The holy faith of reformed samaritanism

How to detect a deceptive cult 
God told Adam and Eve: “I’ve given you life; I’m therefore your father-- honour your parent, obeying what 
I’ve commanded you [not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil]. I command you so not 
because I’m a power hungry tyrant, but only because I care for you, and don’t want your free will to cause 
you harm and suffering. Trust me, if you don’t eat from the fruit of the tree, you’ll do just fine”. 
But the serpent came, and deceived Adam and Eve. How? By telling them the following, «Obeying God? 
Forget about obedience... Obeying God’s commands won’t get you anywhere! What you really need is to 
have the proper “knowledge”; to learn the difference between good and evil; to have “the right ideas”; to 
learn “hidden truths”; to understand “secret things”». 
Thus, the hallmark of any deceptive cult is that it won’t focus on obeying God’s commandments. Rather, it’s 
main focus will be the acquisition of knowledge. In other words, on knowing some mystery, or having the 
290

---

empowering knowledge of some new, hidden, or esoteric piece of information-- on knowing which religion 
has the right theology; 
on knowing what the precise pronunciation of God’s secret name is; on knowing the name of God’s last 
prophet; on knowing the right identity of the [alleged] promised Messiah; on knowing when will the World 
end; on knowing the right interpretation of Daniel’s [seven weeks] prophecy; on knowing when will the 
rapture occur; 
on knowing which one is God’s true and chosen people; on a precise knowledge of which Bible books are 
truly inspired; on knowing which one is the best Bible translation; on knowing whether the soul is eternal or 
not, etc--- 
Anything and everything!… save recognizing that your well being won’t be determined by what you think, 
but rather by what you do--- by your humble and willing obedience to God’s commandments (which can be 
summarized in, “What is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow human beings”).