Exclusive Ecclesiology - Darakbang's Biggest Problem
Exclusive Ecclesiology
Darakbang is the only vehicle preaching the Gospel in 2000 years of church history
By Lee In Kyu
The biggest problem with Darakbang lies in its exclusivity; it is the only channel spreading the Christian Gospel while established churches don’t. This exclusive ecclesiology of Darakbang is the reason that it is defined as a heresy by all denominated Christian churches.
Darakbang has openly criticized established churches in the past. It argued that “existing Christians should receive Jesus anew,” “some 98% of Korean Christian churches are possessed by evil spirits,” or “only Darakbang has been announcing the Gospel after the Early Churches.” When challenged about his comments in a hearing, Pastor Ryu Kwang Su (hereunder, “Pastor Ryu”) justified himself by saying, “I did say such thing a couple of times to evangelize.” He gave a not so sincere apology.
He still makes the argument on exclusivity, which is well displayed in his teaching materials and sermons.
Even now, Pastor Ryu comments that existing Christians fail to receive the blessing of Immanuel that means “God is with us.” From Apollinarianism and Modalism’s viewpoint, existing church members who are taught Orthodox Christianity would not be considered to have received the blessing of Immanuel.
(The Gospel Letter – Chapter 3 How can you meet God?)
(1) Existing Christians
Actually, they do not receive the blessing of Immanuel. How big a blessing would it be if God is to be with each one of you? Weakness of the existing church members is that they can not enjoy this blessing. If pastors fail to feel this blessing then they can not experience the grace of God. If so, it will be tough to deliver sermons, which will be sensed by others soon. We should adopt this as a theme of prayer for today. The blessing of Immanuel should be adopted as a new theme of prayer. Unfortunately, people feel Immanuel only when they encounter challenges.
(The Gospel Letter – Chapter 3 How can you meet God?)
Existing Christians confess they find it difficult to feel the blessing of Immanuel. Churches survive only when members sense God being present with them. Parents may teach lessons to their children but the lessons will bear fruit only when they come with Immanuel. Children of pastors and lay leaders go wrong because there is no sense of the blessing of Immanuel. Children are burdened but yet do not know what they want or want to be. This is all because they can not feel the blessing of Immanuel. Article from http://ikccah.org/darakbang/1257 The original article is in Korean. Translated by Elite Translatoion Asia
Do existing Christians deny the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Do they deny incarnation?
Does the established Christianity deny that God should be with us? It is nothing of the kind.
Then why does Darakbang say that existing Christian church members do not get the blessing of Immanuel (God is with us)?
(The Gospel Letter – Chapter 4 Why is Jesus the only way for us?)
We know the Gospel only roughly but still Korea is flooded with churches. This would be awesome should we understood the Gospel properly. Unfortunately, we don’t and this is why we are failing. Jesus said to Pharisees who led religious lives to “come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens.”
Christian churches in Korea lack understanding of the Gospel but they claim they have revived. They say, “If we understand the Gospel properly…” meaning that they don’t. They know it only roughly. They go as far as to say Satan is hampering Darakbang’s movement to evangelize.
(The Gospel Letter – Chapter 8 When is God’s power revealed?)
(2)Church history- An interruptive force emerged from time to time and thus the history is punctuated with reform movements.
(3)Darakbang- Hopes to pursue a pure evangelism movement. Darakbang should explain something to church newcomers so that they may not falter when faced with tests. Satan has clear objective to prevent people from knowing the Gospel.
(The Gospel Letter – Chapter 9 Prayer is a spiritual science)
It tells us that Christian church members and key members know so little about the blessing. This evangelism movement teaching that Jesus is the Christ is implemented in Korea out of so many countries and more specifically, in Darakbang among so many denominated Christian churches.
Pastor Ryu is making such claims. He apologized and promised it will not happen again to Pastor Choi Sam Kyung (hereunder, “Pastor Choi”) in an open hearing. But now, he is denying what he said in the hearing and argues that Darakbang is the only movement revived from the Early Churches in 2000 years.
(Pastor Ryu Kwang Su, Chungju Lake Resort on 12 Apr 2006, Church & Faith).
“The Reformation of Religion took place in 1500. Has there been a proper announcement of the Gospel since? Precisely speaking, the answer is no. For example, John Wesley preached spiritual disciplines not the Gospel, and Moody led a youth movement. It took about 500 years for Darakbang to recover its evangelism effort. There was no biblical evangelism in the meantime. Only the Early Churches pursued biblical evangelism. Therefore, this movement has revived in 2000 years. This may offend other denominated Christian churches. Pastor Choi OO asked if this means that there was no spread of the Gospel in between. Of course there were. But there is no record of biblical evangelism. It took 2000 years to bring out the bible to preach the Gospel in accordance with the bible. This is nothing typical. All of you should be aware that this is a movement revived after 2000 years. Article from http://ikccah.org/darakbang/1257 The original article is in Korean. Translated by Elite Translatoion Asia
Why does Pastor Ryu say that what Wesley and Moody pursued were not evangelism movements?
Sermon below delivers an important message that the Gospel that the virgin will give birth to a son has restored in 2000 years. Does this mean that the above Gospel has been preached wrongly in the past 2000 years?
