United Nations Supporter Rev.Sun Myung Moon Claims to be the Messiah; Claims to Have Succeeded Where Jesus Christ Failed; Predicts One-World Global Religion
| Moon Denies the Divinity of Jesus Christ |
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The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of The Washington Times, has abandoned anti-Communism and fully embraced the United Nations. According to the Times, which uncritically highlighted Moon's remarks in a page two story on January 28, Moon called the U.N. "a temple of peace" and said religions should work with it to "solve global problems."
Moon received a "Universal Peace Award" at the U.N., has called for a U.N.-based religious body, and has declared, "As long as America sticks with its nationalistic pride it will never be able to embrace the world." On January 12, Moon spoke of how U.N. non-governmental organizations "can represent all humanity -- through which God can come and reign."
Moon's turn toward the U.N. could reflect his belief that the U.N. could help protect his global business dealings in China, North Korea and Vietnam. "The Moon connection to North Korea is most striking," Cliff Kincaid of America's Survival, Inc. said. "Moon met with and was extremely close to North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung, whose successor and son, Kim Jong-Il, gave Moon a birthday gift." (30)
What follows is an AP story about Moon's claim to be the true Messiah:
End-times reading of the Bible
By Richard N. Ostling, AP Religion Writer
August 27, 2001, Monday
Already well known for accumulated worldwide business involvements,
arranged marriages and mass weddings, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon hit a
publicity jackpot in May when he selected one of his Korean disciples,
Maria Sung, as a bride for Vatican-based Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo
and conducted the nuptials days later.
The on-again, off-again marriage then became entangled in Vatican
intrigue.
People generally know little about Moon's creed, but it was a remarkable
context in which a 70-year-old Roman Catholic archbishop found a wife,
though Milingo said he didn't mean to forsake Catholicism.
New religions such as Moon's often cite the Bible, but give it a radically
different interpretation from that taught by mainstream Judaism or
Christianity - faiths toward which Moon is sharply critical. Moon's
doctrines are laid out in his 1957 scripture, titled "Exposition of the
Divine Principle" in the 1996 English translation.
Moon's followers regard him as the new messiah or "Lord of the Second
Advent" who is providing the "physical salvation" that Jesus was unable
to accomplish because he was executed and didn't marry. Jesus gave only
"spiritual salvation."
By contrast, Christianity has always taught that Jesus' death on the
cross gives complete salvation for all who believe in him.
The faith's end-times scenario uses biblical chronology: There were
2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus, so the messiah comes in another 2,000
years, closing the "New Testament Age." To be specific, "the period of
the Second Advent began soon after the end of the First World War."
Moon was born in January 1920.
How would the Christ or messiah return? An oft-quoted Second Coming
verse says, "He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him"
(Revelation 1:7). Since a person cannot literally "ride on the clouds,"
Moon explains, the clouds are symbolic, referring to multitudes of
believers, and the messiah is born in ordinary fashion rather than
returning from heaven.
Where does the birth occur? Here Moon relies on Revelation 7:2: "Then
I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of
the living God. ..."
The rising sun means the messiah comes from one of the "nations in the
East," and since ancient times there have been considered to be three:
Korea, Japan and China. Both Japan and China are ineligible because
they have "belonged to Satan's side" during the time of the Second
Advent. Japan entered the period as a fascist nation and severely
persecuted Korean Christianity, while China had a strong communist
movement and was later ruled by communists.
Thus only "Korea has become qualified to receive Christ at the Second
Advent" and that's where the messiah must be born.
Moon is, of course, Korean.
Chronology enters again with Moon's "dispensation of 40." Israel suffered
enslavement for 40 times 10 years in Egypt. The Christian Church as "the
Second Israel" suffered 40 times l0 years of persecution in the Roman
Empire. There were also 40 times 10 years from Protestantism's birth
(1517) to the end of World War I.
Korea was "the Third Israel" that suffered for 40 years, from the
protection treaty with Japan (1905) until the end of World War II.
Since the messiah comes to Korea, "he will certainly use the
Korean language, which will then become the mother tongue for all
humanity." Eventually all people should use the messiah's language as
their mother tongue.
"All of humanity will become one people and use one language, thus
establishing one global nation under God." Thus the religion's label:
Unification.
There are many other concepts that make Moon an unusual colleague for
a Catholic archbishop. One obvious example is Moon's teaching about the
person of Jesus Christ.
Moon teaches that Jesus was "a man who has realized the purpose
of creation and who lives in oneness with God" and "has a divine
nature. Nevertheless, he is not God himself." By contrast, Catholic
(and all conventional Christian) belief says Jesus is fully God as well
as fully man.
Moon holds that after the new messiah marries, the couple as "True
Parents" form "a perfect trinity with God." Christian orthodoxy
worships Jesus as part of the divine Trinity consisting of Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. (30)
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