Jesus Christians Background

 

 

In 1975 the Jesus Christians name were formally known as 'Voices in the wilderness' as reported by TACL (Take A Closer Look) in Australia. When the Jesus Christians came to the UK they were known by the name 'Christians' they started a group in Liverpool.

[1] Before 1975 Dave and Cherry McKay were members of a sex cult, known as the Children of God founded by David (Mo) Berg, Dave Mckay was shunned by The Family because of his opposition to their teachings about sex.

He had problems with the groups promotion of sex with many partners as a way of winning converts into the group (aka "Flirty Fishing") and left. On the Jesus Christians website what they fail to tell you is that eventually the cult would encourage children at a very young age to engage in sexual activity via deliberate education (please refer to these two videos on Davida Kelley and the Children of Vivian Shillander). This is something that Dave Mckay does not address, even though David Berg promoted the idea of incest and paedophilia. Below is a history of accounts:

[2] In 1974, Berg's daughter-in-law Sarah Berg (who married Berg's son Paul when she was 15) alleged, in testimony to the New York Attorney General's Charity Frauds Bureau, statements on national television and in a deposition taken by New York attorney Aaron F. Klein, that Berg made sexual advances towards her, exposed himself to her and attempted to have intercourse with her "three or four years before my teens."

Berg's eldest daughter Deborah Davis has written a book in which she accuses her father of sexually molesting both her and her sister when they were children, and attempting to have sex with her as an adult. (editor's note:"The Children of God--The Inside Story" by Deborah (Linda Berg) Davis with Bill Davis © 1984 by The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan).

Her sister Faith Berg corroborated these claims, but described them in a positive way. Sarah Berg also partially corroborated these claims, noting that: "David, at times, would try to get away with things with his own daughters and he tried it with me when I was a little girl, but I was too young to really know what was going on."

In a child-custody case in the United Kingdom, Berg's granddaughter Merry Berg testified that Berg sexually molested her when she was a young teenager.

Another of Berg's granddaughters, Joyanne Treadwell Berg, spoke on American television about being sexually abused by her grandfather.

Davida Kelley, the daughter of Sara Kelley (nanny for Berg's informally adopted son Ricky Rodriguez), accused Berg of molesting her in a June 2005 Rolling Stone article.

In the same article, a woman identified as Armendria alleged that Berg sexually abused her when she was 13 years old.

Ricky Rodriguez wrote an article on the website MovingOn.org in which he describes Berg's deviant sexual activity involving a number of women and children.

Dave Mckay is well aware of these matters, what is the Jesus Christian's position on the Children of God really about when [3] they say "we have incorporated many other teachings from The Family into our teachings (most notably, aspects of their teachings about living by faith, about endtime prophecy, and about living communally.)?" Admittedly they are still influenced by the teachings of a sex pervert and a paedophile, they then say "In recent years, The Family has altered some of their teachings, and they have sought closer fellowship with others like ourselves. We have therefore tried to "relate" to them."

"We appreciate their friendship, and have tried to find areas of agreement."

It would seem to me that the Jesus Christians are overlooking the Psycological, Perverse and Deistructive nature of the cult they aspire to have friendship with. The cult still practices "sharing" which is sexual relations between the members of the group even when not with the person's own partner.

Because of the Children of God there have been eight known suicides and a number of other deaths through unatural causes of ex-members, [4]

