June 10, 2018 Out of Love For the Lord

God is not a being of imagination

God is love(1John 4:8). When we see mother’s love for her baby, we might glance His love for us. Mothers love their baby with all their mind, all their power, and all their soul. But babies do not even know their mothers’ name, age, or education background. Nor do they care about whether their mothers are kind or their mothers are good looking. However, since they know that they cannot live without their mothers they fully rely on their mothers. In like manner, without God’s motherhood, which is the Holy Spirit and the gospel, we cannot live. To rely on them is our faith.

Generally, people regard this faith as the one of religions in the world. The role of religion is to guide people to live in a more right way. In that sense, religion might have limitation to fully explain our faith. The main point of our faith is to know God. Many people claim to know God, but reality is that they serve their own God whom they have imagined. That is not a true faith, but a subjective conviction.

Think about this. Can those who lead their faith lives according to their own conviction sacrifice themselves for God? It might be very difficult for them to voluntarily devote their time and possession to Him. They freely miss the Lord’s Day because of their business, and even they might lose their faith at all after repeating it. Can they be saved in such faith?

The reason why people fall away is that without a true experience of meeting God they have sought their own God whom they have imagined. What we should surely know is that the beginning of our faith is not from a subjective thinking or imagination, but from a specific experience. We would know this from how Jesus answered John’s asking in the Bible: John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”(Luke 7:22)

Φωνή(Foni),  ῥῆμά (Reema),  and λόγος (Logos)

The New Testament was written in Greek, and there are three words in Greek which are generally translated into ‘word’- Foni (φωνή), Reema (ῥῆμά), and Logos(λόγος). The first is ‘Foni” which means a voice itself or a sound that is able to carry a meaning. Mark 1:3 describes John the Baptist as ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness.’ In this passage the word φωνή is used for ‘voice’. The second word is ῥῆμά (Reema) which means a word through which a certain meaning has been delivered.

The most important greek word for ‘word’ is ‘λόγος’ (Logos). The Logos is the Word who has existed from the beginning. There is life in the Word, and the life is the light that shines into the world. The world did not receive the light because it belongs to the darkness. But those who receive God’s commandments as the Word of God and obey it receive the life of God. (John 1:1-4)  When a person who has received the word of God puts it into action, it is called ‘faith’. God found such faith in Abraham. When God commanded Abraham, saying, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you”, he obeyed the word of God and God accounted it to him for righteousness.

When we come to church and receive the Word, we must receive it as the Logos. When you hear a parable and only understand the meaning, you receive the ‘Remma’, not the Logos. When you receive the Logos, you recognize that you have a duty to do. People listen to messages in the church, but some of them hear them as mere sounds, while others understand them as messages from a certain person. They do not kneel before the Word when they hear it. They heard the Foni or the Remma but not the Logos. Those who receive the Logos submit their will to the Word.

The Logos is the Word who is clothed with a robe dipped in blood in Revelation 19:13. The life of God is in His blood.(Leviticus 17:11) When a person pokes himself with a needle, he immediately tries to stop the bleeding. Every word that God has revealed is like a drop of His blood. His Word contains the pain of His shed blood. When God gives us His word, it is like He is shedding His own blood. How should we treat such words?

God as a historical being who was revealed as Immanuel

If one asks, “How does God look”, how would you answer? Matthew 1:23 says, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” What we should know is this. Our God was the one who was born in a manger two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, Judea.

Many people are likely to imagine a being with a majestic authority and splendor when they think about ‘God’. However, we do not imagine Him in such a way or vaguely. We have seen Him and touched Him. For us, God is not a being in your imagination, but a person in the history. It is our God, who was born from a virgin and laid in a manger(Luke 2:7), and who went to Jerusalem for Passover at the age of twelve and discussed with the Jewish teachers(Luke 2:46).

One day, He appeared in Jordan river. There, John, the son of Zacharias, was baptizing people. Anyone who stood before John should confess his sins to be baptized. But when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to him who did not approve their sins to be baptized, John rebuked them, saying, “You, brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” John’s baptism was the baptism of repentance(Mark 1:4).

But Jesus, who had nothing to repent, appeared before John. John was so embarrassed and said to Him, “I need to be baptized by You, and You coming to me?” Then Jesus said, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”(Matthew 3:15) Jesus was baptized on that day, that His former status, ‘the son of Abraham and David’, was buried. When He came out of the water, God proclaimed, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”(Matthew 3:17) At this moment, John the Baptist became the one who witnessed God.

But even after Jesus was baptized, He said to His disciples, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!”(Luke 12:50) When Jesus was baptized by John, He was approved as the Son of God burying the old status, ‘the son of Abraham and David’. But Jesus said that he still had another baptism, because He indicated that He would be killed and raised to life.

Let us comfort the Lord who fell among the thieves

Luke 10:25~37 is the parable that Jesus told to a teacher of the law. When one person went to Jericho from Jerusalem and fell among thieves, left half dead. A priest and Levite came down that road but did not help him only to pass by him. But a Samaritan came where the person was on the journey and took care of him. What is more, he brought the person to an inn, giving some money to the innkeeper to take care of him. He even promised to give him whatever more he spend, when he comes again to repay him.

Jerusalem locates 750 meters above the sea level, while Jericho locates 250 meters below the level. The gap between the two places would be around 1,000 meters. The phrase, ‘the person who went from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves’ represents Jesus Christ, who was to be originally exalted to the Most High but went down to the lowest to suffer.

