If you don't know where to start press here - or use the "Search"or "Contact" links.

Reachout Trust 24 Ormond Road Richmond Surrey TW10 6TH England Phone & Fax: 0845 241 2158 E-mail A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales, number 4162936. A registered charity number 1087085

Printer Friendly Version - opens in separate window

Who is Reachout Trust?

Reachout Trust is an international evangelical Christian ministry dedicated to equipping the Christian Church, upholding evangelical biblical truth, and building bridges to people in the cults, the occult and new age. We aim to:

1. Examine in the light of the evangelical Christian gospel the beliefs and spirituality of people within the cults, occult and new age and all not upholding biblical truth.

2. Train and equip Christians to explain and share the evangelical Christian gospel in a relevant way.

3. Provide a complete service of advice and help to all enquirers.

4. Teach and share the evangelical Christian gospel.

5. Work with other organisations dedicated to these same aims.

We achieve these aims through several means:

1. Training Christians to be effective witnesses and advisors to people involved.

2. Providing relevant teaching and resource material for use in training and witnessing.

3. Providing advisors for people wishing to leave the group they are involved with.

4.Providing a general information service on the cults, occult, new age and all groups holding to non-biblical teaching.

Ours is a ministry of discernment and apologetics and our primary role is 'truth-telling'. We achieve this by producing and providing information and materials, including our quarterly newsletter, books, tracts, as well as video and audio tapes. We also speak regularly at churches, Bible colleges, seminars and conferences, as well as broadcasting periodically on Television and Radio. And, of course, we have a strong presence on the World Wide Web.

However, we have developed beyond simply publishing and distributing information. One area in which we have been particularly successful and effective is in recruiting people, many from cult backgrounds themselves, to represent Reachout 'on the ground', to be Reachout in their location.

These people who represent Reachout in their locality are a help to the local church and a first point of contact for those seeking the help Reachout provides. Through their different talents and experiences Assosciates are able to provide training for the local church, specialised insights into the world of the cults, and sympathetic support for those seeking freedom and truth.

Where possible our Associates are encouraged to work closely together in their regions under a regional leader who co-ordinates their efforts and is responsible for training etc. Praying together, sharing problems and ideas, and encouraging one another builds strength, encourages commitment and makes Reachout a real local resource.

Reachout continues to evolve and we face new challenges almost daily. Managing and training a growing number of people, and maintaining and enhancing the reputation of Reachout in an increasingly demanding ministry, means finding new, more efficient ways forward. In these challenging times we seek to define more clearly what we do and how we do it. To help in this work a 'ministry team' is being developed to look at all aspects of the ministry, from literature to training to how we should respond to developments in the constantly changing world of the cults.

Read the Reachout Story.

Back to top

What is your Statement of Faith?

The unity, equality and individual personality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the Godhead.

God is the Father of all those who fully believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten, not created, Son of God. Redeemer for all mankind, and the one Mediator between God and man. He is also coming again to earth.

The vital need for the Holy Spirit to dwell in every believer and lead him or her into the reality of Christ's completed work.

The sinful state all men and the necessity for everyone to experience New Birth.

The whole Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God and it has absolute authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

Back to top

Where is Reachout Trust?

Reachout Trust Head Office is in Richmond, Surrey, England. The address is:

Reachout Trust
24 Ormond Road        Map    (Use the 'back button' to return to this site)
Richmond
Surrey
England
TW10 6TH

Phone: 0845 241 2158 Fax: 0845 241 2158

E-Mail: rt@reachouttrust.org

Don't forget to bookmark this site before you leave.

Back to top

How is Reachout Trust Funded?

The funds for Reachout Trust come from two main sources. First the profit from the sale of resources. Second the oftensacrificiall giving of many Christians and churches around Britain. If you might be interested in the various giving schemes of Reachout Trust please press giving now.

Back to top

What is a Cult?

Cult is a loaded word and is sometimes used by people to describe something they simply don't like. In his book A History of Heresy (another loaded word) David Christie-Murray wrote:

Heresy, a cynic might say, is the opinion held by a minority of men which the majority declares unacceptable and is strong enough to punish.

