Lee Man Hee claims to have eaten and received the open scroll and has the full understanding of all the events of Revelation and their realities from Revelation 1 to 22.
Yet, he seems to have a misunderstanding of how the reality of the Image of the Beast came about.
In fact, there was so much of a misunderstanding, that the “evidence” presented for the event was modified and edited.
The Image of the Beast
Lee Man Hee teaches that Revelation 13:15-16 was fulfilled in the Tabernacle Temple at 2pm on 20th September 1981. This was a Sunday and during the service at the Tabernacle Temple there was a “pastor appointment ceremony” in which 17 evangelists of the Tabernacle were appointed as pastors. Lee Man Hee teaches that these 17 people are the image set up by the beast of the earth in Revelation 13:14-15. What is the evidence for this claim? Well, Lee Man Hee has provided the “event bulletin” that was handed out at the service. On it are all the details to backup Lee Man Hee’s claim; it lists Mr Oh as the moderator, has the pledge the evangelists made in order to become Presbytarian pastors, and lists all 17 names of those making the pledge.
This is the 3 page event bulletin as taken from ‘Development of Shincheonji’ (신천지 발전사 in Korean) published 1997.
The first page translates to: ‘date and time: 1981.9.20 2pm’, ‘place: Isaac Central Church’, and then lists the 17 names of the evangelists taking the oath to become pastors. On page two it gives the proceedings of the service as well as the oath the evangelists must take. In the middle of page 3 it again lists the 17 names of the evangelists taking the oath. Below are the lists of names from the first and third pages.
Names of the 17 evangelists more clearly identified, note the two in yellow.
Rough translation: In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church, and in the authority of the presbytery, I announce that [1] Lee Cho-joo, [2] Choi Byung-jun, [3] Park Ki-soon, [4] Ko Bok-sil, [5] Kim Young-cheol, [6] Park Hyun-bae, [7] Kim Gwi-seok, [8] Park Young-mok, [9] Choi Seung-tae, [10] Jung Woo-young, [11] Cho Kyung-joon, [12] Lee Sang-bin, [13] Jung Sang-mo, [14] Kang Byung-sik, [15] Kim Min-ho, [16] Kim In-gyu, [17] Lee Gil-nam, has become the pastor of the Central Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Korea. Amen
(Numbers added for clarity)
We find a similar event bulletin in the latest edition of the book ‘Religious World’s Interest.’
The content is practically the same as the 3 page bulletin but this time it is only 1 page. I thought it was meant to be a photocopy for evidence? Oh well, it seems the 3 pages were made to be more organised. It still has the same date, event proceedings, the oath for the evangelists, and the names of the 17 evangelists, although the order of the names is slightly different. Surely this is the original photocopy right?
Again, note the two names in yellow.
Then what is the problem? Well, if we look at an earlier copy of ‘Religious World’s Interest’, the first edition, there is a significant difference in the event bulletin. There are only 15 evangelists in the pastor appointment ceremony, those two names in yellow are missing.