Tom Cruise's Scientology
- Rev. Jerry Lepasana
- Jul 20, 2008
- Series: Celebrity Religion
Celebrity Religion: (Part II)
TOM CRUISE’S SCIENTOLOGY
2 Timothy 4:1-4 (NIV)
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.
3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
1 John 4:1 (NIV)
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
The Bible has never failed to provide warnings concerning the spiritual conditions of people prior to the second coming of the Lord Jesus. The apostle Paul had impressed to the young pastor Timothy how he needs to be faithful in teaching and preaching the Word because a time is coming when people would rather listen to myths or fables, rather than listen to sound doctrines.
In the same token, John warned the believers about the increase of false prophets coming into the world and he encouraged them to carefully determine or test the spirits whether they came from God or not.
This is exactly what I hope to accomplish in doing our series – Celebrity Religion. I want to show everyone that our enemy, the devil has taken a very subtle approach in leading people away from the truth. He is using major celebrities with international prominence as endorsers of false teachings. During the first Sunday, we learned about Oprah and New Age religion. This morning, I hope to bring enlightenment about Tom Cruise and Scientology.
I am convinced that there is some urgency in dealing with this subject matter. You see, the devil is using the most powerful mediums in order to influence the next generation – television and internet. I read the study released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project in July 2007, saying that 1 in five Americans watches video over the internet. But what is more alarming for me is to also know that half of these video viewers are on the ages 18-29. As Bro. Dennis Sakdalan has reminded the church last Sunday, this is the very age-group that we want discipled for Jesus Christ, the next generation. If we fail to warn and inform them, they can fall into the destructive deceptions of the enemy.
Speaking about dangerous videos in the internet, here’s one with 2,716,160 hits in YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0&feature=related
This is considered a recruitment video for scientology. Please don’t forget, if the study is correct, half of the viewers are 18-29. Now, I’m sure we all know Tom Cruise, but how many of you are familiar with scientology? Today, Scientology boasts over 8 million memberships worldwide with 700 centers in 65 countries and is one of the wealthiest of the new religions. Celebrities such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, and Jenna Elfman are only a few of the Hollywood faithful who actively endorse Scientology.
Going back to the video, if there is something admirable with Tom Cruise here is the fact that he is really passionate with what he believes. So many times, this is the kind of passion that is absent among many Christian believers. However, please know that passion and sincerity should not be equated with the truth. Meaning, a person can be very passionate and sincere and still be lost. Let’s begin understanding the basic beliefs of scientology. I know I don’t have a lot of time to cover everything about scientology, but we will focus on the most critical parts of their teachings:
I “DIANETICS”:
Dr. Walter Martin, author of the book, “The Kingdom of the Cults,” appropriately wrote, “The source of authority in any religion quickly tells the reader his or her worldview.” In other words, where do you base your beliefs about God, life, salvation and the universe?
For scientology, the authority is the writings of Lafayette Ron Hubbard on “Dianetics.”
Before I explain to you what Dianetics is, allow me to give a little background about L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. He was once a popular science fiction writer in 1930s and 1940s. In 1949, he allegedly announced at a New Jersey science fiction convention, “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion.” The following year, in May 1950, Hubbard released Dianetics: A Modern Science of Mental Health, which became the main source of authority for scientology. The book sold 55,000 copies two months after it was released, and 750 Dianetics groups started nationwide. As believers of Dianetics grew, Ron Hubbard incorporated the Church of Scientology in February 18, 1954.
What is Dianetics? It is simply a method of psychotherapy. L.R. Hubbard promoted the idea that the spirit of man, which he refers as Thetan, had some traumatic or bad experiences in the past lives, which are all suppressed in the mind. All of these bad experiences, which are also called Engrams, are causing man to be ineffective and sick. This is where all his problems are coming from. The only way humans can be helped is for them to go through a multiple series of “Auditing” or counseling. Thus, the goal of Dianetics is to clear an individual of all engrams of the past. Once achieved, the “clear” scientologist is on the evolutionary journey to the next stage of man, a godlike being called homo novis.
