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CULTS AND CONSCIENCE: APOLOGETICS AND THE RECONFIGURED CONSCIENCE OF CULT MEMBERS

by H. G. STOKER in Vol. 6 No. 1 / Apr 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35285/ucc6.1.2020.art4



While our Creator made the human conscience an intrinsic part of us to enable us to fulfill our calling morally and responsibly, cults use people’s consciences to control them—even to do things that they would have previously considered as wrong. The conscience goes against the immediate human impulse for self-interest and is independent of the individual’s will because God created it to go against that person’s desire. A guilty conscience can thus be abused as a very effective means of control. While the so-called Christian cults make their members willfully obedient through reconfiguring their consciences, Christian apologists should find ways to address the content of cult members’ consciences to bring them back to a truly biblical understanding.

Keywords
Cults, Conscience, Apologetics, Control, Mind Control, Reconfigured Conscience
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Other Articles in
Vol. 6 No. 1 / Apr 2020

Editorial: The Way We Live Now by Paul Wells
The Areopagus Speech and Contextualization: Some Hermeneutical and Exegetical Considerations by Flavien Pardigon
Shared Presuppositions? The CAMEL Method and the Insider Movement by John Span
Missiological Implications of Conscience in Present-Day Roman Catholicism by Reid Karr
Cults and Conscience: Apologetics and the Reconfigured Conscience of Cult Members by H. G. STOKER
Solidarity in the Fall: An Essay on Self-Deception by ANDRÉ GESKE
Self-Deception and the Apologetic of Despair in Pascal, Kierkegaard, and Bahnsen by THEODORE G. (TED) VAN RAALTE
Does Our Lord Ask Too Much? A Neglected Issue in Apologetics Today by WILLIAM EDGAR
God Intended It for Good: Re-forming Evil by YANNICK IMBERT
Edwards: Ethics for Both the Vulgar and the Learned by PAUL HELM
Progress and Protest in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Presbyterianism by CHAD VAN DIXHOORN
Young Age Faith in Light of Developmental Psychology by G. JONKER VENTER AND H. G. STOKER
Interview with Os Guinness by PETER A. LILLBACK
Schaeffer's Apologetics by JERRAM BARRS
Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology by ARJAN DE VISSER
Book Review: Flavien Pardigon. Paul Against the Idols: A Contextual Reading of the Areopagus Speech by JEONG KOO JEON
Book Review: Elijah Hixson and Peter J. Gurry, eds. Myths and Mistakes in New Testament Textual Criticism. by THOMAS HAVILAND-PABST
Book Review: John V. Fesko. Reforming Apologetics: Retrieving the Classic Reformed Approach to Defending the Faith by ANDRÉ GESKE
Book Review: Paul Helm. Human Nature from Calvin to Edwards by MATTHEW J. HART
Book Review: Jordan Peterson. Twelve Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by ALISON WELLS
Epilogue: Pastoral Principles Pertaining to Pestilence and Providence by PETER A. LILLBACK