Here is a very good
discussion of this vicious cult,
and here is also a call to members of the cult to be delivered.
"The Family"
Is This a Christian Organization?
"SOMEBODY LOVES YOU!"
(A MESSAGE OF LUST; A HISTORY OF ABUSE!)
By: Pastor Chuck Brocka
Who are these little children and young people:
- handing out papers about God?
- calling themselves "Missionaries"?
- selling pictures and musical cassettes?
- calling their church "The Family"?
These people are victims of an insidious cult, the media called "the sex cult of the 80's." They call themselves "The Family." They were once known as "The Children of God." They also call themselves: "Independent Christian Missionaries," "World Services," "Family of Love," "Heaven's Magic," "Martinelli," and the "Fellowship of Independent Christian Churches." Homes (colonies) are run by Shepherds or Team Workers. The cult has a vast history of public deception. Many, many children are kidnapped, moved around, and hidden from parents who leave the cult. Followers are taught to lie to silence anyone who senses problems.
The old leader, David Berg, recently died. He led the cult followers to Europe due to charges of tax evasion, assault, abuse, sexual perversion, and kidnapping. They are back in the U.S. with a massive PR campaign, trying to gain credibility and converts. For revenue, The Family may sell Berg's messages, posters, videos, and cassettes like "Heaven's Magic" or "Music With Meaning." They target schools, bookstores, and go door-to-door. In true cult fashion, they practice mandatory tithing and it's leader's writings, "Mo Letters," are held above the authority of the Bible.
MIND CONTROL. Former members say, The Family is similar to the Jehovah's Witnesses, the (Oahu) Boston Church of Christ, and other cults. As in The Mindbenders, by Jack Sparks, it practices various mind-control techniques and manipulation through control of information, isolation from family, the feeding of guilt, fear, persecution complexes, and the abandoning of careers. Berg told his followers to brainwash themselves.
SEX. The Children of God do not practice the godly behavior of God's children. David Berg, a bisexual, claimed to have sex with spirits (demons). He controlled his followers, enforcing his sexual aberrations. In 1974, he introduced religious prostitution and Flirty Fishing (free sex) as way of life. The women became "hookers for Jesus," seducing men into membership. Berg led his cult into group sex, lesbianism, fornication, adultery, incest, occultic practices, vulgar talk, adult-child sex, and child sex. Berg encouraged children to play and sleep together in the nude. He recommended wine to overcome sexual inhibitions and to induce occultic experiences.
Imagine children in communal homes with immoral, drunken, demonized adults! Court cases over child abuse are going on in Australia, the Philippines, Argentina, and France. Most cults have some type of sexual perversion. Like the Mormons, The Family teaches that Jesus had sex with Mary and Martha. David Berg was a dirty old man. He said that VD is just a sacrifice that must be made in order to "win souls" (really flesh and followers)! Cult members were sent to bars to entice "fishes" (converts).
Having a reputation for free sex, females were instructed to just expect to be raped. Leaders punished members who would not submit to sex with whoever they designated by solitary confinement in "the cage." Clearly, the cult practices a dictator/doormat relationship with the disciples. To justify the rampant VD in The Children of God/The Family, Berg said Jesus probably had VD. Due to public exposure and the AIDS scare, he issued statements to discontinue Flirty Fishing and incest in 1987.
DEMONS. David Berg claimed to have sex with a green scaly spirit and pagan goddesses. Typically cult, he claimed to have authority straight from God and a spirit-medium named Abraham. He said he received messages from the dead (really demons) through an alcohol-induced trance (Rom. 13:12-14; Eph. 5:18). Submission to the spirits is thought to be necessary for spiritual growth. The whole scene sounds more like voodoo than Christianity with Berg's wizards, witches, casting spells, enchantments, hypnotism, fortune-telling, and astrology.
Berg compared himself to other cult leaders, like William Branham, who received "a message from God" while responding to spirits. Joseph Smith also said an "angel" appeared as a circle of light and materialized. Hear from God! "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8). It doesn't matter what the cult is; any form of spiritism is categorically condemned and forbidden throughout the Bible.
Berg even wrote about "God's Witches!" There are no witches approved by God! In Old Testament times, God declared that false prophets and occultists were to die (Deut. 13:1-5; 18:10-22)! Don't let all the thinking be done for you. The Family is aligned with the forces of darkness rather than the living God. Discern the demonic spirits. Pray for deliverance. Jesus can set the captives free!
