On 15th March 2019, a
gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle and shotgun, and motivated by
delusional beliefs of superiority, entered two mosques killing fifty men, women
and children and wounding dozens of others in Christchurch, New Zealand. Although
the global community - of all faiths and none - responded in horror to this
sick act, acts of violence are taking place today among believers of the same
faith.
This is especially true within the Christian circle in the Republic of
Korea, notably with the Christian Council of Korea (CCK). The CCK claims itself to be
‘orthodox’ and labels other denominations a ‘heresy’, or ‘cult’. Just because
one says they are orthodox and another heresy, does it mean that this is the
case? What is the evidence? Let’s look more deeply.
For over ten years, the CCK has
been implementing "coercive conversion" education. This is a
programme whereby CCK pastors target their ex-congregation members and
believers of different Christian beliefs. CCK pastors instil fear into parents
or spouses, deceiving them into believing that their loved one has fallen into
a ‘cult’. Parents and spouses first drug then forcibly abduct them to remote
lodgings and subject them to psychological and emotional abuse whereby the
victim is coerced by a pastor into renouncing his or her beliefs and signing to
accept the teachings of the CCK.
To date, two women have died
through the coercive conversion programme: Mrs. Sunhwa Kim was murdered with a
hammer blow to the head in October 2007 and 27-year-old Ms. Ji-In Gu was
asphyxiated to death on January 9th 2018, triggering a wave of protests in
dozens of countries. Both died at the hands of their own family members in
their struggles resisting coercive conversion education. In the last ten years,
more than 1250 Korean Christian believers have been forcibly subject to this
programme, tearing hundreds of families apart. The supposedly democratic and
constitutional laws of the Republic of Korea which enshrine ‘freedom of
religion’ are completely ignored by the government who have said nothing about this
menace because of the corruption between religion and state. In the last ten
years, 12,000 pastors affiliated to the CCK have been convicted of crimes
including fraud, harassment, drink-driving and sexual assault.
Whether in religion or elsewhere,
it is a great sin to label one a 'heresy' as it can sow a seed of distrust and -
in the worst case - hatred into peoples’ hearts, reaping appalling
consequences. The only solution to man’s actions is to find the one true
standard, which is God's standard. Because God is the word/Bible (Jn 1:1) and because
Jesus promised that his words - which are recorded in the Bible - would judge
man’s actions in the last day (Jn 12:48), only God’s word has the standard and is
orthodox. Let's understand the true meaning of what is ‘orthodox’ and ‘heresy’:
(The Bible, the Standard Between Orthodoxy and Heresy)
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