Shincheonji lesson 26: figurative light, part one

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson defines light as “the word of life” and darkness as “death, ignorance.” It says believing in Jesus isn’t enough to be light: “It is possible to be a believer yet not have the light of God’s Word,” and “The key distinction is understanding.” It reads 1 Thessalonians 5 as a prophecy of “two groups of people at the time of the second coming,” asks whether the “night” Jesus spoke of has come, and ends: “If it is a time of light, do I have the light?” SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (p. 35) answers: “the believers who are with the shepherd who received this word from Jesus are the children of light,” and “Today, believers can be saved through the shepherd of God.” Scripture uses light and darkness richly, and much of that imagery is about God’s word and understanding. But it consistently ties light to Jesus himself, and it says those who believe in him are already light.

1. 1. 1 Thessalonians 5: Paul says the whole church is already light

   The lesson reads 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 as a prophecy about two groups that will be sorted at the second coming.

   • Paul tells the Thessalonian believers directly: “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would. For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day” (5:4-5).
   • He gives the reason they can be confident: “God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep, we will come to life together with him” (5:9-10).
   • He also says “the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night” (5:2). Its timing is not secret knowledge that a special group holds.

   Paul’s point is assurance and readiness for ordinary believers, not a future sorting of Christians by their understanding of prophecy.

2. 2. John 1: The light is a person

   The lesson draws a chain from John 1: “Word = God = Life = Light.”

   • John says of the Word: “In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind” (1:4). “The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (1:9).
   • Then: “the Word became flesh and took up residence among us” (1:14).
   • Jesus says, “I am the light of the world! The one who follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

   The light of John 1 is Jesus himself. The lesson keeps the chain but drops the person, turning light into “understanding.”

3. 3. The claim that it’s possible to be “a believer yet not have the light”

   The lesson says “It is possible to be a believer yet not have the light of God’s Word,” and “The key distinction is understanding.”

   • The lesson’s own verse says: “I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness” (John 12:46).
   • Paul: “you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8). Believers are light because they are “in the Lord.”
   • John defines walking in the light by fellowship and love: “if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). “The one who loves his fellow Christian resides in the light” (2:10).
   • Paul names “the fruit of the light”: “all goodness, righteousness, and truth” (Ephesians 5:9).

   Scripture’s measure of being in the light is believing in Jesus and loving others, not having the course’s understanding.

4. 4. Isaiah 9: A factual error about Isaiah’s time

   The notes say Isaiah wrote when “the Israelites were enslaved in Babylon and Syria.”

   • Isaiah dates his own ministry “during the time when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah reigned over Judah” (Isaiah 1:1), in the 8th century BC.
   • The humiliation of Zebulun and Naphtali (Isaiah 9:1) refers to the Assyrian conquest of northern Galilee, recorded in 2 Kings 15:29.
   • The Babylonian exile came more than a century later.
   • Matthew applies Isaiah 9:1-2 to Jesus beginning his ministry in Galilee (Matthew 4:12-17). The light that dawned was Jesus.

5. 5. “We must be very careful about the sources of our information”: Read John 7 again

   The lesson uses the Pharisees’ dismissal of Galilee (John 7:52) to warn, “We must be very careful about the sources of our information.”

   • Look at what happened just before. Nicodemus said to the Pharisees: “Our law doesn’t condemn a man unless it first hears from him and learns what he is doing, does it?” (7:50-51).
   • The Pharisees’ darkness was refusing to hear before judging.
   • The lesson of John 7 is to hear things out fairly, including criticism of the course. It doesn’t restrict which sources you listen to.

6. 6. John 9: “Night is coming” refers to Jesus’ departure

   The lesson calls John 9:4-5 “an important prophecy” and asks whether that “night” has now arrived.

   • Jesus says: “We must perform the deeds of the one who sent me as long as it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (9:4-5).
   • The “day” is the time of his presence in the world, and the “night” is his coming departure through death. He says the same later: “The light is with you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light” (12:35-36).
   • Then Jesus heals a man born blind (9:6-7). The light gives sight. The point is who Jesus is, not a prophecy of a modern age of darkness.

7. 7. The claim that “the people of Israel were in spiritual darkness”

   The notes say at the first coming the religious groups “and the people of Israel were in spiritual darkness.”

   • Many Israelites were waiting faithfully. Zechariah and Elizabeth were “righteous in the sight of God” (Luke 1:6). Simeon was “righteous and devout, looking for the restoration of Israel” (2:25). Anna the prophetess spoke about Jesus “to all who were waiting” (2:38).
   • Simeon, holding the infant Jesus, called him “a light, for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (2:32).
   • Not everyone outside the twelve was in darkness. Painting all of Israel that way prepares students to see all of today’s Christians the same way.

8. 8. Daniel 12 and Psalm 119

   • Daniel was told his words were “closed and sealed until the time of the end” (Daniel 12:9). John was told not to seal Revelation, “because the time is near” (Revelation 22:10). The New Testament says God has spoken “in these last days” through his Son (Hebrews 1:2). (See Lesson 13.)
   • The memory verse, Psalm 119:130, reads: “Your instructions are a doorway through which light shines. They give insight to the untrained.” The light comes from God’s instructions, which give insight even to “the untrained.” Psalm 119 is about God’s law already given, available to every humble reader.

9. 9. “So if I face no persecution, I should worry”

   • Scripture does say “all who want to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). That should be admitted.
   • But Jesus also says, “If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too” (John 15:20). Some will receive the message.
   • Paul tells believers to pray “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:2).
   • Persecution doesn’t prove you’re right. Peter separates suffering “as a Christian” from suffering as a wrongdoer (1 Peter 4:15-16; see Lesson 6).

10. 10. The book says “believers can be saved through the shepherd of God”

    The Explanation of Parables (p. 35) says the children of light are “the believers who are with the shepherd who received this word from Jesus,” that “the false shepherds of the world and their followers” are children of darkness, and that “believers can be saved through the shepherd of God.”

    • Paul says the Ephesians are “light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8), not light through a shepherd.
    • Jesus says the one who follows him will have the light of life (John 8:12).
    • 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).