Shincheonji lesson 60: figurative 3 types of Israel

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson’s key defines “Israel: One Who Overcomes, Chosen People” and teaches three Israels: physical Israel, which ended with John the Baptist; spiritual Israel, the church, which ends when it betrays; and new spiritual Israel, twelve tribes formed around a new overcomer. “From the overcomer must come 12 tribes.” It says “John never joined Jesus” and that “The Pharisees invaded and destroyed him.” It says “Producing fruit means evangelism,” that “the field represents the church,” and that students should pray, “God, let me be harvested,” rather than stay “because it’s comfortable, because I know the people here.” SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (p. 101) says believers must “belong to the Twelve Tribes of New Spiritual Israel to become God’s eternal people of heaven.” Scripture tells us who God’s Israel is now, and it doesn’t end.

1. 1. What “Israel” means

   The key defines Israel as “One Who Overcomes,” and the instructor says the footnote “he struggles with God” is “only half correct.”

   • God gave Jacob the name with an explanation: “because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:28). The name tells Jacob’s story.
   • The lesson builds a rule from it: “From the overcomer must come 12 tribes.” Scripture never states that rule. It’s the course’s framework, designed so that a new overcomer must produce new twelve tribes.

2. 2. Jesus as Israel, and the twelve apostles

   The lesson says that at the first coming “Jesus became Israel,” and chose twelve disciples as his twelve tribes.

   • The New Testament does present Jesus as the true Israel. Matthew applies Hosea 11:1 to him: “I called my Son out of Egypt” (Matthew 2:15). That should be affirmed.
   • But the apostles aren’t new tribes. Jesus told them they would “sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28).
   • In the new Jerusalem, the twelve gates bear the names of “the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel,” and the twelve foundations bear “the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:12, 14). Tribes and apostles are distinct.

3. 3. A “tribe of Thomas”

   The lesson says a believer reached by Thomas “would belong to the tribe of Thomas.”

   Paul rebuked exactly this way of naming believers after leaders:

   “each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.” Is Christ divided? Paul wasn’t crucified for you, was he?” (1 Corinthians 1:12-13)

   • “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13). “if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).
   • Believers belong to Christ, not to tribes named after the person who reached them. SCJ does organize its members into twelve tribes named after apostles, so Paul’s warning applies directly.

4. 4. God’s Israel now is everyone in Christ

   The lesson rightly cites John 1:12-13 and Romans 2:28-29 and says, “The standard is no longer based on bloodline or physical lineage.”

   That’s correct:

   “a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit” (Romans 2:28-29)

   • Paul calls those who live by the new creation in Christ “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:15-16). Peter tells believers, “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9).
   • Once the standard is being in Christ, there’s no third Israel to move to. God’s Israel is the whole people who belong to Christ.

5. 5. The church doesn’t come to an end

   The lesson says spiritual Israel, the church, ends when the seven stars betray and the beast invades.

   • Jesus: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18). “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (28:20).
   • Paul even says of physical Israel, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew!” and “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:2, 29). God doesn’t discard his people for a newer group.
   • The seven stars are the angels of seven first-century churches, two of which received no rebuke (Revelation 1:20; 2:8-11; 3:7-13). (See Lesson 28.)

6. 6. The field is the world

   The notes say “the field represents the world, Jesus’s world,” then “This world … is his church, the realm of Christianity,” and later “We know that the field represents the church.”

   • Jesus: “The field is the world” (Matthew 13:38).
   • The notes quote “world” and then replace it with “church.” The harvest of Revelation 14 is the reaping of “the earth” (14:15-16), not a harvest out of churches. (See Lessons 1 and 15.)

7. 7. John the Baptist: Killed by Herod, not destroyed by the Pharisees

   The notes say “John never joined Jesus” and “The Pharisees invaded and destroyed him, causing him to doubt Jesus.”

   • John pointed his own disciples to Jesus, and they followed Jesus (John 1:35-37). John said, “He must become more important while I become less important” (John 3:30).
   • Herod imprisoned John because John kept telling him his marriage to Herodias was unlawful (Matthew 14:3-4), and Herod had him beheaded (14:10). There’s no record that the Pharisees invaded him. John had called them “offspring of vipers” (3:7).
   • Jesus called him “more than a prophet” and said “no one has arisen greater” (Matthew 11:9, 11). The line “the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is” speaks of the greater privilege of those who live after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The verse says “kingdom of heaven,” not “new heaven,” and it doesn’t say John failed. (See Lessons 37 and 59.)

8. 8. 1 Corinthians 15:33: Bad company denies the resurrection

   The lesson uses 1 Corinthians 15:33 to warn about friends who talk about “news events, the stock market, real estate.”

   • In context, Paul was warning about people who said “there is no resurrection of the dead” (15:12). The next verse: “Sober up as you should, and stop sinning! For some have no knowledge of God” (15:34).
   • The “Bad company” Paul meant was teaching that denied the bodily resurrection. Friends talking about the stock market aren’t it.
   • SCJ’s own book redefines the resurrection as leaving one organization for another (Lesson 53). By the context of the verse the lesson quotes, that’s the kind of influence Paul warned about. (See also 2 Timothy 2:18.)

9. 9. Fruit is not mainly recruiting

   On Matthew 21:43, the notes say “Producing fruit means evangelism” and that this “is not talking about the fruits of the Spirit.”

   • John the Baptist: “produce fruit that proves your repentance” (Matthew 3:8).
   • In Matthew 21, Jesus has just said John came “in the way of righteousness” and the leaders didn’t believe him (21:32). The fruit God wants is repentance and righteousness.
   • In John 15, the lesson’s own reference, fruit is tied to obeying Jesus and loving one another (15:8-12).
   • Paul: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness …” (Galatians 5:22). Sharing the gospel is good, but making fruit mean recruiting turns faithfulness into numbers. (See Lesson 17.)

10. 10. “God, let me be harvested”

    The lesson tells students to pray to be harvested, not to stay “because it’s comfortable, because I know the people here.”

    • In Scripture, “The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels” (Matthew 13:39; Revelation 14:15-19).
    • Believers are told not to abandon “our own meetings” (Hebrews 10:25). Staying with the people who know and love you isn’t a failure of faith.

11. 11. The Tel Aviv video: What has “already taken place”

    The class watches a video of Jewish people waiting for the Messiah, and the instructor asks what may be causing Christians “to wait forever for something that has already taken place.”

    • What had already happened for those waiting was the coming of Jesus the Messiah. Christians believe that.
    • What Christians wait for is Jesus’ visible return: “we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Hebrews describes believers as “those who eagerly await him” (Hebrews 9:28).
    • Jesus’ return hasn’t secretly taken place already. He said it would be seen by all, like lightning (Matthew 24:27; Revelation 1:7). (See Lesson 59.)

12. 12. A “missing brick”

    The lesson says a missed lesson is “a missing brick in their temple,” so “If you’ve missed any lessons, please reach out to your evangelist and make them up right away.”

    • Scripture’s temple is built on Jesus: “no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). Believers are “living stones” in it (1 Peter 2:5). A missed class doesn’t leave a hole in a believer’s standing with God.