For example

Abe Braaten (1977-09-26 – 2004-12-14, jumped from building)
Angela Marilyn Smith (1954 – 2005-01-08, stabbed to death)
Ben Farnsworth (1992, jumped from building)
Caleb David Shillander (1977-09-07 – 2006-11-21, suicide)
Daniel Frouman (1976-04-18 – 2009-07-08, suicide)
Dona Kay Halling (aka Shulamite Fields, 1953 – 1980-01-30, stabbed to death)
Jario Pinzon (1955 – 2003-09-24, shot to death)
Josh Lykins (1999-01-26, self-inflicted gunshot to head)
Paul Brandt Berg (Aaron) (1947-06 – 1973-04; apparent suicide)
Rick Dupuy (1951 – 1996-06-02, intentional drug overdose)
Ricky Rodriguez (1975-01-25 – 2005-01-09, self-inflicted gunshot to head)
River Phoenix (1970-08-23 – 1993-10-31, apparent drug-induced heart failure)
Simon Novotny (1979 – 2005, self-inflicted gunshot to head; son of Abner and Mary)
Windy (daughter of Rufas and Dulce, overdose on Malaria pills)
Zion Horwitz (1974 – 2003-01-01, stabbed to death, apparent suicide)

It is believed that there are many more cases.

The only real disagreement is with the Children of God's position of sex outside of marriage. This is Dave Mckay's position on the Children of God,

[5] "we have not found it necessary to cut ourselves off from The Family,

for several reasons: (1) As far as we know, the practice of consulting familiar spirits died out with their leader. No one in the group today has shown evidence of possession by any spirit other than the Holy Spirit; (update: We have since learned that this is definitely not the case.)

On this point the Jesus Christians are wrong. Let us see if the Children of God are really led by the Holy Spirit; in Matthew 7:16 the Bible teaches us that we will know them by their fruits, if you examine the Children of God's (AKA the Family International) practice and teaching you will find this is far from the truth.

The Family's position on the Law of Love [6] Sexuality and the Law of Love It is our belief that Jesus' Law of Love can also be applied to our sexual interaction with others. Although Christian scholars throughout history have explored this subject, applying Jesus' Law of Love to sexuality sets the Family apart from mainstream Christian theology.3 David Berg taught from the Scriptures that sexuality is not inherently evil in the eyes of God, and furthermore, that because of these Scriptures, loving heterosexual relations between consenting adults, regardless of marital status, are permissible as long as others immediately affected by these actions are not hurt or offended.

God created human sexuality, and the Family believes our members' love for one another is an expression or illustration of God's love for us. We consider actions carried out in love for one another lawful in God's eyes.

It is our understanding of Scripture that Mosaic prohibitions and traditions in this regard no longer apply to those saved in Christ, who operate under Jesus' Law of Love. "Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13:10). Consequently, Family adults, be they single or married, are free to engage in loving sexual relationships with other consenting adult Family members, provided their actions are loving and with the agreement of others concerned.

We regard sex as an emotional and physical human need. Married Family members, if they choose, may interact sexually with adult singles within the Family because "the love of Christ constrains them" to help their brothers or sisters in need-those who do not have a companion. Single adults may also sexually interact with other consenting single adults, in order to fill this emotional and physical human need. Such giving is regarded as a sacrifice and is respected in the Family as being evidence of unselfish love.

So has this demon died with David Berg ? Certainly not.

The Family's position on Homosexuality has not changed [7] a document published December 1973 by The Children of God states IT IS NOT EXPLICITLY FORBIDDEN SUCH AS IT IS WITH MEN WITH MEN. Male homosexuality is expressly, definitely and specifically forbidden and cursed and called sodomy. In that case it is absolutely forbidden—it's a sin. But I don't see and I've never been able to find any place in the Bible where it is forbidden to women.

Their are hundreds of flaws in the Children of God's teachings, another obvious one is on discipline, please look at the following link Discipline in the Children of God.

[8] (2) Although they talk freely of astrological star signs, they teach that God is more powerful than whatever power the "stars" might have over their personality and/or destiny;

This is justified because of the MO letters [9] (#621:26; 554; 102:7-12; 61:17; 268:1-2, 12;107:18, 25) show that Berg had a long history of personal involvement with the occult as he gave his endorsement of astrology, possession and revelation by spirit guides and helpers (which included departed saints and pagans), use of mediums. In addition to Necromancy, Berg claimed to have sexual intercourse with spirits and pagan goddesses.

