Why Berea Academy
Limitations of Humanistic Theology
At Sungrak Church,
“the Picture of God’s Will” is a phrase heard everywhere. The Picture of God’s
Will is the center of the faith of the congregation at Sungrak Church. Many
Christians today try to use God to fulfill their own will instead of devoting
themselves to fulfilling the will of God in their lives. These types of people
forsake their faith when things appear to be going against their own will. They
say that believing in God does not profit them in life. These people fail to
understand the reason why God created the heavens and the earth, why God sent
Jesus Christ to the world, why God sent the Holy Spirit to the saints, and what
God desires from each of the saints.
The fact that
Christians these days are overly self-centered and filled with humanistic
theology in their spiritual lives is no surprise considering that Christian
doctrines during the Reformation were developed with the sole focus on the
salvation of man. During the Reformation, the question that the reformers asked
themselves was ‘How does man receive salvation?’ Right before the Reformation,
the Catholic Church was very much out of touch with the Biblical truth that
they sold indulgences to people as a ticket to heaven. Under this circumstance,
the proposition that the reformers were most interested in was ‘Salvation comes
only by faith.’ The theologies and doctrines of the reformists are inherently
limited to the proposition of the salvation of man since they think of
themselves as people who came out of Roman Catholicism.
Five hundred years
after the Reformation, Christian churches today are still limited by humanistic
theology when it comes to understanding the will of God. To modern day Christians,
God is ‘God who loves us’. We are the
reason why God created heaven and earth, we
are the reason why God sent Jesus to this world, and we are the reason why God exists. The sad fact that modern day
Christians are at this level of spirituality even after 2,000 years has passed
since the coming of Christ, is like a thirty year-old still asking for milk
instead of solid food.
I John 2:12-13 says,
“I am writing to you, little children,
because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. I am writing to
you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am
writing to you young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have
written to you, children, because you know the Father.” The faith of a
child is concerned with the atonement of sins and salvation; the faith of young
men is concerned with the will of God for Jesus to come in the flesh to destroy
the Devil and how they could partake in that work; and the faith of adults
desires to know God more and how they could partake in the works of God. The
Christian church should not be like a child anymore, and instead be like young
men who fight against the enemy, with the faith to know and serve God.
Berea Academy
The reason Sungrak
Church emphasizes the annihilation of the devil and devotion to God is because
we understand the will of God deeply. The Bible reveals the will of God.
However, though people read the Bible today, they fail to understand the will
of God because they don’t know how to read the word of God. When you need to
see a distant object, you need binoculars. When you need to see microscopic
objects, you need a microscope. Similarly, you need the proper lens to view the
Bible. Berea Academy established by Pastor Ki-dong Kim in 1976 is a Bible
teaching institute which prescribes the precise lenses to view the Bible and
the will of God.
The faith of the
Bereans in Acts 17:11-12 is the model of Berea Academy. The people of Berea
daily examined the Bible in order to see if Jesus whom Paul preached about is
the Christ prophesied in the Bible, and as a result, gained faith through the
Scriptures. The noble attitude and mind displayed by the Bereans can serve as a
mirror – to reflect oneself and repent – for those judging and blaspheming with
human measurement when people believe and obey according to the Bible.
Berea Academy is
made up of 52 lectures which are taught during four semesters in the period of
two years. The four semesters cover the topics respectively: The Proper Lens to
View the Bible, The Picture of God’s Will, and The Mediations of the Gospel.
There are several common factors among people who came to know God’s will through Berea Academy. First, they see
the reality of the spiritual realm. Second, they are able to willingly dedicate
their lives for the fulfillment of God’s will. Third, from the
single book of the Bible, they can testify the word of truth based on the
Picture of God’s Will abundantly like an unceasing waterfall. Fourth, the signs
and wonders promised by Jesus are manifested through them. Isn’t this what
pastors desire in their ministry?
The Equal Right to the Endowment of Power
The reason why Berea Movement was able to spread globally today, despite
the persecution and misconceptions, is because signs and powers of the Holy
Spirit have universally accompanied the people who understood God’s will. Berea
Movement profess the universal anointing of power. The signs and wonders that accompanied
the early churches can still be manifested through saints today. Power is not reserved
specifically for somuon, but anyone who knows and obeys the Picture of God’s
Will can use this God-promised power. There have been many workers of God in history.
