Cult is the new buzz word in the contemporary era, from several companies having this word in their brand names, to being used as a flex term or cuss word, it's almost part of life for many. "Did you hear about that new cult in the media lately?" - is the icebreaker these days even in post church-service catchups. While the big uncles shake their heads in dismay about the Gen-Z getting caught in modern day cults, little do they realize that they themselves are victims and promoters of one. Apparently there exists no particular standard to describe cult, people have just shared their views and experiences to explain it, so post brief research online I've listed down the most popular symptoms. You can identify a cult with this broad criteria (not limited to):
Privileged access
Cannot question back
Imposed guilt or shame for leaving
Absolute authoritative leadership
Lack of transparency
Manipulative demands and hidden abuse
Dangerous ideologies and goals
Sounds familiar? Well... are you starting to evaluate if you might be caught up with such a group, or (may I say) a 'church'? Let me make this clear, Church is not a cult and Jesus is completely holy and compassionate, He would invite queries and always kept everything transparent to His disciples, He taught us to be servants in order to be leaders and maintained no privileges for himself or let anyone boast about their connectedness to himself, He is full of love and sacrificed His life in order to give us Eternal life. The first church formed with disciples of Jesus mentioned in the book of Acts was also reflecting Christ, unlike the some Church leaders who use God's sheep for personal gain and impose dangerous cultic ideologies by manipulating scriptures. While it is a sad reality, it is also a Wake-Up call. Modern day false teachings have poisoned the christians, sometimes even leading them to death, eternal-death perhaps. Christians are failing to see the Big-Picture of God-Man-Sin and are unable to exercise true discipleship to Jesus, by becoming victims of such cults. Just realizing that something is wrong will not help, infact it may lead to apostasy. Several people claiming to be ex-christians are making content on social media quoting the very false teachings, unaddressed questions, biases and personal abuse experiences in the church.
Hence, knowing the right doctrine is quite essential to identify and protect oneself from hell-populating false teachings, and also to get back on the right track if slipped to the sideways slightly, and furthermore to redirect another blind follower to the Way of Life. The new book "Hyper Biblical" by Dr. Duke Jeyaraj, published by Notion Press in July 2024, does exactly that.
My Personal Take:
Coming from South India, Hyderabadi-Dum-Biryani is my favourite food to eat. It's perfect blend of hot spices, sweet ghee, caramelised onions, protein rich meat, carbs rich basmati rice etc. Well, you didn't land on a recipe blog, we're still talking about Hyper Biblical, you might say, "Then why did you make us hungry by reminding about Biryani?" The point we miss is perfect blend. Bible is not all comforting or not all rebuking or not all love-grace or not all wrath-judgement or not all happy hymns or not all empire history. Every verse-paragraph-chapter-book is essential, "everything" in perfect blend. The entire Word of God is Life. If somebody just picks out onions from Biryani and eat on every occasion it's weird right, you may even rebuke the host or chef saying - it's not even a dish. Then why do we cherry pick Bible verses and forcefully satisfy our appetite based on cravings? I felt Hyper Biblical book is just too Biblical, meaning, it offers you what Bible is actually saying about various topics - we most debate and divide about.
Is it worth reading?
Dr. Duke uses various personal life incidents, famous personalities' life stories, hot topics on media, cricket illustrations and so on, to make the readers easily absorb the richness of the doctrines. His Acronym format chapters won't slip away from your memory anytime soon. This book is a lot more than an antidote, any reader by the end of this book shall certainly be inspired to live an exemplary holy life full of passion for Christ and a disciplined Bible reader
You may ask, is Hyper Biblical encouraging? Ofcourse! Will I learn anything? Abundantly! Is it rebuking? Certainly! Is it pricking? Depends! Is it Biblical? Absolutely! Does it satisfy my itchy ears? Never, you shall be washed from brain-washed teachings!
What makes this book authentic?
If you find out author's background, you shall be certain that he writes not just from his theological degrees but from degrees(temp) of watching, first-hand, young and adult generations alike falling prey for hell-populating false teachings which lead them to eternal degrees (never quenching fire). Survey reports of on-the-ground journalists are more accurate and effective than an online info collector, you know. So you might find this book often in question-answer format. Time to time, the author "responds" or "counters" to the argument of cultic false teachers about their false teachings, hence by teaching the right doctrine Dr. Duke rebukes the false teachers (without mentioning names) wisely and Biblically. Infact, the book cover mentions this exact verse (Titus 1:13). If you are someone who likes healthy knowledge-filled debates then this book is for you. There are rarely any mention of silly controversies such as head coverings, so nobody can feel that the author is biased or amateur.
