Shincheonji lesson 28: figurative lampstand

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

The board defines the lampstands: “Eyes (Lampstand, Candlestands) = Spirits and Workers.” The lesson uses John the Baptist, “a lamp” (John 5:35), to teach that “that lamp is useless during daytime” and that “people were supposed to transition” to the greater light. It reads Revelation 1:20 in the verse’s own words, “Churches are compared to lamps,” and then says, “there will be seven key people who appear and prepare the way,” asking, “Have they already appeared?” SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (p. 37) answers: the messengers of the seven churches betrayed, their lampstands were removed, and so “one must meet the two witnesses, whom the lampstand is with, to … be saved.” The Physical Fulfillment of Revelation (p. 43) adds, “all believers must receive his testimony.” Revelation itself explains what the lampstands are, and it isn’t seven modern people.

1. 1. Revelation 1:20: Jesus explains the lampstands himself

   “The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” (Revelation 1:20)

   • Jesus gives the meaning. It isn’t left sealed or coded.
   • The seven churches are real congregations, named in 1:11: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Chapters 2-3 are letters to them.
   • The lesson reads the verse’s own words, “Churches are compared to lamps,” and then says there will be “seven key people.” That replaces Jesus’ explanation with the class’s.
   • The Physical Fulfillment of Revelation (p. 43) says the lampstands “represent the tabernacle and people of betrayal,” SCJ’s name for one church in its own history. Revelation names seven churches in Asia.

2. 2. Not all seven churches betrayed

   The Explanation of Parables (p. 37) says, “Today, due to the betrayal of the messengers of the seven churches, the lampstands (spirits) were removed from them.”

   • Two of the seven letters contain no rebuke at all. To Smyrna, Jesus says: “I know the distress you are suffering and your poverty (but you are rich) … Remain faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown that is life itself” (2:9-10).
   • To Philadelphia: “I know your deeds. … I know that you have little strength, but you have obeyed my word and have not denied my name” (3:8). “I will also keep you from the hour of testing” (3:10).
   • The book’s claim that all seven betrayed contradicts what Jesus says to them.

3. 3. Revelation 2:5: Removing a lampstand is a call to repent

   • To Ephesus, Jesus says: “remember from what high state you have fallen and repent! Do the deeds you did at the first; if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place—that is, if you do not repent” (2:5).
   • It’s a conditional warning to one church that had “departed from your first love” (2:4). The remedy is repentance, not meeting the two witnesses.

4. 4. The seven spirits and seven eyes are God’s Spirit

   The notes use Revelation 4:5 and 5:6 to say, “Eyes are compared to spirits. The prophets take on the same title as the spirit using them.”

   • Revelation 4:5: “Seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning in front of the throne.” Revelation 5:6: the Lamb has “seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”
   • In Revelation 1:4, grace and peace come from “‘he who is,’ and who was, and who is still to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,” and from Jesus Christ (1:5). The seven spirits stand alongside the Father and the Son. Most interpreters understand this as the Holy Spirit in his fullness.
   • They’re God’s Spirit, not people. Isaiah 29:10 does call the prophets “eyes,” but that doesn’t turn Revelation’s lampstands into people. The idea that prophets take on the title of the spirit using them isn’t stated anywhere.

5. 5. “Offspring of vipers”

   The notes say the Pharisees were called vipers because “They had inherited the title of the spirit using them.”

   • John the Baptist first called them “offspring of vipers” (Matthew 3:7), and Jesus used the same words (23:33). It’s a rebuke of their deadly hypocrisy.
   • Neither passage says a spirit’s title passed to them.

6. 6. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus

   The lesson says John was a lamp, and “people were supposed to transition from John’s ministry to Jesus’ ministry.”

   • That’s right, and John said so himself: “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). “He must become more important while I become less important” (3:30).
   • John’s Gospel says: “He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (1:8-9).
   • The transition was to Jesus, the true light. The lesson’s pattern, a lamp giving way to a greater light, is being prepared for a second application: today’s pastors as lamps to leave behind for a new figure. Scripture has only one greater light, and he has already come.

7. 7. The claim that a lamp is “useless during daytime”

   The lesson says when day comes, a lamp “can be extinguished and put away, as a greater light has arrived.”

   • Jesus says the opposite to his disciples: “You are the light of the world. … People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house” (Matthew 5:14-15).
   • Paul tells believers that they “shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15).
   • In the New Testament, believers and churches are lamps that keep shining in the world. They aren’t put away when a new teacher arrives.

8. 8. The tabernacle: Jesus is the high priest who enters, not John

   The notes map the tabernacle onto John and Jesus: “John was the figurative Holy Place,” and Jesus was the Most Holy Place.

   • Hebrews explains the tabernacle by Christ: “Christ has come as the high priest … he entered once for all into the Most Holy Place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood” (Hebrews 9:11-12).
   • The curtain stands for Jesus’ flesh (10:20). It was torn when he died (Matthew 27:51), so all believers can now “enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19-22).
   • John the Baptist isn’t in Hebrews’ explanation. The point of the tabernacle in Hebrews is open access to God through Jesus’ sacrifice.

9. 9. The claim that “seven key people” will “prepare the way”

   The lesson says, “there will be seven key people who appear and prepare the way,” and asks whether they’ve appeared.

   • The memory verse is John 1:23, where John the Baptist says, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” The one whose way John prepared was Jesus.
   • Scripture doesn’t speak of seven forerunners for the second coming. Jesus says his return will be as visible as lightning, and he warns against claims that he is “in the inner rooms” (Matthew 24:26-27).

10. 10. The book says “one must meet the two witnesses”

    The Explanation of Parables (p. 37) says “one must meet the two witnesses, whom the lampstand is with,” to be saved.

    • John 1:7-9 says John the Baptist came “so that everyone might believe through him,” and that “The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” Light comes from Jesus, to everyone who believes.
    • The two witnesses in Revelation 11 prophesy, are killed, lie in the street for three and a half days, are raised and then “went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies stared at them” (11:7-12). They aren’t a continuing organization that people must find to be saved.
    • Peter says “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

11. 11. The hope to “become workers for God”

    The lesson hopes students will “become workers for God,” including “guiding people to hear the teaching of the Word.”

    • Serving God is good. Jesus told his disciples to “ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers” (Matthew 9:38), and Paul urged Timothy to be “a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately” (2 Timothy 2:15).
    • But the work Jesus gave is to make disciples, “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). It isn’t to bring people into a course whose identity and conclusions are withheld.