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Manmin Joong-ang Church (South Korea) & Manila Manmin Church
The Manmin Joong-ang Church of Dr. Lee Jae-Rock of South Korea has just landed in the Philippines without any suspicion from many evangelicals who attended the “2001 Philippines Church Leaders’ Conference (September 26-27) at PICC and United Crusade with Rev. Jae-Rock Lee” (September 27-29) at Quirino Grandstand, Luneta Park, Manila. The Philipppine Crusade Committee president was Greg Durante. The Manmin Joong-ang Church and their founder and senior pastor, Dr. Lee Jae-Rock, the founder and president of World Christian Doctors Network (WCDN) is represented in the Philippines by Peter Bae of Manila Manmin Church, Jo ChanHyeong Dasmarinas Cavite Manmin Church, Richard G. Alban of Pangasinan Manmin Church, and many Manmin churches in other parts of the country are blooming. Rev. Lee Jong-Won, is the voice of Jae-Rock Lee in the Philippines, responsible for their cyber, literature, television ministries and social services. Paul C. Jong is the mouth piece of Dr. Jae-Rock Lee, and a very loyal follower of his master. On June 2001, RPN TV Channel 9 started airing the teaching of Lee Jae-Rock every Saturday at 6:30 AM. The Manmin Church of Korea owns and operates several TV networks. The influence of Dr. Jae-Rock Lee is always exaggeratedly reported than the actual. Their numerical data is always confusing or contrary to previously reported statistic. The inconsistency is obvious in their webpages. Lee Jae-Rock hire an American publicity expert responsible for making his public image glows like a Hollywood celebrity, and his books always on demand. “Some have asked, if Lee Jae-Rock's ministry is not of God, why are there so many complimentary, glowing reports about his crusades circulating around the globe? Indeed just a quick Google search on the Internet can produce many very positive news stories about the Lee Jae-Rock crusades. You can find these stories on good Christian sites such as Across Asia & Pacific, UCB, Christian Today, Challenge Weekly, John Mark Ministries, CMDnet, Charisma News Service, HCJB world Radio, FaithNews Network and Pulpit Helps. Are many or at least some of these news services sending reporters to the Lee Jae-Rock crusades? No, they all are getting their glowing reports from the same source - Dan Wooding and ASSIST News. (However it should be admitted that one News service, Joel News, noticeably did got their information from a different source - The Friday Fax. Friday Fax got their information from the Manmin Missions website. However the Manmin Missions website news releases are extracted from Dan Wooding and ASSIST News!) In a way, Dan Wooding seems to function as a volunteer PR man (to the western media) for Lee Jae-Rock. Dan Wooding's journalistic experience is impressive. He has worked as a reporter for the National Enquirer, Sunday Mirror of London and had a weekly commentary on UPI radio. He has worked as a writer and broadcaster for Billy Graham on occasion. He has interviewed many people such as Mother Theresa, Johnny Mathis, Burt Lancaster, David Soul, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr from The Beatles. He is the author of 41 books. He also has done much more than all this and you can read it all in his biography.” http://www.angelfire.com/space/lee_jae-rock/wooding.html From Christian Research Institute www.equip.org Rev. Lee Jae-Rock testifies to having suffered many years of chronic illnesses, was told by his own mother, “You should die, die! Death is a real filial duty for you,?but was miraculously headed in 1974 after visiting Hyun-Shin-Ae’s Altar. Jae-Rock eventually entered into fulltime ministry, and has been credited for serving as President of the United Holiness Church of Korea, chairman of the board for Washington Christian Radio System, president of the National Evangelization paper, president of Light and Salt Mission, president of The Christian World Revival Mission, president of Manmin TV, and senior pastor of Manmin Joong-ang Church. Doctrinally, Rev. Jae-Rock affirms “all the pastors, evangelists, and saints of the Manmin Joong-ang Church believe in God the Trinity and the Apostle’s Creed as the only creed based on the Bible. He also teaches a fulfillment of the Great Commission comes through a fivefold gospel message, which includes regeneration (John 3:5), sanctification (1 Peter 1:16; 1 Tim. 4:5), divine healing (Exod. 3:15; Mark 1:34; Isa. 53:5), resurrection (1 Peter 1:3), and the return of Christ (Rev. 22:20). Jae-Rock does not explain in detail the specific points of the fivefold ministry but simply cites the scriptural references. Does he mean all these things are essential for one to have salvation? Or are all these things essential to the ministry of the church? Further inquiry revealed definite problems with Jae-Rock’s views on sanctification and healing. Regarding