"Deliver Us From Evil"
(Matthew 6:13)
"Mrs. Winter? Am I speaking to Roberta Winter?"
"Yes."
"My name is ________. I just finished reading your book, Once More Around Jericho, and thought I would call you. I was a member of Summit," she continued. Immediately I was on the alert.
"You say 'was.' " I responded. "Does that mean you are not now with Summit?"
"Yes, I left about two years ago."
"Then you must have been with the cult when it was on our campus," I suggested.
"Yes. I was the personal assistant to Mrs. Prophet. But I didn't know anything at all about you then."
"That's strange," I thought, and decided to probe further.
"I grew up in the Salvation Army," she told me, "but at a critical time in my life, I got involved with Summit. The members seemed so warm and loving. . ."
"The same old story!" I mused. "How many lonely people join cults because they appear at first to be close-knit, loving communities? But how could one who had grown up in the Salvation Army be so deceived?" I wondered. "Surely
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she should have seen through them!"
I was very cautious as I listened. Could I trust what she said? Or was she only trying to find out information from me? Then I realized that I had been the only one asking questions. But I had one more still burning within me.
"Please forgive me, but I must know. Why did you decide to leave Summit?"
She told me a long story about a freeway breakdown at Christmas time as she was on her way home from picking up her children at the airport. She had called Summit headquarters for help, but was told to fend for herself. That lack of real concern when she most needed it caused her to look more critically at what was happening around her. She left Summit soon afterward.
Every now and then since the Church Universal and Triumphant left our campus in the fall of 1978, we hear from someone formerly connected with this group. Once a brother and sister of a cult member came asking advice on how to get past the barriers so they could talk to their sister. Someone had given them my book and they came to us, almost in tears, hoping that we had some answer.
Another time, along about 1982, one of our daughters noticed a young man intently studying a bulletin board on campus. Thinking he was a student she hadn't yet met or perhaps was someone interested in one of our classes, she stopped for a moment to chat. Immediately he began asking all sorts of questions. "Are all the buildings full?" "Do you have many students?" "Are you making your payments?"
"Are you a new student here?" Linda asked.
"No, but I used to study here."
"Oh. With the Nazarenes?"
"No. After that."
With a start Linda realized he had to have been with Summit. As graciously as possible, she avoided answering any further questions and made her way to our office across the street.
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"Why would someone from Summit be here?" she asked me. I wondered the same, myself.
Only two weeks or so after the call from Mrs. Prophet's former secretary, I received a call from an elderly Methodist minister on the East Coast. He also had read my book and was wondering if I could help him locate his grandson who had gotten involved with the cult.
I gasped when he gave me the name. His grandson was none other than one of the top leaders of the group! When Summit had been on our campus, this old gentleman had tried to see his grandson, he told me, but had been refused admittance.
I was able to answer only a few of his questions concerning where the cult had moved, and decided to call the woman who had spoken with me two weeks before.
"I understand he's in Panama with his wife's parents," she said when I phoned. "I don't know whether he's been kicked out or was sent there to open a new branch. Either one is a possibility."
My heart ached for the elderly minister. How many more people were in his position?
One day I got a letter in the mail. It was from a lady who had battled to make contact with her son, a member of the cult. She enclosed a copy of a letter written by one of the cult leaders, warning of the need to chant mantras against their enemies. Out of ten people named as enemies, I wasn't surprised to see the name of Walter Martin, a well-known writer on the cults. But Ralph's name and my own were there as well! I knew the danger of their chants, and determined to pray all the harder, claiming our authority through Christ over the powers of the Evil One.
At about the same time, the Los Angeles Times ran a series of articles warning against the cult. It mentioned that Summit had bought a large tract of land in Montana, a former ranch. "Good," I thought. "Now maybe they'll leave people alone."
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Several months later I mentioned the cult when I was teaching a Perspectives class at the state university in Bozeman, Montana. "Oh, that's the group that is not too far from here," one of my students commented. And I sighed. True to form, they had settled near a university campus where they could be able to woo more students to their way of life.
Then, in the fall of 1984, I mentioned the cult in a talk I gave at a large church in Northern California. After the meeting a woman said to me, "My daughter is with that group. I've been letting them meet in our home for their prayer meetings, but I'm not going to do that any more."
Usually the newspapers said very little about this particular cult. Every now and then some item would show up about Scientology. But I was surprised when one morning a staff member announced that according to the TV Guide, a major news broadcast was giving five minutes each night for a week to an "exposé" on the Church Universal and Triumphant. Evidently the leader of the cult, Elizabeth Clair Prophet (King), had had a falling out with her second husband, Mr. King, who was suing her for money, which he claimed had been enticed from him by fraud. His statements about the group were quite revealing, but the pictures shown on television even more so. I wondered how the cameraman had been able to get them.
