Sometimes the Lord allows you to have certain encounters so that he can cause you to consider something you hadn’t before. This happened to me as me and Ashley as we were walking home from work one day in Korea.
As we crossed the bridge that meant we were close to our apartment a Korean man carrying a briefcase approached us. He spoke a little English, and asked us if we were saved. I said yes, and was at first hopeful he might tell us about a good church in the area. That was before the conversation took an odd turn.
Pretty soon he started mentioning this heavenly mother. I thought he meant Mary. He corrected me, and showed me Revelation 21:10-11:
“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.”
In his broken English he tried to explain that Jerusalem was the heavenly mother, and the bride of Christ. He showed me a picture of a Korean woman who he said was this heavenly mother come back to earth, and later a picture of a Korean guy who he said was Jesus returned to earth. I made an attempt to explain that Jerusalem is a city in Israel, but he was insistent. My Korean wasn’t good enough for me to really explain the truth. I tried, but I couldn’t get through to him.
I later asked others about this, and they told me that guy is from a pretty large cult in Korea. They believe Jesus is this Korean guy who is now sitting in a Korean prison because he’s used this literal and terrible interpretation of scripture to convince people they need to let their daughters sleep with him (a common teaching of cult leaders). I was pretty surprised by all this, but also learned something.
Those of us who know how to interpret the Bible properly have allowed such things to happen. If we knew little of geography or history, and took all the figurative language in the Bible as literal we might believe something very similar. I never imagined the scriptures could be twisted in such a way, but I should have. Just look at a lot of things Isaiah says, or much of Revelation. There’s a lot that can easily be misinterpreted.
Does this mean those without a seminary education shouldn’t be allowed to read the Bible because they might not understand its words? Absolutely not. What I believe it means is that it shows the importance of witnessing. The Holy Spirit resides within us so we can speak the truth to others. Not just so we can hand them Bibles, and hope they figure it out for themselves. Cults are what can result from that. There are people who need someone to explain the meaning of scriptures for them. Americans were raised in a society where we are very aware of the geography of the Middle East, and Jewish people live all around us. The Middle East is rarely ever discussed in Korea. There are only very small Jewish and Arab populations. This lack of knowledge can be used to twist people.
The misinterpretation of scriptures has been used to manipulate people for generations. This should be fought. Those of us who know the truth should witness to the truth. We should do so in an effort to keep others who witness to a lie from gaining any power. The truth saves. These lies manipulate, abuse, and condemn. Witnessing to the truth helps take away the power of the liars. We cannot simply hand out a Bible, and walk away. This can save many, but confuses a few. It’s our responsibility to make sure the truth is understood.
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