Chapter Second Advent
Jesus clearly spoke about the Second Advent (Matt. 16:27). But he said
that no one knew of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven (Matt.
24:36). Therefore, up to the present, it has been thought reckless even to try
to know when, where and how the Lord would come.
By
examining the words of Jesus, "Only the Father knows." (Matt 24:36),
and the verse, "Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing his
secret to his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7), we can understand that
God, who knows of the day and hour, will surely let His prophets know all the
secrets concerning the Second Advent of the Lord before actualizing it.
Therefore,
Jesus said that Lord would come like a thief (Rev. 3:3), while, on another
occasion, he said that, for those in the light, the Lord would not come as a
thief (I. Thess. 5:4). It was true that Jesus came as thief to the chief
priests and scribes, who were in darkness, but, to the home of John the
Baptist, which was in light, God revealed Jesus' birth beforehand. At the time
of his birth He revealed the fact to the wise men of the east, Simon, Anna, and
the shepherds. Again, Jesus warned the people, telling them to watch at all
times, praying that they might have the strength to escape all those things
that would take place, because the day of the Second Advent would come upon
them suddenly like a snare; so, it is evident that He will reveal it beforehand
to the saints who are in the light, so that they may prepare for the coming day
of the Lord.
From
the examples appearing in the course of the providence of restoration, we can
see that God always did things after having revealed the facts to His prophets
beforehand; for example: the judgment in Noah's time, His destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah, and the Messiah's coming. Therefore, it is evident that, at the
Second Coming of the Lord, God will speak to those who have ears to hear and
eyes to see so that they may be enlightened by the saints about what would take
place, as He promised that in the Last Days He would pour out His Spirit (Acts
2:17).
Where will Christ come again?
If
Christ is to be born as a man in flesh on this earth, and not to come again in
a spiritual body, he will surely be born in a certain nation of God's elect,
some place of God's predestination.
Where,
then, would the place of predestination be, and which nation would be God's
elect?
2. Christ will come again to an Eastern nation
As
Jesus said in Matthew 21:33 in a parable, the Jewish people, by delivering
Jesus to the cross, fell to the position of the tenants who killed the son of
the vineyard owner. Which nation, then, shall be the one that will succeed to
God's heritage, taken away from the Jewish people, and produce the fruits of
it? The Bible teaches us that the nation is in the East.
We
read in the Bible (Rev. 5:1) that in the right hand of God there was a scroll,
written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals, "...and no one in
heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into
it.", and John, seeing it, wept profusely. Then, the Lamb went and took
the scroll from the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne (Rev. 5:7)
and opened each of the seven seals (Rev. 6:1).
We
read the record of the Lamb having opened the sixth seal (Rev. 6:12) and, as an
intermediate scene before the opening of the last seal, there is the record in
Revelation 7. The Bible goes on to say in Revelation 7:2-4 that another angel
ascended from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God and sealed
the chosen servants of God on their foreheads, and the number of those sealed
was one hundred and forty-four thousand. It is again written that there stood
the Lamb, the Lord, and with him one hundred and forty-four thousand who had
been sealed (Rev. 14:1).
From
these Biblical verses, we may know that Christ will be born in a country in the
East--that is, from the rising of the sun--and place a seal on the foreheads of
the hundred and forty-four thousand, the first chosen among the people of the
land, with his name and his Father's name (Rev. 14:1). Therefore, we see that
the nation, which would take over God's heritage and produce the fruits of the
Second Advent of the Lord is in the East. Then, which of the many nations of
the East will be the very nation?
3. That Nation of the East is Korea
Now
we know, as previously elucidated, that Christ would not come again among the
lineal descendants of Abraham, but to the nation that would take their heritage
and produce the fruits of it; that the nation which would produce the fruits
should be one of the Eastern nations. From ancient times, by the "Eastern
nations", we refer to Korea, Japan, and China. Meanwhile, Japan, among the
three, is the nation that has worshipped Amaterasuomikami generation after
generation; moreover, she entered the period of the Second Advent as a
totalitarian nation, and as will be discussed later, she is the nation which
persecuted the Christianity of Korea. China, being a communist nation, is on
the Satanic side, together with Japan.
Therefore,
the nation of the East where Christ will come again would be none other than
Korea. Now, let us prove, from several viewpoints based on the Principle, that
Korea should be the nation that can receive the Lord of the Second Advent. The
nation where the Messiah will come must meet the following conditions.