They justify their use of astrological star signs by saying God is more powerful, as any ex-occultist would tell you these familiar spirits will have you believe in false things in order to gain control over you.

[10] (3) They seem to be moving farther away from the occult practices of the New Age Movement; (4) The fables told by David Berg's "spirit helpers" do not form a significant part of Family teaching, and could easily be dropped without affecting anything else that they do or teach;

With the Children of God all the "Mo" letters (David Berg's teachings) and many are still practiced today with in Family International. It is not so simple to separate the Family from its founder David Berg, they still see him as their Prophet/Father.

[11] (5) Because we are not officially linked with them, we feel that ultimately all we must answer for is our own behaviour; and we will trust God to deal with them as he sees fit; and (6) There is no one in the churches who will have anything to do with us, so we're not likely to turn loose of the best friends we have in order to satisfy our worst enemies.

Dave Mckay's refusal to break away from the Children of God (aka the Family International) proves that they are just a sect of the Children of God, even more so when the Jesus Christians do not reject everything that David Berg taught, "In The Word - New and Old", David Berg writes, "You had better read what God said today in preference to what he said 2,000 ...years ago! Then when you've gotten done reading the latest Mo Letters, you can go back to reading the Bible..."

To be fair, Berg does teach that present-day teaching must conform with the Bible (|P22), and he says that the teachings of Jesus are timeless (|P38). But our experience has been that attempts to criticise Family teaching on the basis of Christ's teachings are often seen as signs of disloyalty. For example, it is Family practice to refer to Berg as "Father David" (or the more familiar Dad). The fact that Jesus commands us not to call anyone "Father" does not seem to matter.

Actually it does matter, Father God would not have himself equal with anyone, this is the danger of Dave Mckay's inaccurate teachings, Dave would simply overlook this as he does not want to appear to be too legalistic.

"Dad (David Berg) wrote against playing chess", or "Father David was against immunising babies," etc. Yet if we bring up the teachings of Jesus, we usually get a cool reception on the grounds that we are being too legalistic. We find it difficult not to believe that The Family is more loyal to (brother David) than to Jesus under these circumstances.

Dave Mckay calls (David Berg) "Brother David" knowing what Berg did. He was a liar, a paedophile, a sexual predator, a occultist, encourager of child abuse, an alcoholic, a rapist, a whore monger, a pervert, a false teacher and a false prophet. These are hardly the characteristics of a good teacher or leader, and is hardly the character of a True Christian. How, then, can Dave Mackay even refer to David Berg as "Brother David"?

Please refer to the documents around the Practices and teachings of David Berg and see if as Dave Mckay says if the group today has shown evidence of possession by any spirit other than the Holy Spirit;

Berg's Anti-Semitism - shocking words of hate by the self proclaimed "Prophet of Love". In 3 Parts, this article deals extensively with Berg's anti-Semitic writings, rampant misinformation amongst (ex)members, and the historical facts surrounding of the Holocaust - by researchers for exFamily.org

The Family's Policy on Lying and Deception - Ed Priebe, 2005 update

The Family - Official Policy on Lying & Deception - revised & edited by WC

The Alcoholic Prophet - an old class by Ed Priebe, complete re-edited and revamped, with powerful new quotes

Is tithing Scriptural for New Testament Christians? - Ed Priebe

David Berg ... False Prophet? by Nick Warrick

Zerby on Education - WC


Jesus Christians Plagiarisers by design.

The Jesus Christians are Plagiarisers by design, as you can see from the comics themselves, the idea and inspiration for the artwork work is copied from the Children of God's comics. This is nothing new because the Children of God have done the exact same thing from other artists, in the case of the Jesus Christians leaders copying art is nothing new, when we look at the Children of God's track record.