sanctification, he teaches true spiritually minded people should reject critical thinking. He says: “If you still live in the darkness and carry sinful mind, you will never be used by God. Today is the last days of human cultivation. Really you should become spiritual workers of the Holy Spirit, not sinful workers. Please discard your position, your knowledge, your career, your theological background and so on. And please check your heart in the light of the truth of God. Let’s not forget that we should get rid of even a fragment of your sinful mind. Then, you should surrender yourselves wholly to the word of God. With regard to healing, he holds that sickness and suffering are the results of unrepentant sin and truly spiritual people ought to have good health. He says: “Therefore if you are suffering from the disease, you must look back upon yourselves whether you have failed to obey God’s word and repent immediately. Most of all, you must repent that you didn’t love God but worshipped the idol and doubted God Almighty. You must repent that you have fail [sic] to pray, to love and to obey God without keeping the Lord’s Day completely, etc. Elsewhere he says: “If you live within God’s word, you receive the blessing of your soul getting along well. And when your soul is getting along well, you receive the blessing of health and the blessing that all may go well with you. So being healthy, and furthermore being rejuvenated is the definite evidence of those who live within God’s word, love God and believe in Him truly. It is the blessing that is given as much as you recover the lost image of God, which was lost by Adam’s disobedience. We disagree with these teachings, and believe that true spirituality cannot be divorced from critical thinking. Those departing from Scripture and acquiescing to such subjective and arbitrary means of determining spiritual truths are in danger of falling into grievous error. It is folly to rely upon the whims of the heart over and against scripture in discerning spiritual matters. For example, many Christians struggle with whether or not they are saved, even though they are trusting in Christ alone for their salvation. In such instances, they are relying upon their feelings rather than upon the promises of God (e.g., John 5:24, Rom. 5:1-5; 1 John 5:13). Jeremiah 17:9 asserts: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Although Christians have been given a new nature in Christ, they also retain their fallen nature in this life. Our fallen nature is always at war with our new nature; therefore, Christians remain susceptible to spiritual deception. As such, Scripture warns the church repeatedly of false teachers and unsound doctrines (e.g., Acts 20:29-31; 1 Tim 1:3-4; 2 Peter 2:1-3). Therefore, we must always endeavor to test all things and feelings in the light of Scripture (e.g., 1 Thess. 5:21; Acts 17:11). There is also a proper sense in which we might understand the role of emotions in our Christian walk. In Jeremiah 31:33 God asserts: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.? Jesus exhorts us to love God with our hearts and our minds (Matt. 22:37). Certainly, loving God with the heart involves an experiential aspect that goes beyond mere head knowledge. We can read about love, for instance, and have a basic understanding of what it entails (i.e. cognitively), but the experience or feeling of love (i.e. from the heart) is what makes this emotion meaningful to us. This idea of the head and heart working hand-in-hand is extremely important. For example, there are those who believe in the existence of God, and who may even refer to Christ as “Lord? however, unless their hearts belong to God (i.e. possessing faith and trust), they are no better off than demons, who also believe, and yet, are condemned (James 2:19). It is also true that the Holy Spirit convicts our hearts and guides us into all truth (John 16:8,13), albeit, through the Word of God. Whether the Word is read or proclaimed, the Holy Spirit’s influence upon regenerate children of God can be sensed on an experiential level (Rom. 8:16), comprehended on a mental level (John 16:13), and evidenced by the fruit it produces (Gal. 5:22). Scripture also proclaims that we are to “worship the Father in spirit and in truth?