Shincheonji lesson 33: figurative water

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson defines water as “The Word.” It opens with a “discernment” exercise: students watch a clip of a church pastor and are told it’s “a significant red flag” that he “did not open his Bible” and “referred to someone else’s words.” It says Jesus’ living water springs up “when they grasp what he is teaching,” that the water of life today “is the explanation of Revelation – the book that has been sealed with seven seals for 2,000 years,” and that “The time to act is now, without delay.” SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (p. 47) says, “Every believer must receive the water of life from the true shepherd whom God sent.” Scripture does connect water and the word: Christ cleanses the church “with the washing of the water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26). But John tells us what Jesus’ living water is, and Revelation tells us where the water of life flows from.

1. 1. The “discernment” clip: Apply the same standard

   Students watch a short clip of a pastor and are told it’s a red flag that he “did not open his Bible” and “referred to someone else’s words.”

   • Judging a pastor by a brief excerpt chosen by the class isn’t fair testing. “The one who gives an answer before he listens—that is his folly and his shame” (Proverbs 18:13). “The first to state his case seems right, until his opponent begins to cross-examine him” (18:17).
   • Apply the same standard to the course. Its definitions (water = word, treasure = word, pot = church, lampstand = person) come from SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables, a book written by people, not from the Bible’s own explanations. By the lesson’s standard, relying on “someone else’s words” is a red flag.
   • The lesson also says we need “a comprehensive understanding of the Word to grasp any part of it.” Scripture says God’s words give “insight to the untrained” (Psalm 119:130), and Timothy knew from infancy the Scriptures “able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).

2. 2. “Letting go of all personal possessions and beliefs”

   The review says finding the treasure means “letting go of all personal possessions and beliefs” to embrace the teaching.

   • Paul let go of his own righteousness to gain Christ (Philippians 3:7-9). He didn’t let go of the gospel to embrace a new teacher’s system. (See Lessons 20 and 32.)
   • Clearing out everything a student already believes before the course’s conclusions are disclosed removes the very things they would use to test it.

3. 3. John 3:5: Born of water and the Spirit is God’s work

   The lesson uses John 3:5 as its main reference for water as the word.

   • Jesus explains the new birth in terms of the Spirit: “The wind blows wherever it will … So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (3:8).
   • The background is Ezekiel 36:25-27, where God says, “I will sprinkle you with pure water … I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.” It’s God’s act.
   • In the same conversation, Jesus says how it comes: “so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (3:15-16).
   • Paul: “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).

4. 4. Amos 8: The notes and the book disagree

   The notes say Amos 8:11-12 “points generally to the time of the first coming of Jesus.” The Explanation of Parables (p. 47) says the famine is “in the last days.”

   • SCJ’s own sources give two different times for the same prophecy.
   • Amos was speaking to Israel in his own day: “The end has come for my people Israel!” (8:2). (See Lesson 18.)
   • “People will stagger from sea to sea” (8:12) means from one end of the land to the other, from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean, searching everywhere. It’s a geographic phrase, not a symbol of Satan’s waters.

5. 5. John tells us what living water is: The Spirit

   The lesson says, “Jesus’ words become springs of living water within someone when they grasp what he is teaching.”

   John explains Jesus’ living water himself:

   “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’ (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive …)” (John 7:37-39)

   • Living water is the Holy Spirit, given to those who believe in Jesus.
   • It comes by coming to Jesus and believing, not by grasping a teaching.

6. 6. The Samaritan woman told her town about Jesus

   The lesson says what the Samaritans lacked was “The open word of the Old Testament,” and that once they understood, they evangelized.

   • When she said the Messiah would explain everything, Jesus answered, “I, the one speaking to you, am he” (4:25-26).
   • She told her town: “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Surely he can’t be the Messiah, can he?” (4:29). Her message was Jesus himself.
   • The townspeople then said, “No longer do we believe because of your words, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this one really is the Savior of the world” (4:42). Their faith rested on Jesus, not on any intermediary.

7. 7. John 4: Worship isn’t tied to a place

   In the same conversation, the woman raised the question of the right place: this mountain or Jerusalem?

   Jesus answered: “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” (4:21-23).

   • Jesus removed the idea that true worship belongs to one location.
   • A teaching that says salvation requires finding a particular place, a “Mount Zion” today, goes against what Jesus told her.

8. 8. Revelation 22: The water of life comes from God and the Lamb at no cost

   The lesson says the water of life today “is the explanation of Revelation,” and SCJ’s book says believers “must receive the water of life from the true shepherd whom God sent.”

   • The river of the water of life flows “from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).
   • “the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ … let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life” at no cost (22:17).
   • God says: “To the one who is thirsty I will give water” at no cost “from the spring of the water of life” (21:6).
   • Jesus: “the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

   The water of life comes from God and the Lamb, at no cost, to anyone who’s thirsty. It isn’t received through a shepherd.

9. 9. The claim it was sealed for 2,000 years

   • Revelation says the opposite: “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy contained in this book, because the time is near” (22:10).
   • The sealed scroll in Revelation 5 is opened by the Lamb in John’s vision (5:5; 6:1). (See Lessons 13 and 27.)

10. 10. Washing your robes

    The lesson says those who wash their robes in the river from the throne will enter the kingdom.

    • Revelation says how robes are washed: “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14). (See Lesson 31.)

11. 11. “The time to act is now, without delay”

    The lesson presses urgency once the seals are said to be opening.

    • Scripture does say “now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2), about receiving God’s grace in Christ.
    • But it also warns against rushing into commitments: “A naive person will believe anything, but the shrewd person discerns his steps” (Proverbs 14:15). “the one who acts hastily makes poor choices” (19:2).
    • Urgency to commit before the claims are tested is a reason to slow down, not speed up.