Some manifested astounding signs and healing power. People were astonished by
them and followed them. However, what happened after they passed away? People
had to wait until the next powerful man of God came along. Berea Movement
proclaims that anyone who believes and obeys the Bible can become a powerful
servant of God. And through Bereans from all over the world, this proclamation
is proven true every day.
Following is a letter from a pastor who realized the reality of the
spiritual world after reading Pastor Kim’s books.
“After
reading the book What are Demons, my
eyes opened to the spiritual world. This has been the turning point of my faith
life. I am a Sunday School teacher. I was afflicted by the devil for over ten
years. Though I had some Biblical knowledge, I did not know about demons, or
about the truth, or have any experience of driving out demons. Although I
realize that I and all other Christians around me have been white washed by
religious dogma living under the suppression of the devil, I did not know how
to change the situation. However, after reading the book, power and faith began
to grow rapidly inside me. One particular time, when I caught a cold, I drove
out the demon and became well; when my daughter developed a lump on her body, I
rebuked the demon and it disappeared a couple of days later. As I was
especially curious about the healing ministry and couldn’t find much resources,
I have received ample amount of resources on many other aspects of ministry in
addition to it, and evidently, this enabled me to edify more and more souls
here. All the more I am deeply indebted to Sungrak church. There are about
three hundred thousand believers here, and they are absolutely ignorant in
terms of demons, let alone, driving out demons. With an abundant gratefulness,
I earnestly seek your help and support. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!”
From Sister L. January 4th
2010
“Let me first thank
the Lord! We held Resurrection Praise Worship today at our church. Today, my
co-workers and I prayed for the sick relying on the power of the Holy Spirit.
As we prayed for them, signs and healing powers manifested and people were
healed. People with arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, heart problems, headaches,
and other sicknesses were healed in Jesus name. Though it was a small number of
people, this was the first time that anything like this has happened at our
church. The lady who suffered rheumatoid arthritis used to be helped by her
husband to come to church, but she was completely healed during the worship.
She was jumping up and down as she gave her testimony. We witnessed the love of
God abundantly that day. He really loves us! Hallelujah!
Once again we want to
thank Pastor Kim. It is on behalf of those books that we could come to know
about the Holy Spirit. I also wish to thank all the helpers of our ministry
here. I’m sorry that I can’t remember all your names, but God bless you all.
And also, the girl that was oppressed in the last letter is now fully healed.
Thank you for your prayers and once again, thank you all. Immanuel!”
From Brother
W. on April 4th 2010
By reading Pastor Kim’s books, people gain faith and by practicing their faith,
they experience the powers promised in the Bible all over the world: the news
about these workers are heard from everywhere. Though they have never met Pastor
Kim, through his books, they realize about the spiritual world, gain faith, and
share the same experience with him. One’s personal experience can become
universal when principles behind those experiences are revealed, and if the
principles are true, whoever applies these principles will arrive at the same result.
This is universalization. Berea Movement emphasize on the universal endowment
of God’s power. It means anyone who knows the principles can have the power of
God. And the principle is: The Picture of God’s Will.
Raising Leaders
When Pastor Ki-dong Kim goes overseas to teach spiritual leaders, he always
teaches them about the will of God from the Bible. As Pastor Kim has been manifesting
Christ’s signs and healing power for decades of years, there is the difference
between him and other evangelists who also heals and manifest signs: he focuses
on teaching the Bible. Those who focus on power tend to provide rather limited
level of Bible teaching, while those who focus on teaching the Bible lack
power. With that being said, it is notable that Pastor Kim enables people to
possess the power and authority through teaching the Bible.
Some churches invite world-famous evangelists as the speaker of their huge annual
rally. Numberless Christians would attend the rally and receive
grace. However, a rally can only ignite fire for a time; it cannot bring about
a fundamental change. Their heart returns to normal: coldness. The only way to
ignite their heart again is to invite another famous speaker again. This incurs
major periodical rallies with well-known speakers here and there.
Pastor Ki-dong Kim
was invited to speak at a place like that once. They wanted to hold a massive
assembly. However, Pastor Kim insisted on a small gathering of less than 100 people
for he wanted to influence fundamental changes to the spiritual leaders instead
of what they asked for. After the meeting, one of the pastors commented:
“We had assemblies in the past with world famous
speakers and pastors at our city. When we invited Pastor Kim, we just thought
of him as one of the pastors that had come before. However, we no longer think that
way. When other pastors came, we thought that they were powerful. However,
after they had left, we found ourselves still spiritually weak and powerless.
