Star Tours

The year Disneyland first opened Star Tours, my family just had to experience the ride.  In case you’re not familiar with the  attraction, it’s pretty much just a large flight simulator synced to a video appearing in the ride’s “windows”.  Of course, they’re not really windows but video screens.  But, the forces a passenger feels are so realistic and so well match the video that you become convinced you’re really in a space craft zooming through space.

How do they do this?  They can convince you certain forces are at work, acceleration, braking, banking, climbing, etc., by tipping the “craft” in various ways.  You have no true point of reference since there aren’t any real windows.  You are forced to rely upon the fake reference points the video screens give you. You see only what they want you to see.

Many false religions and Cults work much the same way.  They put you in a “box” which is isolated from the outside world.  You’re told not to associate with outsiders except, perhaps. to evangelize them.  Your friends and family within the organization become your only world.  You’re presented with an alternate reality with the organization’s evidences as the only source of information.  You’re limited solely to the resources the organization offers.  As the leadership tips, turns, and shakes your “box,” you become convinced reality is what they’re telling you, not what little you see of the outside world.  You live in a world that is nothing more than illusion.

In addition, there’s an operator working the controls trying to convince you his way is the truth.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (ESV)
³  And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴  In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

There are other Jesuses out there, other gospels, even other Bibles.  Those are just video screens presented to give you a biased view of the world, God, and how He works. 

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (ESV)
³  But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  ⁴  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Sadly, the passengers in this “box” become so acclimated that they no longer can see the world for what it is.  They’re like prisoners who have been institutionalized.  They can’t live outside, so they want to stay in no matter what the cost.

Most cultists and members of false religions are sincere people following a person or organization and blindly believing all they are told.  Family members weep over them.  Friends pray for them.  Christians seek to help them see the light of Christ.  Eventually, the Holy Spirit gets through to many, and they will come out into the light of day.  Some even inspect the box and the mechanism, the organization that made them believe the deception they lived.

Our job as Christians is to love these people and show them the real world and shine God’s light on the tour they have been dedicated to. 

A friend who is an ex-cultist told me recently that she disbelieved all the stories and truths she was told and the love she was shown by Christians and others.  She was certain she knew the truth.  But, once she began to doubt she was in the truth, all those stories, all those truths, and all that love came flooding back to her mind.

She’s now a Christian trying to help other cultists find their way to the exit on a ride that, to them, seems so real. 

People come to Christ.  They might be atheists, cultists, or they just don’t have a belief, but they come to Christ.  We must never give up on them. We must also be aware of the traps that are out there and not step into the box ourselves.