Shincheonji lesson 10: fundamentals of the Bible, part three

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson finishes the “fundamentals” and sets three rules for reading Revelation before the course ever explains it. First, faith in prophecy without faith in its fulfillment is a failing grade. Second, any interpretation made without having “directly heard or seen” the events is just guessing, and only eyewitnesses can be trusted. Third, all prophecy follows the order “betrayal, destruction, salvation,” and anyone who explains Revelation without that order “should not be heeded.” SCJ’s The Creation of Heaven and Earth (p. 146) then names the era: “It is now time for New Spiritual Israel, which is the generation of Shincheonji.” Each rule fails against the verses used to support it, and the lesson’s main example, Abraham’s 400 years, is described in two contradictory ways in SCJ’s own book.

1. 1. Isaiah 28:16: The stone is Jesus, and Peter says so plainly

   The lesson uses Isaiah’s stone in Zion to show that prophecy is figurative, and correctly says the stone is Jesus.

   • Peter explains it openly, to ordinary believers scattered across Asia Minor (1 Peter 1:1; 2:6). No secret key or eyewitness of a modern event was needed.
   • The verse itself says what to do with the stone: “The one who maintains his faith will not panic” (Isaiah 28:16). Peter quotes it as “whoever believes in him will never be put to shame” (1 Peter 2:6). The response is faith in Jesus.
   • The example shows that the figures of Old Testament prophecy point to Christ and were explained by the apostles. That is the opposite of a code still waiting for a future interpreter.

2. 2. Genesis 15: SCJ’s own book contradicts itself on the main example

   The lesson’s central example of promise and fulfillment is God telling Abraham his descendants would be enslaved for 400 years (Genesis 15:13-14).

   • SCJ’s Creation (p. 48) says Abraham’s descendants would become slaves and suffer for 400 years.
   • The same book (p. 113) says the 400 years were a time to “expand safely in Egypt,” and only after the 400 years did God let Pharaoh treat them harshly.
   • Genesis 15:13 settles it: “They will be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years.” Page 113 contradicts the verse.

   If SCJ’s own book gives two incompatible accounts of the course’s model example of prophecy and fulfillment, that should make a student cautious about trusting its explanations of Revelation.

3. 3. Genesis 15:6: Faith before fulfillment was counted as righteousness

   The lesson says believing prophecy without believing its fulfillment is like scoring 50 percent on a test. SCJ’s book compares it to believing a blueprint without the building.

   • Look earlier in the same chapter: “Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it as righteousness to him” (Genesis 15:6). Abraham believed the promise long before any fulfillment, and God counted it as righteousness. Paul builds justification by faith on this verse (Romans 4:3, 18-22).
   • Hebrews 11 praises people who “died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them” (11:13), and says they were all “commended for their faith” though they did not receive what was promised (11:39).
   • Faith is “being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).

   The lesson’s “50 percent” rule would fail Abraham and everyone in Hebrews 11.

4. 4. Revelation 22:18-19: The warning is about adding to the book

   The lesson defines adding to Revelation as interpreting it “without having directly heard or seen the reality being described.”

   • The warning is about adding to or taking away from “the words of the prophecy contained in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19). That is the text, not whether an interpreter was an eyewitness.
   • Proverbs warns everyone: “Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you and prove you to be a liar” (Proverbs 30:6). The warning applies to SCJ as much as anyone.
   • Look at what SCJ attaches to the text: the field is the church, the oil is SCJ’s testimony, Revelation’s 200 million include people, every prophecy follows “betrayal, destruction, salvation” and New Spiritual Israel is “the generation of Shincheonji.” None of these are in the words of the book.

5. 5. The eyewitness rule

   SCJ’s Creation (p. 357) says believers can only learn the true identities of the groups in Revelation by listening to “those who have directly witnessed the events of betrayal and destruction in the place they took place.”