Our latest "contact," however, occurred in late January, 1986. One morning when I drove to work, I noticed a pickup truck just ahead of me, stopped beside our building. I didn't think much about it until I noticed the bumper sticker, which said, "I (heart symbol) St. Germaine."
"Oh, no!" I thought, and looked closely at the two men who got out. They went to a car with the hood raised that was parked on the university side of the street and bent over to look at the motor. I watched them for a few moments, then went in to staff prayers.
A couple of days later, Rhonda, who works with our Perspectives staff, came to morning prayers with two posters
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that she had taken off the bulletin board in the university administration building. The afternoon before she had stopped to look at the bulletin board and began reading these new posters. In typical, Summit, four-color design, they announced the next major conference of the cult. "How did they get on our bulletin board? Inside our locked building? What nerve!" I said. Then I remembered the two pickup trucks with the Summit bumper stickers.
Most of our present staff were not here when the cult was across the street. They may believe there is such a thing as spiritual warfare, but I sometimes wonder if they think those of us who were here from the beginning see spooks behind every tree. They know very little about Summit and its teachings. We don't often think of the cult ourselves anymore. But every now and then something happens to remind us to continue praying for those who are caught up in such groups. Some are truly seeking after God, but have been deceived by the Evil One. But God is faithful. He will not allow those who truly want to find Him to be forever led astray.
Those of us who have sensed the power of occult forces in our country are appalled by the casual, almost careless, attitude young people (sometimes even Christian ones) have toward such things. Americans pride themselves on being tolerant and open-minded. Therefore they usually don't realize the danger there is in "playfully" investigating such things as Summit, Hari Krishna, tarot cards and fortune telling. Even karate, transcendental meditation, and yoga, which might seem perfectly innocent to the unaware, are not only based in Hindu philosophy but carry as an integral part of the "course" this philosophical system which is really in opposition to Biblical Christianity. Those who are much better acquainted with the occult than I often warn that Satan uses such seemingly innocent beginnings to get a foothold in young lives — a foothold that it may take years to break. Even secular psychologists admit that the game "Dungeons
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and Dragons" not only warps the mind but seems to exert a strange, evil influence on adults as well as children.
When our children were young, I used to let them see TV programs which playfully deal with "witches." Knowing what I know now, I would stay a long way away from such things. They make things that are either of the occult, or border on it, seem so innocent that young people are later lured on to dangerous involvement. As Christians, we need to be less naive, more aware that "Satan walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour," as the apostle Peter warned (1 Peter 5:8). We may think we are getting exercise, or simply playing a game, or learning to relax, but Satan is preparing us to accept philosophies which are diametrically opposed to the Bible.
The daughter of one of our staff members one day picked up a sheet left by accident in the copying machine at the university she attended. It was addressed to members of the Satanist cult and told how they were infiltrating local evangelical churches, claiming to be born again Christians.
Several months later the pastor of a prominent local church happened to be sitting on the airplane next to a man who was fasting. When he asked if his seatmate was a Christian, he replied, "No, I'm a Satanist. We're fasting and praying that the marriages of Christian leaders will be destroyed."
Here in California we hear of all sorts of gruesome activities by occult groups, some almost too evil to believe. And yet, responsible Christian people assert they are true.
Even more dangerous are the subtle influences which are contrary to Biblical teaching but which can masquerade as wonderful psychological truths all Christians should employ. We must be on the alert!
Christ has given each one of His children authority over the Evil One. James told us to resist Satan, and he would flee from us (James 4:7). As Christians today, we must keep close to our Lord. Parents must keep their own hearts and
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lives pure in order to protect their children from spiritual forces that they may never see, just sense. And if, inadvertently, ground has already been given to Satan, in the name of Jesus we can renounce his hold over us and reclaim what we yielded. How wonderful to know that! Seldom a day goes by when I do not pray as Jesus said we should, "Deliver us from the Evil One" (Matthew 6:13).
I believe with all my heart that we are in the end times, and should therefore not be surprised at the surge of evil. But I also remember the scripture which says, "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord raises up a standard against him" (Isaiah 59:19). We can expect great victories in the name of Jesus because Satan is launching an all-out war.
It is easy to become frightened and to focus on Satan. That is dangerous. Paul says, "Don't let this happy trust in the Lord die away, no matter what happens . . . His coming will not be delayed much longer" (Hebrews 10:35). God is still on the throne, and the affairs of men are still under His control. We must remind ourselves of this fact.
This is the time for us to go on the offensive. Not only against the evils in our society (that is defense), but against the strongholds of Satan, where He has full control over entire people groups. We need to claim them in prayer and then move out to reap the harvest already prepared by the Holy Spirit.