(1) This Nation Must lay the Nationwide Foundation
for the Restoration by Indemnity
In
order for Korea to become the nation that can receive the Messiah, she must lay
the nationwide 40-day foundation for the separation from Satan for the cosmic
restoration of Canaan.
What,
then, are the grounds for the Korean people to lay this foundation? If the Lord
should come again, in Korea, the Korean people will become the "Third
Israel", God's elect. Abraham's lineal descendants, who had been persecuted
in Egypt while serving God's will in the Old Testament Age, were the
"First Israel", while the Christians, who, branded as heretics by the
First Israel, having taking over the providence of restoration while serving
the resurrected Jesus, were the Second Israel. Meanwhile, we have already
learned through previous statements that the Lord will be branded as a heretic,
even by the Christians, the "Second Israel"; just as it is prophesied
in Luke 17:25 that the Lord must first suffer many things even at his Second
Advent, as in Noah's days.
If
so, God will have to abandon the Christians when they persecute the Lord of the
Second Advent, just as He abandoned the Jewish people who refused Jesus (Matt.
7:23). Then, the Korean people, who are to accomplish the third providence of
God by serving the Lord of the Second Advent, will become the Third Israel, the
chosen nation.
The
First Israel suffered the 400-year slavery in Egypt, which was the Satanic
world at that time, in order to establish the 40-day foundation for the
separation from Satan to start the course of the nationwide restoration of
Canaan. Likewise the Second Israel also struggled and overcame the 400-year
persecution by the Roman Empire, which was the Satanic world at that time, in
order to establish the 40-day foundation for the separation from Satan to start
the course of the worldwide restoration into Canaan. Naturally, the Korean
people, being the Third Israel, must suffer slavery for a certain length of
time corresponding to the number "40" under a nation of the satanic
side in order to establish the 40-day foundation for the separation from Satan
to start the course of the cosmic restoration of Canaan. This was actually the
40-year period in which Korea suffered persecution as a vassal state of the
Japanese Empire.
Under
what circumstances did the Korean people come to suffer the 40-year slavery
under the Japanese Empire? Japan's imperialistic and aggressive control of
Korea was extended according to the "Eul-sa Treaty of Protection",
which was a treaty committing Korea's entire diplomatic rights to the care of
the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Japanese Empire, and which was concluded in
1905 between Hiro-humi Ito of Japan and Wan Yong Lee of Korea, a pro-Japanese
Minister of Education at that time. Japan, in fact, deprived Korea of rights in
all fields, such as politics, diplomacy and economics, by interfering with the
entire domestic administration, through the governor and secretaries whom the
Japanese placed in every district. This was the "Eul-sa Treaty of
Protection".
Japan,
after her annexation of Korea by force in 1910, completely deprived the Korean
people of their freedom, imprisoning or slaughtering numerous patriots, and
worst of all, invading the royal palace and even killing the Queen. During the
Korean Independence Movement on the first of March, 1919, Japanese killed countless
good citizens of Korea.
Moreover,
at the time of the great Kanto Earthquake of Japan in 1923, the Japanese
people, by fabricating groundless rumors, massacred innumerable innocent
Koreans living in Tokyo. Meanwhile, countless Koreans, who could not bear the
Japanese tyranny, had to immigrate into the vast Manchurian wilderness in
search of freedom, leaving the fertile soil of their fatherland in the hands of
the Japanese. There, they struggled for the liberation of their fatherland,
undergoing unspeakable hardships and privations. Japanese soldiers, searching
village by village for patriotic Koreans, detained sometimes whole villages,
including the aged and young, in one building and massacred them by setting the
building on fire. Japan continued such tyranny until the day of the fall of the
empire.
Koreans
who died either at the time of the Sam-il Independence Movement or in the
wilderness of Manchuria were mostly Christians. Further, towards the end of the
Imperial Government, Japanese forced Korean Christians to worship at Shinto
shrines and imprisoned or slaughtered countless Christians who objected to it.
Besides, the oppressive policy of Japanese Imperialism toward Korean
Christianity shortly before her August 15 liberation was atrocious. However,
with the admission of defeat in World War II by the Japanese Emperor Hirohito,
the Korean people were finally liberated from bondage.
In
this manner, the Korean nation, during the 40 years after the "Eul-sa
Treaty of Protection" in 1905 until their liberation in 1945, went through
persecution, not less severe than that which the "First Israel" and
the "Second Israel" suffered respectively in Egypt and in the Roman
Empire. Since the Independence Movement arose chiefly among the Christians at
home and abroad, it was mostly the Christians who suffered the persecution.
