Shincheonji special lesson 96: preparing for Jesus’ return

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This lesson reads the ten virgins as believers waiting for the second coming. The lamp is the word; the oil is “the word of testimony” with names, times and places. The oil sellers are the two witnesses of Revelation 11, one of whom is the new John and the other the “reed like a measuring rod,” “a person with weak faith” who “ends up betraying,” so “there’s only one witness who sees the events of Revelation from beginning to end.” It argues God always works through one leader (“How many were in charge of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt? One: Moses.”), says only those “created according to the New Testament Revelation can enter heaven,” and adds a fourth weekly class with strict rules: arrive by 7:15, cameras on. In the Q&A, the instructor says “sleep is becoming a luxury.” Revelation 11 and Jesus’ own conclusion to the parable answer the main claims.

1. 1. The parable’s lesson: “Stay alert”

   • Jesus ends the parable himself: “Therefore stay alert because you do not know the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:13).
   • All ten virgins “became drowsy and fell asleep” (25:5). The difference is preparedness, not knowledge of names and dates.
   • In the story, the foolish virgins who went to the oil sellers came back to a shut door (25:10-12). The parable doesn’t send anyone to the sellers. (See Lessons 43 and 78.)

2. 2. The two witnesses are both faithful

   The lesson says one of the two witnesses is the new John and the other is the “reed like a measuring rod,” a person with weak faith who “ends up betraying.”

   Read Revelation 11:

   • “I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1,260 days” (11:3). God calls both of them his.
   • “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth” (11:4). Both stand before the Lord.
   • Both finish their testimony, are killed by the beast, are raised by “a breath of life from God” and both go up “to heaven in a cloud while their enemies stared at them” (11:7-12).

   Neither witness betrays. Both are faithful to death and both are vindicated in public.

3. 3. The reed is a measuring rod

   • “Then a measuring rod like a staff was given to me, and I was told, ‘Get up and measure the temple of God’” (Revelation 11:1). It’s a tool handed to John for measuring, like the measuring stick in Ezekiel 40:3 and the measuring line in Zechariah 2:1.
   • The verse never says it’s a person. Linking it to John the Baptist’s doubt (Matthew 11:7, “A reed shaken by the wind?”) borrows a phrase Jesus used to say John was not a wavering reed. (See Lesson 22.)

4. 4. Saying there’s “only one witness”: Scripture requires two

   The lesson concludes that “there’s only one witness who sees the events of Revelation from beginning to end.”

   • God’s law: “A single witness may not testify against another person for any trespass or sin … A matter may be legally established only on the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Deuteronomy 19:15).
   • Jesus repeated it (Matthew 18:16), and so did Paul: “By the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter will be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1).
   • Revelation itself gives two witnesses (11:3). A testimony that ends up resting on one man, after the second is said to have betrayed, falls short of the Bible’s own standard.

5. 5. One leader per era?

   The lesson argues “Noah, one. Moses, one,” Jesus one, so at the second coming one servant is in charge.

   • God says: “I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead you” (Micah 6:4). SCJ’s own book calls Aaron a partner “whom God gave to Moses” (The Physical Fulfillment of Revelation, p. 229).
   • God also put his Spirit on seventy elders to share Moses’ burden (Numbers 11:16-17), and Moses wished “that all the Lord’s people were prophets” (11:29).
   • Jesus is unique because he is the Son of God, not because God always works through one man. After him, he sent twelve apostles and poured his Spirit on all believers (Acts 2:17).

6. 6. “Parables are like a code language”

   • Jesus explained his parables to his disciples (Mark 4:34), and many of those explanations are recorded (Matthew 13:18-23, 36-43). This parable he explained in one sentence: “stay alert” (25:13). (See Lessons 3 and 14.)

7. 7. Saying only those created according to Revelation can enter heaven

   • Revelation 22:18-19 warns against adding to or taking away from the book’s words. It doesn’t define who enters heaven.
   • Revelation says who enters: “those who wash their robes” (22:14), washed “in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14). (See Lessons 66 and 83.)

8. 8. Hebrews 10:25: Encourage one another

   • “not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25). It’s a call to keep gathering with the church and encouraging one another as Christ’s return approaches, not to add course nights.
   • The lesson says “Satan is not the gatherer; he’s the scatterer, just like a wolf.” In John 10, the wolf scatters the sheep while the hired hand runs (10:12). The good shepherd is Jesus, who gathers. A course that draws people away from their families and churches is doing the scattering.

9. 9. Saying “sleep is becoming a luxury”

   • “It is vain for you to rise early, come home late, and work so hard for your food. Yes, he provides for those whom he loves even when they sleep” (Psalm 127:2).
   • Jesus told his tired disciples, “Come with me privately to an isolated place and rest a while” (Mark 6:31).
   • Adding classes while suggesting that sleep is a luxury raises the strain on students right as the claims get larger, which makes careful testing harder. (See Lesson 92.)

10. 10. “Is this a place that truly has the oil? No, it isn’t”

    • The lesson dismisses churches that preach goodness and morals as lacking “oil.” In the parable, oil isn’t knowledge of names and places; Jesus doesn’t define it, and his conclusion is about readiness (25:13). The Holy Spirit, who lives in every believer (Romans 8:9), is often seen as the readiness believers can’t borrow from others. (See Lesson 43.)