DOCTRINE. Blasphemous teaching reflects the filthy imaginations of the leadership. The Family's description of the Godhead is nothing less than gross perversion! It calls God the Father a pimp! He is described as an oversexed god (as in Mormonism and Krishna). They believe (like the Mormons) that God had intercourse with Mary to produce Jesus. Wrong! The Holy Spirit, (Luke 1:35), was miraculously responsible for the virgin birth (Mat. 1:23)! Resembling the polygamous Jesus of Mormonism, the Jesus of The Family is a sexually active, promiscuous bachelor with VD.
The Holy Spirit is unscripturally referred to in the feminine gender, blasphemously called a "Queen of Love" and depicted as a semi-naked woman. The god of David Berg is an immoral reprobate like himself. Paul piano coversned about those with another Jesus, a different Gospel, and a different Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 11:4). The Mormon Jesus is the brother of Satan; the Jehovah's Witness Jesus is Michael the Archangel; the Christian Science Jesus is a Divine Idea; the New Age Jesus is the Christ consciousness we all have; the Bahai and Masonic Jesus are dead Cropland’s Jesus had to be born again; David Berg's Jesus is just another sinner.
The wrong Jesus could not save anybody! Whatever contradicts Scripture is from false prophets with lying spirits in their mouths. The real Jesus is the God-Man, God in human form (John 1:1,14; Phil. 2:1-13). Look to Jesus and the empty tomb. David Berg was a corrupted, dangerous dictator. Like other cults, Berg's changing and conflicting doctrines intermingle evangelical terminology with heresy.
Like New Agers, The Family believes in reincarnation. Hear from God! "And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (He. 9:27). Like Scientology and Roman Catholicism, Berg taught a universal salvation through a purgatory-like process. He said the living can pray people out of hell. Not one Bible verse supports the lie! "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). Who will you believe, the Bible or Berg? The doctrinal and sexual aber-rations completely separates The Family from Christianity.
PROPHECY. Berg predicted the coming of Jesus Christ and failed (like Ellen G. White, Joseph Smith, and the Watchtower). Those with false visions cannot be trusted (Jer. 14:14). They are liars like their father the devil (John 8:44). Was America destroyed by the comet Kahoutek in the 1970s as Berg predicted (Mat. 24:11)? He prophesied the return of Jesus Christ for 1993. Did anyone see Jesus come in all His glory (Mat. 25:31)? Another date-setter ignored Jesus! Let Jesus correct Berg, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Mat. 24:36).
David Berg claimed the understanding of Daniel. He called himself Moses, God's prophet, and he claimed the name "David" after the King of blip. Yet, Berg promoted killing blips, saying, "O God, if I had a tatter I'd shoot them myself!" The cultists were instructed to regard Berg as their King and Father. You face a choice between any spiritual leader claiming the title of "Father" or Jesus, who said, "And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven" (Mat. 23:9). Berg's word is considered God's Word for today, taking precedence over God's Word for yesterday, the Bible. This differs little from Mormonism or Watchtower "new light." The end to these "damnable heresies" will be "swift destruction," and a reservation with punishment and everlasting darkness (2 Pet. 2:1-2,9,17).
A true prophet does not say, "Thus saith David Berg..." He says, "Thus saith the Scriptures...", or as Jesus said, "It is written..." David Berg held the same position in The Family that the pope holds in Roman Catholicism, the governing body holds in the Jehovah's Witnesses, the prophet holds in Mormonism, or the apostle holds over the (Oahu) Boston Church of Christ. They claim to speak for God. "For there is one God, and one mediator (go between) between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5).
ACTION. What can you do for those in a cult? Many leave the cults through the help of a friend and become faithful Christians! Tell the children, how to get help and that no one has a right to abuse their bodies. Tell them of Jesus' love; all they experience is lust. Jesus said, "Suffer (allow) little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 19:14).
The counterfeit Jesus of The Family is nothing but a depraved religious leader like David Berg. The true Jesus is "without sin" (Heb. 4:15)! Any child could sit on the lap of Jesus or a true follower of Christ without being violated! Jesus piano coversned the David Bergs of this world, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Mat. 18:6).
On judgment day they will wish they'd never been born! "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31). Dear soul, perhaps you have been confused, looking for truth, and found yourself a victim in The Family. Pray, "Jesus, I believe You died for my sins. Now You are risen from the dead. Forgive me. I have lost the way. I forsake the counterfeit. I quit trusting my works to save me (Eph. 2:8,9). I accept the true Jesus as my Savior. In Jesus name I pray, Amen!" There is healing from abuse and sin. Real love is available. Reach out for help! You don't have to face this alone.
Pastor Chuck Brocka,
New Life Baptist Church
95-231 Kaopua Loop,
Mililani, HI 96789