Shincheonji lesson 20: figurative bowl

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson says a bowl is a person, and that the goal is to become “a noble bowl” filled with God’s word at the second coming. Students are asked whether they are “emptying our bowls” of “things we have come to question the worth of,” like Paul throwing away his “old teachings.” They are told the sea is “the world,” not a good place for believers, and to “gather in the basket … not scattered in the sea.” The review ends: “Let’s join a good church.” SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (p. 23) says who the bowls are: God’s bowls are “God’s true shepherd and his congregation,” and Satan’s bowls are “the shepherds of the world and their followers.” Several of the lesson’s key readings contradict the very verses it cites, and one of its memory verses warns against a teaching SCJ itself holds.

1. 1. Habits, cameras and eternal life

   The yeast review says, “Those who can conquer their habits with the Word are those that can have eternal life. If you want eternal life, change your habits.” Then it qualifies: “Though we have eternal life through faith, we must still put effort into changing our habits.”

   • The qualification is right, and it contradicts the first statement. Eternal life comes through faith: “by grace you are saved through faith … it is not from works” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
   • Changed habits are the fruit of salvation, not the condition for it: “we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them” (2:10).
   • The lesson’s example of being “good yeast” is “having our cameras on, speaking clearly, and reading the verses.” Class participation is being framed as spiritual faithfulness.

2. 2. The golden bowls are full of wrath

   The board says the golden bowls of Revelation 15:7 “represent people who have overcome and are filled with God’s word.”

   • Revelation says the bowls are “filled with the wrath of God” (15:7). The angels are told to “pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God’s wrath” (16:1).
   • Revelation does use golden bowls one other way: “golden bowls full of incense (which are the prayers of the saints)” (5:8).
   • In both places, Revelation tells us what the bowls hold: wrath or prayers. In neither place are the bowls people filled with the word. The lesson’s definition contradicts the text.

3. 3. The potter: God shapes the vessels by his mercy

   The lesson uses Romans 9:21-24 and Isaiah 64:8 to say our goal is to “allow Him to shape us into noble vessels.”

   • In Romans 9, the point is God’s mercy, not our effort: “it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy” (9:16).
   • The objects of mercy are those God “prepared beforehand for glory,” whom he “called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles” (9:23-24).
   • Paul’s own picture: “we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). The worth is the treasure, “the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ” (4:6), and the power is God’s.

4. 4. What Paul threw away was his own righteousness, not old church teaching

   The lesson asks students whether they are “emptying our bowls” of things they question, and paraphrases Paul: “I poured out the old teachings, considering them rubbish, so that I could be filled with and deliver this new revelation from above.”

   • Philippians 3 tells us what Paul threw away: his credentials and his own righteousness under the law. He lists his circumcision, his tribe, being a Pharisee, his zeal and his law-keeping (3:4-6).
   • He regarded them as dung “that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness” (3:8-9).
   • In Galatians 1:11-12, Paul received the gospel “by a revelation of Jesus Christ.” But it was the same gospel the other apostles preached: “Whether then it was I or they, this is the way we preach and this is the way you believed” (1 Corinthians 15:11). The leaders in Jerusalem confirmed his message (Galatians 2:2, 9).
   • In the same letter, Paul says that anyone, even “an angel from heaven,” who preaches a gospel contrary to the one he preached is condemned (Galatians 1:8).

   Paul emptied himself of self-righteousness to gain Christ. He did not empty himself of the gospel to receive a newer revelation. Asking students to empty out what they already believe, before the new teaching is fully disclosed, reverses Paul’s example.

5. 5. The lesson says “Satan’s attacks bounce off us”

   The lesson says that once believers are refined, “Satan’s attacks bounce off us.” It uses Paul as the model noble bowl.

   • Paul writes: “a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to trouble me” (2 Corinthians 12:7). It didn’t bounce off.
   • Jesus’ answer to him was: “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9).
   • Strength in the Christian life comes from Christ’s grace in weakness, not from becoming a refined vessel that nothing touches.

