It is so easy for thoughts of cults and their influence to remain a distant memory in our prayers for the Dong people, but they have not gone away. We have prayed before for the Dong people as they have to interact with followers of Christian cults (that is, cults which are twisted forms of Christianity). And judging by reports from some of our Dong brothers and sisters, it is time to pray again.

Recently, in a village that only has a few believers and little chance to receive solid teaching, the true believers came into contact with some nearby "Christians". As they started to get to know the new folks a little better, they saw some strange practices and odd beliefs.

These Dong brothers and sisters are very young in the faith themselves and are only beginning to study the Scriptures, so the skewed beliefs of these cult believers did not really make much impact on them. Not really knowing if this was a big deal, they asked some Han Chinese Christians about what they had seen to find out if the more mature Han Christians knew anything more.

How do we prepare the ground for the Gospel? How do we prepare the ground for cults? Obviously, we want one and not the other, but we have to learn the line between the two and plant seed fertile for the good news of Christ.

How do we know when the truth will be perverted into a lie? I do not think we could know. There are many different lies Satan uses to pervert the truth. All we can do is learn the culture, language, and overall worldview as much as possible.

What does culture have to do with cults? Everything! When we understand the culture and its worldview, we can more clearly communicate the Gospel. We know what the Dong will understand and what they will not.

"A spirit possessed the snake and said to Eve..." Something strange there? "Mary, God loves you and is going to make you pregnant." Hold on! That is a pretty liberal translation that can take us down the wrong road entirely. No joking: these are both real life examples from the Dong world.

The spirit possessing the snake is an example of worldview altering what the Word actually says. It is also an excellent opportunity to teach, if we have the ability to do so. The virgin birth problem is more a problem of wording and knowing how to say it clearly in Dong. Again, this is an excellent opportunity to further explain through teaching, that is, if we could hear and understand the problem in the first place and have the language and culture to be able to explain it.

Not that either of these would start a cult, but the opportunities for teaching are the first step to stopping cults before they start. Beyond that, good teaching will help mediocre churches become thriving churches. And that is a primary goal of God's church.

I think we can assume that most cults do not start with the intention of becoming a cult. Cults are a deformation of a belief otherwise held to be orthodox. The real question we need to ask ourselves and for which we need to pray is this: if we can learn how they start, can we prevent them from ever starting?

Any discussion of cults in China cannot fail to mention the most serious cult in Chinese history: the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (or Taiping Rebellion). From 1851 to 1864, Hong Xiuquan, believing himself to be God's second son using a Christian tract to interpret his dreams, started a rebellion to destroy demons (interpreted as the ruling Manchurian government) and install his heavenly kingdom. The Taipings took Nanjing and held much of south and central China. The rebellion killed around 20 million people, with some estimates as high as 40 to 50 million.

Even though 150 years have passed, the Chinese government, especially the current government has not forgotten. The Taiping rebellion was a cult gone bad, and the current government has no desire to see a cult reach such disastrous proportions again.

There are many lessons to learn before we can answer our primary questions of how cults start and if we can prevent them. It is not always the same, of course, but interestingly, the Taiping Rebellion started from dreams that Hong Xiuquan interpreted through a Christian tract. Do tracts start cults? No.

What does? A lack of truth. Thankfully, rebellions are not a common product of a lack of truth. Weak believers and dead churches are frightfully common, though. The Dong people do not need tracts or more shallow teaching. The Dong people need the truth of the Gospel.

Buddhist cults + Christian cults + animistic Buddhism + anti-cult propoganda + anti-Christian propoganda. What does that equal? The sum knowledge of the average Chinese citizen about true Christians is the result.

Most people think they know what Buddhism is. The only problem is, there are many variants, and almost all of them include idol worship, which is technically a big no-no in Buddhism. In truth, Buddhism has blended with existing local beliefs to creates thousands of variations of "Buddhism," which is referred to as animistic Buddhism. The Dong's religious practices usually fall somewhere in that spectrum.

In addition to animistic Buddhism, there are plenty of cults in China: Buddhist cults, Christian cults, and others. The government has a very tough campaign against these cults, and though their methods are often called into question, there is no doubt most of these cults have a serious negative effect on the Chinese people.

The problem arises in the confusion between cult and truth. The anti-cult propoganda is often not clear about the existence of non-cultic groups. Therefore, the Christians--this is especially common in the countryside areas of China, like where the Dong live--are seen as "one of those cults we heard about."

The result of the above influences causes much grief for the Dong Christians and a barrier to the spread of the Gospel. Cults have disrupted and twisted the truth of Christ since the first century of the Church, but prayer to God can make a difference. We need to bring these issues to God in prayer.

On occassion, the Dong Christians have an opportunity to visit with 3oz Cult followers. The cultists will say they are Christians and often welcome Christians into their homes, but they will most likely look down on non-cultists for their lack of obedience to all the extra rules they have.