[12] "The concept of copying art--whether in ideas, style, presentation, or finer details--is not new. It's probably not something many of you think about, because you don't live with artists and see all that goes into their work. If we had more time, I would ask all our artists in WS to give you a glimpse into how they do their work, as each artist has strong and weak points. Some artists are very good with a certain style, but find another style practically impossible. ."

"Most artists, even if they're not copy artists use reference material of some sort or another–-whether another artist's work, or photographs, or models, or whatever. In fact, there's a huge market for such materials on the Internet. If you do a web search on the term "artist reference," you'll find millions of hits, and many thousands of them are people selling photos, slides reference books and guides and resources for artists. Some artists use more reference than others. Others need help and send their work to another artist to perfect whatever they have a hard time with--like hands, or hair, or body proportions, or animals, or intricate backgrounds, or whatever the case may be."

"Quotation from xfamily.org"


Jesus Christians Comics

The Children of God (aka The Family International)



Jesus Christians Comic/booklet



The Children of God (aka The Family International)

If you analyze their practices and teachings you will find how much the Jesus Christians are very much like the Children of God cult. The only real difference is the Jesus Christians have removed themselves from David Berg's teachings on sex, but they accept and practice Berg's writings on much else. With Dave Mckay the Children of God's influences never really left him, they still remain.

A 1989 Magazine/Newsletter TACL (Take a Closer Look) Page 12 and 13 reported that in the September TACL "we had a brief article on seven silent secretive men who called themselves 'Voices in the wilderness'.

We had some suspicions about this group and their identity. Our suspicions have been confirmed from several sources.

The secret of the silent seven is not longer a secret!

They are none other than members of the weird and way-out, 'McKay' family group. This extreme Christian fringe group has been involved in numerous publicity stunts in their reaction against the 'sins of the system and systemites'.

They have walked across the Nullabor, using reverse psychology and playing on the emotional pull of using a young girl, to ensure that 'the Lord' would meet their needs through sympathetic givers (and used verbal comments to make people feel guilty if they dont want to give).

They have thrown away money; glued money to pavements; painted and chalked graffiti on subway walls and footpaths; staged well publicised 'walks' (including the bullabor walk) claiming to be totally dependent on God, (but making sure many poeople knew about it - and freely accepting money and accommodation from people, rather then God.)

The extremes in thinking, as well as publicity stunts, have attracted mainly young people who are disenchanted, confused and vulnarable to dogmatic assertions of having the truh and opposing the sinful society in which we live.

They have caused division in families, and have tried to manipulate young people into total commitment to their cause - rather than helping them find life and freedom in Jesus Christ.

The group travels around Australia from time to time (and always seem to have more than enough for their lifestyle and travels). Some of the group's members have also been active in India, and also in the Birmingham area of England.

In England the group was financial enough to be able to afford a good flat and to be able to purchase a TV and a car.

The 'Secret silent seven' have been through Queensland , New South Wales and Victoria. Some of the members of the group (at least) live in Medowie, New South Wales.

We have reported on this group in more detail in previous TACL articles including in the issues of: June 1985 and March 1987.

Page 13 The Mckays have done it again

The Mckay Family, Apparently using the names 'Mendowie Christians' and Mendowie Christian Volunteers, have managed to get their names in some of the news papers again with some of their outrageous antics.

In the past this group has been known as the 'Rappville Christians', the 'Sydney Christians', the 'Nullabor walkers', the 'Voices in the Wilderness', and just 'Christians'.

They have been to all states of Australia handing out their leaflets, and trying to entice young people to join them. They have also turned up in Birmingham, England, and travelled to India, (where a couple of them found wives), and been to America (where Dave Mckay came from).

