Cult Encounter

So this is my very first post without a picture; simply because I do not have one that relates to this topic. In the last week we have had 6 different groups of people knocking on our door asking us if we were Christians and knew of the "Heavenly Mother". Last weekend, we invited them in to fill out a questionaire since they said it was an assignment for their seminary class. We were confused that they called themselves Christians as well but that they knew of the "Heavenly Mother" and we did not. I filled out the survey as they began to tell us that Jesus already had his second coming in the form of a Korean man named Ahnsahnghong who left the Seventh-day Adventist Church and preached the "missing pieces" of scripture to the Koreans. These missing pieces include:

1. Women must wear a veil to church
2. You must celebrate the Passover at their local church once a year
3. You must believe in the "Heavenly Mother" who is the main leader of their church currently. Her name is Zahng Gil Jah and claims that she is the Heavenly Mother. She says that Jesus was created by a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother...therefore if God is worshipped, so should she as an equal creator of the Savior and of us!
4. You must believe in Ahnsahnghong as the second coming of Jesus and pray to him.

You cannot believe or partake in just one of these in order to receive salvation. You must practice them all to enter into heaven. Soooo, we set up a meeting for this afternoon at 2:30pm. They were perfectly on time and prepared to tell us all about the "missing links" of Scripture that all Christians have not been informed on. What they did not know is that I had nearly 10 pages of underlined and hilighted research with scriptural references to de-bunk each twisted theology. Thankfully Andy had the day off and was able to contribute to the conversation. One thing he asked was, "If I believe in the Heavenly Mother, Ahnsahnghong, go to your church, but cannot make the Passover on April 9th next year when I am deployed to Iraq, am I still going to heaven?" Her simple answer, "No!". I asked, "If I belive and pray to Ahnsahnghong, believe that the Heavenly Mother is God's partner and preaches here in Korea, partake in the Passover on April 9th each year, but do not want to wear a veil to church, am I going to heaven?" Answer: "No". We talked about Ephesians 2:8-9, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." We tried to tell her that salvation was a gift when Jesus died for us and that doing these extra "deeds" are not required for salvation. They basically said that we were selective in Scripture and not open to what the rest of the Bible says. She didn't quite have a respons though to the other 16 verses I showed her proving that salvation comes through faith. To her faith was irrelevant...hmmmm.

We talked about how the Bible talks about how only God will know of Christ's second coming, no one will know the day nor the hour and yet they claim that we misinterpret the Bible and that Scripture clearly states that Christ was to come back again with a new name in a land in the east. That could only mean South Korea!!! Of course...how could I have missed that! Of all the years I have studied the Bible, how did I miss that Jesus would return as a Korean baby! After going back and forth on how the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is the only way to Salvation; we were told that we do not want to listen to the truth and that we were misinterpreting Scripture to defend our own opinion; we simply stopped the conversation. She didn't like the fact that I wore one of my church shirts with a big ol' cross on the front; because to her the cross is a form of idolatry. Needless to say, it wasn't a coincidence that I wore it.

With all that said, I am off to type a notice to place on the doors of the residents in our building to warn them of this cult. If you care to look more into what they believe, click here: http://english.watv.org/ They are called the "World Mission Society Church of God"

They have churches in the U.S. as well; so if you ever get asked about the "Heavenly Mother" either run, or be prepared to whip some cult butt!

"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." -1 Peter 3:15