Cults and fear--Was the Lord a cult leader?

"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." Mal. 3:16.

Today people have been calling the president a man who uses cult tactics. According to a Katie Couric YouTube interview entitled, "Former cult follower describes how President Trump has created a cult following",  President Trump used a "radicalization of the conservative media to off the charts deception and manipulation and disinformation." (min. 8:35-8:45).

The interview also described cult leadership thusly: 

To be an absolute leader (min. 0:15)

Demands total obedience (min. 0:17)

Having a malignant narcissist personality (min. 0:21)

Uses a pyramid structure (hierarchy?) (min. 0:28)

Creates a black and white, all or nothing mindset (min. 0:43)

Controls the people by fear (min. 0:47)

Controls by manipulation of information (min. 0:49) 

Installs phobias in people that if they disobey, then terrible things are going to happen to them (min. 0:51)

I'm not agreeing that all of the above took place to scare up a President Trump following. Actually, I had the privilege of being in the crowd of supporters last week, not to join in for support but to give away Great Controversy books. So I missed the president's address to the crowds jammed in the Capital Mall Ellipse outside the White House grounds. But several people told me that they were packed shoulder to shoulder. The Ellipse is a big area, so in that rather spacious oval there must have been thousands of people showing their loyalty.

What I saw while the masses passed me were simple, regular people. Tall, short, skinny, round, old, young, black, white, all types of personalities and mindsets, mostly middle class, and all glad to be there. And many carrying a Great Controversy! I was startled and happy. I had never given away so many. It was well worth standing in one place for hours chilled to the core.

What I also didn't see was the storming that occurred at the Capitol. And the news of it sounded too out of character to everything I had witnessed all day. Whatever that was about, and whoever caused the chaos, it wasn't the supporters' doing. Was it sentiments spoken by the president? Possibly; but that wouldn't make seditionists out of the hundreds of hopefuls that passed me. The folks that I saw were regular people, intelligent, hard-working, responsible, tax-paying Americans who were descendants from our peace-loving Pilgrim forefathers. What I didn't see in the people was a cult.

But, is there cause to suspect a conspiracy in America today? On this issue, two groups appear to vie: the conspiracy believers (aka, the defamed conspiracy theorists) and the conspiracy doubters (aka, the blind-folded). This philosophical gridlock is a sad state of affairs. Alas, yet another cause for division in Protestant America.

Nevertheless, is there cause to suspect a conspiracy in America? Is there a manipulation of information happening? If not, then why would the Lord warn against tremendous deception by men and angels? Why,  Revelation 12:12? "The great dragon was cast out (of heaven), that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.... Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."

Why does so much of apocalyptic prophecy give warnings of a Satan-controlled enemy of the world and especially toward God's redeemed? Does faith in the Bible turn God's redeemed into religious extremists and followers of a cult? Doesn't the Bible rather lead its adherents to seek the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, et cetera? Is not such defamation part of the true manipulation of reality against God's redeemed, by deceiving the rest of the world into calling the commandment-keepers a deluded cult?

Remember the above list: the cult leader "creates a black and white, all or nothing mindset", and "controls the people by fear". Does Bible prophecy do that to you? It does to me! Does that mean that the prophets and Jesus, who inspired them, are cult leaders?

Jesus is clear, the controversy is between Him and Satan; take up your cross and follow Me, or be lost. Ellen White was not two-faced in her office of messenger of the Lord. She called sin by its right name! And any unbiased reader can go to the Testimonies for the Church, and hear her hammer break the rocks into pieces! When she described her role as "more than a prophet" she was quoting Christ when He affirmed John the Baptist. "But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet." (Luke 7:26). Both His prophets, and Jesus Himself, came "for sin." (Rom. 8:4). In other words, sin was in His cross-hairs for the purpose of judging the real sinners, and saving and further purifying everyone who was crying out to God in their sin-enslaved misery, whose repentance had gone deep and had purified their motives, yet were marginalized and excommunicated by the comfortable, religious elite.

And there is another verse that Ellen White applied to her position in the great plan to salvation, 

"Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:

And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." (Mal. 3:1-3).

With that kind of affirmation from heaven, one should expect that the messenger of the Lord, who God sent to prepare the way before the Messenger of the covenant, would assume an out-of-ordinary authority. And, in a greater degree, the greater Messenger should assume even greater authority.

But, wouldn't today's psychologists and sociologists accuse the Messenger and His under-messengers of creating a cult following? Is that what last week's rally was to accomplish? That is, to infer that since the president professed faith, then his loyalists were believers and easily cultified, or that anyone who believes in the Bible's warnings of a wicked Antichrist must be under the power of a cult. That is a deadly wound against the incarnated Word of God, the written word of God, and its inspired writers. And couldn't that intended wound be extended to Ellen White, the last days prophet of the Lord? Couldn't the Spirit of Prophecy be included in the branding?

"If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household?" (Matt. 10:25).

But "the prince of the host" (Dan. 8:11), as General of the armies of heaven and earth, should demand obedience. What General hasn't? However, the best generals led by example and fairness, and exhibited a care for their men. This exactly described Christ, the Lord of hosts.

Paul the New Testament Lieutenant of Jesus, found Him to be the best Commander to work under.

"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." (Phil. 3:8-10).

Jesus requires much, but He also shows great patience for all who give Him their whole heart. Mary Magdalene, John, Peter were prime examples of His handiwork and training. Theirs were not flawless performances. Yet He took everything into account in His treatment of them. 

"Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.... A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth." (Isa. 42:1,3).

"He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears:

But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth: with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked." (Isa. 11:3,4).

So, Jesus was not a cult leader "having a malignant narcissist personality". And neither have been His followers, His holy patriarchs and prophets and kings and apostles.

But there is a world leader who fits all the characteristics of the above cult leader list, including the pyramid structure. It is the "son of perdition", "that wicked one", "the mystery of iniquity" of whom the apocalyptic prophets warned especially here at the end of time.