Cult pmcc 4th watch
Anyone have experience with a Pentecostal church called The Pentecostal Mission (NTC)-is this a cult?
At the will of my parents, I (15M) have been attending this church for 5+ years now. It is composed of predominately South Asian people. I have so many doubts and questions about what they believe and preach, and need to get this off my chest.
First of all, they have SO many rules dictating how you live your life. They don't allow contact with people who have left the church to go to another one, and even take it to the point of not letting ANYONE who left the church attend a member's wedding if it is hosted by them. When someone leaves the church, the local pastor cuts off all contact with them and their family because they think that they have left the higher calling. What did Jesus do? When one sheep went missing he left the 100s behind to go searching for the lost one.
They believe that only their pastors are the 144,000 on Mount Zion in the end days-which I think is a clear example of spiritual pride. They always talk about the 7 steps of humility and how we should be following that, but in their messages the pastors always talk about them being the 144,000. Even our local pastor always says how all the other denominations "are 99% correct but 1% is wrong". What does that imply? That means that he is saying that our faith is 100% correct-which is completely false.
Even more, the Sunday School extends to Grade 11. Each class is usually one on one with the teacher, and they force you to learn 5+ back-to-front pages of notes filled with technical details of the Bible. For example, for the "final exam" they have every June-right when my school exams are-there are 20 lessons each with 5 pages that I have to memorize all the details. The teacher could ask anything. One time I counted and there were over 100+ scriptural references that I needed to memorize for the paragraph response, and I got dinged for missing a couple "key" ones. I strongly believe that I could be using my youth for different purposes for God, not wasting it for this. I hear of different churches organizing worldwide trips for outreach, and here I am stuck with this horrendous cycle. I don't get any of the material, not because I'm not capable, but the chance of it helping me in my day-to-day walk with God is 0. If I choose not to do the School, they say I can't come to church at all because it will be a bad influence on others.
They also don't permit jewelry of any kind, dictate that all women who come to service should wear a full length skirt to remain decent in the presence of God, and their ministers have a strict policy of not getting married when in the ministry, and the elders prefer potential ministers who are virgin. When I ask the congregation about this they say that having kids/wife when serving God full-time will distract you from the higher calling and serve as a impediment to the believers. I always think that if it is God's plan for your to serve him with a family, he will give you the added grace needed.
What you yall think about this? Its really,for me, putting God as a dictator.