that situation they don't know how to handle having people under them. Rather than love them they manipulate and control them.

It's akin to an abusive marriage where the man tries to keep his wife his "property" and from leaving by controlling her. He has insecurities and fears she will leave and so he tries to keep her when all she really needed was for him to love her and treat her right.

People that stay in that kind of system become themselves rather jaded psychologically.

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Prax, I think you misread his post. Bro. Epley was saying he agreed with those danger signs, except for #3 and #8. I tentatively agree with his exceptions, being as they can be based in interpretation of scripture, albeit to the extreme sometimes.

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Praxeas I think some of it is how they were raised up in church and what they observed from their own pastor as role model for ministry. A heavy hand breeds other heavy hands.

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I was in a church where the pastor told a young lady not to marry me after she had already said yes.

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He knew you were a maverick!

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So, did she marry you anyway?

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oh....

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:heeheehee:heeheehee

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no, she took the pastors advice. Thats okay though, God gave me a wonderful wife and son anyway.

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My church says we are the only true church. Of course we baptize in Jesus name and are filled with the holy ghost evidenced by speaking in tongues as we are the Apostolic Amish. But if you drive a car and have a flush toilet and a coffee table, which people gossip over, you are certainly going to hell in a handbasket.

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Are you saying that I who do not attend your denomanation am not saved?

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flush toilet???? car???? how does these things cause me to sin?

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So, the Pastor was right?

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I know. I hate when that happens. :D

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Soooo...where DO you guys do your gossiping? :icecream

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:heeheehee

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well, at the time I was an active duty soldier and the pastor told her that if I couldn't be there for her when she needed me then I wasn't suitable for her. At the time I was really hurt by it and was mad at the pastor for butting in, but what could I do? No, the pastor in my opinion was wrong, but God had someone else for me.

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Well, if she trusted the pastor's judgment more than her own, she wasn't really marriage material. ;)

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Uh oh......now you gone and done it........

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Excellent point!!!

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No, they've been shacked up ever since.

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The Pastor WAS right. BE just didn't know it at the time.

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agreed:highfive

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sure, you could put it in that perspective I guess.:highfive

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Your lucky (which of course you already know). I wouldn't want to marry someone who listens to her pastor over husband -not that you were her husband yet, but I think you know where I am going with this. :)

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And of course your on a computer now. LOL

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:thumbsup

I typed my response before I read yours and see we both said exactly the same thing.

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time heals things