- United Nations Supporter Rev.Sun Myung Moon Claims to
be the Messiah; Claims to Have Succeeded Where Jesus Christ Failed; Predicts
One-World Global Religion
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- Moon Denies the Divinity of Jesus Christ
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- The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of The Washington
Times, has abandoned anti-Communism and fully embraced the United Nations.
According to the Times, which uncritically highlighted Moon's remarks in
a page two story on January 28, Moon called the U.N. "a temple of
peace" and said religions should work with it to "solve global
problems."
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- Moon received a "Universal Peace Award" at
the U.N., has called for a U.N.-based religious body, and has declared,
"As long as America sticks with its nationalistic pride it will never
be able to embrace the world." On January 12, Moon spoke of how U.N.
non-governmental organizations "can represent all humanity -- through
which God can come and reign."
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- Moon's turn toward the U.N. could reflect his belief
that the U.N. could help protect his global business dealings in China,
North Korea and Vietnam. "The Moon connection to North Korea is most
striking," Cliff Kincaid of America's Survival, Inc. said. "Moon
met with and was extremely close to North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung,
whose successor and son, Kim Jong-Il, gave Moon a birthday gift."
(30)
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- What follows is an AP story about Moon's claim to be
the true Messiah:
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- End-Tmes Reading Of The Bible
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- By Richard N. Ostling AP Religion Writer August 27, 2001
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- Already well known for accumulated worldwide business
involvements, arranged marriages and mass weddings, the Rev. Sun Myung
Moon hit a publicity jackpot in May when he selected one of his Korean
disciples, Maria Sung, as a bride for Vatican-based Archbishop Emmanuel
Milingo and conducted the nuptials days later.
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- The on-again, off-again marriage then became entangled
in Vatican intrigue.
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- People generally know little about Moon's creed, but
it was a remarkable context in which a 70-year-old Roman Catholic archbishop
found a wife, though Milingo said he didn't mean to forsake Catholicism.
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- New religions such as Moon's often cite the Bible, but
give it a radically different interpretation from that taught by mainstream
Judaism or Christianity - faiths toward which Moon is sharply critical.
Moon's doctrines are laid out in his 1957 scripture, titled "Exposition
of the Divine Principle" in the 1996 English translation.
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- Moon's followers regard him as the new messiah or "Lord
of the Second Advent" who is providing the "physical salvation"
that Jesus was unable to accomplish because he was executed and didn't
marry. Jesus gave only "spiritual salvation."
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- By contrast, Christianity has always taught that Jesus'
death on the cross gives complete salvation for all who believe in him.
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- The faith's end-times scenario uses biblical chronology:
There were 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus, so the messiah comes in another
2,000 years, closing the "New Testament Age." To be specific,
"the period of the Second Advent began soon after the end of the First
World War."
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- Moon was born in January 1920.
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- How would the Christ or messiah return? An oft-quoted
Second Coming verse says, "He is coming with the clouds, and every
eye will see him" (Revelation 1:7). Since a person cannot literally
"ride on the clouds," Moon explains, the clouds are symbolic,
referring to multitudes of believers, and the messiah is born in ordinary
fashion rather than returning from heaven.
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- Where does the birth occur? Here Moon relies on Revelation
7:2: "Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun,
with the seal of the living God. ..."
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- The rising sun means the messiah comes from one of the
"nations in the East," and since ancient times there have been
considered to be three: Korea, Japan and China. Both Japan and China are
ineligible because they have "belonged to Satan's side" during
the time of the Second Advent. Japan entered the period as a fascist nation
and severely persecuted Korean Christianity, while China had a strong communist
movement and was later ruled by communists.
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- Thus only "Korea has become qualified to receive
Christ at the Second Advent" and that's where the messiah must be
born.
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- Moon is, of course, Korean.
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- Chronology enters again with Moon's "dispensation
of 40." Israel suffered enslavement for 40 times 10 years in Egypt.
The Christian Church as "the Second Israel" suffered 40 times
l0 years of persecution in the Roman Empire. There were also 40 times 10
years from Protestantism's birth (1517) to the end of World War I.
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- Korea was "the Third Israel" that suffered
for 40 years, from the protection treaty with Japan (1905) until the end
of World War II.
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- Since the messiah comes to Korea, "he will certainly
use the Korean language, which will then become the mother tongue for all
humanity." Eventually all people should use the messiah's language
as their mother tongue.
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- "All of humanity will become one people and use
one language, thus establishing one global nation under God." Thus
the religion's label: Unification.
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- There are many other concepts that make Moon an unusual
colleague for a Catholic archbishop. One obvious example is Moon's teaching
about the person of Jesus Christ.
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- Moon teaches that Jesus was "a man who has realized
the purpose of creation and who lives in oneness with God" and "has
a divine nature. Nevertheless, he is not God himself." By contrast,
Catholic (and all conventional Christian) belief says Jesus is fully God
as well as fully man.
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- Moon holds that after the new messiah marries, the couple
as "True Parents" form "a perfect trinity with God."
Christian orthodoxy worships Jesus as part of the divine Trinity consisting
of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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