The Jesus Christians: Origins, Development, and Historical Background

The Jesus Christians.
David McKay – Founder and Leader.

By Miguel Hayworth
22 June 2026

In 1975 the Jesus Christians were formally known as ‘Voices in the Wilderness’, as reported by TACL (Take A Closer Look) in Australia. When the Jesus Christians came to the UK they were known by the name ‘Christians’; they started a group in Liverpool.

[1] Before 1975, Dave and Cherry McKay were members of a sex cult known as the Children of God, founded by David (Mo) Berg. The Family shunned Dave McKay because of his opposition to their teachings about sex.

He had problems with the group’s promotion of sex with many partners as a way of winning converts into the group (aka “Flirty Fishing”) and left. On the Jesus Christians website, what they fail to tell you is that eventually the cult would encourage children at a very young age to engage in sexual activity via deliberate education (please refer to these two videos on Davida Kelley and the Children of Vivian Shillander). This is something that Dave McKay does not address, even though David Berg promoted the idea of incest and pedophilia. Below is a history of accounts:

[2] In 1974, Berg’s daughter-in-law Sarah Berg (who married Berg’s son Paul when she was 15) alleged, in testimony to the New York Attorney General’s Charity Frauds Bureau, statements on national television and in a deposition taken by New York attorney Aaron F. Klein, that Berg made sexual advances towards her, exposed himself to her and attempted to have intercourse with her “three or four years before my teens.”

Berg’s eldest daughter Deborah Davis has written a book in which she accuses her father of sexually molesting both her and her sister when they were children, and attempting to have sex with her as an adult. (editor’s note:” The Children of God – The Inside Story” by Deborah (Linda Berg) Davis with Bill Davis © 1984 by The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan).

Her sister Faith Berg corroborated these claims, but described them in a positive way. Sarah Berg also partially corroborated these claims, noting that: “David, at times, would try to get away with things with his own daughters, and he tried it with me when I was a little girl, but I was too young to really know what was going on.”

In a child-custody case in the United Kingdom, Berg’s granddaughter, Merry Berg, testified that Berg sexually molested her when she was a young teenager.

Another of Berg’s granddaughters, Joyanne Treadwell Berg, spoke on American television about being sexually abused by her grandfather.

Davida Kelley, the daughter of Sara Kelley (nanny for Berg’s informally adopted son Ricky Rodriguez), accused Berg of molesting her in a June 2005 Rolling Stone article.

In the same article, a woman identified as Armendria alleged that Berg sexually abused her when she was 13 years old.

Ricky Rodriguez wrote an article on the website MovingOn.org in which he describes Berg’s deviant sexual activity involving a number of women and children. Her sister, Faith Berg, corroborated these claims but described them positively. Sarah Berg also partially corroborated these claims, noting that: “David, at times, would try to get away with things with his own daughters and he tried it with me when I was a little girl, but I was too young to really know what was going on.”

In a child-custody case in the United Kingdom, Berg’s granddaughter, Merry Berg, testified that Berg sexually molested her when she was a young teenager.

Another of Berg’s granddaughters, Joyanne Treadwell Berg, spoke on American television about being sexually abused by her grandfather.

Davida Kelley, the daughter of Sara Kelley (nanny for Berg’s informally adopted son Ricky Rodriguez), accused Berg of molesting her in a June 2005 Rolling Stone article.

In the same article, a woman identified as Armendria alleged that Berg sexually abused her when she was 13 years old.

Ricky Rodriguez wrote an article on the website MovingOn.org in which he describes Berg’s deviant sexual activity involving a number of women and children. Dave McKay is well aware of these matters. What is the Jesus Christian’s position on the Children of God really about when [3] they say “we have incorporated many other teachings from The Family into our teachings (most notably, aspects of their teachings about living by faith, about end-time prophecy, and about living communally)?” Admittedly?“We appreciate their friendship and have tried to find areas of agreement.“

It would seem to me that the Jesus Christians are overlooking the psychological, perverse, and Destructive nature of the cult they aspire to have friendship with. The cult still practices “sharing”, which is sexual relations between the members of the group, even when not with the person’s own partner.

