An Encounter During a Storm?

What was life like inside a cult? 

I couldn't say exactly when I found myself standing in front of St Jude's Primary School on Railton Road, Brixton. But I say a good several months, maybe even approaching a year, after my first encounter with COG at the Strand. Yet even as I sat in the primary school hall, with a magazine on my lap, I recall that rainy night I met these two young men who approached me to ask what I thought about Jesus Christ.

Most would have responded that this was none of their business, and quickened their footsteps to widen the distance between the enquirers and the enquired. But not me. Instead, feeling downhearted and wanting some attention, I responded positively, and I was converted to Christ in a pub.

As I sat on the chair and waited for the show to begin, I read the main article in the Buzz magazine, and I felt nostalgic for that fateful evening. However, I was curious to read the main article with a title that put in a clear rebuke to the statement: David "Moses" Berg was the "David" fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel 34:23-24, which reads:

And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he will be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken it.

The real David here could well be the resurrected king of Israel, the youngest son of Jesse, who reigned around 1,000 BC. But the writer of the article attributed him to Jesus Christ himself, after his second coming, to reign on his father David's throne in Jerusalem. But one thing is certain: this character was not David Brandt Berg!

As the number of his followers grew, David "Moses" Berg began to see himself as a kind of Messiah. He laid down strict rules for all his disciples. In my day, there were several sources of literature, all authored by Berg. One was titled Letters from a Shepherd, and on its cover was a shepherd's staff held in front of a distant range of high mountains. This presented a vastly different environment to the disused factory in Bromley, let alone the slums of London's East End! 

Then there were the Mo Letters, ot tracts handed to the public. On one of them was a line drawing of a young, naked female, apparently a seamstress, condemned in Hell, forever operating a sewing machine without producing anything. Her well-rounded breasts were specific in detail and beauty. Yet, I was convinced that this was created by a genuine man of God and must never be questioned.

A play with words was another feature in Berg's tracts. In one of them, he gave vivid details of the word "hole", from the recess in the Earth's crust filled with the ocean, to the female genitalia and its function. More emphasis was given to the latter than the former. He then transliterated "Hole" to "Holy", and then went on about the Holy Spirit. By believing that the author was close to God's heart (but not as a messiah), I absorbed everything he wrote as authentic and Biblical. Berg's use of the female genitalia to emphasise the Holy Spirit was pointed out in the Buzz article, and having possessed the original tract, slowly, a light began to shine within my soul, exposing the deception.

The above-mentioned literature was available to the public, but there was one that was kept strictly within the organisation. And that was The Revolutionary Manual. This was a booklet containing "classes", again authored by Berg. Studying this, one gets the impression of a radical form of orthodox, or mainstream Christianity. The first lesson was about salvation by free grace, and very unusual for a cult, Once Saved Always Saved was advocated. The second class was about being filled with the Holy Spirit. The third is about the Bible being the inspirational Word of God. Others followed, one about forsaking all to be Christ's disciple, another on street witnessing, another on daily tasks. Scripture references were sprinkled liberally within the text, and the new recruit was quickly brainwashed by the cult, believing that this organisation was setting out to achieve what the churches had failed in their mission over the centuries.

St Jude's Primary School, Railton Rd, Brixton.

The danger with this radicalisation was that there was no rightful dividing of the Word of Truth, as Paul instructed Timothy (2 Timothy 2:15). The mixing of Salvation by free grace through faith in Christ Crucified, and Discipleship, which was voluntary service to Christ's ministry. This led to a two-tier salvation. A believer who hasn't forsaken all, although he has eternal life, will still be shut out from the glorious New Jerusalem described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. Instead, he will spend eternity free from Hell but still with regret. A "limited torment". Also, to note, there was no Communion, no Lord's Supper, nor any doctrine of the Trinity or other key Christian doctrines. As already mentioned last week, any contact with the home family was forbidden. Also, nobody claimed any property as their own. Instead, everything was equally shared by all in the colony.