One dictionary definition of cult is "great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing". While to some cult is a derogatory term, given this definition, it needn't be seen as such. Some adherents to the Catholic faith are not uncomfortable about referring to the cult of Mary. Indeed devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ may, in this manner, be seen as cult like. What are we to think, however, when this devotion is directed to another human being, or to someone other than the true and living God? Protestants would put devotion to Mary into this category and thus define cult again in a derogatory fashion. What of the Mormon devotion to Joseph Smith? Or the devotion of Moonies to Sun Myung Moon? What about the devotion of the followers of Rajneesh? Then, of course, there are those who give their devotion to organisations, such as the devotion of Jehovah's Witnesses to the Watchtower Society. Can such devotion, and even worship, be compatible with devotion to the God of the Bible? These questions bring us to the definition of cult most relevant to the work of Reachout Trust.

"A religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious"

Another word we often use to clarify what we mean when we use the word "cult" is "counterfeit". This squares very well with the dictionary definition of "unorthodox or spurious". A counterfeit can be said to be something that is made to look like genuine currency, with the full market value of genuine currency, but that is baseless in that it does not have the "spending power" it appears to have. In examining in the light of the evangelical Christian gospel the beliefs and spirituality of people within the cults, occult and new age and all not upholding biblical truth, we are working to sort out the genuine from the counterfeit. In training and equipping Christians to explain and share the evangelical Christian gospel in a relevant way, we are helping spread the evangelical Christian message amongst those people who are victims of the counterfeiters so that they can enjoy the genuine wealth of God's kingdom.

Back to top

How Many Cults Are There?

Worldwide there are probably something around 3,000 cults with 300 or more active in Britain.

Back to top

Why do You Have to Tear Down Other Faiths?

There are some misconceptions about the work we do. Reachout Trust might be commonly known as an "anti-cult group" but this is something of a misnomer. The term is very negative and makes us sound as though we are thoroughly against something or another but not for anything in particular. It is a common mistake that suggests that cults are our whole motivation and reason for being. It is telling that to people in the cults others are viewed according to their attitude to the particular cult or group whereas to a Christian people are viewed according to their attitude to Jesus. There is in fact no such thing as an anti-Mormon or an anti-JW, and certainly not in Reachout. The way these terms are used by our critics is quite derogatory and negative and does not reflect the very positive nature of the work in which we are engaged.

We are described first and foremost as An International Christian Ministry. We are evangelical Christians then and not anti-cultists and, like all Christians we have a very positive message. The description goes on that upholds biblical truth. This is very important because our role is to stand in defence of our faith rather than simply in contention with the faith of others. The case of Mormonism illustrates this point very well. The primary and most important claim that Joseph Smith ever made in this respect is that "all churches are corrupt and an abomination" in the sight of God. Systematically the LDS Church has attacked Christianity from that time.

LDS Apostle Orson Pratt declared:

…all other churches are entirely destitute of all authority from God…Both the Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickednesses. (The Seer, pg.255)

Today that same message is brought to the doors of millions of people by more than sixty thousand LDS missionaries, who clearly teach that Joseph restored the gospel which was lost after the apostles were killed. Since which time, it is claimed, "the Christians" have twisted, corrupted, added to and taken from the word of God. It is a message in which the Book of Mormon is presented as the book of the restoration,

the most correct book of any book on earth - Joseph Smith, History of the Church.

But a message in which the Bible is presented as the book of the apostasy, into which many errors have crept and whose dependability is confined to those parts that agree with the "restored gospel" of Mormonism.

In the face of this blatant attack on "the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3) we stand as watchmen on the towers, sounding a clear warning (Ezekiel 33: 7-9), "upholding biblical truth", and snatching from error those confused by deception (Jude: 22-23). This is a positive activity and one for which we do not apologise.

Finally we describe our work as one of building bridges to those in the cults. We appreciate that people are more apt to build walls and so we teach and practice bridge building. Of course anything approaching the challenging of other faiths in the course of our work leaves us open to the accusation of being destructive rather than constructive. A word that is bandied about a great deal in this respect is "polemical". So-called anti-cult writings are labelled polemical with the clear intention of representing them as altogether negative, ill meant, and mischievous. The noun polemic is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and in Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary, as the art or practice of disputation. The New Fowler's Modern English Usage defines a controversial discussion, argument, or controversy, esp. over a doctrine, policy, etc.

