1. If We Keep Silent, Stones Will Shout.

2. The Christian Viewpoint of Resurrection: Tombs Are Opened...

3. The Viewpoint of Resurrection in the Completed Testament Age

4. Biblical Concept of Life and Death

5. Death Caused by the Fall

6. Meaning of Resurrection

7. Who Said that the Tombs Were Opened?

8. Korean Churches! Wake Up from the Dogma!

1. If We Keep Silent, Stones Will Shout.

There will not be a word which is more positive and active that the word 'resurrection.' It is the event of victory that recovered life over death. Jesus Christ's being our hope lies in the event 'resurrection' and Christianity started from here. It could endure and survive countless persecution and sufferings and gain victory because it had the hope toward the resurrection.

If there had not been the resurrection after the suffering of the cross, there would not have been Christianity. It became the religion of hope as Jesus fulfilled his promise by appearing three days after his death to his disciples who were scattered among despair.

However, at this time of crisis in humanity, we cannot help asking ourselves again about what historic meaning Christianity has. Is it indeed giving hope of the resurrection to members of this nation? It is meant to become light and salt, but how come the darkness is going deeper and rotten?

Today, humanity is certainly in crisis. When we come to check the reality at this turning point of opening a new age, who can optimistically foresee the future? With the end of cold war between East and West, people are searching for reconciliation and coexistence, but the conflict among religions and nations are still going on. What is more serious is 'the loss of humanity' and 'the maximized inhumanity.' This has already crossed its limit(dangerous water level?).

The loss of moral and ethical consciousness, disordered view of love, destruction of family, crimes by the youth, drug abuse, homosexuality, air pollution, etc... these are in an uncontrollable condition now. The Western decadence culture of epicurism is indiscreetly being accepted without any suggestion for selection. If things are to go on in this way, the 21st century is sure to become the Animal Farm.

This crisis, in short, is the loss of the sense of value. It is due to the lack of spiritual culture. Man consists of mind and body. It was spiritual culture that was in search of the freedom and value of mind, and material culture was developed for the realization of the freedom and value of body. These two were supposed to develop complementarily. However, the modern society saw the fruit of the omnipotence of science in material culture, while the spiritual culture has fallen to the ground and has a deformed shape. People have thought about the sense of superiority of men as rational being, but as rationalism reaches its maximum state, people saw the loss of humanity also going to its extreme.

Then who shall have to be responsible for this reality? Needlessly to say, it should be religions on the earth. Christianity that claims to be the most mature religion especially has to feel deeply the consciousness of responsibility. It is because religion has played a key role in developing spiritual culture, and, as the historian Toynbee said, Christianity should habe become the driving force in the development of history.

Knowing that, now look at today's churches! 2000 years ago, Jesus saw then Judaism being lost only in law and formality and thus not having any content inside. He scolded them as 'whitewashed tombs' (Matt 23:27) and 'den of thieves' (Luke 19:46).

Then what would Jesus of Galilee say to see the tower of the cross that has become the symbol of wealth today? People are reciting the Lord's Prayer everyweek, but what are they doing for the realization of heaven's will on the earth? When we think of the reality of churches today, we can realize that God's lamentation is a warning.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth,,,, for I am sorry that I have made them. (Gen. 6:5-7)

The essence of the problem is the fact that words are becoming the classics. While man's thinking ability and civilization become mature, the so called truth is still in its infant stage. With the coming of a new era, we are now in a situation in which new interpretation and revelation are desperately in need. In other words, today is chirous at which before and after are divided. Jesus already said the following.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth: for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak: and He will tell you things to come (John 16:12-13).

More specifically, he said;

These things I have spoken to you in figurative language: but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. (John 16:25)

He promised that when the time arrives, he will certainly give 'new words,' which is called the Completed Testament. This promise is being realized through Rev. Son Myung Moon, and is settling down as movement of the creation of new life. This is to send the meaning of resurrection as the first issue(?) of the Completed Testament Message.

2. The Christian Viewpoint of Resurrection: Tombs Are Opened...

Though Christian view of resurrection is the most important part of doctrine, it is still in a vague condition. At every service, people confess in the Apostles' Creed, "We believe in the Holy Spirit,,, and believe that body lives again and forever." (?)

Here, by saying that body lives again and lives forever, people believe the resurrection of physical body. Berkhof, conservative theologian, said, "The Bible is clearly teaching us about the resurrection of physical body. Jesus Christ is called as the firstfruits and the man who was born first among the dead. These words mean that Christians' resurrection is the same as his. Since his resurrection is that of physical body, their resurrection implies the same type. In addition to that, Christ's salvation includes the salvation of body.... Peter argued, in Corinthians, that the body of resurrection is identical to the body on the earth."

