BLUF: how to handle Obiden’s cult recruiters depends upon your understanding of the issue and your desire to help the cult recruiters”

I have been told by many that it’s best not to invite cult members into your home or encourage them in any way by entertaining their foolishness. I suppose this advice is wise for most people, but my in-laws were entrenched in a cult (iglesia ni cristo is much Mike Mormonism but has a taste of Jehovah witness mixed in for good measure, because it’s founder came to the US to study alternatives to the Catholic Church and liked the Mormon model.).

I decided to study their cult and how it differed from the Bible (I had studied the Bible for many years before this.). They claim to use the same Bible, but have their own version that changes several key passages slightly in order to make them support their doctrine. After having studied the differences, my in-laws came to live with us for about 1/2 year. During this time, they asked one of the deacons of their church to come and convert me. I invited him and his wife in and was able to calmly and patiently discuss with them.

Initially they said their beliefs are almost exactly the same as mine. I said, That’s good to hear. I was under the mistaken impression that you thought Jesus wasn’t God the Son”. The deacon’s wife was quick to say, Jesus isn’t God, he is ‘a god’”. I looked ant them with a confused look and said, “hmm, how can that be when John 1:1-3 says, ‘in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God....’”. I proceeded to take them to verses 7 and 10 and 14 to show them how they could see that ‘the word’ is talking about Jesus. They said their Bible says the same thing except it has the words ‘a good’ replacing God. It appears that the deacon’s wife was getting pretty upset, so I suggested we didn’t need to argue about the difference and that maybe we could talk about the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith and not by workspace described in Eph 2:8-10. The deacon’s brushed this doctrine off and quoted James where he talked about the need for works. I explained that the whole Bible is consistent and that we can’t pick and choose and ignore the parts that don’t fit our preferences, so I showed him how I believe the two references are consistent and that James is talking about a faith that saves us a faith that has works as a natural outcome of faith and that faith is not just believing something, since the Bible talks about the demons believing yet trembling because they don’t act on that belief. Then I asked him how he saw the two passages could be talking about not being saved by Grace through faith. They realized it was getting late and they should get going. I asked them to come again and we could discuss our beliefs further, but they always just waited in the car whenever they picked my in-laws up for church.

The point of this story is to say, “If you understand the topic well, I see no reason not to invite these followers of the Covid fear cult in to discuss the issues, but if you’re not well versed in their beliefs and your understanding of the truth, it might be best not to engage them”.