Carefully examining the concepts of Mr. Hubbard, we can definitely conclude that they run against the teachings of the Bible. I will be more specifics in my next points, but as of this time, let me again remind all of us that God has only given us one source of truth, and that is His Word. I believe we referred to 2 Timothy 3:16-17 the last time we were studying Oprah to show the sufficiency of the Bible.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Then, Jesus himself distinguished the Bible as truth. It is what God has provided to lead us to the truth.
John 17:17 (NIV)
17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Therefore, the Bible alone should be the sole basis for our beliefs. God gave us a serious warning about adding or subtracting from the Bible:
Revelation 22:18-19 (NIV)
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.
19 And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
L. R. Hubbard might be a good science-fiction writer, but what he wrote about Dianetics should never be treated like the Bible. Only the Bible can guide us to the truth. It is very typical among cultic groups to have another source of authority over the Bible.
II “THETAN”:
According to scientology, every person is an immortal spirit called “Thetan.” The thetan’s true nature is basically good and divine. He is more than eighty trillion years old and dwells somewhere within the skull of an individual. Unfortunately, trillions of years ago, thetans became bored and so they began to create mental universes to play in. They became so engrossed in their imaginary world that they lost consciousness of their identity and nature. They became entrapped in the physical world that is really a world of their imagination. For them, this is the “fall” of man. It is fall into matter, but not into sin. They have lost the awareness of their true identity and spiritual nature (Scientology: The History of Man)
Hubbard has also some additional characteristics for the thetan. For example, when an individual organism dies, the thetan reports to an implant station (one is on Mars) before being shot down to earth. Thetans have been known to fight over inhabiting a body. The thetan will slip into the newborn "usually...two or three minutes after the delivery of a child from the mother. A thetan usually picks it up about the time the baby takes its first gasp." How Hubbard knows this is never revealed.
The Bible’s teaching on man’s origin is quite clear. Adam and Eve were directly formed and created by God himself. Specifically, both man and woman were created in the image of God. But, because of their disobedience, all humanity has inherited a sinful nature.
Romans 5:12 (NIV)
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
The presence of sin has resulted to all the evils of the world around us. On this basis, man's greatest problem is sin and not ignorance.
III “OPERATING THETAN”
For the scientologist, the concept of salvation is to erase engrams through various auditing or counseling sessions. Therefore, members of scientology start out as “Preclears” and through auditing they have to advance to various levels until they are declared “clear.” The clear scientologists are called the operating thetans who are evolving to a godlike existence. This process of clearing can happen within a series of many lives. Watch Tom Cruise passionately talk about scientology and psychotherapy. By the way, the only right psychotherapy is within the church of scientology - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc_wjp262RY
First of all, this concept will have great conflicts with the Bible because the following:
· “Clearing within many lives” – For the Bible, we only have one life to find the solution for sin.
Hebrews 9:27 (NIV)
27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
· “Our problem is engrams” – the Bible is clear that our main problem is our sins against God.
Romans 6:23 (NIV)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
· “Our destiny is to be godlike” – This is an old lie given by Satan to Adam and Eve, which only appeals to pride (Gen. 3:5). Man’s salvation in Christ is to receive eternal life, which means to be forgiven of our sins on the basis of Christ’s finish work on the cross and have the privilege of an eternal fellowship with God in heaven.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
· “Auditing is costly” – The various levels of counseling with scientology usually costs from $350, 000 to $500, 000. Our salvation in Christ is free because He paid the price for it.
1 Peter 1:18-19 (NIV)
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
I hope none of us will fall into these deceptive teachings. If we know the truth in Christ, I pray that we will have the same passion and zeal that Tom Cruise demonstrate, though what he believes contradict the Bible. Let’s all continue to pray that God will use us to influence other people to Jesus Christ. Let’s even pray that celebrities like Tom Cruise will come to know Jesus and would be used to draw people to Jesus Christ.