L. Berkhof, (translated by Youn Bok Shin), [An Introduction to Christian Theology], Christian Culture-sa, 1978, p.328.

He said that the event of resurrection will happen at the time of the Second Advent, the Last days, or just before the final judgment. This means that, even though there is no bone and flesh in the dead body, the corpus shall be resurrected in the form of the current physical body, just as it happened to Jesus.

Compared to this, Professor Dong Shik Lyu of progressive trend wrote, "The common record in the Gospels is that people found empty tombs. Therefore, in any sense, Jesus' resurrection is not a simple phenomenon. It is the change of physical body, for sure. However, it does not mean that a dead body came into life again. The resurrected body is explained to belong to the heavenly world. Dong Shik Lyu, [Jesus, Paul, John], Korean Christianity ?, 1975, p.64

Resurrection here is explained not as the resurrection of physical body, but as a 'certain resurrected body(?). Then what about the declaration in the Apostles' Prayer and the resurrection of body that most Christians believe? People are reading the same biblical verses but their interpretation is different. There are also various views on the resurrection.

reference: Young Han Kim, [Prospect on the Modern Theology], Korean Christianity Books (?), 1987, pp. 197-214

All these phenomena show that today's churches are heading toward the state of whitewashed tombs by forming doctrines and denominations. Depending on their own interpretation of the Bible and dogma, they are making their members ignorant and divided, finally leading to the structure of conflict among hundreds of denominations. It has been a long time since some conscious leaders shouted for the unity of churches but the cry ended up being insignificant without any response.

The fact that churches are focused on qualitative expansion under the name 'blessing or salvation' without addressing the ambiguity of these fundamental questions tell us that today is the time of turning point. This explains why new words should come soon.

3. The Viewpoint of Resurrection in the Completed Testament Age

Then how does the Completed Testament see the resurrection? First it should be made clear in what viewpoint it sees the Bible. We learned above that views from the conservative and progressive sides interpret the same biblical verses differently. This is the same as the blind touching an elephant. It is because many different views are possible according to the viewpoint.

Hence, in order to understand the Bible correctly, first, we have to see it in the whole context. That means that we should not become a slave to a specific verse, but try to catch the meaning of separate verses in the whole trend. Second, though reason cannot solve all the problems of the faith and theology, we habe to make use of that reason to its utmost. Unconditional faith is a blind faith and superstition.

Let us take this as an example. The following is a question by Christian student whom I met. Let us suppose that a Christian called A died in a sea at an accident. A fish ate that body. A Christian called B caught the fish and ate it. He is buried after his death. Time went by and the tomb became earth. People built an apartment on that soil. In this case, how are these Christians to resurrect as is written to happen in the Bible? How are we supposed to answer to that question? 'To believe the unbelievable is the faith,' 'The faith is kept not by reason, but by revelation,' 'We believe because because it is contradictory,' 'It is not that we know to believe, but that we believe to know,' etc... These indeed are the factors that glooms today's church.

Therefore, in order to make the Bible become the Bible, and to make truth become truth, it is reasonable to say that churches should be able to lead the age ahead of today's situation. Let us now examine the significance of the resurrection under this premise. Etymologically, resurrection means to come back to life and also signifies to overcome death. Accordingly, understanding of life and death is the priority in order to have a clear understanding of resurrection.

4. Biblical Concept of Life and Death

The view of the Bible is different from general view. Luke 9:60 shows Jesus talking with his disciples. A disciple says that he will follow Jesus after he buries his father. Jesus tole the man, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God."

In these words of Jesus, we find two different concepts of life and death.

The first is the concept of life and death concerning death of physical body, which is the expiration of physical life; this was the case of the disciple's father, who was to be buried. The life in which the physical body maintains its physiological functions. The second is the concept of life and death concerning the persons-whom Jesus called "the dead"-who were gathered together for the burial of the father. Why then did Jesus indicate that the men who were actually alive were "dead"?

It was because they were in a state cut off from the love of God; that is, they were under the dominion of Satan. Therefore, death does not mean the expiration of physical life, but rather the state of Satanic dominion, apart from the bosom of God's love.

Accordingly, the meaning of life opposite to this kind of death is the state of actively living in the dominion of God's infinite love. Therefore, however active one's body may be, while man remains in the dominion of Satan, separate from that of God, he is dead in the true sense according to the standard of the original value endowed at the creation.

