Sunday School Teachers’ Meeting, 2005That You All Speak the Same Thing and that You Be Perfectly Joined Together in the Same MindMay 28th, 2005Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.  Ephesians 2:20-22In the process of preparing our church education program, we often forget just what we are studying and why we are studying it. For this reason, when the teachers gather to study the Bible together like this, I am constantly saying that our teachers must always keep in mind the purpose of these studies and what is the important point that we are presenting through the various activities that make up this program. When the teachers gather together and study the Bible in this way, we refer to it as a study of Genesis, but as we study the book of Genesis, it is not our intention to teach the children the content of Genesis alone. Our aim is for the children to develop the ability to penetrate the entire Bible, through studying Genesis. We teach the children in such a way as to allow them to develop the habit of seeing through this long line of stories to what lies beyond them. Also, as we are living in this present age, we need to show the children how to go about discerning God’s word.Let’s turn to Second Timothy chapter 2 and read from verse 15.Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.  verses 15-18 Here it says that when we divide the word of truth rightly, we have an opportunity to present ourselves approved to God as workers who do not need to be ashamed. Then in the verses that follow, we are given an example of what this verse is saying. We are told to “shun profane and idle babbling.” When we read this, our thoughts quite naturally turn to the law, and we decide that in the future, we must not joke around, must not curse, and must only say good things. This is, of course, also included here. After this, however, it says that some “have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.” This is really strange. First it says to shun profane and idle babbling, and then it talks about the resurrection.The Bible says that those who believe in Jesus Christ will some day participate in the resurrection just as Jesus was raised from the dead. This is explained very carefully in First Corinthians chapter 15. In the first century AD in which the apostle Paul lived, there were people in the church who spread the teaching that the resurrection had already taken place, a teaching which is the precise opposite of what the Bible actually says. Paul wrote that such people had strayed concerning the truth and as a result, they overthrew the faith of some people. It was the profane and idle babblings of some people that was bringing about the downfall of the faith of others. It also says here that “their message will spread like cancer.” Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul wrote that profane and idle babblings spread through the body like cancer cells, resulting in the death of the body. This is a very interesting point. The reason I am saying this is that a problem arises when we do not rightly divide the word of truth in the correct order. What is the word of truth? It is the words of the Bible. The Bible says that if you sin, you will go to hell, but it also says that no matter how many sins you may commit, if you believe in Jesus and look to the cross, you are forgiven. There are these two messages, and if we divide them rightly, we find that we are destined for destruction because of sin, but this situation can be changed through the cross of Jesus. Now, let’s think about the age in which we are currently living. Due to the development of various media, we tend not to think much about what is happening in Israel. When there is a report about Israel on the news, we do not take much interest in it. Yet, we tend to have the same attitude when it comes to reading the Bible. Even when we read the Bible and it talks about the Jews, we lose interest. First of all, we need to know precisely where we now stand along the line of history. This is what we first need to teach to our children. For about 1,900 years, the Jews were scattered across the world, but now, strange though it may be, they have returned to their land. We are living in the age right after this happened. This is an age that was hidden away in the Old Testament; it is the age of the church. When we turn to the Bible, we need to know precisely what it is saying to us because even though the words of the Bible remain the same, the extent to which these words are understood differs from age to age. If you look at the writings of the many preachers who knew the gospel before the nineteenth century, you will find they did not understand anything at all about the Jews. Even though they had experienced being born again through the righteousness of God and the righteousness of Jesus apart from the law, they lived in an age in which the Jews had lost their land and were scattered across the world, and so they knew little about the Jews of whom the Bible talks. Today, we exist side by side with the Jewish nation, and yet even now, it often happens that some people teach the Bible within a semblance of a church, and yet they are completely ignorant when it comes to the Jews. We need to think about how our fellowship arose. Do you go to church because your parents do? Or do you go to church because your family are church-goers? If you have a clear understanding of the connection between the way in which our fellowship came into being and the historical events surrounding the Israelites, you will be able to see for yourself just how fearful God’s word is. You will also have an inkling of how we are held and nurtured in the hands of God. The gospel movement in Korea began during the second half of the nineteenth century. That was when the Korean Bible was translated, and many of the translators were born again, both Koreans and the foreign missionaries who helped them. At that time, the Jews were scattered across all the countries of Europe and enjoying great wealth, but little by little, they were beginning to be persecuted. The First and Second World Wars that broke out during the first half of the 20th century both arose because of the Jews. Historically, there were various reasons for these wars breaking out, but if you look into this matter carefully, you can see clearly that ultimately these wars broke out because of the Jews. During the time of those two world wars, the seed of the gospel that had been planted in the land of Korea in the nineteenth century was drying up. The end of the First and Second World Wars, however, resulted in the establishment of the independent nation of Israel. This is really strange. During the 1930s and 40s, people like British Prime Minister Churchill and the American President Roosevelt were active politically, and they sacrificed their lives for the sake of carrying out their work, but even as they did this, they did not know why they were doing it. They were battling against the Nazis in Germany who were slaughtering the Jews. They said they were fighting for the sake of freedom, but if you look into the matter more deeply, you can see that this war took place to protect the Jews. Then on May 14th, 1948, the nation of the Jews was born once more in this world. While all this was happening, Korea was suffering terribly under Japanese colonial rule. Then there was the Korean War which continued for three years from 1950 to 1953. It was a result of that war that foreign missionaries came back to Korea once more after an absence of about fifty years. Missionaries who knew the gospel came back to this country completely devastated by war. As a result, many people come into contact with the gospel. People like Pastor Kwon and Mr. Byung Eun Yoo encountered the gospel in the early 196

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