Shincheonji lesson 44: figurative mountain

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson defines the mountain as “Church.” Its hope is “To find the mountain promised to appear at the second coming and flee!” It says the command in Matthew 24 to flee to the mountains isn’t literal, but “fleeing from false lies to the true hope found in this place.” It sorts mountains into betrayal, destruction and salvation, says any witness who can’t explain events in that order gets “no thank you,” and tells students, “You are more blessed than Peter, more blessed than John.” It closes: “If I truly believe it, I’ll act accordingly, won’t I?” and “So, there’s a command to flee to the mountain, isn’t there?” SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (p. 73) names the mountain of salvation: “Mt. Zion, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony,” which is part of SCJ’s own full name. Jesus’ command, and Hebrews’ description of Mount Zion, say something very different.

1. 1. Students are “more blessed than Peter”

   The lesson tells students, “You are more blessed than Peter, more blessed than John, James, Matthew, Luke, Mark, David, Solomon, Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha,” because they see the fulfillment.

   • Jesus told his disciples their eyes were blessed because they saw him: “many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see” (Matthew 13:16-17).
   • To later believers, Jesus said: “Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). The blessing is faith in Jesus, not seeing a modern fulfillment.
   • The church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). The apostles are the foundation, not people later students surpass.
   • Telling students they’re more blessed than the apostles builds a sense of special status. Paul asks: “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

2. 2. Matthew 24:15-16: A literal flight from Jerusalem’s siege

   The notes say, “The word ‘flee’ does not represent a literal fleeing but a figurative one.”

   • Luke’s account names the sign: “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains” (Luke 21:20-21).
   • Jesus’ details are physical: “The one on the roof must not come down to take anything out of his house, and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak” (Matthew 24:17-18). “Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath” (24:20). You don’t pray that a figurative change of church won’t happen in winter.
   • It was fulfilled when Rome besieged Jerusalem, and the early historian Eusebius records that Jerusalem’s Christians left the city before the war. (See Lesson 12 and Lesson 31; Lesson 31’s new section isn’t live yet, so that link goes to the lesson page.)

3. 3. Jesus said don’t go out to a place

   In the same speech, a few verses later, Jesus warned:

   “if someone says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him. For just like the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.” (Matthew 24:26-27)

   • Jesus’ own warning rules out a call to relocate to a place where he is said to be working.

4. 4. John 4: Worship isn’t tied to a mountain

   • Jesus told the Samaritan woman: “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem … the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:21-23).
   • A teaching that makes salvation depend on finding the right mountain goes against Jesus’ words. (See Lesson 33; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)

5. 5. Hebrews 12: Believers “have come to Mount Zion”

   The lesson reads Hebrews 12:22-23 and says, “So, if we want to be those who find Mount Zion, we need to find this type of place.”

   • The notes quote the verse correctly: “You have come to Mount Zion.” Hebrews says believers have come. It isn’t a place still to be found.
   • Hebrews describes it as “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” with “myriads of angels,” “the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect,” and “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant” (12:22-24). It’s a heavenly reality believers belong to through Jesus. (See Lesson 40 and Lesson 41; their new sections aren’t live yet, so the links go to the lesson pages.)

6. 6. Isaiah 2: The word went out from Jerusalem

   The lesson uses Isaiah 2:2-3 for a chief mountain in the last days.

   • Isaiah’s mountain is “the mountain of the Lord’s temple” in Jerusalem, and “Zion will be the center for moral instruction; the Lord’s message will issue from Jerusalem” (2:2-3).
   • Jesus said repentance for the forgiveness of sins “would be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47), and “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The book of Acts records the word going out from Jerusalem to the nations.
   • Isaiah’s vision also includes nations that “will beat their swords into plowshares” (2:4), a final peace that no current church has brought about.

7. 7. Ezekiel 36 is a promise of restoration, not betrayal

   The lesson uses Ezekiel 36:1-4 for the “mountain of betrayal.”

   • In Ezekiel 36, God speaks to the literal mountains of Israel that had been plundered and mocked by the nations. His message is comfort: “you, mountains of Israel, will grow your branches and bear your fruit for my people Israel, for they will arrive soon” (36:8).
   • The chapter goes on to promise: “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you” (36:26).
   • A chapter of restoration is used as the model of a mountain that betrayed God.

8. 8. Revelation 8:8 and Jeremiah 51: Babylon and judgment

   • Revelation 8:8 says “something like a great mountain of burning fire was thrown into the sea.” “Like” signals a comparison in a trumpet judgment that turns a third of the sea to blood. It doesn’t identify a church.
   • Jeremiah 51:25 says Babylon is “like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth,” and the verse before names it: “Babylon and all who live in Babylonia” (Jeremiah 51:24-25). It’s the Babylonian empire.
   • Revelation 17’s seven mountains are also seven kings, counted from John’s day (17:9-10). (See Lesson 38; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)

9. 9. Isaiah 60:14: Revelation applies it to a first-century church

   The lesson uses Isaiah 60:14 for the mountain of salvation.

   • Jesus echoes this very promise in his letter to the church in Philadelphia: “I will make them come and bow down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you” (Revelation 3:9). He applied Isaiah 60:14 to a faithful congregation in the first century.
   • Isaiah 28:16’s stone in Zion is Christ (1 Peter 2:6).

10. 10. Revelation 14:1: No command to flee

    The notes say, “So even in Revelation 14, when God says to flee to the mountain.”

    • Revelation 14:1: “Then I looked, and here was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000.” There’s no command to flee in the passage.
    • The 144,000 sing “before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders” (14:3). They were “redeemed from the earth” and “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (14:3-4). It’s a heavenly scene of the redeemed with the Lamb, not a location to travel to on earth.

11. 11. The betrayal, destruction and salvation test

    The lesson says any witness who can’t explain events in this order gets “no thank you.”

    • That order comes from SCJ’s reading of 2 Thessalonians 2. Paul wrote that chapter so believers wouldn’t be shaken by claims that the day of the Lord had already arrived, and his sequence ends with Jesus’ visible return (2:1-8). (See Lesson 10.)
    • A test that only one interpretation is built to pass isn’t a test. Scripture’s test is what a teaching says about Jesus (1 John 4:2).

12. 12. Mt. Zion as “the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony”

    The Explanation of Parables (p. 73) says the mountain of betrayal at the first coming was “the temple of John the Baptist who betrayed,” and the mountain of salvation today is “Mt. Zion, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony,” and concludes believers must “gather at Mt. Zion.”

    • John the Baptist didn’t betray. Jesus called him the greatest born of women (Matthew 11:11), and John gladly sent his disciples to Jesus (John 1:35-37; 3:30). (See Lesson 37; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)
    • In Revelation 15:5, “the temple (the tent of the testimony) was opened in heaven,” and what comes out of it is seven angels with seven plagues (15:5-6). (See Lesson 25.)
    • The book uses SCJ’s own name for the mountain everyone must gather to.

13. 13. “If I truly believe it, I’ll act accordingly”

    The lesson presses: if you believe it, you’ll act, and “So, there’s a command to flee to the mountain, isn’t there?”

    • This makes moving to a particular church the test of whether a student’s faith is real.
    • Scripture’s call is to come to Jesus: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened” (Matthew 11:28), and “the one who comes to me I will never send away” (John 6:37).