The Coming of the Son of Man | thebereancall.org

The Coming of the Son of Man

December 4, 2024
TBC Staff

When Jesus warned in Matthew:7:15 and told the people to “Beware of false prophets,” He did describe them – saying they will look remarkably like true prophets. They would be wearing “sheep’s clothing.” They would look “right,” sound “right,” and might even perform miracles, the better to deceive. It would be their fruit, i.e., their teachings, which would demonstrate whether they were true or false prophets. A favorite tactic of many pseudo-Christian cults is to reimagine the Bible as being a book about their leader and group. For example, Sun Myung Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, more commonly known as the Unification Church, in Seoul, South Korea, in 1954. He used or rather misused the Bible and developed an “updated” book, The Divine Principle, which: inherits and builds upon the core truths which God revealed through the Jewish and Christian scriptures and encompasses the profound wisdom of the Orient.1

Moon claimed to be the Messiah and pointed to Matthew 24 as prophesying his coming: For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew:24:27)

Moon came from the East, South Korea, and went to the West, America. What could be plainer? Moon is not the first nor is he the last to twist the Bible to make it appear to be about their group….They preach a different Jesus, a different God, and a different way of salvation. That is why the most important way to identify a false prophet cult group is to examine their teachings.  

A group that has recently come to our attention is Shincheonji Church of Jesus, founded in 1984 by Lee Man-hee. They claim to be: the 12 tribes (named after the 12 disciples) who make up the 144,000, along with “the great multitude in white” mentioned in Revelation chapter 7.2

The group is quite aggressive in evangelizing Christians and Christian churches. At the time of this writing, they have a “witnessing” campaign going on is the Orlando, FL area and college campuses in Australia.3 As an enticement they are also offering all-expense paid trips to South Korea to observe the graduating class of their university.

Unfortunately, many pastors are not only unaware of the group, but often don’t have the tools or the time to evaluate such groups. They come across with a “Christian-sounding” vocabulary but they use a different “dictionary.” Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Shincheonji views the Book of Revelation as being all about their group. We see this in their name, “Shincheonji,” which translates as “new heaven and a new earth.”(Revelation:21:1)

The interpretation given by Lee Man-hee is that the historical church is no longer relevant; it has been set aside and replaced by Shincheonji. How very original! A historical-grammatical contextual reading of the above passage reveals that back in Revelation 20, the thousand-year kingdom on earth ended, and Satan was loosed for a season, after which he and the anti-Christ were cast into the lake of fire and sulfur. The Great White Throne judgment had already taken place and all accounts have been settled. Chapter 21 teaches the earth and cosmos have by this time been dissolved (see also 1 Peter:3:10) and the Apostle John wrote: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation:21:1-4)

Peter and John certainly describe a cosmos cleansed of the ravages of sin, a new heaven and a new earth in its place, God dwelling with man, and no “mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” But, we have to wonder how and why everything came to pass without our even noticing it? Looking around, NOBODY seems to have noticed it! So, we may not know “how” or even “when” all this overtook us, but we do know the “why.” It simply had to be that way to make everything now about Shincheonji, of course! Aha! Here’s a clue though – all this stuff did not occur literally.

[According to Shincheonji ] the “new heavens and new earth” are not to be understood literally (and neither are most of the events of Revelation) but this refers to the passing away of the traditional churches to be replaced by God’s kingdom of Shincheonji. The meaning of the Book of Revelation was hidden in parables so that no one in heaven or on earth has been able to understand the truth for 6,000 years until now when Revelation’s fulfillment is taking place. All of the events of Revelation have already had their physical fulfillment in South Korea in the past few decades, except for some of the events of chapters 18 to 20 which will soon be fulfilled.4

Shincheonji [also] denies the central biblical doctrine of the Trinity, and also denies Christ’s deity (and preexistence before His birth), His resurrected body (He was raised with a body that became a spirit as He ascended into the clouds), and His future glorious Second Coming. SCJ teaches that Jesus has already returned in 1966 in spirit when he started teaching his message in South Korea, the thousand-year Millennial Kingdom began in 1984, and the Great Tribulation that Jesus spoke of was the COVID-19 global pandemic.6

Hood – “the better to deceive you with, my dear.”

[TBC: For the complete article and footnotes, see:] https://midwestoutreach.org/?p=14955

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