(2) This Nation Must be God's Front Line and Satan's
Front Line
Since
God in the beginning blessed Adam to have dominion over the whole creation, He
had to allow Satan to realize, ahead of Him, the non-principled world in the
pattern of the blessings. Meanwhile, God has been restoring this world to the
Heavenly side. Therefore, at the consummation of human history, as previously
stated, this world is necessarily split into two worlds: one of democracy and
the other of communism. Since the Lord is coming in order to restore the fallen
world to the original world of creation, it is evident that God should work His
providence to restore the communist world to the Heavenly side, centering on
the country where the lord of the Second Advent is coming. Therefore, Korea,
where the Lord will come, should become the front line of God's immense love
and, at the same time, that of Satan's growing hatred; in other words, where
the two powers of democracy and communism should conflict with each other. The
38th parallel of Korea was formed according to this providence of restoration.
That
which lies on the line of rivalry between God and Satan, for the condition as
to which is right, is the offering of sacrifice. Since the Korean people are
the offering of sacrifice as a nation placed on that line for the universal
restoration, God has to cut this nationwide sacrifice in two, just as He had
Abraham cut his offerings. This is why Korea is cut in two by the 38th parallel
separating her into two nations--one of Cain-type and the other of Abel-type.
Naturally,
this 38th parallel is the very front line for both democracy and communism,
and, at the same time, the front line for both God and Satan. Therefore, the
war which broke out on June 25, 1950 across the 38th parallel of Korea, was not
merely a conflict between fellow countrymen caused by the severance of the
land, but the confrontation between the two worlds of democracy and communism,
and, further, the confrontation between God and Satan. Since this agitation
assumed a worldwide nature for the purpose of the providence of restoration,
the mobilization of many U.N. member-nations in the Korean War helped them to
unconsciously participate in God's providence by working for the liberation of
the fatherland.
At
the moment of the fall of the first human ancestors, the Heavenly side and the
Satanic side were split apart at this one point. Therefore, life and death,
good and evil, love and hatred, joy and sorrow also were split apart at this
one point and have been in conflict for the long period of history ever since.
The conflicting pairs were respectively divided into the two worlds of
democracy and communism. These, again, came to conflict on the worldwide level,
centering on Korea. Therefore, Korea has confronted a great chaos with
religions and ideologies, politics and economics conflicting here; all of these
gradually influence the whole world. This is because these kinds of phenomena,
rising first in the spirit world, are to develop substantially centering on
Korea, the center of the providence of restoration, and to further expand to
become worldwide. However, we must know that the coming of such chaos is the
sign of the coming of the world of a new order, just as it was written,
"...as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you
know that summer is near." (Matt. 24:32).
When
the Pharisees asked Jesus about the place of the Second Advent, Jesus answered
by saying, "Where the body is, there the eagles will be gathered
together." (Luke 17:37). Eternal life and eternal death are to confront
each other in Korea, which is both God's front line and Satan's front line.
Therefore, Satan, symbolized by the eagles, is supposed to gather here in
search of the people of death, while the Lord is also coming to this land in
search of the people of life.
(3) This Nation Must be the Object of God's Heart
In
order to become the object of God's heart, we must first walk the path of
blood, sweat and tears. By being under Satan's domination, man came to stand in
opposition to God. Therefore, God, with a parental heart, full of sorrow over
the loss of His children, has wandered in the sinful world to save the children
of corruption. In order to save mankind, who had rebelled against Him, God had
His living children sacrificed by Satan, finally suffering the sorrow of having
to give His son, Jesus, to the cross. Therefore, since the fall of man up to
the present day, God has grieved day after day, while any individual, home or
nation which has struggled against the Satanic world for the will of God, has
not been able to avoid the way of blood, sweat and tears.
How
can we expect to be comfortable and complacent as children walking the path of
filial piety and loyalty as the object of the parental heart in such grief? The
nation that can receive the Messiah must walk the way of blood, sweat and
tears, because its people must become children of filial piety by standing as
the object of God's sorrowful heart. Since the First Israel walked the path of
tribulation, the Second Israel did the same. The Korean people also, as the
Third Israel, must necessarily walk the same path. The historical course of
untold misery, which the Korean people have gone through, was the necessary way
for them to walk as the people of God's elect. As a result, the path of
affliction has led the Korean people to a great blessedness.
