The Ten Commandments and Cults

About 8 months ago, I realized that I was praying for the wrong things in life. I was in a pattern of breaking the legalistic rules of a cult I was in, and then getting down on my knees and asking for forgiveness from God, and getting up only to inevitably fail again. I was always confused as to why it was impossible to keep all these rules that were set when it was "obvious" that everyone else was keeping them. Then I learned the truth. I found a forum online where ex-UPCI (for the most part...there are people from other legalistic organizations on there as well) members talk and post about things that bothered them while in the UPCI, as well as what they have learned from leaving and so forth. It was quite enlightening to realize that I wasn't the only one on the planet that had this problem.

Upon realizing and seeing all this, I went through something that I had always talked about but never experienced...I thought I had experienced it, but nope...sure hadn't: My eyes opened. I began to see some things that simply didn't add up. I was in a legalistic cult that didn't obey the Ten Commandments, and most certainly didn't obey the commandments Jesus gave, namely, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." and "Love your neighbour as yourself." (Matthew 22:36-40 is the reading for this).

James said that the law was a yoke that our fathers couldn't bear, and then proceeded to state the four things that the gentiles were bound to. This passage states several things:

-First off, James states that we are not to be bound by the laws of the "religious elite" because we couldn't keep up with them before Christ and we won't be able to now. So he makes it clear that the phariseeical attitude is not welcome in God's kingdom.
-Second, he states 4 things that are common in that day and age, and that are unacceptable to God. 2 of them are still pretty common nowadays, but the blood and things strangled aren't in our culture. There was a practice in those days of drinking blood in pagan religious ceremonies that we don't face a whole lot of today. I am aware that there are some small satanist cults in North America that practice this, but it is not mainstream and, for the most part, goes unnoticed by society. James also sets a constraint against strangled meat as the blood is still in it and this is another of the pagan witchcraft practices.
-He then states that Moses is taught in the synagogues everywhere as it is, and the new converts don't need further condemnation brought on them by people that are well-meaning but wrong.
-Lastly, the apostles condemn and disown those that told the newly saved gentiles that they had to keep the law. It is clear from the original text that the gentiles were saved by faith in the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Therefore, the apostles had no wish to cancel out the wondrous work of God in the gentile nations. It is important to note that the law was only given to the Israelites...not to other nations. As well, it was not given in the beginning to Adam and Eve, therefore is not incumbent upon all humanity. We must always remember that the Old Testament is mostly a history of the Israelites and points to the Cross as the place where the old would be replaced by a new and better covenant.

With all this in mind, I woke up this morning with something bothering me in no small way. 8 months ago I asked God to show me the truth about Him, and about right and wrong. Well, He is. The Ten Commandments are fairly well known, and the one that really bothered me this morning was "Thou shalt not steal". The reason it is bothering me is because of software and music piracy by people claiming to be living for God. Software and music piracy are defined as "the taking and using of copyrighted or patented material without authorization or without the legal right to do so" (http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/piracy.html). In short, software and music piracy are the THEFT of the intellectual property of someone else. I brought this up once while still attending a UPCI cult, and was scoffed at by a member of the "pastor's" family. The attitude was that "we are not of this world and not bound by it's laws". The actual statement that was made is: "It's only spiritual jaywalking so who cares?" Well let me put this in perspective: If I write a book, then someone else plagiarizes it, they cn be put in jail as well as sued civilly. If I steal your car, then I'm going to jail. If your neighbour comes over and takes your lawnmower out of your shed without your permission, and uses it to cut his lawn, he can be charged with trespassing as well as theft. Theft is theft.

The FBI actually had to create an entire task force dedicated to the fight against the piracy of music, motion pictures, and software. The RCMP has a parallel task force. In Britain, the police have a similar setup. This isn't "spiritual jaywalking", it's a flagrant breaking of one of God's moral standards, and even goes against what He said in person in Matthew: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22:39) and likens to the commandment to love God with all your heart soul and mind. This puts great emphasis on what we call the "golden rule". As well, the Bible tells us to obey the laws of our country as long as they don't break the laws of God. So if you break a law, you just rebelled against the Bible.

I guess in summation I will say this: I don't pirate software, music, or motion pictures. I have in the past, and this morning I repented of it. I am deleting and destroying anything I find that is pirated, and I suggest that you do the same. I thank God for His mercy and love.'

God Bless you