Because of the Children of God there have been eight known suicides and a number of other deaths through unnatural causes of ex-members, [4]

For example

Abe Braaten (1977-09-26 – 2004-12-14, jumped from building)
Angela Marilyn Smith (1954 – 2005-01-08, stabbed to death)
Ben Farnsworth (1992, jumped from building)
Caleb David Shillander (1977-09-07 – 2006-11-21, suicide)
Daniel Frouman (1976-04-18 – 2009-07-08, suicide)
Dona Kay Halling (aka Shulamite Fields, 1953 – 1980-01-30, stabbed to death)
Jario Pinzon (1955 – 2003-09-24, shot to death)
Josh Lykins (1999-01-26, self-inflicted gunshot to head)
Paul Brandt Berg (Aaron) (1947-06 – 1973-04; apparent suicide)
Rick Dupuy (1951 – 1996-06-02, intentional drug overdose)
Ricky Rodriguez (1975-01-25 – 2005-01-09, self-inflicted gunshot to head)
River Phoenix (1970-08-23 – 1993-10-31, apparent drug-induced heart failure)
Simon Novotny (1979 – 2005, self-inflicted gunshot to head; son of Abner and Mary)
Windy (daughter of Rufas and Dulce, overdose on Malaria pills)
Zion Horwitz (1974 – 2003-01-01, stabbed to death, apparent suicide)

It is believed that there are many more cases.

The only real disagreement is with the Children of God’s position on sex outside of marriage. This is Dave McKay’s position on the Children of God,

[5] “we have not found it necessary to cut ourselves off from The Family, for several reasons: (1) As far as we know, the practice of consulting familiar spirits died out with their leader. No one in the group today has shown evidence of possession by any spirit other than the Holy Spirit; (update: We have since learned that this is definitely not the case.)

On this point the Jesus Christians are wrong. Let us see if the Children of God are really led by the Holy Spirit; in Matthew 7:16 the Bible teaches us that we will know them by their fruits, if you examine the Children of God’s (AKA the Family International) practice and teaching you will find this is far from the truth.

In 2011, The Family’s position on the Law of Love [6] Sexuality and the Law of Love It is our belief that Jesus’ Law of Love can also be applied to our sexual interaction with others. Although Christian scholars throughout history have explored this subject, applying Jesus’ Law of Love to sexuality sets the Family apart from mainstream Christian theology.3 David Berg taught from the Scriptures that sexuality is not inherently evil in the eyes of God, and sexual activity as long as others are not immediately affected by these actions and are not hurt or offended.

God created human sexuality, and the Family believes our members’ love for one another is an expression or illustration of God’s love for us. We consider actions carried out in love for one another lawful in God’s eyes.

It is our understanding of Scripture that Mosaic prohibitions and traditions in this regard no longer apply to those saved in Christ, who operate under Jesus’ Law of Love. “Love does no harm to a nis eighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). Consequently, Family adults, be they single or married, are free to engage in loving sexual relationships with other consenting adult Family members, provided their actions are loving and with the agreement of others concerned.

We regard sex as an emotional and physical human need. Married Family members, if they choose, may interact sexually with adult singles within the Family because “the love of Christ constrains them” to help their brothers or sisters in need, those who do not have a companion. Single adults may also sexually interact with other consenting single adults in order to fill this emotional and physical human need. Such giving is regarded as a sacrifice and is respected in the Family as evidence of unselfish love.

So has this demon died with David Berg ? Certainly not.

The Family’s position on Homosexuality has not changed [7] a document published December 1973 by The Children of God states IT IS NOT EXPLICITLY FORBIDDEN SUCH AS IT IS WITH MEN WITH MEN. Male homosexuality is expressly, definitely and specifically forbidden and cursed and called sodomy. In that case it is absolutely forbidden—it’s a sin. But I don’t see and I’ve never been able to find any place in the Bible where it is forbidden to women.

Their are hundreds of flaws in the Children of God’s teachings, another obvious one is on discipline, please look at the following link Discipline in the Children of God.

[8] (2) Although they talk freely of astrological star signs, they teach that God is more powerful than whatever power the “stars” might have over their personality and/or destiny;

This is justified because the MO letters [9] (#621:26; 554; 102:7-12; 61:17; 268:1-2, 12;107:18, 25) show that Berg had a long history of personal involvement with the occult as he gave his endorsement of astrology, possession and revelation by spirit guides and helpers (which included departed saints and pagans), use of mediums. In addition to Necromancy, Berg claimed to have sexual intercourse with spirits and pagan goddesses.

They justify their use of astrological star signs by saying God is more powerful, as any ex-occultist would tell you these familiar spirits will have you believe in false things to gain control over you.

