Shincheonji lesson 15: figurative seed and field, part one

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

This is the first parable taught in detail, and it returns to the wheat and weeds from Lesson 1, now with SCJ’s definitions spelled out. The seed has one “definitive interpretation.” Everyone starts out “born of Satan’s seed.” The field is the church, which is why there are so many denominations. The harvesting angels “manifest through people who invite us to study,” so students should “embrace opportunities to be ‘harvested.’” SCJ’s The Explanation of Parables (p. 137) completes the picture: the barn is “The Twelve Tribes of Mt. Zion,” and the bundles of weeds tied up for burning are those “not harvested and remain in their churches.” Jesus’ own explanation of the parable contradicts each of these.

1. 1. Jesus’ explanation, again

   The lesson quotes Matthew 13:38, “the field is the world,” and then switches to “Field = Church.” The Explanation of Parables (p. 137) lists Matthew 13:38 as its source for “The church of Jesus.”

   Jesus’ explanation (Matthew 13:37-39):

   • The sower is the Son of Man.
   • The field is the world.
   • The good seed is the people of the kingdom.
   • The weeds are the people of the evil one.
   • The harvest is the end of the age.
   • The reapers are angels.

   SCJ cites the verse for the opposite of what it says. See Lesson 1 for the full case on the field, the reapers and the harvest.

2. 2. “Farmer = Pastor” or the Son of Man?

   The figurative-meanings sheet in the notes says “Farmer = Pastor.” The board says “Farmer = Son of Man, Jesus.” The book’s table says Jesus.

   • Jesus said, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man” (13:37).
   • The same lesson gives two answers for the sower. A “definitive interpretation, not based on individual perceptions” should not need two.

3. 3. One “definitive” meaning for seed?

   The lesson says the seed has a “definitive interpretation,” and that if you don’t grasp it, you can’t understand any other parable.

   • In the sower, the seed is the word (Luke 8:11; Matthew 13:19).
   • In the wheat and weeds, the good seed is people, “the people of the kingdom” (Matthew 13:38).
   • In the mustard seed, the seed is the kingdom itself (13:31).
   • Paul uses the seed image for the resurrection body (1 Corinthians 15:37-38) and for Christ, the one promised “descendant” (Galatians 3:16).

   Jesus and the apostles use seed in different ways from passage to passage. Each parable is read by its own explanation, not by one fixed definition. Romans 1:20, the lesson’s “main verse for the parables,” says God’s eternal power and divine nature “have been clearly seen” through creation, so that everyone is without excuse. It is not a key for decoding symbols (see Lesson 3).

4. 4. SCJ says “the weeds are commentaries”

   The Explanation of Parables (p. 13) defines Satan’s seed as “weeds, commentaries,” and warns that this determines whether a person goes to heaven or hell.

   • Jesus said the weeds are “the people of the evil one” (13:38). Not books.
   • In practice, this teaches students to distrust Bible commentaries, the tools that would let them check the course’s claims against centuries of Christian scholarship.
   • SCJ’s own books are commentaries on the Bible. By the book’s own definition, they would be weeds too.

5. 5. Born of Satan’s seed by default?

   The notes say, on 1 Peter 1:23, that we “all start perishable, born of Satan’s seed.”

   • Peter contrasts perishable and imperishable seed. The next verse explains “perishable”: “all flesh is like grass … the grass withers” (1:24). He means natural, mortal human birth, not Satan’s seed.
   • Scripture does teach that people are by nature sinful and in need of new birth (Ephesians 2:1-3; John 3:3), and that should be admitted. But the remedy is God’s act: “to all who have received him—those who believe in his name—he has given the right to become God’s children … but by God” (John 1:12-13).

6. 6. The imperishable seed is the point

   The lesson says once reborn, people “must do everything in their power to remain born of God’s seed,” and that spiritual paternity “is not fixed, but can transition.”

   • The whole point of 1 Peter 1:23 is that the seed is imperishable: “the living and enduring word of God,” and “the word of the Lord endures forever” (1:25).
   • Peter’s readers had already been born anew through the word “that was proclaimed to you” (1:25).
   • They “by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1:5).
   • Jesus: “no one will snatch them from my hand” (John 10:28).

   A believer is kept by God’s power and an imperishable word, not by holding on through their own effort.

7. 7. The goal of “sinless children of God”

   The lesson uses 1 John 3:9-10 to set a goal of “becoming sinless children of God.”

   • 1 John 3:9 describes the settled direction of a believer’s life: God’s children do not go on living in sin as a practice.
   • The same letter says: “If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves,” and “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us” (1:8-9).
   • “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One” (2:1).
   • Setting sinlessness as a goal tied to closely following the course creates constant pressure and guilt, which is not what John was doing. He wrote “so that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13).

8. 8. Jeremiah 31:27 is not about two opposing seeds

   The lesson says God promised to sow two kinds of seed, good and evil.

   • The verse: “I will cause people and animals to sprout up in the lands of Israel and Judah” (Jeremiah 31:27).
   • The next verse explains that God had seen to it that they were uprooted and torn down. “But now I will see to it that they are built up and firmly planted” (31:28). It is a promise to repopulate and rebuild the land after exile.
   • A few verses later comes the new covenant promise (31:31-34). Nothing in the chapter mentions Satan’s seed.

9. 9. 1 Corinthians 3: God’s field has no devil’s seed

   The lesson cites 1 Corinthians 3:9, “You are God’s field,” for the field as a heart or church.

   • It is fair that Paul calls the Corinthian church God’s field. But in Paul’s picture, he planted, Apollos watered and God caused the growth (3:6-7). There’s no enemy sowing weeds.
   • In the same chapter, Paul calls the church God’s temple, which is holy (3:16-17).
   • The only foundation is Jesus Christ (3:11).

   1 Corinthians 3 doesn’t support the idea that the church is a field where Satan’s people are planted.

10. 10. Denominations and division

    The summary says Satan’s seed in the church explains “why we have so many denominations.”

    • Paul dealt with division directly in Corinth: “I am with Paul,” “I am with Apollos” (1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 3:3-4). He rebuked it.
    • But he still called them “the church of God … those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus” (1:2) and “brothers and sisters” (1:10).
    • His solution was to point them back to Christ as the one foundation (3:11), not to tell them to leave for a new organization.

11. 11. The harvesters: Angels, not recruiters

    The lesson says the angels “manifest through people who invite us to study,” and urges students to “embrace opportunities to be ‘harvested.’”

    • Jesus says the reapers are angels, sent by the Son of Man at the end of the age (Matthew 13:39, 41).
    • In Revelation 14:14-16, the reaper is “one like a son of man” seated on a cloud, followed by an angel from the temple in heaven (14:17). It is a scene of final judgment.
    • Turning the person who invited a student to class into God’s harvesting angel makes doubting the class feel like refusing God’s harvest.

12. 12. Those who remain in their churches

    The Explanation of Parables (p. 137) makes the barn “The Twelve Tribes of Mt. Zion (heaven)” and the bundles those “not harvested and remain in their churches.”

    • In the parable, the bundles of darnel are tied up “to be burned” (Matthew 13:30), and Jesus explains that the weeds are thrown “into the fiery furnace” (13:42).
    • The book is saying that Christians who stay in their own churches are the weeds bound for burning, and that the barn is SCJ’s own organization.
    • The Explanation of Parables (p. 11) adds that the children of God at the second coming are “God’s true shepherd and his congregation.”

    Jesus said the sorting belongs to the angels at the end of the age, and told his servants not to do it themselves (13:29-30). The book does the sorting now, and puts everyone outside SCJ in the fire.