Following the injunction of scripture the Apostle Paul reasoned in the synagogues, earnestly attempting to convince people of the truthfulness of his message, "contending for the faith". Those who heard did not always receive him well either, accusing him of being a troublemaker (Acts 17:1-10). It has ever been so because bridge building is not conceding the other person's viewpoint, and contending for the faith involves contention. That's why it is called contending for the faith.

Reachout Trust was founded, and is run by, evangelical Christians whose devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel has led them to this work. We take seriously the injunction of Scripture to Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matt.28:19). In Christian love we reach out to those whose walk of faith, we believe, is leading them away from the true and living God who, through Christians everywhere, is calling them to follow Him as their Creator and Saviour.

Back to top

What is the History of This Type of Ministry?

From the beginning the church has had to combat error. Paul combated the cult of Gnosticism in his day (Colossians 2: 8,18,19) as did the apostle John (1 John). Church leaders frequently fought against the doctrines of salvation by works and by faith in religious systems and secret initiation. In the first few centuries of church history the work of firming up and of clearly defining the faith once delivered happened largely in response to the threat of error both from outside and inside the church. Classic examples include:

EBIONISM - A second century form of Unitarianism, that denied the deity of Christ, taught law keeping, and often practised circumcision. This was a Judaistic heresy that sought to go back to the law and preserve monotheism by denying the trinity. Men and women are naturally drawn to a religious system that promises salvation by good works. A mixture of grace and works is a primary characteristic of the cults.

MONTANISM - A charismatic heresy that, like the Mormons, taught continuing revelation which carried equal weight with scripture, practised a form of blood atonement which assigned sin-atoning power to martyrdom, and encouraged a spiritual elitism, claiming to be a new breed of super-Christians (the only true church).

ARIANISM - a Fourth century heresy that, like Jehovah's Witnesses, taught that Jesus was a created being, different in essence from the Father, and therefore not God.

We are living in a post-christian era in which the seeker is faced with a smorgasbord of new ideas and spiritual concepts. It is also an era in which people are not so confident in the answers offered by science. People are spiritually thirsty and willing to consider any remedy that is different from the same old formula. Our society is much like the one into which the early church was born. It is international, pluralistic, where all sorts of alternative spiritual realities are made available to the seeker.

With the advent of the New Age movement and the rise of home-made religion, spiritual deception is no longer something that happens to someone else somewhere else. Our neighbours, our friends and work colleagues are looking to luck, fortune tellers, Mystic Meg, crystals, tarots, totems, the god within, the new age to come. Many are, like most Christians, regretting the growth of liberalism and the onslaught of uncertainty, the overwhelming cynicism and growing despair that this world offers. They are looking for certainty and assurance, hope and comfort and they are finding them in the dogmatism of a conservative Mormonism, or in the doom laden message of Jehovah's Witnesses that confirms their fears and offers escape. It is the role of the Christian church to be a light bearer in the darkness and confusion. It is the calling of the Christian to "contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints."

Church history is replete with stories of those who contended for the faith. Our spiritual forebears fought hard for eternal truths cherished by today's believers. Tomorrows believers will inherit what we contend for today.

Back to top

How Does Reachout Trust fit into the Wider Church Scene?

We are sometimes referred to as a para-church organisation. As an organisation, of course, that is what we are. Reachout is not a church, but neither are we separate from, or in addition to the Christian community. We are Christians first and foremost who see our role in the body as that of watchmen. The way we fulfil that role is in organisations like Reachout, just as those called to mission form missionary societies.

People who escape the cults need a new spiritual home. God's provision for all new Christians is the church. Members of Reachout Trust are members of the local church and Reachout always seeks to work closely with local church leaders. From the beginning it has been very important to have a network of church contacts across the country. As people have come to Reachout for help we have in turn sought to 'plant' them in an appropriate fellowship. Reachout is often simply a first point of contact leading to more appropriate ministry within the church and even professional help in a counselling setting.