David Brandt Berg (1919-1994) dared to be different–so different that his back-to-the-basics approach to Christianity started a worldwide missionary movement.

Berg’s parents were both active Christian pastors and evangelists, and his early years were spent traveling with them in evangelistic work. In 1941 he nearly died of pneumonia, shortly after being drafted into the U.S. Army. After determining to rededicate his life to Christian service, he experienced a miraculous healing.

For most of the next twenty-seven years he worked as a pastor and in various evangelistic endeavors until, in 1968, he received God’s call to take the Gospel to the hippies of southern California . There he and his then teen-aged children began a ministry to the youth that grew and eventually became known as The Family. Today, members of The Family engage in missionary and humanitarian work in over one hundred countries worldwide.

Berg called on his followers to devote their full time to spreading the message of Christ’s love and salvation as far and wide as possible, unfettered by convention or tradition, and to teach others to do the same.

Berg also decried the de-Christianization and decay in moral values of Western society. He viewed the trend toward a New World Order as setting the stage for the rise of the Antichrist, a godless world dictator whom the Bible predicts will rule the world in the last days before Christ’s return.

Berg’s lively, down-to-earth, and sometimes unconventional approach to heavenly matters makes his writings a unique contribution to Christian literature. He once said of his writings that his aim was to leave his readers feeling either “mad, sad or glad.” Without a doubt, he succeeded in doing just that.