Love Family

The Love Family combined communal households, shared religious commitments, and an understanding that loving relationships allowed Christ to express his personality through members.[1] Its church charter described its purpose as fulfilling the New Testament through visions, dreams, and revelations received by members.[1] The name Church of Jesus Christ at Armageddon referred to Revelation 16:16 and to Armageddon as the gathering place of the end-time.[1]

The group was distinct from The Family International, an organization originating in David Berg’s California ministry that was formerly called the Children of God, The Family, and The Family of Love.[1]

Love Israel, a former television salesman named Paul Erdman, founded the church in 1968.[1] During the 1970s, the community grew and established its headquarters on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill in a handmade mansion surrounded by residences, gardens, and shops.[1] Members operated small businesses and maintained satellite communities in Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.[1]

Following a major internal disruption in the early 1980s, the remaining community relocated to a 300-acre ranch near Arlington, Washington.[1] One account states that Love Israel then moved to California to work as a banker before returning to Seattle, after which the ranch served as the group’s headquarters and a cultural center for dispersed members.[1]

Approximately 100 members remained in 2002.[1] Love Israel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003 after the group’s businesses and cottage industries failed.[1] The Arlington ranch was sold to the Union for Reform Judaism, which planned to use the property as a children’s summer camp.[1] Remaining members were still together in 2008 and had recently established an online presence, although membership figures for that year were unavailable.[1]

New members contributed all their possessions and adopted biblical or virtue first names while abandoning their former names.[1] They took Israel as their surname because they understood it to be the name of God’s people.[1] Members lived in family units or expanded households, each represented by a household father or mother.[1] They understood themselves as joined in a universal marriage in Jesus Christ rather than bound by conventional marriage traditions.[1]

The larger community conducted its affairs through communication and informal meetings.[1] Its stated approach replaced rules with love, agreement, moderation, and common sense.[1] Eating and drinking were treated as sacramental, while water baptism represented a new beginning within the Body of Christ.[1] The church’s statement of ministry concluded: “WHEN THE SEERS COME TOGETHER, THEN THE WATCHERS WILL SEE.”[1]

Hospitality and food provision formed part of the group’s communal activities: its 24-hour inn housed and fed guests without charge.[1] Members also distributed food from their farms and fishing boat to neighbors in need.[1] For a short period, members participated as observers in the Church Council of Greater Seattle.[2]

The community’s religious identity linked the name Israel to its claim to be a beneficiary of the Old Testament promises to Israel and to a commitment to practice the beliefs and lifestyle of the New Testament.[1] That theology was expressed through communal ownership, members’ adoption of new names, sacramental meals, and informal family governance.[1]

Its relations with wider Seattle included a free 24-hour inn, food distribution from farms and a fishing boat, and brief participation as an observer in the Church Council of Greater Seattle.[1][2] These activities placed hospitality and food provision alongside the community’s inward religious and economic life.

Members’ unorthodox appearance and lifestyle made the group a target of anti-cultists and deprogrammers.[2] An internal power struggle and a lawsuit by a former member severely disrupted the community.[1] One account dates the disruption to 1983 and says most of the group’s 350 members left; another dates it to 1984 and says the core members relocated to the Arlington ranch.[1][2]

Later controversies included zoning and land-use violations and allegations of drug use, sexual misconduct, and cult behavior; the misconduct allegations were not presented as established findings.[1]