The priest and Levite who abandoned the person half dead represent those who are under the law. The Son of God died in this world, but the law could not save Him. The church is the body of the Lord. The church, established in the world where the enemies of the Lord are, is even now exposed to threatening. No matter when and where, the church of the Lord has been persecuted and attacked, and even in some cases, its existence is threatened. What should we do for the church in the situations? We are living by the grace of the Lord. When we suffered under the authority of death and curse, the Lord saved us from them. And now His body is being threatened like the person who fell among the thieves.

The Lord said to those who did not take care of Him when He was hungry, thirsty, and naked, “You cursed, get into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”(Matthew 25:41~43) Those who try to recognize Him with imagination would unwillingly serve Him. However, we are the ones who experienced His grace, seeing, hearing and touching Him! How should we take care of the church who fell among thieves?

The Jews have extremely ignored Samaritans in their lives. But the Samaritan who helped the person who fell among the thieves did take care of him with all his heart, all his power, and all his soul. If we are those who truly received His grace, we would do for the church, the body of the Lord as the Samaritan did. We do not believe God like an idol in heart, but believe Him as a being in the history. Now, He needs our comfort and care.

There is anold saying that states, “never judge from appearances”. With thesame sense of meaning, the so-called ‘Church Reform Union’ have shown their true colors and are committing outrageous acts of evil. But no matter how hard I try to figure it out, I do not know what they are trying to reform. With the spirit of a Berean, I lead the ‘Return to the Word Movement’ in Sungrak Church. In the early past, for a period of 7 months, I, Semuon, kept a small rock tightly between my teeth, and enduredpersecutions for that whole period. I endured great persecutions, but overcame them all. I started the first steps of the ‘Return to the Word’ Movement in 1984, and then later, again, kept a small rock tightly between my teeth, for a later period of 8 months. I performed what is called “he who sees but does not speak”. I continued later to endure further persecutions.

In the Yesan District for the Methodist Church in Korea, I received condemnation from the religious legal courts because of the issue of baptism, and I left the Methodist church. Afterwards, all by myself, I carried around the curtainmaterials of a large military tent. I went around all over the country, going here and therefor a period of 10 years. Through a series of evangelistic crusades that I conducted, I cried out the messageto ‘Return to the Word’. Along withthe given healings and holy signs that appeared, I testified to theWord most clearly. Then, finally, with the spirit of a Berean, in the year 1973, I started a small Bible study group.It grew steadilyuntil, in 1978, I named it ‘Berea Academy’. Later on, I taught the ‘Original Teaching of The Picture of God’s Will’ to theological seminary students and pastors of traditionally established churches that had come to hear.

During this time, I organized ‘the Original Teaching of Berea’ into a single book and revealed it to the world.After that,I compiled the ‘Berean Original Terminological Dictionary’ and the ‘Berean Spiritual Dictionary’. And starting with the book,‘Let us know the Holy Spirit’, I gave the form and supplement of the Original Teaching of Berea by developingthe Berea Official Church teaching. I developed the theory of Creation, the theory of Christology, the theory of the Holy Spirit, the theory of the Son of Man, the theory of Demonology, the theory of God, and then finally the theoryofmissions. These all grew into a rich variety of all the essential teachings of the gospel. I have wrote about 250 of these books, and have thus shown the core ideal and argument of Berea.I havefirmly constructed all these theories. All these books have been sent to many countriesand have been translated and proclaimed in many languages. In about 70 of these countries, there is a Berea Academy Institute that has been firmly planted and rooted. Lastly, I set up the Berea International Theological Seminary.

With Sungrak Church as the cradle of Berea, many things have been prepared and readied for work to be advanced towards the whole world. Starting without any money, I borrowed money from the bank, and in advance, set up the Christian World Mission Center and the Christian World Leader Center as the pair of twin cradles for the Berea Movement. We had used these and had given revival to the church. Every year we had made installment payments,andhad made reimbursements.We had made plans up to theyear 2026for the debt to be lightly paid off, and after it was fully planned and finished, the whole church would unite together to give their full-hearted devotion. For the sake of the slogan of “The World as Our Pasture” we had laid down everything, and we were in the process of developing until completion.

Our objective and mission is so clear, but the so-called persons who are trying to “reform”, without being clear at all about what it is that they are actually trying to reform and advocate, they simply like to hold to the slogan: ‘Get rid of Semuon and Berea’. Is this, then, reform? The reason they are trying to get rid of Berea and Semuon, is because of envy and hatred and jealousy, which come entirely from the desires and emotions of the flesh. These have nothing to do with any idea of reform.

This is a complete deception. Therefore, the body of the Lord, which is the Church, is being made a heap of rubble, and the name of Jesus is being dishonored and shoved into the dirt. Just like the person on the way to Jericho, where the thieves met him on the path and left him half dead, Sungrak Church, which is the body of the Lord, is being abused by these thieves.In words that cannot be expressed, the church has endured unbearable afflictions. However, all of us, as good Samaritans, and not as the priests and Levites, who looked away from the body of the Lord, have come together to boldly reconstruct it. For the sake of the church, which has been abused by these so-called reformers, but are liars,we mustcontinue to finishall these things.

Coming Soon

Outline translated by Sarah Lee
Letter translated by John Kim
Interpretations by Daniel Hong
Korean Summary by Ki-Taek Lee