(John 4:24). In other words, our entire hearts are to be involved in the act of worship, but not the exclusion of sound doctrine. Thus, while thoughts and emotions have their proper place in our Christian walk, it is by God’s Word alone, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that we gain spiritual wisdom and knowledge whereby our emotional experience flows. We also disagree with Jae-Rock’s teaching that one can find perfect health in living a personal life of holiness and repentance from sin. For example, Epaphroditus fell sick to the point of death, but Paul encourages the Philippian church to receive him with a hero’s welcome for his service to the Lord (Phil. 32:25-30). Even Paul prayed three times to be healed from a constant “thorn in the flesh,?but was not healed and came to the understanding that it was in his own weaknesses Christ’s power was exalted (2 Cor. 11:7-10). In both cases, there is no evidence showing their sicknesses were the result of a lack of personal holiness. Jae-Rock also uses Scripture out of context in propagating a radical concept of the identity of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and extraterrestrials (ETs). Using 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 he argues that in the third heaven is the abode of the Trinity, the second is the Garden of Eden, which is an intermediate world between heaven and earth, and the third is the sky that everyone can physically see. He goes on to say that the inhabitants of the Garden of Eden are the Cherubim, that can traverse the divide between heaven and earth, they can be seen by people, and witnesses usually categorize them as UFOs and ETs. The fact that the spiritual world exists outside of time and space explains the reasons for the erratic behavior and strange phenomena surrounding those who have had a close encounter. Jae-Rock’s view ultimately draws out an entire universe set in another dimension based on a very vague and difficult to understand passage of scripture. Scripture, however, does not teach of literal levels of heaven, but uses metaphoric language to convey truths about spiritual things. [The following adapted from combined letter on anthropomorphic terms] When we speak of God, angels, demons, heaven, hell, we are speaking of immaterial things. In other words they cannot be measured in terms of size, shape, weight, color, sound, or smell. For example, much of what the Scriptures say describing God is stated in anthropomorphic terms, which means that God is depicted in human terms as having human characteristics and attributes (as well as non-human ones). For instance, in Psalm 17 anthropomorphisms are used several times; verse 6 says God has ears; in verses 7 and 14 God is described as having hands; verse 8 describes God as having eyes and wings, and in verse 13 God wields a sword. Of course, being spirit, God has no physical body with arms and hands, eyes or ears and doesn’t actually wield a steel sword. God’s incommunicable attribute of being eternal is also expressed in anthropomorphic terms. Therefore, when the Bible speaks about God as “the beginning?and “the first,?it is expressing God’s eternity and primacy in existence in terms that are understandable to us. But anthropomorphisms are simply that; attributing things from this physical realm to God in order to communicate to and with us creatures in a way we can picture in order to be able to have a framework for belief in Him and to have a personal relationship with Him. We cannot as easily relate to a spirit; who has seen or touched or spoken to or felt emotionally, a spirit? Even our own spirit’s existence we must take largely on faith, since we identify our physical selves in a physical realm. We can conceive of something other than the physical realm, but what exactly is unknown to us and our concept of it depends on whom we choose to listen to. Even our concepts of the “spirit realm?tend to describe the spirits as being largely disembodied physical bodies: sort of transparent, shadowy photocopies of us. Likewise, when we speak of “heaven,?we are not talking about a physical location such as a planet orbiting a star in a galaxy furthest from our Milky Way. A better understanding of 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 is that Paul was writing of himself being caught up to the “third heaven.? In Paul’s day, the Jews had a compartmentalized view of the universe. First, they perceived the atmosphere in which we live. This would be described as the “first heaven.? The “second heaven?would then be the realm of the stars, moons, and planets. Lastly, the “third heaven?was thought of as the place where God had his dwelling place. This view was not at all uncommon in the Ancient East. There were even some who thought that the universe consisted of seven heavens. So visions of angels, demons, heaven, hell, denote things in the spiritual realm, and are unseen apart from the rare instances where God temporarily manifests them to people. The previously mentioned vision of Paul and the book of Revelation are good examples of this. Furthermore, the theory of ETs being the cherubim, the angelic servants of the God’s almighty, cannot explain the New Age message proclaimed by those having an alien encounter (see CP0906). For the abovementioned reasons, we do not recommend the ministry of Lee Jae-Rock. Warrren Nozaki Christian Research Institute References (all retrieved 10 December 2002) were all from within these 3 websites He claims to have received God’s revelation just like the Apostle John received God’s revelation on