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I am so honoured to be with
you, and what an encouragement to the body of Christ and to you Mother
Moon, for your tireless efforts and your work as you have continued to
bring faith leaders from all over the world to work together in peace and
unification, to bring together people for the better cause. I congratulate
you. Paula White |
More commonly known as ‘The
Unification Church’, the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World
Christianity was founded by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea in 1954.
Though having ‘Christianity’
in its name, this group is far removed from orthodox biblical Christianity.
Back in 1976, The New York Times Magazine reported:
‘While
church members accept Moon’s theology as revealed truth, non-members generally
find it a mind-boggling mixture of Pentecostal Christianity, Eastern mysticism,
anti-Communism, pop psychology and metaphysics.’[1]
Another indicator that this
is not biblical Christianity is the fact that members are referred to as ‘Moonies’.
This is significant and tells us much about this group. Whereas Christians are
disciples of Jesus, Moonies are disciples of Sun Myung Moon. This is not so
surprising when we understand that it was Jesus himself who commissioned Moon:
‘At
the age of 16 young Moon experienced a vision (on Easter of 1936) while in
prayer on a Korean mountainside. Moon claims that Jesus Christ appeared to him
in the vision admonishing him to carry out the task that Christ had failed to
complete. Jesus supposedly told Moon that he was the only one who could do it. Finally, after much repeated asking by Jesus.
Moon accepted the challenge’. [2]
Moon’s testimony was that
Jesus had called him to be a latter-day prophet, the new Messiah and the ‘Lord
of the Second-Advent.’
Who do you say that I am?
Biblical Christianity holds that
Jesus was born of a virgin. He was fully God and fully man and on the cross, he
fully paid the penalty for sin. What does The Unification Church believe about
Jesus, who do they say that he is?
Virgin Birth
Moon taught that there was
no virgin birth and that Jesus’ parents were Zechariah and Mary.[3]
Scripture clearly refutes this:
Isaiah
7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold,
the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel.
Matthew 1:18-25 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
The Deity of Christ
Moon denies the deity of
Christ. He claims that, though free from sin, Jesus was only a man.
"Jesus is the man of this value.
However great his value may be, he cannot assume any value greater than that of
a man. ."[4]
"It is plain that Jesus is not God
Himself"[5]
In common with many new religious movements, The Unification
Church demotes the Lord Jesus Christ. Often portrayed as a person of
importance, but no more than that, Jesus is relegated to the side-lines. Moon
not only denied the deity of Christ, but he claimed that the very idea that
Jesus was God was fabricated by the Christian Church:
“But after his crucifixion,
Christianity made Jesus into God. This is why a gap between God and man has
never been bridged. Jesus is a man in whom God is incarnate, but he is not God
Himself”[6]
Scripture teaches that Jesus was fully God and fully man.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace
and truth.
Colossians 2:9 For in him the whole fullness of
deity dwells bodily.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:5-7 Have this mind among
yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though
he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to
be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of
a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
The Cross
Scripture teaches that Jesus came for the explicit purpose of dying
for the sins of the world:
Matthew 20:28 "Just as the Son of Man did not come to
be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
The Unification Church teaches that Jesus failed in his mission. He was supposed to
redeem mankind physically and spiritually and the cross is evidence of his
failure:
"Jesus failed in His Christly mission. His death on the
cross was not an essential part of God's plan for redeeming sinful man."8
Scripture teaches the importance of the cross:
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to
those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Colossians 2:14 By cancelling the record of debt that stood
against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
The Unification Church teaches that Jesus did accomplish a ‘spiritual’ salvation on
the cross of Calvary, but he failed in achieving a ‘physical salvation’ for
mankind.9
Scripture teaches
a complete salvation through the cross:
Colossians 1:20 And through him to reconcile to himself all
things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the
tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you
have been healed.
The Unification Church teaches that, as the second Adam, Jesus failed in his mission to bring about physical salvation for mankind, Moon taught that a third Adam was necessary. Any idea who that might be?
Moon the Messiah!
In teaching that Jesus failed, Moon opened the way for another to
come and complete the task. He taught that Jesus commissioned him to bring
physical salvation to the world. But Scripture teaches that no other is needed.
Jesus did not fail; he completed all he came to do hence he could say on the
cross: ‘It is finished.’[7]
Acts 4:10-12.
“…that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised
from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This
Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has
become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there
is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must
be saved.”
Sun Myung Moon cannot save anyone – but Jesus can!
[1]
The New York Times Magazine, May 30, 1976 p.18-19
[2]
Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Understanding the Cults p.133.
[3] https://tragedyofthesixmarys.com/sun-myung-moon-restoration-through-incest/
[4] Rev. Moon, Divine Principle,
p. 255.
[5]
Ibid p.258
[6] Rev. Moon, Christianity in
Crisis, pp. 12-13.
[7]
John 19:30
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