Early Beginnings

A booklet describing the testimony of a former top-ranking Iglesia ni Cristo (hereafter, INC 1914) deacon planted a seed in my heart about cult evangelism. Although that booklet deals with some major and minor teachings of the group it somehow paved the way for many INC 1914 members to see the inconsistencies of their founder’s teachings. At that time, I frequently read free magazines and booklets published by known Christian groups in the United States. I thought I was reading sound doctrinal materials until my spiritual mentor in the faith told me that I was reading a cult material written and published by Herbert W. Armstrong. This experience made me more cautious to read kinds of literature posing as Christian. This led me to read materials dealing with Christian apologetics and theology. 

I was made aware of how gullible many people could be in accepting spiritual teachings put forth by self-appointed “messengers” and “apostles” despite their obvious opposition to the sound teachings of the faith. These blatant deceptions created a desire so strong in me to share the gospel with many cultists and skeptics alike. As I engaged with them in person, I slowly understood their dilemma regarding the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the divinity and personality of the Holy Spirit, their understanding of salvation, and among others. 

The Lord placed in my heart that desire to train and help Christians on cult witnessing come 1994. I met a friend who had the same desire in apologetics as mine. We talked and shared what we can do to help equip the believers in cult evangelism. This meeting prompted us to informally organize a spiritual discernment ministry called The Bereans: Apologetics Research Team, (now known as, The Bereans Apologetics Research Ministry) in 1995 because we see ourselves as individual Christian researchers dealing with exposing the errors of heretical cult groups in the Philippines.

There are so many things that a member does not know or understand about his religious group. I believe this is due to a lack of study with the founder’s teachings. Some examples would be the previous belief of Iglesia ni Cristo that Jesus Christ is Mighty God, the Jehovah’s Witness‘ previous practice of worshipping Jesus, the Mormon’s understanding of the Adam-God doctrine, among others 

I also realized that only the Christian faith is logical, reasonable, and plausible in comparison with the rest of the world religions and world of cults. Many of them are just uneducated of the Christian faith. Since they have a hard time understanding such revelation of the incarnation, the Trinity doctrine, the gift of salvation, and the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross, they decided to throw the baby along with the bathwater. This is not because they cannot believe but they chose not to believe. The problem lies not on the difficult passages of the Bible but in the heart of the person who encounters such verses dealing with the major Christian teachings. This means his heart was not yet cultivated to receive these truths. And one of the cultivating tools is Christian apologetics. 

I realized that one helpful tip in witnessing to the cultist is to understand their belief system through their lenses. Once this is done, the person can develop effective ways of explaining the truth of God’s word to them. Of course, a believer must acknowledge that only the Holy Spirit does the conversion.

I am doing cult awareness seminars and writing articles. If the Lord is leading you to help me, please call or email me to inquire. I would be glad to give you some information.

You may write to justyn@thebereans.net

Justyn M.

Coordinator | THEBEREANS.NET