In March 1987 commented on the group:

'That Small controversial group that made the headlines in the mid-1985 [with their walk across the Nullabor] is still trying to make the headlines. For some years the group, inspired and led by former Children of God (the Family) member, David (DJ) McKay, has been "waging a war" against the establishment in society and the Church; against money; against bureaucracy; against hypocrasy. In the process they have broken minor laws, been hypocritical themselves, confused a number of idealistic young people, and have caused heartache and hurt in families. They have thrown money away; glued money to pavements; painted and chalked graffiti on subway walls and footpaths: staged well publicised 'walks' claiming to be dependent on God. While making sure a great number of people knew about it and quite readily accepted gifts of money, accommodation etc. Mckay has produced newsletters (Much like the children of God materials) in which he has lampooned others (especially critics); accused people of hypocrisy, lying and persecuting his group.'

At one stage Mckay announced that the whole group was going to join the Roman Catholic Church - but that announcement, was either premature, or short lived.

Late last year seven members of this small extreme Christian fringe group dressed in rough robes and went about bearded and bare-footed carrying placards and handing out pamphlets, while remaining silent,. They refused to give police their names and addresses.

(Editors Note, this is one of the things the Children of God used to do in the 60's reference Photos from Family history article on the Children of God)

In October this year 6 of the group's members were arrested and charged with willful and malicious damage.

According to their apparently media-fed publicity, they slept in their cars during the day and painted slogans at night on approximately 2km of walls in Sydney during September. They claim it took about 72 hours, and more then $1,000 worth of paint to spead about 50 diffrent slogans in huge lettering on walls and bridges along railways lines.

Their slogans apparently angered other graffitists, who painted over them. The railway estimated the cost of removing the graffiti would be more than $100,000.

While some of the group were vandalising, supposedly in the name of Christ, others were on their way back from America after distributing tracts there on the 'fall of America'. Mckay claims that some of them had gone to America after the group had a vision that America would be destroyed by a Russian nuclear strike across the North Pole.

According to Mckay, the American response to the message of doom and gloom was 'pathetic'. He had once said much the same thing about Sydney, and had symbolically wiped the dust of his feet, rejecting Sydney and vowing never to return there again. He seems to have a short memory.

He also seems to ignore his own hypocrisy.

For years Mckay has been preaching against money, and working for money, telling people they need to trust God to provide. But last year the group clashed with Social Security over their member's receiving unemployment benefits when they were not looking for paid work.

The Group claims that it is looking for unpaid work, work that they can do 'for love alone' - but they want taxpayers, through the government, to foot the bill and pay them, while preaching against money. Reports indicate that they have also readily accepted monetary donations from those for whom they have worked 'for love alone'.

Like many extreme fringe groups, this group rewrites the dictionary, and writes up its own rules - ignoring those of society, and of what the Bible has to say in context.

In another report:

In October 2006 the group held a mock trial in Long Beach, California, where they charged the parents and two brothers of one of their members with attempted murder and with aiding and abetting others in doing this. It followed an attack on one of their members in which he received a fractured spine, bleeding on the brain, broken teeth and numerous cuts to the head and face. An amature video was made of the attack but the police never prosecuted the case. Although the family did not attend the trial, various sentences of 5-25 lashes of the whip were carried out on volunteers from the Jesus Christians themselves, as an attempt to illustrate their understanding of the cross of Christ. "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner", they said, in an effort to summarise what they were doing. ("The Trial")

Beliefs and teachings

Dave Mckay has a habit of twisting scripture in order to manipulate his followers, the best thing to do with these teachings is to get a good lexicon.

This is what they teach.

[13]. God will provide the material needs of people who stop working for money, and dedicate their lives to obeying the teachings of Jesus

(Luke 6:46, 12:22-23, 16:13, Matthew 6:24). (21. "A Unique Teaching", circa 1996)

[14] Jesus expects his followers to give up all their worldly wealth (Luke 12:33, 14:33). ("How to Be Saved")

[15] Jesus (not the Bible) is the Word of God. Although holy writings may be inspired, they are all fallible. ("The Word of God", August, 1995)

[16] Jesus never established water baptism as a form of sacrament, nor did he ordain other sacraments as such. ("Water Baptism", January, 1991) ("I Will Have Mercy", March, 1998)

[17] Beliefs about the doctrine of the Trinity are of little consequence. ("Father and Son--Two for One", January, 1994)

[18] The teachings of Jesus should be the basis of faith, not religious traditions. ("We Believe in Jesus Christ", circa 2000)

[19] Non-Christians can be saved on the basis of their faith in God, even if they have never heard of Jesus. This was made possible through the death of Jesus on the cross. See Universalism.