You may frown a bit
It's ok to face disappointment of your righteousness score now, here on Earth, than to be disappointed by the Lord after leaving the Earth. You might feel, "Wait a minute, I don't think so, I've heard this from (insert popular name) preacher, so it's correct only, it's not false teaching." It is certain that many readers are going to find several chapters of this book shocking, well, that is the very intent of this book - to awaken the victims of false teachings. It's never too late to come out of cult, sooner or later people will be exhausted following false teachings because God is Truth and we shall never be fully filled with "lies", people may even leave true God saying, "He didn't do anything for me so what should I have anything to do with Him?" Some may continue to live in comfortable sin because their cult approves of it, and eventually face death. Before you or your friend or relative or your fellowship-mate or church-mate go to that extent, the time is Now - to be Hyper Biblical.
My honest reaction
Having the opportunity to volunteer as an editor for this book, these were my exact honest words I shared with Dr. Duke after completing the task: "I must say that I cried several times while reading, especially the second half of the book. This book is not just about false teachings, it's also about proper Christian life-style & spiritual-style. I was so encouraged to trust in God more & ofcourse read Bible more. The way this book dives into the scriptures and fishes out the true essence of Word of God, is just mind-boggling."
I'd highly recommend this book to both young adults and experienced preachers alike.
You can grab yours at these sites: Amazon, Flipkart, NotionPress (Listings as of Aug 2024, the time of this blog publishing)
Book back-cover Contents:
(Source: Product listing on Amazon site)
Well, it is not simply enough to merely pray against hell-populating false teaching!
We must do more! We must ‘contend for the faith once for all delivered for the saints’. We must open our mouths and uncork our pens to warn about ‘savage wolves which will come among you (the local church believers) not sparing the flock’. Spread virally, thanks to the social media, modern cultic false teachings such as (1) Hyper-Grace (‘No judgement for believers post-Cross’), (2) Hyper-Supernaturalism (‘It is always God’s will to heal me here and now’, ‘Believers in Jesus need not die, if they chose to’), and (3) Hyper-Love (‘Everyone is already saved, but they just don’t know it yet!’, ‘You will stop existing in hell or will eventually come to heaven from there’) have locust-swarmed churches in South Indian cities and beyond. In this book, the incensed author, argues vehemently from the Bible to show how much these scripture-twisting, half-truth-full-of, diabolical teachings have majorly deviated from the ‘whole counsel of God’. The author offers these ‘five loaves and two fish’ unto the Lord! Perhaps, the Lord use it for the restoration of the gangrene-of-false-teaching infested Body of Christ, back to sound doctrinal health (this book also includes a section where there is an antidote against false teaching). Those embracing these false teachings must be warned to steer clear of this book as it would greatly infuriate them, calling a spade, a spade, without ‘putting blade’ (using illustrations from the world of Cricket)! The author’s prayer is that the Holy Spirit could possibly cajole and convince such blood-bought, precious, believers, through these peppery pages, to swiftly abandon these eternity-shipwrecking doctrines and wholly embrace biblical, balanced, sound doctrine!
About the Book Author:
(Source: Author's social media handles and websites)
Dr. Duke Jeyaraj is an Author / Itinerant Revival Preacher / Bible Teacher / Youth Camp Speaker / Counselor / Blogger. Formerly worked with various prestigious Christian organisations, Dr. Duke, along with his wife Evangeline Duke, founded Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission (G4 Mission, 2006) and became full-time servant since 2008 after resigning from HSBC, Hyderabad. He is a SHUATS (Allahabad Agricultural Institute) Engineer turned SABC (Southern Asia Bible College, Bangalore) M. Div. gold medalist (2001)-cum-Doctor of Ministry grad (2014), has preached by invitation in 20 Indian states and in a few other Nations, having started out as a 16-year-old in 1991. His other commendable works include Straight Talk - a popular book among youth, which talks about hushed-up matters like sex, love, marriage, pornography, phone addiction etc.
Comments