[10] (3) They seem to be moving farther away from the occult practices of the New Age Movement; (4) The fables told by David Berg’s “spirit helpers” do not form a significant part of Family teaching, and could easily be dropped without affecting anything else that they do or teach;

With the Children of God Family International. It is not so simple to separate the Family from its founder, David Berg; they still see him as their Prophet/Father.

[11] (5) Because we are not officially linked with them, we feel that ultimately all we must answer for is our own behavior; and we will trust God to deal with them as he sees fit; and (6) There is no one in the churches who will have anything to do with us, so we’re not likely to turn loose of the best friends we have in order to satisfy our worst enemies.

Dave McKay’s refusal to break away from the Children of God (aka the Family International) proves that they are just a sect of the Children of God, even more so when the Jesus Christians do not reject everything that David Berg taught, “In The Word – New and Old”, David Berg writes, “You had better read what God said today in preference to what he said 2,000 …years ago! Then when you’ve gotten done reading the latest Mo Letters, you can go back to reading the Bible…”

To be fair, Berg does teach that present-day teaching must conform with the Bible (|P22), and he says that the teachings of Jesus are timeless (|P38). But our experience has been that attempts to criticise Family teaching on the basis of Christ’s teachings are often seen as signs of disloyalty. For example, it is Family practice to refer to Berg as “Father David” (or the more familiar Dad). The fact that Jesus commands us not to call anyone “Father” does not seem to matter.

Actually, it doesn’t matter. Father God would not have himself equal with anyone. This is the danger of Dave McKay’s inaccurate teachings. Dave would simply overlook this, as he does not want to appear to be too legalistic.

“Dad (David Berg) wrote against playing chess”, or “Father David was against immunising babies,” etc. Yet if we bring up the teachings of Jesus, we usually get a cool reception on the grounds that we are being too legalistic. We find it difficult not to believe that The Family is more loyal to (brother David) than to Jesus under these circumstances.

Dave McKay calls (David Berg) “Brother David”, knowing what Berg did. He was a liar, a paedophile, a sexual predator, an occultist, an encourager of child abuse, an alcoholic, a rapist, a whore monger, a pervert, a false teacher and a false prophet. These are hardly the characteristics of a good teacher or leader, and are hardly the character of a True Christian. How, then, can Dave McKay even refer to David Berg as “Brother David”?

Please refer to the documents around the Practices and teachings of David Berg and see if as Dave McKay says, the group today has shown evidence of possession by any spirit other than the Holy Spirit;

Berg’s Anti-Semitism – shocking words of hate by the self-proclaimed “Prophet of Love”. In 3 Parts, this article deals extensively with Berg’s anti-Semitic writings, rampant misinformation amongst (ex)members, and the historical facts surrounding the Holocaust by researchers for exFamily.org

The Family’s Policy on Lying and Deception – Ed Priebe, 2005 update

The Family – Official Policy on Lying & Deception – revised & edited by WC

The Alcoholic Prophet – an old class by Ed Priebe, complete re-edited and revamped, with powerful new quotes

Is tithing Scriptural for New Testament Christians? – Ed Priebe

David Berg … False Prophet? by Nick Warrick

Zerby on Education – WC

Jesus Christians, plagiarisers by design.

The Jesus Christians are Plagiarisers by design, as you can see from the comics themselves, the idea and inspiration for the artwork is copied from the Children of God’s comics. This is nothing new because the Children of God have done the same thing as other artists. In the case of the Jesus Christians leaders, copying art is nothing new, when we look at the Children of God’s track record.

[12] “The concept of copying art–whether in ideas, style, presentation, or finer details–is not new. It’s probably not something many of you think about, because you don’t live with artists and see all that goes into their work. If we had more time, I would ask all our artists to give you a glimpse into how they do their work, as each artist has strong and weak points. Some artists are very good with a certain style, but find another style practically impossible. .“

“Most artists, even if they’re not copy artists, use reference material of some sort or another, whether another artist’s work, or photographs, or models, or whatever. In fact, there’s a huge market for such materials on the Internet. If you do a web search on the term “artist reference,” you’ll find millions of hits, and many thousands of them are people selling photos, slides reference books, guides and resources for artists. Some artists use more references than others. Others need help and send their work to another artist to perfect whatever they have a hard time with–like hands, or hair, or body proportions, or animals, or intricate backgrounds, or whatever the case may be.“

“Quotation from xfamily.org“