According to the WMCOG’s website, the second coming of Christ is prophesied to come from the east. Let’s examine the Scripture that the World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCOG) uses to support this claim. When you read this verse ask yourself, who is “the one” with great power? It clearly says, that “the […]]]>
According to the WMCOG’s website, the second coming of Christ is prophesied to come from the east.
The above verse [Isaiah 41:2] states that God ‘has stirred up one from the east.’ Since it is prophesied that kings are subdued before ‘the one,’ he must be a man of great power. Then, who is ‘the one’? If we read the same chapter, beginning in verse four, we can come to know who ‘the one’ is.
Let’s examine the Scripture that the World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCOG) uses to support this claim.
Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his service? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.
When you read this verse ask yourself, who is “the one” with great power? It clearly says, that “the one” hands nations over and subdues kings. Therefore it can only be God that has the power and the one who is doing the work here.
Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD—with the first of them and with the last—I am he.
But the WMSCOG argues:
The one whom God ‘has stirred up’ is God, Himself. This prophecy means that God Himself will come in the flesh, from the east. ‘The one’ who came in fulfillment of this prophecy is God Ahnsahnghong.
According to the WMSCOG God “has stirred up” Himself? In Isaiah 41:4, the Lord is clearly stating that He is the one with the almighty power to accomplish the work that He has done. Therefore this does not prove that Ahn Sahng Hong was the one that God stirred from the east nor does it prove that Ahn Sahng Hong fulfilled this prophecy.
The next verse that the WMSCOG points to is Isaiah 46:11:
From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.
When references are made to birds of prey in Scripture, they are described as feeding on carcasses (Genesis 15:11), a falcon (Job 28:7), feeding on wild animals (Isaiah 18:6) and birds that attack and devour (Jeremiah 12:9). Despite numerous accounts in the Bible where birds of prey are represented as animals that attack and devour, the WMSCOG claims that a bird of prey and an eagle are synonymous in representing God.
In the Bible, a bird of prey–or, an eagle–represents God (Deut. 32:11; Ex 19:4). Since this ‘bird of prey’ coming from the east is described as a man who would fulfill God’s purpose, it is very clear that God, Himself, would come from the east as a man, in the flesh. The one who fulfilled this prophecy is God Ahnsahnghong.
Deuteronomy 32:10-11 uses the eagle as a simile to describe the Lord’s protection of His people.
In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. 12 The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.
Exodus 19:4 does not describe a bird of prey either. This is clearly a metaphor for how the Lord delivered the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
Then Who Did Fulfill The Prophecy? Who Was The Bird Of Prey From The East?
The prophesy of the “bird of prey from the east” in Isaiah chapter 46 was fulfilled by King Cyrus. The Lord summoned Cyrus, a pagan king, to deliver his people out of Babylon and rebuild the Lord’s temple (Isaiah 45:1-13, 44:28, Ezra 1:1-2, 5:13). King Cyrus was depicted as a bird with large wings in statues as in the picture seen here on the left. The WMSCOG interestingly makes no mention of this in their argument. They seem to misinterpret Isaiah, in order to claim that their founder Ahn Sahng Hong fulfilled this prophecy concerning King Cyrus.
Conclusion
1. In the Bible, a bird of prey never refers to God.
2. The prophecy in Isaiah 46 was fulfilled by King Cyrus as mentioned in Isaiah 45:1-13, 44:28, Ezra 1:1-2, 5:13.
Since a bird of prey never refers to God and the prophecy was already fulfilled by King Cyrus, the WMSCOG does not have any basis for their claim that the above scriptures prove anything concerning their founder Ahn Sahng Hong.
]]>