These opportunities can be excellent for the true Christians to share the truth with the 3oz followers. We need to pray that God will use the Christians to work on and change the hearts of the cultists so that they will be able to live in the truth of Christ.

Some cults are stronger in the cities and county seats, and others are proliferating out in the villages. Many of the people groups in this area have been affected by the 3oz. cult, which looks and sounds like Christianity to those who do not know the difference.

The name (in Chinese, 'two liang') is from the amount of rice the followers are allowed to eat each day. That is only the beginning to the many legalistic and stifling rules. We need to pray for the many Dong who have been trapped in the 3oz. cult.

We are thankful God provides opportunities for young Dong students to hear the Gospel when they reach county seats for schooling, but unfortunately, cults are also there waiting. As we speak, cults are tricking Dong people into believing our sins will be placed on Satan and not upon ourselves; another cult is teaching of a second Chinese Messiah; yet another cult requires prayer must be done in private only, in an isolated room, under continuous fasting.

There is much twisting of the truth. Let us join in prayer that Jesus will be glorified and his truth and light will cut through the lies and free the Dong people from their present darkness and also from potential trickery.

I have a quick correction for the 11 July entry about the religious incident in the Dong areas. I spoke of foreigners sparking an investigation. That is incorrect. They were not foreigners.

It was actually Chinese national adherents of a well known Christian cult from the West. Initial reports spoke of the name of the cult, not so much to the people involved in this particlular incident, and were easily misunderstood. Now, we know more.

However, this information brings up new needs for prayer. Western and Chinese based Christian cults are active in the Dong areas. Let us begin to pray against their influence and darkening of peoples' minds to the truth.

The previous entry was necessarily more the history of the incident and less about specific prayer requests. I think the most obvious request is for the young Christian students involved. They have not believed for very long, but seem to be demonstrating the work of the Spirit in their lives.

We need to continue to pray for them as they learn more how to read and learn from the Word and grow in Christ. The authorities now know they are Christians, and these young believers could receive more trouble from there. Let's pray for them, the few lights shining bright in the darkness.

Recently, in one of the primary Dong counties, a few national Christians ran into trouble. Some foreigners came into town and were very openly sharing the Gospel and interested in finding any existing Christians in that area. That was the spark that started the fire.

A student said, "Oh, you are Christians! A village close to my home has lots of Christians!" And with that, the foreigners asked the student to lead them to the village to meet these Christians. Though not important to the story, the village in question is actually full of a Christian cult causing harm to people all over the area.

The mother of the student knew her child was spending time with the foreigners, but not where her child went. She called the police fearing a kidnapping. The police investigated, contacted the school, and quickly located the missing student.

The problem? Well, this is an incident involving both religion and foreigners. Bad combo in China. As the police questioned those directly involved, they began to hear about other students who believed, though completely unrelated to the present case. Those Christian students were questioned, along with some other unrelated, foreign teachers in town, the students' Bibles were confiscated, and they were told this God of whom the foreigners speak is a lie.

One student, who has believed for only six months, said, "Well, if he is a lie, why did my whole life change when I accepted him? I know he is real."

On the topic of cults, as mentioned in the previous entry, the Dong people in certain areas (areas affected by these cults) are accutely aware of some of their practices. As a result, the true Dong believers faced some stiff resistance from family, friends, and neighbors at first. In one instance, this went so far that the nearby well was poisoned with rat poison, and blamed on the Christians.

This incident is several years in the past, but prayers are still needed for those Christians. They still face resistance the most at home.

Jesus himself said, "A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family." Indeed, the Dong believers say the hardest field to see harvest is in their own villages. Let's pray for them as they lives their lives before those who know them best.

As I mentioned in the last entry, we need to ask for God to change the hearts of the officials governing Dong Christians, and this is the perfect time to explain a little why that is so important. There are Christian cults in the Dong areas. There are more followers of these cults than followers of the true way.

To the majority of people, Christianity and the cults that claim to be Christian are seen as the same thing; you start to see why the officials would want to stifle the spread of the church: it is only spreading superstitious beliefs that control the minds of the people and destoys the society. However, in some areas in China, Christians have even worked with the government to curb the spread of these false doctrines. Anything is possible.

This can be a very involved topic, but let's limit our prayers for now to ask for wisdom and discernment to be given to the Dong belivers in these areas.

Christians do not seem to be too popular in this country. However, in many situations, the government will see some of the benefits of Christians and allow them to live out their lives with relatively no trouble. From some officials' viewpoint, Christians are generally law abiding and, besides wanting to add more people to their numbers, they are not all that bad, compared to the other problems faced by the governing bodies.

We need to spend some time in prayer for the hearts of the government and law enforcement bureaus as they deal with Dong Christians, in the few places where Dong Christians exist. Let's pray they would look at the Christians favorably and allow them to live in peace, and indeed, see the beautiful faith welling from their hearts.