KEYWORDS: church, part, sect, baby, god, children

Are the Children of God a Sect?

David Berg

—MO September 10, 1972 NO.179—GP

P.O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or GPO Box 3141, San Juan‚ Puerto Rico 00936

1. WHAT CHURCH DID THE CHILDREN OF GOD SPLIT OFF FROM? Is a new child a sect? No, he's a totally new birth!—An absolute new creation! Dropped out, yes, but a totally new creation! We are not a sect! We belonged to no religious denomination as a group. In order to be a sect, you must first be part of the whole to begin with. Just because one little sperm cell and one mother's egg was a part of the whole, this new baby or creation composed of millions of cells cannot be considered a sect.

2. IF WE ARE LIKE THESE DENOMINATIONS, WE ARE A MERE REFORMATION. Even the Jehovah's Witnesses‚ who are one of the most radical religious groups of today‚ were a split off from the Seventh-day Adventist Church and are still part of the church system in many ways. But we are not even a break with it, because we didn't break off from it‚ because we were never a part of it!

3. IN SOME RESPECTS, WE WERE BORN OF THE WHOLE CHURCH, LIKE A NEW BABY, BUT THE NEW BABY IS A TOTALLY NEW CHURCH. She's not a part of the whole. She may have been contained by the whole, but, in fact‚ the new baby is not even connected to the whole. It is connected to the placenta, a foreign substance which the mother's body eventually rejects, and is in a totally separate bag,—a "whole new bag"!

4. THE BABY DOES NOT HAVE THE BLOOD OF ITS MOTHER flowing through its veins! The baby absorbs nourishment by osmosis. It uses its mother for nine months and then kicks off. We are parasites right now because we have to be nourished by the mother to survive. Every child is a parasite. One of these days we'll be strong enough to be on our own.

5. EVERY SINGLE SECT OR GROUP THAT YOU CAN THINK OF HAS BEEN A SPLIT–OFF OR DIVISION OF SOME FORMER GROUP. What religious body are we a split off from? They say we're separatists. We have separated ourselves from the churches. But most of us were never a part of any church. The word section itself means cut off. What church were we cut off of?—None!

6. JUST AS WE ARE CREATED FROM THE DUST OR ELEMENTS OF THE EARTH, SO WE'VE BEEN MADE ONE BODY OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE SYSTEM. We, the children of God, who have been scattered abroad, He has gathered together into one body. "And not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." (John 11:52).

7. WE ARE NOT PROTESTANTS, OR CATHOLICS, OR JEWS. We are not coming out of anything. We are a new body, a new creation, new Jerusalem, a new man, a new church! We are a New nation! Most nations are pieces of former nations or empires. What empire were we cut off from?—or a part of?—or created out of? We were always the Children of God! He's just gathered us together. We are a New Nation, born in a day, this day, today!

8. ISRAEL IS NO NEW NATION! There is nothing new about her at all! She's thousands of years old! I remember since I was a little boy thinking about things like that, and I remember I used to keep getting the answers. The Holy Spirit was speaking to my heart, showing me the problems and then giving me the answers. So we are God's seed and His Children‚ and we were scattered abroad, but are now being gathered together by the Lord. We are no sect or cut off of something else. We are His totally new creation!—Hallelujah!—Amen?