6. 6. Jeremiah 48 is about Moab

   The notes say Jesus and the twelve disciples “smashed” the Pharisees with the word, “fulfilling” Jeremiah 48:11-12.

   • Jeremiah 48 begins: the Lord “spoke about Moab” (48:1). Moab was a neighboring nation descended from Lot (Genesis 19:37), and the chapter describes its coming destruction.
   • In Matthew 23:25-26, Jesus says the Pharisees clean the outside of the cup while the inside is full of greed, and tells them, “First clean the inside of the cup.” It’s a call to repent, not the smashing of jars.
   • Neither passage links the two. The “fulfillment” is the lesson’s addition.

7. 7. 2 Timothy 2: The noble vessel cleanses itself from a specific teaching

   The memory verses include 2 Timothy 2:20-21: in a wealthy home some vessels are “for honorable use, but others for ignoble use,” and whoever cleanses himself “will be a vessel for honorable use.” Read what Paul is talking about just before:

   • Paul tells Timothy to “avoid profane chatter because those occupied with it will stray further and further into ungodliness, and their message will spread its infection like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are in this group. They have strayed from the truth by saying that the resurrection has already occurred, and they are undermining some people’s faith” (2:16-18).
   • The noble vessel cleanses itself from teaching that redefines the resurrection as something already happening.
   • In the previous lesson, SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (p. 141), discussing the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15, said: “The flesh and blood of those who have already died do not come to life again.” Paul says “the dead will be raised imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:52).
   • Then Paul tells Timothy to “pursue righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace, in company with others who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). The fellowship Paul commends is everyone who calls on the Lord sincerely, not one organization.

8. 8. John 15:3: Already clean

   The lesson says: “Once faith is built by the word and through the word, one can be cleaned.”

   • Jesus told his disciples: “You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
   • The cleansing came through Jesus’ word, already given. It doesn’t wait on a newer teaching.

9. 9. The net: All kinds of fish, sorted by angels at the end

   The review says, “Let’s join a good church (Matthew 13:47-50) to be gathered like good fish,” and the summary says “gather in the basket … not scattered in the sea.” The Explanation of Parables (p. 22) says the vessel that holds the fish is “an organization like a church where people gather.”

   • Jesus says the net “caught all kinds of fish” (13:47). Good and bad are in the net together.
   • The sorting happens later: “It will be this way at the end of the age. Angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous” (13:49).
   • The parable is about final judgment by angels, not about joining the right organization now. It’s the same pattern as the wheat and weeds (Lesson 1): humans don’t do the sorting; angels do, at the end.

10. 10. The lesson says “the world is not a good place for believers to remain”

    The lesson says the sea is the world, and “the world is not a good place for believers to remain.”

    • Jesus prayed for his disciples: “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one” (John 17:15). “Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world” (17:18).
    • Jesus tells his followers, “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14). They are to be in the world, not withdrawn into one group.

11. 11. Spiritual fasting: Isaiah 58 says the opposite

    The lesson uses Isaiah 58:6 to define “spiritual fasting” as refusing to hear Satan’s food once it has been identified. Read what Isaiah says the fast God wants actually is:

    • “No, this is the kind of fast I want: I want you to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke … and to break every burdensome yoke” (58:6).
    • “I want you to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. When you see someone naked, clothe them! Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood” (58:7).

    God’s chosen fast is mercy, justice and generosity, including not turning away from your own family. It is not refusing to listen to outside voices.

12. 12. God’s bowls and Satan’s bowls

    The Explanation of Parables (p. 23) says God’s bowls today are “God’s true shepherd and his congregation,” and Satan’s bowls, holding “the wine of adulteries,” are “the shepherds of the world and their followers.”

    • That labels every pastor outside SCJ, and every Christian who follows them, as Satan’s bowl.
    • Scripture’s objects of mercy are those God called “not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles” (Romans 9:24), and the fellowship Paul commends is “others who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22).