The Sun Moon, The Church

            I had recently heard about a church called The Unification Church lead by a reverend Sun Myung Moon.  I didn’t know much about the church so I went over to the Watchmen Fellowship website to see what they had on Unification Church.  I was surprised to see that Watchmen Fellowship had several different very interesting articles on Sun Myung Moon and theUnification Church.  So I wanted to share with you some of the information I had picked up in some of the articles I had read. 

            The first article I had read and the one that I will write about mostly was an article by Bob Waldrep called The Unification Church: Moonshine for the Soul.  You can gain a lot of great information from this article, which I will share, and it will help you better understand where Moon is coming from in his thinking.  Moon was raised as a Presbyterian in a small part of Korea.  At a very young age he was very interested in Spiritism, which is evident in many of the things he teaches now.  When Moon was in his teens he said that Jesus had visited him one Easter morning.  Jesus told Moon that he would be the “Completer” of mans salvation, that he would be the Messiah.  Man, what a weight for one man to carry, especially a tiny man from North Korea.  Later on Moon became involved with a group in Korea that believed that the Messiah would come out of Korea and they believed that Korea would be the next Jerusalem.

            In Moon’s later years he had decided that he needed to visit a Medium so that he could affirm that he was the next Messiah.  (Which is strange because I believe the bible says something about mediums and not having anything to do with them.)  So Moon went to a medium named Arthur Ford.  In the séance they where visited by a spirit called “Fletcher”.  (I am the great and powerful Fletcher, all knowledge ends hear).  That kind of reminds me Tom Hanks for some reason.  Anyway, Fletcher revealed to Moon that the Spirit of Truth would now speak through him.  Fletch told Moon that Christ would not return and that Moon could speak more clearly, and be understood better than any other man today.  He said the Spirit of Truth uses men to basically become the Christ, and that the Spirit of truth would now use Moon.  Fletcher seems like he might have been a funny guy back in his day.

            All of these things lead up to Moon’s great awakening that he was to be the completer of mans salvation.  Here is where the story really unfolds.  The biggest point that the Unification Church holds to and bases all the doctrine and theology is on the view of “True Parents”.  In the article it is said that Moonies teach that Adam and Eve were God’s first children and that God was to make Himself complete and exist in His entirety through them after they where married.  The only problem was that Eve messed everything up!  It says that Eve had sexual relations with Satan and because of hear guilt she decided to cover it up by having sex with Adam long before God had planned for them to have sex.  After Adam had done this he then realized his mistake, and than he felt “fear and shame” over having sex with her.  Well this kind of put a damper in Gods plan so he had to find another solution to his plan for salvation.  He needed another couple that could be the “True Parents” those who were sinless and perfect so that he, god, could live and bring eternal happiness to his people.  Who other could fill such an important position that Jesus.  The problem was with Jesus was that he died on the cross and wasn’t able to complete the salvation plan.  Jesus was supposed to get married and raise little sinless babies and live a great life with him and his wife as the final “True Parents”.  So Jesus failed because he was crucified, so says Moon.  So that leaves it up to someone else.  There must be a third Adam.  One who will have the perfect family and perfect marriage that will show us all how a family should be and a great model for all families to follow so that God may exist among us.  You got it Moonies believe that Man, that Messiah, that model is none other than Reverend Sun Myung Moon himself. 

            This created a bit of a problem for me.  OK, this created a huge problem!  I needed to know a little bit more about this great model family so I read some more articles.  I the article The Son doesn’t fall far from the Moon, I found some great information.  This family that is supposed to be sinless and perfect and that everyone is supposed to become like has a few minor glitches.  How about the fact that not only has Moon himself been married more than once, but all of his children are now divorced.  Not only do they have marital problems but Moon’s son Hyojin Moon has a huge cocaine addiction problem along with other drugs and his wife has left him because she says he abused her during his violent rants from drug usage.  Moon himself has been arrested three different times, in three different countries on different accounts some dealing with tax evasion and draft evasion.  This “True Family” is supposed to be sinless and perfect and Moonies teach that if the entire world becomes like there family it could help cure mental illness and help kick drug problems.  Um’ it doesn’t seem to be working for him, and I don’t want to raise a bunch of crack head babies, that can keep a marriage together.  Also I have had a pretty good streak of not going to jail and I would like to keep it that way.  So I have to say that Moon is pretty much off his rocker.