the Island of Patmos. God gave him revelations related to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Job, The four Gospels, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Hebrews, 1,2 & 3 John and Revelation. He received revelation from God about Heaven, enough for him to write 100 pages about on college notebook paper, which he will proclaim when the end time comes. ('Before Death' [a book by Jae-Rock], pages 166 & 194) The prophets, disciples, apostles, God and Jesus all appeared in photos he took with his camera after he imposed his hands on it in prayer. (July 17th 1998 at a Friday all night prayer meeting) People who are in this world can see his figure wherever they are because he appears in the Sun and Moon and he can even appear over an offering envelope! (June 26th, 1998 & July 10th 1998 Friday all night prayer meetings) Four archangels came to the Manmin Joong-ang Church on the 3rd of July 1998 to check everything out. Then God then came to the Manmin Joong-ang Church on the 17th of July, escorted by the remaining 20 archangels. The gate of heaven was opened to the Manmin Joong-ang Church and the gate will remain open to them until the 2nd coming of Christ. (July 17th 1998 Friday all night prayer meeting) Sin resides in the blood of the human. The blood of Jesus shed on the cross had no original sin or committed sin. Jae Rock explained that he himself shed all of his blood in 1992, so the sinful blood from his parents was done away with and he was refilled with new blood that does not have any original or committed sin. God’s throne has come down to the Manmin Joong-ang Church and he has left the key of the New Jerusalem in the Manmin Joong-ang Church. (July 5th, 1998 Sunday evening service) When Jae-Rock calls any of the prophets, disciples or Patriarchs they appear before him just like an executive will appear when the president calls. Jae-Rock says they come and greet him. (July 5th, 1998 Sunday evening service & July 17th,1998 Friday all night prayer meeting) The Spirit of Jae-Rock sits on the left hand of God’s throne. He also has the power and authority to die or live. Even death passes over him (July 5th, 1998 Sunday evening service) Jae-Rock has accomplished all the words in the 66 books of the Bible except walking on water. (June 21st, 1998 Sunday service) Because he became one with God, he can appear in the Sun and the Moon. He holds a patent right to this. He said that God put him into the light of the Moon and then said, “You and I are one. (Friday all night prayer meeting, July 17th, 1998) When his spiritual eyes are open he can see the figure of God. God has a big mouth, eyes which can draw in anything and lips. God is the very image of Jae-Rock himself. (June 28th, 1998 Sunday evening service) Wherever he goes, he is never exposed to rain and when he commands, even coal smoke will disappear. (June 26th, 1998 Friday all night prayer meeting) These quotes were obtained from A Korean church (associated with Paul Yonggi Cho's AOG church) in Chennai India, just before the crusade there. The Manmin church representatives claimed that some members of Paul Yonggi Cho's church are circulating these quotes (which they deny) to discredit Lee Jae-Rock as they are jealous about the success of Jae-Rock Lee church and the amount of healings there. Lee Jae Rock sounds like a great spiritual healing evangelist and does preach biblical sermons at his large public crusades, but underneath the surface is in reality a heretical teacher. Unfortunately, information about the heresy and highly questionable character of Lee Jae-Rock is rare in English (though a number of books and websites in Korean do expose him.) He was excommunicated as a cult leader from his own denomination (Church of Holiness) in May 1990 and from the Korean Christian Association (Han Ki Chong) on 30th of April 1999 because of his unbiblical teachings. Lee Jae-Rock (also known as Jaerock Lee) claims to have received revelation just like the Apostle John. He claims his body has sinless blood (due to a blood transfusion in 1992). He meets with the prophets, apostles and patriarchs. His spirit is at the left side of God's throne. He will be the judge on the last day and all the angels submit to him. And he has made many more such claims. In Korea a documentary video was aired exposing Lee Jae-Rock's bizarre claims and gambling activities. A number of his followers stormed the TV facility to prevent the broadcast. At least 600 South Korean riot police were called out to end the occupation. The Manmin church had earlier reportedly obtained a court order preventing MBC from screening a story about Lee Jae-Rock's sex life. Thirty Amazing Claims made by Lee Jae-Rock (These are translated from a Korean book 'Heresy Identity of Lee Jae-Rock.' The book is available at http://mall.godpeople.com/ but only in the Korean language.)
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12/09/06