The Godhead – Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ did not come to die

The Unification Church teaches that Jesus Christ did not come into the world to die. Here are the words of Sun Myung Moon: ‘From the time of Jesus through the present, all Christians have thought that Jesus came to the world to die. This is because they did not know the fundamental purpose of Jesus’ coming as the Messiah, and entertained the wrong idea that spiritual salvation was the only mission for which Jesus came to the world …. Jesus did not come to die’ (Sun Myung Moon, Divine Principle, 2d ed. Washington, D.C.; The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, 1973, page 152) and again: ‘Jesus was then resolved to take the cross as the condition of indemnity to pay for the accomplishment of even the spiritual salvation of man when he found that he was unable to accomplish the providence of both spiritual and physical salvation’ (Ibid., page 151).

Let me expound briefly the teaching of Moon about salvation. According to Moon, after man fell God tried to restore mankind through Noah, Abraham and Moses, but all His attempts failed because of lack of responsibility on the part of men, thus the complete restoration of mankind was not accomplished. Then one day, the Messiah came to restore mankind. The Messiah had to come to accomplish the providence of restoration, that is to say, the Messiah had to come to save the fallen man, but not by dying on the cross, but by marrying and producing perfect children, so since the Jews did not believe in Him and crucified Him Jesus could not accomplish that restoration. Christ’s death on the cross, therefore, was not an original or essential part of God’s plan of redemption. John the Baptist was responsible for the death of Jesus (by failing to convert his audience into a power bloc for Jesus) (Divine Principle, pages 156-162). So Jesus could not fulfil His mission. What did Jesus accomplish through His death on the cross, then, according to Moon? He accomplished the restoration in part, he accomplished the spiritual salvation but not the physical salvation, for Moon claims that Jesus could not deliver us from the original sin because His body was invaded by Satan and that the salvation through the cross cannot remove completely the original sin, so the original nature of man was not fully restored. The complete restoration will be accomplished by the Lord of the Second Advent (who is Moon: ‘Rev. Moon is the Messiah, the Lord of the Second Advent’ Ken Sudo, ‘Family problems’ from The 120 – Day Training Manual, 160), he is the one who will accomplish the complete salvation by removing man’s original sin. To sum up, if Jesus had not been crucified He would have accomplished the providence of both spiritual and physical salvation and the kingdom of heaven (that is, the purpose of God’s creation) would have been fulfilled on the earth. However, since He was crucified His mission failed, or rather, it was accomplished partially, that is, just from the spiritual point of view. However, one day the Lord of the Second Advent will complete the work of Jesus because he will be able to remove the original sin from man, he will restore the whole of mankind to be children of God’s direct lineage. Therefore, whoever wants to be saved must accept Moon and his wife as spiritual parents, in this way he will be born again.

Confutation

First of all, let me say to you that the Holy Scripture teaches very clearly that God determined to send only Jesus Christ to save man from sin (and He took that decision before the foundation of the world), for the apostle Peter calls Jesus a lamb without blemish and without spot who was foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:19-20). Therefore it is not true that God tried to restore man through Noah, Abraham and even Moses. Nor is it true that the death of Jesus was not foreordained by God or that it was not a part of God’s plan of salvation, for the Scripture tells us that the sufferings of Christ and His death were foretold by God through the prophets of old, thus the death of Jesus was a fundamental part of God’s plan of redemption. The apostle Peter says that the Spirit of Christ who was in the prophets “testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ” (1 Peter 1:11 – NKJV). Let us look, for instance, at some of the words of the prophet Isaiah concerning the sufferings and the death of the Messiah: “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:1-12). These words were written by Isaiah hundreds of years before the coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the fact that the Jews did not accept Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, they hated Him and crucified, was part of God’s plan of salvation. In other words, Jesus had to be rejected, hated and crucified by the Jews, so that the words of the prophets might be fulfilled and thus we might be saved from our sins. This is what God had determined before the foundation of the world, and this is what the early Christians believed, for Peter said to the Jews: “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” (Acts 2:23 - NIV), and the disciples said to God: “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done” (Acts 4:27-28 – NKJV).

As for the mission of Jesus Christ I want to say the following things. The work of Christ on the cross of Calvary was a perfect and complete work, for by His death Jesus put away sin, as it is written: “He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26 – NKJV); Jesus, by His death, delivered us from the bondage of sin, as it is written: “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another – to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God” (Romans 7:4 – NKJV) and also: “Our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Romans 6:6 – NKJV). By His death, Jesus reconciled us to God, as it is written: “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight” (Colossians 1:21-22 – NKJV), and qualified us to become children of God by faith in His name. The blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all sins, all our past sins have been blotted out from our conscience (Hebrews 9:14). Glory to the name of Jesus Christ. Amen..

At this point, someone may ask: ‘How is it that sometimes we still sin? Does it mean that the salvation accomplished by Christ was not complete and thus it needs to be made perfect?’ Not at all, because the fact that we still sin sometimes simply means that sin dwells in us. On the other hand, Paul said: “If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:16-17 - NKJV) and John says that “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8 – NKJV). However, we need to remember that we wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies, for in this hope we were saved (Romans 8:23-24). That is to say, we are waiting for our bodies to be transformed by the power of God and made incorruptible. The redemption of our bodies will take place at the second coming of Jesus. For on that day the Lord “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21 – NIV) and in our new bodies sin will no longer dwell for we will be sinless. The redemption of our bodies, therefore, implies the bodily resurrection of those who have died in Christ. Therefore, the salvation provided by Jesus through His death and resurrection is both spiritual and physical. However, the physical redemption (which has nothing to do with the physical redemption Mr. Moon speaks of) has not yet taken place because as I have said it will take place when Jesus Christ comes back from heaven, for in that day the dead in Christ will rise first and then we who are still alive and are left will be changed. That’s why the Scripture says that Jesus “is able to save completely those who come to God through him” (Hebrews 7:25 – NIV), because the believers in Christ have obtained a full redemption, in that when they believed they were redeemed from sin and when Jesus comes back they will be redeemed bodily (for they will obtain the redemption of their bodies).

In the light of the Scriptures, therefore, I exhort you to beware of the followers of Moon; they teach heresies, lies which have nothing to do with the truth which is in Christ Jesus. They preach another Gospel and another Jesus. Reject and refute their lies.

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