THE BOOK
SUN MYUNG MOON -- Unification Church.
A key figure and leader of a very large church that reached its peak in the 20th century, Moon was born on 25/2/1920 in Chongu, North Korea and died on 3/9/2012 Gapyeong county, South Korea. A hard and brutal wartime conditioning-process was probably the primary catalyst that made him a staunchly committed Christian, but, more telling, produced the unshakeable belief that he was the true “Messiah”, and of course, believed by his large following. It was fervently accepted by them that when the earth was “fully linked electronically”, he would then announce to global humanity his “Messiahship”. Of course, that didn’t happen, and one more Messiah claimant ‘fell by the wayside’.
Biography 1935: A Calling from Jesus Christ.
‘Early Easter morning 1935, Jesus appeared to the young Sun Myung Moon as he was praying in the Korean Mountains. In that vision, Jesus asked him to continue the work which he had begun on earth nearly 2,000 years before. Jesus asked him to complete the task of establishing God’s kingdom on earth and bringing peace to humankind.’
Certainly, his years of struggle, imprisonment and torture impresses greatly. Few people could survive what he underwent and still remain magnanimous to their captors --- and then build a remarkable global church. The tragedy for Moon and his followers was that he really was “Called” to a great spiritual task for humanity, but, as did others before and since, he also “failed to recognise” that he was to serve The One Who Came --- and instead placed himself in that role.
The basic trend thus far has been to really only briefly skim the surface of various denominations to get a sense of any collective groupings of monotheism if they are there. With the Koran, Islam stands alone in its religion; as Judaism does with the Torah. Christianity, however, comprises many different ‘churches’. Primarily made up of Catholics and Protestants and a broad based ‘coalition’ of lesser denominations, all nonetheless hold the Bible as the cornerstone of faith and law. And all have a strong vested interest in a “Holy Spirit”.
One group, however, seemingly stands with one foot in and one foot out of global Christendom. Very strangely labelling itself a Christian ‘church’, it does not hold the Bible as its primary source of truth and law, but possesses its own ‘Book’; one produced by its Founder.
As a consequence, its view of Creation, The Creator and all related Divine and spiritual aspects stand far outside of not just what mainstream Christianity believes, but very far from just plain logic. Because they are regarded as a major global Church and ostensibly Christian, they are included here.