Have you ever wondered why people believe what they believe? The mere existence of religious cults often raises that question. Most of us are familiar with a long list of cults that have made it into the news because of unusual beliefs and sometimes lethal behavior. For example, the Heaven’s Gate UFO cult made it into the headlines in March of 1997 when 39 members of the cult killed themselves, in hopes of reaching a spaceship which was following in the wake of the newly-discovered Hale-Bopp Comet. This crazy notion of reaching a spaceship through suicide, and then actually acting that out, defies logic and even the basic instinct to survive. The public was stunned to hear this story, while watching video on TV of the bodies being brought out of the cult domain. How could anyone ever be convinced to believe and act this way? Most people decided that the victims must have been weak-minded fools who were easily deceived. To this day some people still make jokes about this bizarre incident, but this was no joke for the unfortunate victims of this UFO-centered scam.

No doubt this is an extreme example, and we could cite many others as well, but is the conclusion that people who join cults must be so stupid and desperate for something to belong to that they will follow anything that comes along really valid? That assumption is greatly challenged by the latest big cult story in the news, the story of the Nxivm cult founded by Keith Raniere. The Daily Beast reported:

Formerly known as Executive Success Programs, Nxivm is the brainchild of Keith Raniere, who was just arrested in Mexico on sex trafficking charges. ...Raniere has been accused of creating DOS, a “sorority” in which female “masters” recruited “slaves” who were reportedly branded with Raniere’s initials and, according to FBI official William Sweeney, “considered [Raniere’s] sex slaves.” Sweeney continued, “He allegedly participated in horrifying acts of branding and burning them, with the cooperation of other women operating within this unorthodox pyramid scheme.”

The truly stunning thing about all of this is the elite list of people that Raniere was able to snag into Executive Success Programs / Nxivm. A 2003 Forbes profile of Raniere reported that

“some 3,700 people have flocked” to Executive Success Programs. “Prompted by a potent word-of-mouth network, they include Sheila Johnson, cofounder of Black Entertainment Television; Antonia C. Novello, a former U.S. surgeon general; Stephen Cooper, acting chief executive of Enron; the Seagram fortune’s Edgar Bronfman Sr. and two of his daughters; and Ana Cristina Fox, daughter of the Mexican president.” Emiliano Salinas, the son of the former president of Mexico, likened Raniere’s courses to “a practical M.B.A.”

That is truly an impressive list of elite names involved with Raniere's "Executive Success" cult. These details that have emerged in the course of Raniere being brought to justice for his crimes, have stunned all who have contemplated them. The facts of Raniere's cult prove that it is not just desperate low-IQ people who can be scammed into a cult, but it is just as possible for elite over-achievers to be snagged into the most bizarre beliefs and activity imaginable.

What is the take-away from these bizarre stories? Is it that we should never believe anything that is not majority opinion? Ironically, if that is how we respond then we have set ourselves up to be easily led along by the most respected elite and famous people in our society, like the ones who endorsed the Nxivm cult, who also set the trends the public follows. What greater proof could we have that following the opinions of this world's elite is a disaster? Realize this: if any of these people who were part of these cults had followed the truth of The Scriptures, looking to the authority of God rather than man, then they would never have been drawn into these destructive cults. Some might disagree, thinking that the Bible is often used to create cults. That is sometimes true, but in those cases the victims are always people who don't know and grasp the Bible's message for themselves. They are not following the Bible - they are deceived by man-made deceptions. That is the very reason our approach at Tsiyon is to study verse-by-verse to truly understand the Bible's message in context, so that all of us can know what the Bible actually says, and what that means for us. There is no substitute for a personal knowledge of the Scriptures. The fact is, a true knowledge of the Scriptures is the only hard source in the midst of this deceptive world that we can always depend upon. It seems people are more than ready to believe anyone except God Himself.   

Sometimes out-of-the-ordinary things happen that are absolutely true. Perhaps the greatest of these being the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah. After He was raised He appeared to many of His closest friends and relatives, and they were slow to believe what they were seeing right before their eyes. The 2 whom he walked with, and ate with, on a 7 mile walk from Jerusalem are a good example of this. He was right there and they could not even recognize Him! Amazingly, it was unbelief of the Scriptures that prevented them from seeing the truth! He said to them:

"Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!" Luke 24:25

It is foolish not to believe the Scriptures, just as Yeshua said. Unlike cult leaders like Keith Raniere, Yeshua was absolutely demonstrated by Bible prophecy and science to be whom He claimed to be - the Messiah.  Look at this quote:

Professor Peter Stoner (1888-1980) was Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College until 1953, and Chairman of the Science Division of Westmont College from 1953 to 1957. Stoner calculated the probability of one man fulfilling just 48 of the 300-plus Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament.

In 1944, he published his research in a paper titled, “Science Speaks: Scientific Proof of the Accuracy of Prophecy and the Bible.” Stoner figured that the odds of one man fulfilling 48 of these prophecies was 1 in 10 to the 157th power.

As far as true statistical analysis, the American Scientific Affiliation gave Stoner’s work its stamp of approval saying the, “…manuscript for Science Speaks has been carefully reviewed … and has been found, in general, to be dependable and accurate in regard to the scientific material presented. The mathematical analysis included is based upon principles of probability which are thoroughly sound and Professor Stoner has applied these principles in a proper and convincing way."

Multiplying all these probabilities together produces a number (rounded off) of 1×1028. Dividing this number by an estimate of the number of people who have lived since the time of these prophecies (88 billion) produces a probability of all 8 prophecies being fulfilled accidently in the life of one person. That probability is 1 in 1017 or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That’s one in one hundred quadrillion!
http://bbfohio[dot]com/oddsofjesusfulfillingjust48of300/

We should never doubt what the prophets have said because Bible prophecy ALWAYS comes true! Anyone who doesn't believe Bible prophecy is, in Yeshua's words "foolish." Yeshua had to be raised from the dead on the third day because it had been foretold through the mouth of the Bible prophets. He was raised from the dead, and appeared to over 500 of His followers, before finally ascending into heaven. This sounds like a myth to those who choose not to believe - yet it is as established as fact as any event could possibly be.

Eliyahu
Tsiyon.Org