|
|
|
|
Dear friend!
I appreciate you hard work and dedication to serve God. I am writing to you out of brotherly love and concern, as a brother in Christ. I have worked with you, studied with you, even fundraised and witnessed with you, so my letter to you does not come from an outsider perspective, but rather from that of an insider and friend. I very much appreciate your love for God, trying to serve Him with your whole heart. I know how sincere you are! Else you could never survive the ardeous schedule as you do! I feel that God is also moved by your heart and your effort to serve Him, to make Him happy. However, what concerns me is that although Rev. Moon and his Unification Movement often try to appear Christian, the inner teachings and practices are very different. God is eternal, absolute and unchanging. If He gave a new revelation-could it contradict His previous revelation, the Bible? Could God contradict Himself? If there was a contradiction-to which authority would you hold?
The Divine Principle (DP) claims to be a revelation given to Mr. Sun Myung Moon, a continuation of the revelation of the Old and New Testament. By such a claim as Christians we must obey the Word of God and test any supposed revelation. According to our study and prayer, Mr. Moon is not the Messiah because his teachings clearly contradict the teachings of Jesus and the Bible, whereas Jesus did not contradict the Old Testament. But please study and compare for yourself.
1Joh 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1The 5:20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.
(See also 2Cor 13:5)
To do this we will use God's own description about himself:
Numb 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Mala 3:6 "I the LORD do not change..."
It is reasonable then to assume that God will not say one thing and then contradict Himself later. However, if we look at the DP, it directly contradicts what God has said in His Word:
DP: The Bible is not the truth itself, but a textbook teaching the truth. Naturally, the quality of teaching and the method and extent of giving the truth must vary according to each age, for the truth is given to people of different ages, who are different spiritual and intellectual levels. Therefore, we must not regard the textbook as absolute in every detail.(p.9)
God's Word:Prov30:5 "Every word of God is flawless"
2Pet 1:20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
1The 2:13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
Even Jesus said that: ". . . the Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35) and in John 14:25 "All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
------------------
DP: The New Testament words of Jesus and the Holy Spirit will lose their light in later times as new truth is revealed; just as the Old Testament words lost their light when Jesus and the Holy Spirit came. (p.118)
God's Word:Matt 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
---------------------
DP: Jesus was not the unique, only begotten Son of God who was pre-existent with the Father before all created things. Jesus attained deity, as a man who fulfilled the purpose of creation but can by no means be considered God Himself. (p. 209, 210)
God's Word:John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (see also John 3:18 and 1John 4:9-10)
Colo 1:16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
(The above verse was written about Jesus, see context for yourselves.)
Notice in the following verse from the Old Testament that the LORD Himself is speaking and refers to a day when He will be crucified. Which only makes sense if Jesus is God Himself:
Zech 12:10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. (See also Isaiah 9:6)
The next verse says it as clearly as God's Word can say it:
Titu 2:13 while we wait for the blessed hopethe glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
-----------------
DP: Jesus was not resurrected from the dead in a new body, but as a spirit man. (p.211,212)
God's Word:Luke 24:36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." 37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.
38 He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."
Jesus did rise from the dead, how could he say it any more clearly?
Acts 2:29 "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
If Jesus' body was taken away and he was only spiritually raised from the dead those verses would be meaningless.
----------------
DP:Jesus failed in his christly mission. His death on the cross was not an essential part of God's plan for redeeming sinful man (p.142,143)
God's Word:Luke 24:44 He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
Acts 2:23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
(see also Acts 3:18; 4:27,28;Rev 13:8)
-----------------
Mr. Moon himself said:"I had to accomplish all left unaccomplished by my predecessor. . . .When you think of that, you must feel indebted to me and cannot lift your face before me." (Master Speaks, 7-4-73, p.3)
God's Word:Hebr 7:24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
-----------------
DP:The Messiah's second coming will be realized by his being born on earth (p.502)
God's Word:Acts 1:9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
Prophecies of Jesus's coming:
It was prophesied in the Old Testament that Jesus would be born of a virgin, be the son of God, from the seed of Abraham, son of Isaac, Son of Jacob, tribe of Judah, line of Jesse, house of David, born in Bethlehem, presented with gifts by kings at his birth, Herod would kill children looking for him, his eternal nature, called Lord, rejected by Jewish authorities, he would be betrayed, be crucified, rise again, that all nations would here the gospel, etc.
Does Mr. Moon have such a Divine endorsement? No, only a couple verses taken out of context, which if taken the way the Unification Church presents them would contradict the rest of Scripture's descriptions of Jesus' coming..
What about all the "good" things that he is doing?
2Cor 11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
We must remember that God will not contradict Himself and that Scripture must interpret Scripture. So, if a verse is not clear and can be read more than one way, we must go with the interpretation which stays in harmony with the rest of Scripture.
I hope you can see that Unification teachings do not do this. Their doctrines directly contradict what Scripture has clearly revealed. God's Word speaks directly to what Mr. Moon is doing:
Colo 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Gala 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Why doesn't Mr. Moon understand the work of Jesus on the cross in spite of what Scripture so clearly says?
1Cor 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
. . . 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Remember that these misconceptions being presented by the Unification Church are not new. This approach is as old as man himself. It was the same approach Satan used in the Garden of Eden. "Did God really say..." he asked. Then, after causing Eve to doubt God's Word, Satan completely contradicted what God clearly said. This plea from God's Word is an appropriate place to close:
2Cor 11:3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
Don't let that be true of you!
Roma 10:9 . . . if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
return to MoonismPlease address any questions or problems you encounter on this site to Ingo Michehl. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of trancenet.net,all-info.org, its staff, volunteers, or donors.trancenet.netrelies solely on "sharefare" donations from readers like you at http://www.trancenet.net/trancenet/levels.shtml.
Except where noted, entire contents Copyright ©1995,1996, 1997 Ingo Michehl.
Atrancenet.netpublication.
This page was last built with Frontier on a Macintosh on Fri, Mar 7, 1997 at 1:31:27 PM.
