Shincheonji lesson 66: overview and process

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson lays out four types of pastors, with Moses, Jesus and “the New John” listed as promised pastors, and asks, “who will be the general pastors? The 144,000.” It adds, “It’s quite remarkable that God only needs 144,000 to teach over eight billion people.” It then gives six qualifications for heaven at the second coming: born of God’s seed, harvested, sealed, belonging to one of the 12 tribes, not adding to or subtracting from Revelation, and having your name in the book of life. The notes say plainly: “These qualifications do not override what had already been testified about salvation. They add to it.” The lesson closes by putting the six points in Jesus’ mouth. SCJ’s The Creation of Heaven and Earth (p. 54) says “When the promised pastor comes everyone must go to him to attain salvation,” and The Physical Fulfillment of Revelation (p. 16) says those who fail to keep the words of the new covenant “become gentiles without salvation.” The New Testament has a whole letter about adding requirements to faith in Christ.

1. 1. “They add to it”: Galatians answers this directly

   The notes say the six qualifications “add to” what had already been testified about salvation.

   Paul wrote Galatians against exactly this: requirements added to faith in Christ.

   • “You foolish Galatians! … Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?” (Galatians 3:1-3).
   • “Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all! … You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!” (5:2, 4).
   • “even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell!” (1:8).

   The Galatian teachers didn’t deny Jesus. They said faith in him was the start, but more was needed. That’s what this lesson says, and Paul calls it another gospel.

2. 2. What Scripture says saves

   • “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (10:13).
   • “everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
   • “by grace you are saved through faith … it is not from works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

   None of these has a second list of conditions for a later era.

3. 3. The six qualifications, one by one

   • Born of God’s seed: Believers already have been born anew “from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). (See Lesson 64; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)
   • Harvested: “The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels” (Matthew 13:39). (See Lesson 1.)
   • Sealed: “when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13). (See Lesson 47; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)
   • Belonging to one of the 12 tribes: “if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). Paul rebuked dividing believers by apostles’ names (1 Corinthians 1:12-13). (See Lesson 60; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)
   • Not adding to or subtracting from Revelation: This warning (Revelation 22:18-19) applies to everyone, including those who add a new John and a second new birth. (See Lessons 10 and 21.)
   • Name in the book of life: Jesus told his disciples to “rejoice that your names stand written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Paul said his coworkers’ names “are in the book of life” (Philippians 4:3). Believers’ names were already written in the first century.

4. 4. Putting the six points in Jesus’ mouth

   The lesson closes by having Jesus say the six qualifications, including “Do not add to my words or subtract from them. Make sure your name is in my book of life.”

   • Jesus never said these six things as a list. Attributing them to him adds to his words, which is the very thing the fifth qualification warns against.
   • “Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you and prove you to be a liar” (Proverbs 30:6).

5. 5. The New John as a promised pastor beside Moses and Jesus

   The lesson lists Moses, Jesus and “the New John” as promised pastors. SCJ’s book says “When the promised pastor comes everyone must go to him to attain salvation.”

   • Jesus isn’t one in a series of pastors. “he has come to deserve greater glory than Moses” (Hebrews 3:3). God “in these last days … has spoken to us in a son” (Hebrews 1:2).
   • “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).
   • John himself ate the scroll and wrote the book: “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things” (Revelation 10:9-10; 22:8). (See Lesson 39.)

6. 6. SCJ’s own book says most pastors were genuine

   The Creation of Heaven and Earth (p. 54) says, “General pastors testify about the work fulfilled by the promised pastor by proclaiming the gospel. Jesus’ disciples, who testified about Jesus’ work and proclaimed Jesus’ words, are examples of general pastors. Most of the pastors in the last 2,000 years of Christian history belong in this category.”

   • By SCJ’s own book, most Christian pastors through history have faithfully proclaimed the gospel about Jesus, as his disciples did.
   • That sits uneasily with earlier lessons that call every church outside SCJ Babylon, graves or old wineskins headed to hell (Lessons 42, 47 and 53; Lessons 47 and 53’s new sections aren’t live yet, so those links go to the lesson pages).

7. 7. 144,000 to teach over eight billion people

   • The new covenant promise says: “there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest” (Hebrews 8:11).
   • After the 144,000, John sees “an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language” (Revelation 7:9). God’s people aren’t a teaching class of a fixed number. (See Lessons 7 and 47; Lesson 47’s new section isn’t live yet, so that link goes to the lesson page.)

8. 8. Hebrews 8 is already in force

   Because Hebrews 8 quotes Jeremiah 31, the notes conclude that it is “actually a prophecy for the second coming.”

   • Hebrews says the opposite: “now Jesus has obtained a superior ministry, since the covenant that he mediates is also better” (8:6). “When he speaks of a new covenant, he makes the first obsolete” (8:13).
   • Hebrews 10:15-18 quotes the same promise and concludes, “Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18). (See Lessons 7 and 58; Lesson 58’s new section isn’t live yet, so that link goes to the lesson page.)

9. 9. “Creation and recreation” in our era

   The notes say God “has been creating multiple times” over 6,000 years, “And God intends to end the cycle of creation and recreation in our era, in the era of revelation.”

   • The New Testament says the new creation has already begun in Christ: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Its completion is the new heaven and earth at Christ’s return (Revelation 21:1-5).

10. 10. Steer clear of commentaries, study Bibles and making guesses

    The instructor repeats a warning: “This is precisely why I’ve cautioned everyone from the start to steer clear of commentaries, study Bibles, and making guesses.”

    • This removes the tools students would use to check the course. God’s people have always been helped by faithful explanation: The Levites read the law, “explaining it and imparting insight” (Nehemiah 8:8), and Priscilla and Aquila “explained the way of God to him more accurately” (Acts 18:26). (See Lesson 42.)

11. 11. Acts 24:5 and John 6

    The lesson cites Acts 24:5 and says, “If someone calls what is true a cult, it reveals their lack of understanding and discernment.”

    • Paul was called “a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes” (Acts 24:5). He answered by showing continuity with Scripture: “I worship the God of our ancestors according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law and that is written in the prophets” (24:14). Being called a “sect” doesn’t prove a group is true, any more than it proves it false. The test is the gospel (Galatians 1:8). (See Lesson 65; its new section isn’t live yet, so the link goes to the lesson page.)
    • Peter stayed in John 6 because of who Jesus is: “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!” (John 6:68-69). (See Lesson 2.)