Next,
the nation to be the object of God's heart must necessarily by a people good in
God's sight. The Korean nation is a people of homogeneous lineage, having a
long history of more than 4000 years. Even during the dynasties of Kokuryo and
Silla, when the national power was in the prime state, Korea only repelled
aggressive foreign powers and never once invaded other countries. Considering
that Satan's first nature is his aggressive arrogance, it is evident, seen
merely from this aspect, that the Korean people are on the Heavenly side. God's
strategy has been that of winning victory from the position of being attacked.
Therefore, even though countless prophets and good men have been sacrificed in
the course of history, and God allowed His son, Jesus, to be crucified, the
result has always been a victory for God. Both in the first and second World
Wars, the Satanic side was always the first to attack, but both times the
victory was won by the heavenly side. In like manner, the Korean people have
been invaded by innumerable nations in the course of history. Nevertheless,
this was only to win the final victory as the nation on the Heavenly side.
The
Korean people are, by nature, endowed with a religious gift. Their religious
nature has always tried to pursue, apart from reality, that which is more than
reality. Therefore, the Korean nation, which is endowed with a strong
God-revering thought, from very ancient times when her cultural standard was
low, until the present, has never valued any religion which pursues everyday
happiness by worthlessly deifying natural objects. The Korean people, as a
whole, have a national character which highly values loyalty, filial piety and
virtue, in that this nation, as a whole, loves such noble stories as "Chun
Hyung" and "Shim Chung".
(4) This Nation Must have Prophetical Testimonies
Among the People
Concerning
the prophetical testimony revealed to the Korean nation, first, we learn that
this nation has a Messianic idea according to the revelation given to its
people. The First Israel believed, from the testimonies of its prophets (Mal
4:2-5, Is. 60:1-22), that the Messiah would come in the future as its King,
and, establishing the Kingdom, would save the people. The Second Israel went
through the difficult path of faith in the hope that the Messiah would come again.
Likewise,
the Korean nation, as the Third Israel, has believed since the 500-year reign
of the Yi Dynasty the prophecy that the King of Righteousness would appear in
that land, and establishing the Millennium, would come to receive tributes from
all the countries of the world. This faith has encouraged the people to undergo
the bitter course of history, waiting for the time to come. This was truly the
Messianic idea of the Korean people which they believed according to
"Chung Gam Nok", a book of prophecy. Since it includes the prophecy
that a new king would appear in Korea, the rulers have outlawed this ideology.
Moreover, the rulers during the Japanese regime suppressed the idea by burning
the books in order to annihilate this ideology. After Christianity was
introduced, this idea was trodden down as a superstition.
Nevertheless,
this Messianic expectation, which is deeply rooted in the Korean soul, has
continuously been handed down until the present time. Interpreted correctly,
the King of Righteousness--Chung-Do Ryung (the person coming with God's right
words)--whom the Korean people have so long waited for, is a Korean-style name
for the Lord of the Second Advent. God revealed through Chung Gam Nok, before
the introduction of Christianity in Korea, that the Messiah would come again,
at a later time, in Korea. Today, many scholars have come to ascertain that
most of the prophecies written in this book coincide with those in the Bible.
Secondly,
the reality is that the believers of every religion within this nation are
receiving revelations that the founder of their own religion will come again in
Korea. As we have stated in detail in Part I, Chapter 3, it is true that, seen
from the history of development of the cultural spheres, all religions are being
united into one religion; namely, Christianity. Christianity, in the Last Days,
is the final religions which have appeared until now.
Consequently,
Christ, who is coming again as the center of Christianity, is supposed to
accomplish, wholly, the purpose of all religions, which the respective founders
intended to realize during their lives on the earth. Therefore, the Lord of the
Second Advent, seen from the viewpoint of his mission, represents the second
coming of the founder of every religion (cf. Part I, Ch. 5, Sec. II, 4--187).
Naturally, the founders of many religions, who the respective followers think
will come again in Korea to fulfill their expectations, according to what they
received by revelations, will not return as different individuals, but, in
fact, will return through one great personage, the Lord of the Second Advent.
Each religious body has received revelations different from others concerning
the Second Coming of the Lord. Buddhism is saying the Miruk-Bul (Buddha) is
coming, while Confucianism says Jin-In (True Man), Chun-Doism says Choi Su Un
(its founder), and the Chung-Gam-Nok group says Chung-Do Ryung (Man with True
Words) will come.
