In Reply to: Re: What is "the spirit of David"?? posted by Farmer on September 07, 2004 at 01:44:16:
Something the Chancellor book points out is that The Family does not teach Berg is divine or equal to God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit.
However...
Although the Family doesn't have an explicit teaching that Berg is divine, their language & practice imply belief that Berg is equal to God. By appropriating the Davidic prophesies that Christians believe refer to Jesus, people in TF implicitly equate Berg to Christ. Second, they equate Berg with the Holy Spirit when they talk about being lead by the Spirit of David. Christians believe in only one Spirit, who proceeds from the Father & Son--not from David Berg.
Finally, by referring to Berg as "Father" and insisting on obedient allegiance to his words (the New Wine), they equate Berg with God the Father, who begets the divine Word of revelation. Apparently they don't understand Jesus' admonition, "Call no man father on earth..." As if, Catholic & Orthodox Christians got it wrong, but the Family got it right? How about this as an explanation for Jesus' hyperbole: Don't confuse your spiritual fathers with God. Ultimately God is the teacher, protector, and provider, not your religious leaders.
Which means, if I leave The Family of David Berg, there will still be a God who teaches, provides & protects me. How many people in TF really believe that? Very few. This is because they've confused "father" David with the Heavenly Father.
It's like people who worship material things, but would never say outright that money is their god. They just ACT like money is their god. For all practical purposes, people in TF act like Berg is their god. They pray to Berg, they sing his praises, and they use language to talk about and describe him that Christians reserve for talking about & describing the Trinity.