Shincheonji lesson 31: figurative clothes

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson defines clothes as “Heart, Actions and Doctrines,” and the wedding clothes of Matthew 22 as “righteous acts,” with heaven or hell depending on whether you’re wearing them. It opens with a letter written in Jesus’ voice telling the class to “Escape to the mountains where we’ll find each other,” and teaches that “Doubt comes from the enemy.” It defines grace as “The grace of understanding who Christ is,” says washing your robe means being made clean “through understanding,” and puts “Blood = Word” on the board. The righteous acts it calls for are ones “not possible before but are now expected with the fulfillment of prophecy,” including fleeing to the mountains of Matthew 24. SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (p. 41) says those wearing wedding clothes are “the believers who came to the true shepherd of God,” while “the false shepherds and their followers of the world” are not. The lesson’s handling of grace and Christ’s blood is the most serious problem here.

1. 1. A letter in Jesus’ voice: “Escape to the mountains where we’ll find each other”

   The class hears a letter written as if from Jesus, ending, “Will you join me, Harvest class?”

   • Putting words in Jesus’ mouth is serious. “Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you and prove you to be a liar” (Proverbs 30:6). God warned against anyone who “presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized” (Deuteronomy 18:20).
   • And look at what this “Jesus” says: go to the mountains, where we’ll find each other. Jesus warned about exactly that: “if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him … if someone says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out” (Matthew 24:23-26).
   • Jesus’ return will be as visible as lightning (24:27). He doesn’t need to be found at a location.

2. 2. “Doubt comes from the enemy”

   The notes say “Doubt comes from the enemy” and “Confusion and questioning what is right comes from the enemy,” and tell students to “cast doubt away.”

   • James 1 is about asking God for wisdom while doubting God’s generosity (1:5-8). It isn’t about questioning human teachers. (See Lesson 11.)
   • Scripture commands testing: “examine all things; hold fast to what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The Bereans questioned even an apostle (Acts 17:11).
   • God meets doubt with mercy: “have mercy on those who waver” (Jude 22). Jesus showed Thomas his hands (John 20:27).

   If questioning what is right comes from the enemy, students lose the ability to test the very course telling them this.

3. 3. The wedding banquet: The king provides

   The lesson uses Matthew 22:1-14 to say the wedding clothes are righteous acts, and those without them go to hell.

   • In the parable, the invited guests refused, so the king’s servants gathered “all they found, both bad and good” (22:10). The invitation was undeserved.
   • Revelation 19:8 does say “the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” But the same verse says the bride “was permitted to be dressed in bright, clean, fine linen.” It was given to her.
   • Scripture repeatedly pictures God as the one who clothes his people: “he clothes me in garments of deliverance; he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication” (Isaiah 61:10). “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27).
   • Righteous deeds are real and expected, and that should be affirmed (James 2:17). But they are the fruit of God clothing us, not the price of admission.

4. 4. Acts “now expected”: Fleeing to the mountains

   The lesson says God now expects acts “that were not possible before,” with Matthew 24:15-16 as the example: to obey, “we need to know what the abomination is, what the holy place refers to, and what mountains we are supposed to flee to.”

   • Luke’s parallel explains it: “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies … those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains” (Luke 21:20-21). It was about escaping the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70. (See Lesson 12.)
   • The lesson itself mentions Matthew 25. There, Jesus describes the righteous acts he will look for at the judgment: feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting prisoners (25:31-46). None depend on decoding a prophecy. (See Lesson 21.)

5. 5. Ephesians 2 was written to Gentiles

   The notes say that in Ephesians 2, “Paul was speaking primarily to Jewish converts to Christianity.”

   • Two verses later Paul says: “Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh” (2:11).
   • He calls himself “the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles” (3:1).

   The audience claim is wrong, and it’s used to limit what Paul says about grace.

6. 6. Grace is God’s gift, not “understanding”

   The notes say: “What grace? The grace of understanding who Christ is,” and “we are not saved by our actions, but by the understanding that comes through faith.”

   • Paul defines it: “by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
   • Just before, he describes grace as God’s mercy and love: “God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!” (2:4-5). And “the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (2:7).
   • Grace is God’s undeserved kindness in Christ. Redefining it as “understanding” turns salvation back into something you achieve, through knowledge instead of works.

7. 7. New birth “through righteous acts”

   The notes say “we are not saved by our actions,” but SCJ’s The Creation of Heaven and Earth (p. 475) says believers “must try and be born again through righteous acts and God’s word.”

   Paul answers directly:

   “he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5)

   • New birth is God’s work of mercy through the Spirit, not something achieved by righteous acts.
   • Good works follow: “we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10).

8. 8. “Blood = Word” erases the cross

   The lesson says washing your robe means being made clean “through understanding,” uses John 6:63 to make blood a figure for the word, and writes “Blood = Word” on the board.

   • Revelation 7:14 says they “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” The Lamb is the one who was killed (5:6, 9).
   • “To the one who loves us,” who has released us from our sins “at the cost of his own blood” (Revelation 1:5). “you were killed, and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe” (5:9).
   • “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).
   • Jesus’ words do cleanse (John 15:3), and the word matters. But Scripture never makes his blood a symbol for words. His blood is his actual death on the cross for our sins.

   Turning “the blood of the Lamb” into “the word” removes the cross from the center of salvation and replaces it with receiving a teaching.

9. 9. John 13: Jesus does the washing

   The lesson uses the foot-washing in John 13 to say Jesus makes his disciples clean “through understanding.”

   • Peter didn’t understand: “You do not understand what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things” (13:7). Jesus washed him anyway.
   • “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (13:8). The washing is Jesus’ act, not the disciple’s understanding.

10. 10. The new covenant is in his blood

    The notes say, from the Last Supper, “the New Covenant actually points to Revelation.”

    • Jesus said: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). The covenant is grounded in his blood shed on the cross. Revelation isn’t mentioned. (See Lesson 7.)

11. 11. The “true shepherd” and the wedding clothes

    The Explanation of Parables (p. 41) says those wearing wedding clothes “came to the true shepherd of God and washed their robes … with the word,” and those without them are “the false shepherds and their followers of the world.”

    • Revelation says robes are washed “in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14), not by coming to a shepherd.
    • “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27). Every believer in Christ is clothed with him.