During their founder’s detention, members were sustained by their firm belief in his messianic role.
by Massimo Introvigne
Article 4 of 5. Read article 1, article 2, and article 3.
In the previous article, we examined some general principles of the doctrines of Providence, the Korean Christian new religious movement that surprised many for its ability to prosper and grow while its founder, President Jung Myung Seok, was serving a ten-year term. We now move to their crucial doctrine, which explains the messianic role of President Jung and played a key role in maintaining the devotees’ faith in him.
After Adam’s and Eve’s sin, in due time, the Holy Son, through Jesus, opened the path of salvation. We are saved through the mission of the Holy Son, the second person of the Trinity. However, it is a core teaching of Providence that the Holy Son and Jesus are not the same person. The Holy Son is a divine being, with no visible body. He “came upon Jesus,” a human being, allowing him to become the Messiah. It was the spirit of Jesus, not his body, that resurrected, as the bodies of human beings do not resurrect.
After manifesting itself to the disciples, the spirit of Jesus ascended to Heaven, while the Holy Son, having worked through Jesus, sat “on the right hand of God” (1 Peter 3:22). It is not Jesus who seats at the right hand of the Father, it is the Holy Son.
Thanks to Jesus’ mission, humans were able to become children of God rather than servants. But not yet brides of God, a higher position (which is both for men and women). In order for humans to become brides of God, the Second Coming was needed. Many Christians believe that Jesus will come back in the Second Coming, but in fact it is not Jesus. The Holy Son works in different times through different human beings, who are persecuted and suffer. Jesus was the “standard of sons,” Now, the “standard of brides” should come.
Just as he used Jesus in the First Coming, the Holy Son appears again in the Second Coming by using “a worthy person,” which will assume a key role in the history of salvation, yet remain a human being, “a person of the earth like Jesus of Nazareth.”
Several Christian denominations also expect the Holy Son physically “coming on the clouds” (Matthew 24:30) at the Second Coming. But in fact, according to Providence the “clouds” are the “cloud of witnesses” of Hebrews 12:1, i.e. a “cloud” of human beings who will believe in the Second Coming. In a miniaturized version, the “cloud” is the “man-of-mission” himself, in a “magnified” version it represents those who believe in his mission. Providence believes that this man-of-mission is President Jung, and we can know and believe this as certain through numerology and logic.
The Trinity works in history through the key numerological principle of “a time, times, and half a time,” which appears twice in Daniel (Daniel 7:25 and 12:7) and once more in Revelation (12:14). It can mean three and a half days, three and a half years (1,260 days), or 1,260 years (according to the principle “one year for one day” of the Adventist tradition). This numerology is part of a “miniaturized” version of the principle. There is also a large-scale version, where the principle is connected with the number 40 of Ezekiel 4:6 and Numbers 14:34, and can refer to periods of 40, 400, or 4,000 years—40 for the individuals, 400 for the nations, 4,000 for the world.
Jung admits that the principle “a time, two times, and half a time” was already discussed by Korean theologian Han Enoch in the 1940s. He stated that, “Han Enoch unraveled half of the secret about ‘a time, two times, and half a time’,” which confirms that he was a true prophet. However, Han only disclosed “half of the secret,” as some of his interpretations were wrong.
Numerology, Providence teaches, also attests the connection between Jung’s mission and world peace. 1945, the year Korea was delivered from the Japanese and Jung was born, is also the year the United Nations were founded. In the year when Jung started its peace activities in Europe (1999), the euro as a common European currency was introduced. When he was visiting Italy, Jung was directed by the Holy Son to go and pray in the Cathedral of Milan on October 31, 1999. He came from a Protestant tradition, and did not understand why he should pray in a Catholic Church.
However, he later learned that on that day Catholic and Lutheran representatives had signed in Augsburg the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, a historical step in the reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants.
Numerology offers one proof that Jung is the man-of-mission for the Complete Testament. His life and ministry, Providence teaches, provide additional evidence. Jung acquired his position gradually by totally reciprocating the Holy Son’s love, becoming the bride of the Holy Son, and preaching to thousands who would also become brides of God.
A part of Protestant Christians believes in the Rapture, i.e. in the theory that at some stage in the Last Times faithful believers will be “raptured” to be with Christ in Heaven. According to some interpretation of the Rapture, they will thus be spared the apocalyptic disasters predicted in the Book of Revelation, while others believe the Rapture will happen after these disasters. Providence has a different theory of the Rapture. It teaches it is a spiritual event, not an event of the flesh, and it already happened.
More precisely, Rapture means entering the Golden City of Heaven. There are four conditions for this: to defeat Satan by obeying God’s word; defeat those who slander Providence; succeed where Adam and Eve failed by loving God unconditionally, and not falling sexually in the body; believe absolutely in the Savior sent by God, i.e. Jung. Like the resurrection of Jesus, the rapture is spiritual. Bodies are not involved. But the spirits become beautiful.
Providence believes in the Trinity, but teaches it consists of three “separate entities”. While the Holy Son is male, the Holy Spirit is female, and is also known as Mother God. Pastor Kim Ji Seon, who later went under the name Jung Jo Eun and transmitted President Jung’s messages during his detention (to which we will return in the next article), was identified as “the symbolic entity of the Holy Spirit,” who is female, and in 2009 assumed the role of “revival preacher for the Holy Spirit.”
Pastor Jung Jo Eun, according to Providence, assumed her mission related to the Holy Spirit because of her great efforts aimed at testifying God’s words in the new era, comparable to the Apostles’ efforts after they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
