The purpose of our lives of faith is the kingdom of heaven and eternal life. God reigns in the kingdom of heaven and is the only one who can give eternal life. True religion and the Bible leads to the kingdom of God and eternal life. God is the Lord of true religion and the kingdom of heaven. Eternal life is of God.
People read and believe in God’s book, in which God has written his will. Many people, however, are ignorant of the scriptures and of God’s will (Mt 22:29). These people act according to their own will (Rom 10:2-3).
The world is full of religious scholars, but what do they study? Supposedly, they are studying the true will of God and the true meaning of the Bible. Which of them, then, knows the true will of God? The truth is that none of them know it. They study the Bible because they do not know. Only God knows his true will, and God does not reveal this mystery until the time he has appointed arrives (Eccl 3:1; Dn 12:8-9; Jn 16:25).
Although Apostle Paul was blameless before the law and had more knowledge than most, he persecuted Jesus and stoned Stephen to death (Phil 3:5-6; Acts 7:1-8:3). Why did he do such a thing? Apostle Paul persecuted Christians because he was judging them according to his own righteousness and his own knowledge. Religion cannot be judged according to the knowledge and righteousness of men. Siddhartha threw away his kingship and his kingdom to solve the problems of life, age, disease, and death, but he could not accomplish his goals. After death, however, his spirit can be saved by faith when he listens to the gospel of Jesus (1 Pt 3, 5).
The studies of the world’s scholars are biased and prejudiced by their denominations; the teachings have lost their life. Over the past 6,000 years of biblical history, it was always the pastors or religious leaders who killed the prophets and apostles sent by God. They judged them according to their own righteousness (Mt 23:34-35). Today’s religious scholars should not follow the path of these pastors from the past. When you encounter a new teaching, even if you think it looks humble and small, even if the world has turned away from it, shouldn’t you at least understand it and honestly decide whether or not it is true? This is the attitude of a real scholar.
There is a pastor today who is like Apostle Paul before he met Jesus and repented—like the Apostle Paul that killed Stephen. He hated Shinchonji Church of Jesus with all his heart and tried everything he could think of to destroy us. Here is his testimony.
“I entered Shinchonji with the intent to destroy it. As we joined, however, my brothers and I began to understand. We realized that we were wicked and ignorant. We realized that we did not have any knowledge of the Bible. Our hearts were not white, but black. We did not know anything about religion. We were led by evil spirits, not the holy spirit. Although we thought we were righteous, we sowed the seeds of weeds, which are evil. In doing so, we gave spiritual birth to the children of Satan. I now know that this is the truth according to the Bible. Although I had received the seeds of evil spirits and had given birth to spiritual children who were evil, I still claimed to be orthodox. I realized by the help of the holy spirit that I was wrong in calling Shinchonji Church of Jesus a cult and wrong in persecuting it. In fact, I wanted to kill myself because I had done so much wrong.”
I want to say something to the religious scholars of the world. You must study hard and decide for yourselves whether our teachings are true. I assure you that there is a big difference between the lives of faith people live in Shinchonji and the lives of faith people live in the rest of the world’s churches. I am proclaiming that Shinchonji—The Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony—is the place all nations must come to learn the Bible and to worship (Rv 15:2-5; Rv 21:1-6). I assure you that this is the destination of our lives of faith.
Shincheonji 