Ellerslie Revisited
I read the Ellerslie thread and was surprised to see people were saying it was NOT a cult. Then I saw the thread was from 2009 and was hoping we can revisit it as they may have developed further in that direction since then. Here are my reasons for saying it is.
Theologically:
1. They teach that it is Satan that punishes us for sin.
2. They teach that is is Satan whose wrath was poured out on Christ on the cross. Both these points can be found in their “Gospel” and “Intercession” videos.
3. They teach that you can be saved and still left in some kind of prison. Found in their gospel video.
4. They have the good old gnostic tendencies which they teach you need their teaching and knowledge to go the full distance of the gospel.
5. They are extreme Keswick, I believe Ludy is a full-blown perfectionist, but either way they teach the traditional possession doctrine of the Keswick’s in which you are fundamentally possessed and controlled by Jesus.
6. Promptings/”God told me” to an extreme. I know a lot of people erroneously hold to promptings and it is not necessarily heretical, but coupled with their Keswick “Jesus possesses me” doctrine and to the extreme they take it you get the sense they believe their own internal monologue is GOD’s voice.
7. Their are too many theological errors in their videos to really list, they are just all over the place.
Sociologically:
The line for a sociological cult is very grey, and very wide. Any thing that distinguishes a cult sociologically when taken in isolation is normally harmless and sometimes even good - you have to look at things cumulatively. My feelings is despite the grey/wide nature of this line they are way past it. If you see a place where individual personalities are diminished in exchange for a group personality that is based on a charismatic leaders personality or teaching it is a cult - I think you definitely have that here.
1. Students are discouraged from talking to one another about theology so they won’t be influenced by others set theology.
2. They aren’t supposed to read ahead in their materials until their classes.
3. They have a semi-isolated monastic setting
4. Strong submission to leadership who are supposed to have a direct line to GOD through their “spiritual” promptings
5. The belief that they have recovered some missing element in Christianity that allows them to live a higher spiritual life (i.e. Keswick)
6. Spiritual Elitism
7. 3 levels of Doctrinal statements
8. Over the top emotionally manipulative video series.
9. Just lots of small little creepy cultic things you can find on their websites and testimonials about how you will get something from Ellerslie that you can’t get elsewhere - i.e. where men go to die and Christ goes to live kind of stuff.
10. Comb through the website and you will find just item after item that is kind of innoculous, but then kind of creepy at the same time.
- 411 views
I hate that “All things are possible with Christ” therefore Christ must do what I claim he does. Another way it is said is some unbiblical “claim X” is made, and you say “claim X” is not biblical, and the claimant responds “what you don’t think GOD can do claim X.” The question is never what GOD “can” do but what he “pleases” to do. Anyways, just a pet peeve of mine.
2 fingers, 6 strings, 1 part gypsy, 1 part Debussy.
I wish more people would see this forum and investigate this ministry. Someone noted (above) that Ludy’s theology is eclectic. True.
Here’s the reason: no discernible system of hermeneutics. Listen to one of his sermons. They rarely are based in the text. Instead, they are screeds potentially tangentially related to a text.
Ludy says many things that are true. For example, he argues with great passion about the evils of abortion. Listen to his “The War Within” message though and you can’t help but wonder what is going on. He spends a very long time describing his “best friend.” He says he’s prayer warrior. He discusses the arguments they’ve had. He talks about the man’s strengths. After 10-12 minutes, he tells us his “best friend” was never born—he was aborted.
If people want screaming and drama, they are probably drawn to Ludy. He’s got both of those.
I contacted Ludy’s secretary some time ago to get a list of texts the young people read. After all, they want to train the next generation of leaders, missionaries, etc.
No surprise: there are lots of biographies and books on holiness (which are fine), but none on hermeneutics, systematic theology, historical theology, Christology, Bibliology, etc.
I’ve also found postings from former students who talk about the “back room” where students who are struggling are taken for individual attention while the rest of the student body prays.
Ellerslie may/may not be a cult. If it’s not one, it could easily arrive there. The authority, contra what Ludy says, is not the Bible. It can’t be the Bible because the Bible is an afterthought in his sermons and in their statement of faith. At the very least, I find it frightening that parents would send their young peopel there. Send them to a real Bible school. The Master’s College, among others, has a one-year Bible program. How much better would that be than subjecting them to this unaffiliated, unsound, unanchored and cultish group?
Without a discernable system of hermeneutics regarding his interpretation, one can rather comfortably foresee this getting worse, not better. Some are hesitant to identify a budding cult-like environment. I don’t blame them to some degree but in their hesitancy often the cannot even bring themselves to admit the obvious and what it leads to in the end.
There is a bad spiritual future for those who utilize the construct of Ellerslie as it is in its present form.
Discussion