(<Gospel and Religion>15 Apr 2006, Pastor Ryu Kwang Su, Church & Faith)
“A pastor provoked quarrel when I said it is recovery of the Gospel in 2000 years. ‘Pastor Ryu, do you mean to say there was no spread of God’s grace until now?’ No, of course there were but I could not find preach of God’s grace described in the bible. I will correct myself if I do but I have not found any despite my research. I am saying that it has been 2000 years since there was a perfect propagation of Christianity stated in the bible. How long has it been (from Exodus until now: note from the recorder)? It has been 4200 years! You have emerged after 4200 years (Audience: Amen!). This is extraordinary. Many will regret or come to realize. History will unfold. We need to understand church history accurately. The most difficult part to understand is the Gospel. We learn it with the grace of God. The Gospel ‘the virgin will give birth to a son’ has recovered after 2000 years.”
“A pastor” in the above sermon from Pastor Ryu can be identified in the transcript from the hearing below. Pastor Ryu made excuses about his comment on spread of the Gospel in 2000 years. He said he simply wanted to stir the audience and apologized. Nevertheless, Pastor Ryu continues to claim that they are the evangelists in 2000 years who preach the blessing of Immanuel.
(16 Apr 2006 <Gospel and Religion>, Pastor Ryu Kwang Su, Church & Faith)
“The Gospel is gone and thus, another complete failure. So, a person who understands the value of the Gospel has come. ‘She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.’ Everything has recovered. How long did it take to get from here to there (From Exodus to Isaiah 7:4: note from the recorder)? You’d be disagreeably surprised that it took 2000 years. Some 2000 years to recover the Gospel despite that there were priests and prophets.”
Do established Christian churches deny that Jesus was borne of the Virgin Mary? Do they deny Immanuel that God is with us? The Orthodox Theology absolutely did not. Then why is Pastor Ryu saying that the Gospel has recovered after 2000 years? He means that there was no Gospel in the past 2000 years of Christianity and that the Christian Gospel was wrong.
Local churches are making the same argument about “recovery.”
Their definition of Immanuel is Apollinarianism and Modalism version of Christianity. As a result, when they mention recovery of the Early Churches, they actually mean recovery of heresy and recovery of Sabellius’ Modalism and Apollinarious’ Christianity.
In the previous public hearing, Pastor Ryu said the following. It openly revealed his double-faced personality.
- Pastor Choi: Please explain what Gospel is missing in established Christian churches.
- Pastor Ryu: I don’t know which message you’re referring to but I do recall making such comment. Honestly speaking, my intention was to say that no one, not even elders ofArticle from http://ikccah.org/darakbang/1257 The original article is in Korean. Translated by Elite Translatoion Asia
churches, are interested in spreading the Gospel. I wanted to repeatedly stimulate them to propagate the Gospel. That’s why I said there is no Gospel and nobody is paying attention. I take this opportunity to express my apology (I wanted to say from the bottom of my heart that I am sincerely fond of Christian churches in Korea). Our members proposed the idea before me and I agreed with them.
- Pastor Choi: You said Darakbang movement is the recovered evangelism movement in 2000 years, which I learned through a number of pastors who attended Darakbang gatherings. What made you say that?
- Pastor Ryu: I truly apologize for that matter. I admit I said that in a discussion with members from Evangelism Institute. I said I did some research on evangelism in church history, which I really did. While I was studying Wesley and Moody, I realized that 'the bible tells an awesome and hidden method. Rome was conquered in such way.’ I said that ‘this is what Jesus did in the Early Churches 2000 years ago.' People may respond differently to what I said. Our members could hear the message as a blessing but for others, it could lead to misunderstandings. I would like to apologize in this regard and I will not use such words again.
It is said that those who were disappointed at Pastor Ryu in the hearing as he made ambivalent comments and excuses, left Darakbang. Pastor Ryu gave the sermon below in 2007 and said himself that it is different from Christianity.
- What did our Darakbang find out? It is nothing that general denominated Christian churches do. Darakbang is a group with answers to evangelize properly. This is why it is different and do not view it as the same. They say it is heresy because of this. It is not heresy but just different. It is a question of what is right but I don’t believe it is the same. If it was the same, we should remove our denominated church. It is different. Darakbang is clearly different. There are noises but it doesn’t matter. If it is the same, then it will die.” (29 May 2007 Yewon Church)
If we are to follow the word of God, pray and enjoy blessing of the Gospel starting with small things from now on, the Gospel revealed after thousands of years and only Jesus in 500 years will bear fruit through all of you in 2017. We will lay the foundation for later generations in the coming 10 years. We will build the Remnant headquarter here to spread throughout the world. We will raise the global Remnant up (25 Apr 2007).
What did Pastor Ryu mean when he said that Darakbang is the only vehicle propagating the Gospel in the past 2000 years of church history? He said he made a mistake in the hearing but then repeats what he said right away. Darakbank teaching materials are all about this argument.
What is the Gospel that Christianity did not preach during the past 2000 years?
What is the secret of Immanuel untold for 2000 years and what is the secret of the Holy Trinity? Pastor Ryu will have to answer to these two questions. Could those secrets be Modelism and Christianity claimed by heresy of the Early Churches?
Darakbang concept is very similar to local churches.