In this sense, the logic in the Bible is different from biological men's understanding. In other words, there are people who are dead though their body is alive, and there are those who are alive although their body is dead. Revelation 3:1 is the words to the people of the church in Sardis, ". . . You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead."

When Jesus said, ". . . He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live" (John 11:25), he meant that he who believes in Jesus and lives under God's dominion is still alive, though he has physically died and turned to dust, because his spirit man remains in the dominion of God.

Jesus went on to say, "whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." This does not mean that those who believe in Jesus will never die physically, thus enjoying eternal life on the earth. Those who believe in Jesus in life remain alive not only while on earth, but even after physical death will transmigrate to the world of spirit, living there forever in the bosom of God's love, without tasting death.

Accordingly, the Bible is not talking about life and death by the standard of man's physical life and death. Based on the life of spirit man, a person is a living he is in God's love, and is a dead body if he is within the dominion of Satan's sin.

5. Death Caused by the Fall

Now let us see the meaning of 'death caused by the fall.' Genesis 2:17 says that God, after creating Adam and Eve, told them not to eat th Knowledge of Good and Evil and that they would surely die if they ate it. However Adam and Eve betrayed God and ate the fruit of the Tree (Gen. 3:1-6)

Accordingly, as the word said, they died. What kind of death must it have been? After they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and thus disobeying God's injunction, there appeared to be no external change.

Adam and Eve continued their physical life on earth, just as we do today, multiplying their children and finally producing a corrupted human society. This shows that the death caused by the fall does not mean the external physical change, but internal spiritual change.

Then what happened after the fall? Genesis 6:5-6 says, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." Romans 5:19 also says, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

Accordingly the result of the fall is man's becoming the substantial body of evil. As Jesus pointed out, man was of the devil and wants to do the desires of the devil (John 8:44). Then what is the significance of the evil? Paul said, ". . . the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)."

Thus it becomes clear that the death caused by the fall is not the death of body, but the death of the spirit man. This explains that spiritual man within an individual dwells not in God's dominion, but in Satanic dominion. John I 3:14 says, "He who does not love his brother abides in death."

Love that is mentioned here signifies God's love. Those who do not know how to love neighborhood in God's love are thus dead even though they are leading lives in the earth. The universe that God created exist by necessity, not by chance.

For example, first there should be a purpose, plan, and subsequent design drawing before a building is built. So the result that appears with shape has its purpose and rationality. Likewise, the universe has the principle of its creation and existence that is impossible to control artificially.

As a material living thing throughout the universe, there is nothing that has eternity. All the visible world is limited by time and space. Accordingly, man's physical body cannot exist forever. God created man's physical body with dust of the ground, which is a factor of the visible world, and He made spirit man by breathing into his nostril the breath of life (Gen. 2:7).

Thus the spirit man transcend time and space, and the physical man corresponds to the spirit man's clothes. As if we take off clothes when they become old, when the physical man gets old, we are supposed to leave it, complete the spirit man, and live forever at the invisible world, which is the spirit world. Since the spirit world transcends time and space, it is natural to live eternally.

Thus the death caused by the fall, as was examined before, is not the death of the physical body, but the spiritual death. The Bible tells us that the standard of judging whether a person is alive or dead is based on the more fundamental spirit man. Thus, it was wrong to have known that the physical death was due to the fall.

6. Meaning of Resurrection

Until now, Christianity has believed in the resurrection of the physical body. In other words, even though the flesh and bone could have all turned into dust, tombs were to open and the flesh and bone were to be recovered into their original condition and live the life of kingdom. If not, they were supposed to become 'a certain resurrected being.'

However, this happened because they did not look at the Bible in the whole context. Let us think here for a moment. But for the fall, there would not have been the need for the Savior, salvation, resurrection, or faith at all. Thus we can understand the Bible as a whole from the viewpoint of creation, fall, and salvation. The resurrection is the last phase of the salvation.

Accordingly, we first have to elucidate the meaning of life and death, and the death caused by the fall in order to have a clear understanding of the resurrection. That is why we explained the issue beforehand. Based on that foundation, we are now going to deal with the significance of the resurrection. The resurrection signifies to come back to life from death. Death here means the death caused by the fall. It also means the death of the spirit man, and the state of becoming the sinners, which is to stay under the dominion of Satan.

The life refers to the state of spirit man having become the substantial body of true love on the earth and in the spiritual world under the dominion of God. Accordingly, "resurrection" means the phenomena occurring in the process of man's restoration, according to the providence of restoration, from the state of having fallen under Satanic dominion, back to the direct dominion of God. As if a paralyzed body gradually recovers health, a spirit man step by step gains life again and have its five spiritual senses recover their functions.

