Shincheonji lesson 53: figurative grave and resurrection

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson says, “So a grave spiritually represents an organization of false truth,” and its board defines resurrection as “Spirit living again through the word of life.” It says the line between believer and non-believer is “a milk thought,” tells students that after three and a half months they are “more spiritually mature than 90% of believers. That includes pastors,” and reads Jesus’ words that “all who are in their graves will hear his voice” as people coming out of false organizations at the second coming. It ends with “Come out of her, my people.” SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (pp. 87-88) says “The world of religion (spiritual Babylon) where people with dead souls belong is the spiritual grave,” and resurrection is “crossing over from an organization of false teachings to an organization of truth.” Redefining the resurrection as something happening now is a specific error Scripture warns about by name.

1. 1. 2 Timothy 2:18: Saying “the resurrection has already occurred”

   SCJ’s book defines resurrection as leaving one organization for another. Paul warned Timothy about teachers who did something similar:

   “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 Timothy 2:17-18)

   • Scripture teaches a real spiritual new life now (John 5:24; Ephesians 2:5), and that should be admitted.
   • But it also teaches a future bodily resurrection: “the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable” (15:53).
   • Replacing the bodily resurrection with a present change of organization is the kind of teaching Paul said strays from the truth. (See Lesson 19 and Lesson 20.)

2. 2. John 5:28-29: Everyone comes out, to life or condemnation

   The board defines the grave as an “Organization of False Truth,” and the notes say, “At the time of the second coming, those who are in graves will come out.”

   Read the full statement:

   “Do not be amazed at this because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out—the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation” (John 5:28-29)

   • Both groups come out of the tombs. If the tombs were false organizations, then evildoers would also be leaving them, to condemnation. That doesn’t fit.
   • Jesus distinguishes two things: a spiritual hearing that “is now here” (5:25), and a future time when all the dead come out of their tombs (5:28). The second is the bodily resurrection of everyone, as in Daniel 12:2.

3. 3. “No more believer, non-believer”

   The notes say that at the first coming, “The standard was whether or not someone believed in the life that had been sent by God,” so “No more believer, non-believer. That’s a milk thought.”

   • That standard was believing in Jesus: “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life” (John 3:36).
   • It hasn’t changed: “The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life” (1 John 5:12).
   • Scripture still divides people by faith in Jesus. Dropping that line opens the way to calling believing Christians dead if they don’t accept a new messenger.

4. 4. More mature than 90% of believers, including pastors

   The lesson tells students that after three and a half months, they’re “more spiritually mature than 90% of believers. That includes pastors.”

   • Paul says a church leader “must not be a recent convert, or he may become arrogant and fall into the punishment that the devil will exact” (1 Timothy 3:6).
   • “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1).
   • Telling students they’ve surpassed their pastors in a few months builds pride and makes outside counsel easy to dismiss.

5. 5. Word-for-word answers

   The teacher tells students to write test answers “word-for-word,” because “the answers are already given, you don’t have to come up with them independently.”

   • Memorizing is fine. But this trains students to repeat the course’s answers rather than examine them.
   • Scripture asks for the opposite: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God” (Romans 12:2). The Bereans examined the Scriptures carefully every day to see if what they heard was true (Acts 17:11).

6. 6. Whitewashed tombs are about hypocrisy

   The lesson uses Matthew 23:27-28 and Luke 11:44 to define graves as organizations, and says Jesus told people to come out of the Pharisees.

   • Jesus’ point: “on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:28; see Luke 11:44). It’s a rebuke of hypocrisy.
   • In the same chapter, Jesus told the crowds: “pay attention to what they tell you and do it. But do not do what they do” (23:3). He didn’t tell them to leave the synagogue. (See Lesson 41; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)

7. 7. Romans 3:13 is about everyone

   The notes say of certain teachers, “When they speak, they kill the spirits of those listening.”

   • Paul introduces the quotation: “we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin, just as it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’” (Romans 3:9-10).
   • “Their throats are open graves” (3:13) is part of a chain showing that all people are sinners. Paul’s conclusion: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:23-24).
   • The verse describes the whole human race’s need for grace, not one group of teachers.

8. 8. Ezekiel 37: God opens Israel’s graves and brings them home

   • God explains: “these bones are all the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:11). “I am about to open your graves and will raise you from your graves, my people. I will bring you to the land of Israel” (37:12).
   • He promises one nation under “My servant David” as king (37:22-24), a promise the New Testament sees fulfilled in Jesus, the Son of David.
   • It’s a promise of national restoration and new life by God’s Spirit (37:14), not a picture of people leaving one religious organization for another. (See Lesson 52; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)

9. 9. Babylon: A factual error, and Revelation’s own description

   The notes say Babylon consumed Israel because of idolatry during Solomon’s time.

   • Solomon lived around 950 BC. Babylon conquered Judah around 586 BC. Scripture gives the reason: “he rejected Judah because of all the sins that Manasseh had committed” (2 Kings 24:3).
   • Revelation’s Babylon is a world city of power and trade (Revelation 17:18; 18:11-19), and “Come out of her” means not taking part in her sins (18:4). (See Lesson 35.)

10. 10. “Come to one, speak to many, bring them out”

    The lesson’s pattern for Revelation 10:11 is “Come to one, speak to many, bring them out.”

    • Revelation 10:11 is John’s commission to prophesy, which he carried out in the rest of the book. (See Lesson 39.)
    • The notes elsewhere say, “Instead of seeing a Pastor, we should discern and see the spirit at work.” Apply it here: The spirit Scripture says is from God is the one that “confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2), not one that points to a new messenger.

11. 11. The world of religion as the spiritual grave

    SCJ’s book says “The world of religion (spiritual Babylon) where people with dead souls belong is the spiritual grave,” and believers “must come out from there and go to where the word of truth is.”

    • This places every church outside SCJ in a grave. (See Lesson 47; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)
    • Jesus says the one who hears his word and believes has already “crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). Believers in Christ aren’t in a grave.