   • Revelation names its eyewitness: “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things” (Revelation 22:8; see 1:2). He wrote down what he saw and sent it to the churches (1:11).
   • Jesus explained prophecy’s fulfillment from Scripture: “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures” (Luke 24:27).
   • Paul addressed people “from the scriptures” (Acts 17:2-3), and the Bereans checked his message by examining the scriptures (17:11). Neither the Bereans nor Paul’s audience were eyewitnesses. They were expected to judge by the text.
   • By SCJ’s rule, every Christian who has read Revelation for nearly 2,000 years was guessing. The rule is built to make one modern witness the only reliable source.

6. 6. Luke 12:54-57: Jesus tells them to judge for themselves

   The lesson uses this passage to say we must identify “the present time” correctly, and builds a list of seven eras that ends in “The Period of Revelation and Re-creation.”

   • “The present time” in Luke 12:56 was the time of Jesus’ own presence and ministry among them. That is what they failed to recognize.
   • The next verse says, “And why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” (12:57). Jesus asks them to use their own judgment, not to rely on a teacher’s timeline.
   • The seven-era list isn’t in Scripture.
   • Watch how the claim hardens within one session: the body of the notes says “we seem to be in this period now” and “more study is needed,” and the review says “we are in the era of Revelation and recreation.” SCJ’s book (p. 146) names it as the time of “the generation of Shincheonji.”

7. 7. 2 Thessalonians 2: Paul wrote this to stop people from claiming the day had arrived

   The lesson uses 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 to establish the order “betrayal, destruction, salvation.” Look at Paul’s actual purpose.

   • Paul writes so believers won’t be “shaken” or “disturbed by any kind of spirit or message” claiming “the day of the Lord is already here” (2:2). His warning is against people announcing that end-time events have already arrived.
   • In Paul’s sequence, the one destroyed is the lawless one, and the Lord destroys him “by the manifestation of his arrival” (2:8). SCJ’s book (p. 334) changes this into the destruction of “the chosen people at the hand of the gentiles,” which isn’t what Paul says.
   • In Paul’s sequence, salvation is “our being gathered to be with him” at “the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2:1). SCJ’s book says salvation comes “through the one who overcomes,” a human figure.

   Paul’s order ends with Jesus’ visible return. SCJ’s order ends with a man and a group. Using this chapter to support claims that Revelation is being fulfilled now does exactly what Paul wrote the chapter to warn against.

8. 8. Revelation is not built on “betrayal, destruction, salvation”

   The lesson says anyone who explains Revelation without this flow “should not be heeded.”

   • Revelation’s own structure is letters to seven churches, a throne-room vision of God and the Lamb, seals, trumpets, bowls, the fall of Babylon, Christ’s return, final judgment and the new creation (Revelation 2–22).
   • The three-step template is SCJ’s own framework. In later lessons it is used to tell the story of a specific Korean church in the 1960s–80s and the rise of SCJ’s founder.
   • Declaring in advance that every other explanation “should not be heeded” rules out comparison before the student has heard SCJ’s version.

9. 9. God’s purpose: Eternal life is given to those who believe

   The lesson rightly uses John 6:40 and Romans 6:23 to say God’s will is salvation and eternal life. Then it adds: “Before this can happen, biblical prophecy states certain events must come to pass.”

   • John 6:40 says God’s will is “for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” A few verses later Jesus says, “the one who believes has eternal life” (6:47). The believer has eternal life now. The resurrection is at the last day.
   • Nothing in that passage makes eternal life wait for a series of modern events.

10. 10. The book’s goal is “harvesting the wheat-like believers”

    SCJ’s Creation (p. 146) says it is time for “the generation of Shincheonji” to create God’s kingdom by “harvesting the wheat-like believers (church members).”

    • This ties back to Lesson 1. Jesus said “The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels” (Matthew 13:39).
    • Here SCJ’s book says plainly that the harvest is SCJ taking members from churches.