In Reply to: Contradictions posted by Miguel on August 06, 2003 at 08:19:11:
But I do know that while in the Family I definitely believed in and loved Jesus, believed in Heaven, believed in the Bible, and believed that Jesus had died to take my sins from me so I could enter Heaven as a perfect being. Despite the other beliefs mixed in, and as someone said, the 'Bergaisms', I still believe I and just about everyone I lived with or came in contact with, was truly a Christian, although perhaps a mixed up and confused Christian on some of their beliefs.
I like what Ray said, that really only God can judge, and like it says in Romans, 'believe in your heart and confess with your mouth', many people confessed with their mouth, but we don't know what they all believed in their hearts. Perhaps the Devil did start the group with the intent of deceiving a lot of people in the name of Jesus, and it has worked with the second generation because the group has left behind a large number of non-believers, scarred in their faith, who have turned their back on the whole lot. But I also think a lot of people came to know Jesus through the teachings of the Family and Berg, despite the bizarre twists thrown in later on and along the way.
Would any of you here say that you were NOT a Christian while you were in the Family? I think most would agree that they were, and still are, and some would say that they met Jesus through their experience with the Family, so wouldn't that prove that certainly there are sincere Christians still IN the Family?
Or did I miss the whole point of the dialogue :)?