            The bible teaches that Jesus wasn’t sending another messiah, Jesus said himself “I am the way the Truth and the life…”  Also Jesus said about his death on the cross “It is Finished” Christ did not look down from the cross and say “Wait for the Completer, he will be the way”.  Moon is in serious danger, danger of eternal damnation and I hope and pray that soon he will understand and believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and repent of his teachings and follow Christ alone.

Rastaman

God works in awesome ways! Recently in my cults class we had read a profile on Rastafarianism. The profile was well written and can be read along with other profiles at the watchmen fellowship website. One of the beliefs of the Rastafarians is that they grow out the hair into dreadlocks because of parts of the bible that discuss not cutting ones hair. After I had learned about this I thought about a fellow employee that I work with at UPS who had dreadlocks. The very next morning at work I went to Brian, Brian is the one with dreadlocks, and asked him if he knew anything about Rastafarianism. God opened up a great opportunity, Brian knew all kinds of things about Rastafarians. Because of reading the profile I was able to talk with him about some of the things I had read, and he was able to give me some understanding on some of the things I had read. This really opened up a time where Brian and I could talk about the differences in Rastafarian view of scripture and the Christian perspective.

I have downloaded a small clip I had found. The clip is very short. But listen to what Bob Marley says about it not being a religion but “life”.

The Rastafarian movement was started by Marcus Garvey. Some believed Garvey to be a prophet while others believed he was the actual reincarnation of John the Baptist. Garvey had started his new ideas during his “back to Africa” movement. Garvey taught and believed that there would one day be a black king that would bring redemption to his people (the black people). This prophecy was soon fulfilled in an Ethiopian King named Haile Selassie. Selassie was called by his followers “The Lion of Judah” and “King of Kings” This great Lion of Judah was said to always travel with a pet Chihuahua named Chicheebee. (http://www.answers.com/topic/haile-selassie) Selassie passed away in August of 1975, and as you would guess this would probably raise a few questions. It is believed though that Ras Tafari still lives in individual Rastafarians, because divinity didn’t die with Selassie.

This religion or “way of life” is not an organized religion where they go to church every week, and meet together to read scripture. Most of the religion is just individual; you find mostly little pods of people here and there that have their own idea of what Rastafarians believe. But because of a lack of leadership and set rules it is hard to find much information at all of their doctrine.

Leonard Howell a former leader of the group wrote 6 principles of the Rastafarians which you can read online at the watchmen fellowship website. Two of the major principle thought that can be seen almost domineering is the teachings on Babylon, which refers to the Jamaican government, and also the statement “I and I”. “I and I” basically is the idea that God is in all man and that because He is in all man than everyone is one. Rastafarians also believe that much like in Hinduism the doctrine of avatar. They believe that Jesus first came as Moses, first avatar as savior, and than the second avatar Elijah, than the third avatar Jesus Christ.

rastafarians and the mistic of bob marley

Tom Crusie, Actor or Evangelist?

I had written not to long ago on an article from the Watchmen Fellowship Website that I had named sons of god vs. aliens. I had received a couple of comments on the article where it seems that I struck a nerve. It did get me thinking though. I began to wonder where I had heard about the alien theory before. Then I remembered it was Scientologist. I went back over to the Watchmen Fellowship website to see what I could find on the Church of Scientology and I really found some great stuff. What I had found most interesting were a couple of videos staring Tom Cruise. You should really check these out! The first one I watched was Tom Cruise being interviewed by Matt Lauer. Where did Cruise get so educated in the art of psychiatry, and when did Cruise become so violent? Cruise said in the short film. “You can be a Christian and a scientologist.” Not the Christianity that I know! Cruise also said that he didn’t agree with psychiatry, and that’s ok with me. But, my problem is when you start to know way more than anyone else. Several times throughout the video Cruise told Matt, “You don’t know, I do.” Cruise has apparently done some extensive research dealing with psychiatry, psychoactive drugs, and psychopathology. Where was it he received his degree from? I don’t think he has one. But, who’s to say you can’t know more than anyone else.

The second video I watched was an Inside Edition look at Tom Cruise. In this video it showed several times where Cruise lost his temper and lashed out at people. Is this what they teach at scientology? A person is to talk degrading to another and lash out at them. In the short film there is one episode where Cruise lashed out at a newspaper reporter who asked if the movie War of the Worlds mirrored his beliefs in Scientology. Cruise either had no idea about the scientologist view on aliens, in which case he should spend more time studying his own religion, or he was offended because this type of information was not supposed to be public. Sorry Cruise, if it embarrasses you maybe you should take another look at the religion. Also on the Watchmen Fellowship website there is a article called Tom Cruise: Phone Home that is some very interesting reading as well.