[20] Sincerity is more important than being theologically correct. ("The Good Hindu") ("In Search of Truth", November, 1986)

[21] The return of Jesus is likely to occur soon, although not until after the Great Tribulation. ("Signs of the Times", June, 1986)

[22] Christians will judge the world after Jesus returns, and Jesus will reign over the world for a thousand years.[23]

[24] There are spiritual advantages to remaining single; however marriage is not forbidden even though it is regarded as an inferior option to celibacy.

[25] There is nothing sinful about masturbation. ("Wanking, the Last Taboo")

[26] When an individual rejects the teachings of Jesus, they are in fact rejecting God.

[27] Technology which will one day be used to implement the "Mark of the Beast", is on the earth now in the form of subdermal RFID chips.

As you can see from their own believes the Jesus Christians do not hold to an orthodox Christian view, concidering they have made headlines for such things as burning money, painting miles of religious/philosophical graffiti and for donating kidneys to strangers. Over half of the members have donated a kidney to a needy person, thus earning them the nickname
'the kidney cult'. [28]

Refs

[1] http://jesus-teachings.com/JC/FAQ.php#q3
[2] http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/David_Berg
[3] http://jesus-teachings.com/JC/FAQ.php#q3
[4] http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/Category:Deaths
[5] http://jesus-teachings.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112:the-bible&catid=5:churches&Itemid=52
[6] http://www.thefamily.org/dossier/statements/lol.htm
[7] http://archive.xfamily.org/docs/fam/udb/ml-en/pub.ml.292.html
[8] http://jesus-teachings.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112:the-bible&catid=5:churches&Itemid=52
[9] http://www.watchman.org/profile/fampro.htm
[10] http://jesus-teachings.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112:the-bible&catid=5:churches&Itemid=52
[11] http://jesus-teachings.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112:the-bible&catid=5:churches&Itemid=52
[12] http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/Which_Comes_First:_The_Revelation_or_the_Artwork%3F
[13] http://cust.idl.net.au/fold/teach/JesusMoney/A%20Unique%20Teaching.html
[14] http://cust.idl.net.au/fold/teach/JesusMoney/How to be Saved.html
[15] http://cust.idl.net.au/fold/teach/Quakers/The Word of God.html
[16] http://www.jesus-teachings.com/Requested%20Studies/Churches/Water%20Baptism.html
[17] http://cust.idl.net.au/fold/teach/JesusMoney/We%20Believe%20in%20Jesus%20Christ.html
[18] http://cust.idl.net.au/fold/teach/Top40/The%20Good%20Hindu.html
[19] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalism
[20] http://cust.idl.net.au/fold/teach/Quakers/In Search of Truth.html
[22] http://www.jesus-teachings.com/Requested Studies/Endtime_sex/Signs of the Times.html
[23] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+6%3A2&version=NKJV
[24] http://www.jesus-teachings.com/Requested%20Studies/Endtime_sex/The%20Virgin%20Army,%20part%202.html
[25] http://cust.idl.net.au/fold/teach/Top40/Wanking - The Last Taboo.html
[26] http://www.jesus-teachings.com/Requested Studies/Strong Meat/Reject Us, Reject God.html
[27] http://www.jesus-teachings.com/Requested%20Studies/Endtime_sex/Don%27t%20Take%20the%20Mark.html
[28] http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kidney-cult-accused-of-pressuring-donor/2007/06/04/1180809387667.html