Accordingly, when we repent of our sins, making ourselves better and better, day by day, we are coming closer to resurrection. John 5:24 says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." Jesus said in Mark 2:17, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call righteous, but sinners, to repentance." He clearly mentioned the mission of a doctor. In other words, he was talking about the salvation in the history the purpose of which is found in the establishment of kingdom on the earth.

Accordingly, resurrection is not limited to those who are already in the spirit world. It also applies to those who are dead while living on the earth at the same time. The process of a sinful man being born again as the righteous is the very resurrection. This does not remain at the level of repentance through faith at all. It means that the the spirit man that really exist gains life, recover the five spiritual senses, consequently brings about changes in life, and accomplish the word, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48)." Paul said, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive (I Cor. 15:22)." He meant that men's having inherited the blood of Satan due to Adam is death, and the restoration into heaven's good blood lineage through Jesus is resurrection.

7. Who Said that the Tombs Were Opened?

As God predicted in Genesis 2:17, Adam and Eve, who had eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, died as a result. Nevertheless, there appeared to be no external change. If any, there must have been only a momentary change in their countenance, caused by fear and easiness from their guilty conscience.

Therefore, even after fallen man has been resurrected to the original state, which existed before he ate the fruit, there will be no external change whatsoever in him. Much less is the case with the body that has neither flesh nor bone. Shall the following verse occur as it is written, "For the Lord Himself will descend from the heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first (I Thess. 4:16)"? It is not. This world exist not by coincidence, but according to the principle of creation. This is a common sense that God gave us. God gave His eternal power and Godhead to the world of creation (Rom. 1:20). Hence, the principle in the visible world is the law of God. This is different from the mystical interpretation which says that the infinite being is kept within a finite world.

Let us read the biblical verse one more time. The record after the event of the Cross, "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many (Matt. 27:50-53)."

The verse clearly said that tombs were opened and saints rose from there and they were seen to many people in the holy city. However, the Bible did not mention further about this important event. How come there are no traces of the event? And where in the world is that holy city? If this event should literally have been a historic one, why the Jews who experience it continue to persecute the disciples of Jesus?

Accordingly, the verse does not have its literal meaning. That's why the Bible can become a silent old book unless it is interpreted. The word above has spiritual meaning like the record of Jesus' disciples who met the spirits of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:3). A spirit world (Paradise) on a new level was opened through the crucifixion, and people could receive the benefit of salvation.

Hence, the verse recorded that spirit men who already knew heaven's will go to a new realm of salvation. In other words, Matt. 17:3 is a record meaning that spirit men of the Old Testament Age being resurrected and raised up to a new spirit world at a higher level.

8. Korean Churches! Wake Up from the Dogma!

Who were they that persecuted Jesus most 2000 years ago? According to the Gospels, there were a group of people who afflicted a man, the king of kings, to the last moment and it was the very Jewish leaders. They claimed themselves to be people with no defect regarding commandments and judged Jesus, calling him as a man possessed by Beelzebub. For whom was the the lamentation of Jesus, "How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Matt 23:37)"? It was due to the leaders of Judaism who said confidently that they attend heaven thoroughly. What a contradiction! The subject of the Old Testament Age is `promise' and that of New Testament Age is `fulfillment.'

In other words, the central message of the Old Testament Age is the promise on Jesus' coming and that of New Testament Age is the witness on his having come. The Jewish waited for him longingly for 2000 years. In spite of that, they turned away from him. They got him killed as a heretic. (We will talk further about the Cross later.)

The reason behind it is simple. They were confined to dogma. Their interpretation in the name of commandments kept truth in silence. The dispute over the Sabbath well represents the conflict by dogma. The Bible says, "For this reason (to make the sick well) the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5:16-18)." The Jewish doctrine on the Sabbath defined Jesus as a heretic and ultimately led him to the crucifixion. While they understood that people exist for the Sabbath, Jesus interpreted that the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27).

In conclusion, who judged Jesus and hung him on the Cross? Externally, it was the Jewish leaders and, internally, it was dogma. Then what about today's Christianity? Why is it making a fool of its good members and make them a slave to denominationism? Dear Church! Dear my beloved Korean churches! I ask you seriously that you be released from dogma and reexamine Jesus' heartfelt appeal of 2000 years ago.

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. (Matt 23:13-15)

(The First Issue of the Completed Testament Age Message, May, 1993)