In Reply to: What bothered me about Berg's salvation posted by Jesse H (reposted) on November 17, 2002 at 10:25:32:
I also think it's good you set perimeters on this question. We've argued eternal security vs. Lordship theology enough, but this is a new wrinkle you've added.
I remember those two quotes you mentioned. I don't recall them being mentioned many times as you said, but each of them were mentioned separately at least once. Yes, Berg did say that he had been "filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb" and he did say that he never "asked Jesus into his heart but that he ALWAYS knew Him."
I don't think Berg was saying he was an immaculate conception (that's a virgin birth, by the way) but what he was saying was that he was an exception to the rest of humanity. That's how he lived too. None of the normal rules of Christianity applied to him. He could even curse God (remember that letter in 1990 or so?) and yet Maria warned none of the rest of the Family to think they should do that.
When questioned by shocked Christian supporters, Berg diplomatically explained away the "filled with the Spirit from the womb" quote in "An Open Letter to Our Friends" by saying that John the Baptist had the same experience, and he said it merely gave him a head-start and an advantage. But you're right, it does border on Calvinist doctrine that our salvation is already fatalistically determined, which I don't believe, and I think you don't either.
Mind you, Berg did say it was that way for all the REST of the Christians (free choice to be saved), but that he was a "special case." I mean, if he was determined to be the great David of the End from before he was born, then obviously he had to be "saved" before he was born. He really did believe in the Gospel of Exceptions as someone said once. It's like he lived in a gravity-warping spiritual zone where none of the rules applied to him.
You've raised a thorny question and there are no easy answers, but I think we can sort a couple things out despite what Berg said. First, he was definitely NOT filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb. Bergie prophecies came a dime a dozen, and in fact, like the story he himself told about the Chinese wheelbarrow full of worthless money, I think Bergie prophecies weren't worth the ink it took to print them. He can say what he was, but like you said, he was an egotistical liar.
I do believe a person doesn't have to say the "sinner's prayer" word for word, BUT I believe there must come a moment of sincere committment. Maybe Berg was like the seed that fell among tht thorns. Salvation didn't really take root in his life, but "had no depth of earth in his heart" and withered when the lusts of other things entered in. Maybe he was never saved in the first place, but just knew the Christianese talk so well that he could repeat it. If so, he put on a good show for many years before the lusts and root of bitterness took over his life completely.