Third,
we can denote the fact that many spiritual signs regarding the Lord coming
again in Korea are appearing like mushrooms after a rain. God's word of promise
that He will pour down His Spirit upon all flesh (Acts 2:17) is being realized
among the Korean people today. Therefore, countless men of religion are
receiving very clear revelations concerning the Lord's Second Coming in Korea
in many different ways, but contacting many spirit men of various levels; from
the realm of miscellaneous spirits to the realm of the paradise level spirits.
Nevertheless, the leaders of the present Christian world, due to their
spiritual ignorance, are still unresponsive, and have refused to pay heed to
such things.
This
is similar to what happened in Jesus' day, when the chief priests and rabbis,
who should have been the first to know of the coming of the Messiah, were entirely
unaware of the fact due to their spiritual ignorance, while, on the other hand,
the astrologers and shepherds knew of the message through revelation. Jesus
said, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast
hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to
babes." (Matt. 11:25). By this, Jesus lamented over the spiritual
ignorance of the leaders of Judaism at that time, and, at the same time, he
thanked God for His pouring down grace, by revealing heavenly things to the
believers of that time, who were innocent like babes, though not learned.
(5) All Aspects of Culture and Civilization Must Bear
Fruit in This Nation
As
already mentioned (cf. Part I, Ch. 3, Sec. V, 1--129), only with the
unification of religion and science, or spiritual civilization and material
civilization, which have been developed to overcome man's two aspects of
ignorance, could the fundamental problems of man be totally solved and the
ideal world of God's creation naturally be realized. The world which the Lord
should realize at the Second Coming must be one where science has developed to
the utmost degree so that all cultures which have developed on the vertical
course of history in the providence of restoration can be restored at once
horizontally, in the society centering on the Lord of the Second Advent, thus
realizing the cultural society of the highest degree. Therefore, all religion
and science--and accordingly, the two aspects of culture, spiritual and
material--must be absorbed and harmonized under one truth centering on Korea,
bearing fruit which belongs to the ideal world of God's desire.
First,
all the aspects of civilization concerning development on the land must also
bear fruit in Korea. Accordingly, the Continental-culture of the ancient age,
born in Egypt, was shifted to be the Peninsular-culture of Greece, Rome, and
Iberia. This Peninsular-culture was again shifted to be the Island-culture of
England. Then the Island-culture became the Continental-culture of Japan. Now,
this cycle of the pilgrimage of culture must be completed and finalized as the
Peninsular-culture in the land of Korea, where Christ should come again.
Second,
the aspect of civilization concerning rivers and seas must bear fruit as the
Ocean-culture of the Pacific where Korea is located. The River-culture, which
first developed on the Rivers Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, was shifted to be
Mediterranean-culture centering around Greece, Rome, Spain and Portugal; then,
this Mediterranean-culture was again shifted to be the Atlantic-culture
centering on England and America; this culture will finally bear fruit as the
Pacific-culture, where America, Japan and Korea are equally situated on the
coastal line.
Third,
the aspect of civilization which concerns the climate must also bear fruit in
Korea. From the standpoint of climate, the action and multiplication of all
living things begin in spring, flourish in summer, bear fruit in autumn, and,
after the harvest, are stored away during the winter. The cycle of spring,
summer, autumn and winter is not repeated solely by the year. Examining the
unit of a day, we find that morning corresponds to spring, noontime to summer,
evening to autumn, and night to the winter. Again the childhood, youth,
manhood, and old age of a man's life also follows this pattern; and all human
history, too, unfolds like this. This is because God created the world by the
principle of climatic change.
God
created Adam and Eve in the spring-season. Accordingly, the civilization of
mankind was supposed to start as the temperate-zone civilization of Eden, be
shifted to the tropic-zone civilization of Eden, be shifted to the tropic-zone
civilization as of the summer season, and, after shifting itself to the
cool-one civilization of the autumn season, it was finally to return to the
frigid-zone civilization of the winter season. But, due to the fall, man fell
to the status of a savage. Without being able to produce the temperate-zone
civilization, he came to live a primitive life in the tropic-zone. Thus, he
produced the tropic-zone civilization on the ancient continent of Egypt. This
civilization, shifting from the Continent to the Peninsular (Greece, Rome, and
Iberia) and the Island (England), produced the cool-zone civilization.
Transferred back to the Continent (Russia), it came to produce the frigid-zone
civilization. Now is the time when the temperate-zone civilization of the New
Eden should be produced in the Peninsular-culture. This must necessarily be
realized in Korea, where all aspects of civilization must bear fruit.
No comments:
Post a Comment