As a result, we had to call another guest speaker. If someone was sick, he was
to wait until the next rally. However, everything changed when Pastor Kim came.
He taught us how to catch the fish instead of feeding us the fish. Through
Pastor Kim, we realized that the Bible speaks of the spiritual reality and what
kinds of power Christians are to have.
More astoundingly we realized that power is not
just for Pastor Kim. The entire mission team members that came with him also drove
out demons and healed the sick! As we witnessed even his cameraman manifesting
God’s power, we could clearly understand what he meant by the equal endowment of God’s power for all believers. There were even
more amazing things waiting for us after they left. The power, we longed to
have, began to manifest through the people who attended the rally. Now, instead
of waiting for the next rally, we pray for the sick with the power Jesus Christ
gave us.
Below are the letters
of testimony from the people who graduated from Berea Academy.
As
I learned Berea Academy, I realized how arrogant, foolish, and so ignorant I
was about spiritual things and of God’s will. Berea Academy took me to a new
spiritual level that I had never experienced. I saw the works of God and His
mighty power at work. I witnessed His revelations and plan with my own eyes.
And at the same time saw the problems and corruption of the modern day
churches.
The things I learned from Berea
Academy in a single month is much more than what I learned over seven years at
our local church. This is the sad reality of the churches today. Ignorant
religious life and false teachings are leading people toward mysticism,
ignorance, and hypocrisy.
I truly know that Berea is the
vessel of God that this generation needs, and is the backbone to the return to the Word movement. Berea is
already giving new hope to the churches around the world. That is why all of us
at our church desire to spread the name of God and thus be part of the Berea
Movement.
How can I express the joy that
comes from Berea? I desire to spread the message of God’s will to the
Christians around me. I want to make them into a righteous servants and
children that please Him. Please pray for me and my ministry. My Soul, be His
servant! My family, be His servants! My household, be His servants! Let’s be
the witnesses of His name!
The most notable matter I realized from Lecture two—The
Bible Contains God’s Word—is that God’s word is nothing like the word of man. I
first heard about the ‘Big Bang Theory’ from a school teacher when I was young.
The theory stayed as a mystery in my mind until I learned this chapter and
realized that God’s word is commands. On His command, the universe and the
environment where people can live were created. I can clearly see the Bible
after learning the Proper lens to view
the Bible. How beautiful the moment must have been when God commanded to
create our environment! “God saw all that he had made, and it was very
good” (Gen 1:10,12,18,21,25,31). The passages show the fullness of God’s
joy, and the joy is ours as well.
Before I studied Berea
Academy, I ministered or evangelized based on my personal experience and
testimonies. And the outcome was trivial. Nevertheless, after I learned that
the Gospel is about Jesus, I began to testify about Jesus mainly, and the
result was somewhat different. In China are many Christian teachings but rarely
the truth. My sermons are comprised of Jesus that even if a person had only one
chance to hear it, he would surely remember Jesus. My used-to-be-dry-sermons
turned into influential messages. The Lord is always with me, and the Spirit is
always at work that I became a fisher of men.
While I was taking the
course, I learned more comprehensively about the Berea Movement. We are the
guardians of the Truth, the guardians of the Truth Movement. The Berea Movement
emphasizes on laymen’s freedom of interpretation of the Bible, freedom of
manifestation of God’s power and signs. I realized that the saints who abide in
Jesus manifest power and signs of God. I would definitely choose to be
persecuted for evangelizing with God’s power and signs than not be persecuted
and powerless. The turbulence in this world is nil compared to the eternal
glory in heaven.
Through Berea Academy, I
realized that biblical exegesis or commentary based on doctrines paralyzes believers’
faith life. I used live under doctrines: I used to work as an editor of
biblical exegesis, led revival crusades using biblical commentary. It did not
take long until my church became powerless and without fruit. I give thanks to
God who saved me by the truth. Also I repent my previous way of life.
“Lord! Let your power and
signs accompany me! Lord, rule over me and help me. Let me be your good and
faithful servant! Manifest your power through me!” I give thanks, praise, and
glory to God!
Referenced from, Why Berea Academy
Composed and Written by
Pastor Ki-Taek Lee
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