Hence, in the decades that followed, I questioned my salvation and wondered whether I was really saved. Those were the years when I lacked the "peace that passes all understanding". Mixing free grace with the conditions of discipleship made evangelism very difficult, thus compounding the problem when I read about or hear sermons on the Great Commission.

How Buzz began the road to Delivery.

On that Saturday evening, whilst I was waiting for the show to begin, I was reading the main article featured in that particular edition of Buzz, a magazine published by the Church of England, and found by random on one of the unoccupied chairs in the school room. It just lay there and was ignored by others assembling in the room. It was as if whoever placed it there had the foreknowledge that I would turn up while trying to find a COG colony at Railton Road.

However, by reading and digesting the article, a ray of light shone within, indicating that David "Moses" Brandt Berg was not the supposed messiah he claimed to be. What if he wasn't after all? Would I accept the mainstream church as of God, after vigorously denouncing them over the past months?

This was difficult to accept. However, some lads of my age, including the Youth Leader, welcomed me with open arms. Each one spoke kindly, as if each had a genuine interest in me and my affairs. However, in response, I railed at them, accusing them of being "milk and water Christians" and having no idea about discipleship. Yet, even from Scripture, they showed me where I had gone wrong. Furthermore, I saw agape love in them, and, shown to me. I was taken aback. Then, one of them asked if I would like to go to his home nearby. When I said that I wasn't local, he offered a bed for the night. This kind of hospitality I was already used to, after sleepovers at Sandra's, the family home of my ex-girlfriend.

These people were of St Jude's Anglican Church at Dulwich Road, which was across a housing estate from Railton Road. Even from Railton Road, the steeple of the church could be seen. I recall my first visit to one of their evening services. As I sat through the liturgy, I, at first, felt embarrassed. I was taught by COG to despise such a place. And so I did throughout the months past. Yet, they accepted me for who I was, and for an Anglican Church, the minister, Dennis, believed in the Eternal Security of the Believer, as the COG members did. This alone helped me to settle in, and I made St Jude's my regular church, even if it meant a train from Bracknell to London Waterloo, then by tube to Brixton. Because of the travel, I could only attend the evening services.

St Jude's Anglican Church, Brixton.

Sadly, although the building is still there to this day, it ceased to serve as a church in 1980, and later was used as a furniture warehouse. The attendees of St Jude's then merged with nearby St Matthew's Church, on Brixton Hill.

One Stormy Night...

During childhood and adolescence, I grew up as a fan of the Dinosaurs and Darwinian Evolution. Before my conversion towards the end of 1972, I had always rubbished religion and any ideas of Divine Creation. As a boy, I took out the double-page colour illustration of an ancient jungle featuring a Brontosaurus from the Look and Learn, a weekly periodical published for schoolchildren, and taped it on the wall immediately above my bed headboard. Even after my pub conversion, I still heartily believed in Evolution, and the theory that Dinosaurs existed over 60,000,000 years before the advent of mankind.

One evening, I was alone in the house, as my parents and younger brother all went out for the evening. By then, I was already attending St Jude's. I was alone, and outside, a thunderstorm rolled. This was a good opportunity to read my father's Bible, and, curious, I turned to the very beginning, to the first chapter of Genesis.

I read the first three chapters, while mentally, I was begging Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and to try to be like the gods. My tension turned to disappointment when I read that they did eat the fruit. I looked up into the living room, where I was sitting. Although I couldn't see or hear him, I felt as if the Lord was standing right there, in front of me. He was offering me a choice. Either believe what I have just read, or carry on believing in Evolution. Which will I choose? There was no middle ground.

Without hesitation, I immediately believed the Biblical record as history. From that moment, I repudiated all theories of organic Evolution and embraced Divine Creation, the Fall, and the Noachian Deluge.

Little did I know back then that this was another major turning point. It has opened the door to a higher level of education and to future opportunities for World Travel, including the Holy Land.

However, this was also the cause of a widening family split.

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Next Week: Drifting from family life, and a shocking incident.