In Reply to: Cults and Isms posted by kinda gentler on May 12, 2004 at 12:54:53:
was a family approved and regular class in the early days. I do remember that. At that time the family did not consider itself a cult and was not categorically labelled as such by the mainstream Christian community. As far as the antichrist system and the persecution and endtime thing, that has been around for AGES, since way before Berg was born. So I don't thing Berg spearheaded that doctrine. I just think he utilized it. As do many cults and some churches did, do and will do. If you remember Zion, Johnnie Mae Hackworth, the owner, had been in a mental institution because in her earlier years she had insisted that LBJ was the antichrist and mailed some sort of threat. So the Secret Service picked her up and she was locked up for awhile. This was way before the family took root. Doomsday sayers, AntiChrist doctrines, persecution phobias have been around as long as the bible has.
You're oversimplifying my own definitions and scope. Berg clearly introduced into the Jesus People Movement SPECIFIALLY DERIVED JW and Mormon docrines that ALL the Christian churches are antichrist, that the gov't was controlled by Satan and that persecution = truth in an cloaked attempt to seduce hippies into "Christianity" and give their dead end lives someplace to finally go. 'Forsaking all' probably came from his study of communism, and communal living was a powerful magnet for people living on the streets who had nothing material to give up in the first place.
Berg's indoor preaching in the late 60s had the impact of of producing at least one spin off cult that remained in the area of So. Cal. beyond his own stay. These ideas continued to propagate through the Jesus People movement ultimately landing on Michaael Woronieck's doorstep at Melodyland Theological Seminary and Fuller Seminary where he attended from 1976-80.
The immediate modern day connection between these Woroniecki ideas progresses directly from JWs and Mormons to Berg to the Jesus People Movement to Woroniecki.
I never stated Berg invented these concepts. I believe what he is creatively responsible for is recognizing how seductive these ideas would be in their appeal to rebellious, establishment hating hippies.
When you say these ideas were around for ages, the next step is to understand where Smith and Russel got these ideas from. However, since my scope is only to prove the source of Woroniecki's doctrines are not genuinely biblical or derived from "Spirit revelation," it is sufficient to stop at the realization that these doctrines preceded him in the theologies of blatant cults and that there was a direct passing on of these ideas from them through Berg.