Rod of Iron Ministries holds sixth annual Freedom Festival

[essentialsaltes]

The Rev. Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon began the second day of the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival with a sermon. Moon, 45, clutched a gold AR-15 and wore his signature crown of bullets. He stood underneath a big tent in a muddy field in Greeley, Pennsylvania, and told his audience, “In John Chapter 2, we see that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, is an assault weapons manufacturer.”

In 2017, Rod of Iron Ministries splintered from the Unification Church, a Korean cult founded by Sean Moon’s father, Sun Myung Moon.

The church has many of the same core beliefs as the Unification Church—but it claims that AR-15s are the “rod of iron” that Jesus wields in the Book of Revelation.

The two-day festival was free and open to the public, but admission to Friday’s pre-event screening of Flynn, a film about the life of Michael T. Flynn, was $25. The retired lieutenant general and former national security adviser to Donald Trump has been touring to promote the movie. Flynn has partnered with Ivan Raiklin for Q&As across the country.

Raiklin is also the self-appointed secretary of the so-called Department of Retribution, for which he maintains a “Deep State Target List” of journalists, politicians, and other foes. He wants to use sheriffs and local officials to arrest his enemies, and he has said that officials who crafted pro-vaccine Covid-19 policies should face “Public, Live-Streamed (in the interest of transparency) Capital punishment.”

see also

Gun toting church prepares for the Deep state war to come

Remember Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who described himself as the 'Second coming of Christ' and founder of The Washington Times? A church started by his sons bought land to prepare for war and worship with AK47s. Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its...

www.christianforums.com

 

[RileyG]

Is the Unification Church/Moonies even Christian?

 

[SarahsKnight]

The Rev. Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon began the second day of the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival with a sermon. Moon, 45, clutched a gold AR-15 and wore his signature crown of bullets. He stood underneath a big tent in a muddy field in Greeley, Pennsylvania, and told his audience, “In John Chapter 2, we see that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, is an assault weapons manufacturer.”

In 2017, Rod of Iron Ministries splintered from the Unification Church, a Korean cult founded by Sean Moon’s father, Sun Myung Moon.

The church has many of the same core beliefs as the Unification Church—but it claims that AR-15s are the “rod of iron” that Jesus wields in the Book of Revelation.

The two-day festival was free and open to the public, but admission to Friday’s pre-event screening of Flynn, a film about the life of Michael T. Flynn, was $25. The retired lieutenant general and former national security adviser to Donald Trump has been touring to promote the movie. Flynn has partnered with Ivan Raiklin for Q&As across the country.

Raiklin is also the self-appointed secretary of the so-called Department of Retribution, for which he maintains a “Deep State Target List” of journalists, politicians, and other foes. He wants to use sheriffs and local officials to arrest his enemies, and he has said that officials who crafted pro-vaccine Covid-19 policies should face “Public, Live-Streamed (in the interest of transparency) Capital punishment.”

see also

Oh, yeah, that's totally what we were supposed to take away from Jesus' actions in John 2, Rev. Moon:

Grab a weapon, or fashion one, and start killing people we don't like.

Is the Unification Church/Moonies even Christian?

Whether we would consider them "true" believers or not is beside the point, Sir Riley. Either way they are giving the One we believe to be our Lord and Savior a bad name.

Anger, violence, or vengeance was not the point of Christ's actions depicted in John 2, contrary to this Rev. Moon's apparent beliefs.

 

[BCP1928]

Is the Unification Church/Moonies even Christian?

They believe in the literal inerrancy of Scripture. Isn't that all it takes these days?

 

[RileyG]

They believe in the literal inerrancy of Scripture. Isn't that all it takes these days?

I thought they were considered a cult?

 

[MotoToTheMax]

I thought they were considered a cult?

Being Christian and being in a cult are not mutually exclusive.

 

[RileyG]

Being Christian and being in a cult are not mutually exclusive.

I don’t disagree.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Oh, yeah, that's totally what we were supposed to take away from Jesus' actions in John 2, Rev. Moon:

Grab a weapon, or fashion one, and start killing people we don't like.






Whether we would consider them "true" believers or not is beside the point, Sir Riley. Either way they are giving the One we believe to be our Lord and Savior a bad name.

Anger, violence, or vengeance was not the point of Christ's actions depicted in John 2, contrary to this Rev. Moon's apparent beliefs.

The point was self defense.

 

[ViaCrucis]

The point was self defense.

John ch. 2 is divided into 2 pericopes

1) The Wedding at Cana
2) The Cleansing of the Temple

Neither talks about self defense.
Neither does Christ utilize violence against people in the Cleansing of the Temple. The grammar of the text makes this pretty clear; Christ used a makeshift whip to drive animals out of the Temple.

καὶ ποιήσας φραγέλλιον ἐκ σχοινίων πάντας ἐξέβαλεν ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τά τε πρόβατα καὶ τοὺς βόας καὶ τῶν κολλυβιστῶν ἐξέχεεν τὸ κέρμα καὶ τὰς τραπέζας ἀνέστρεψεν

"And He made a whip of rushes to send them all out of the temple, even the sheep and the oxen, and he dumped out the money-changer's money, and flipped over the tables"

The context for πάντας is modified with the connecting article τε, all of the what? The sheep and the oxen.

Jesus' actions were disruptive, it would have left a bunch of people scrambling to pick up money, tables, and trying to round up animals. But there's no indication in the text that anyone got hurt, and there is literally nothing there about self defense. We know from the Synoptic Gospels that this disruption was a primary cause for why a group of Pharisees and Sadducees (who were not known to get along, ever) conspired to have Jesus handed over to Roman authorities to be charged as a political instigator and threat to Tiberius Caesar's dominion over Judea.

What is interesting is that John places this event so early, where in the Synoptics this happened just days before Jesus' betrayal and arrest. However John's intentions for writing are distinct from the intentions of the Synoptic authors. As such the Cleansing of the Temple plays a less critical role in the telling of Jesus' story for John. But that discussion isn't relevant here, what's relevant here is the interpretation presented by the cult leader is, well, stupid; it's also the case that trying to use this story as an attempt to paint Jesus as a violent radical is exegetically indefensible. Not only for the reasons outlined already, but an argument could be made that the instrument Jesus used would have been fairly inadequate for that purpose, binding some strings together would certainly spook domestic animals when whipped around, but wouldn't be a very good weapon.

-CryptoLutheran