I read a poster advertising that Dr Cho Yonggi will be speaking at
a mass rally in the indoor stadium from April 19–21, 2000. Can you tell
us something about him?
Dr Paul (David) Cho Yonggi is the senior pastor of Yoido Full Gospel
Church, Seoul, Korea, which is no doubt the largest professedly
Christian church in the world, with over 730,000 members. Apparently
converted from Buddhism in his teens, Cho started his church in 1958
with about 5 members. According to him, he was called to preach by
Jesus Christ, who appeared to him personally dressed as a fireman (Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements,
s.v. "Cho, Paul Yonggi" by Dwight J. Wilson). In any case, the
congregation grew rapidly, and soon, he became a much sought-after
speaker. In 1976, Cho founded the Church Growth International
(CGI) as a forum for promoting his principles of church growth.
Participants in CGI seminars numbered 6.8 million. Cho was conferred
honorary doctorates by the Bethany Bible College (California);
California Graduate School of Theology; Oral Roberts University
(Oklahoma); and Regent University (Virginia). He also has an active
television, radio and newspaper ministry; and has authored over a
hundred books.
Many will no doubt flock
to hear him when he comes to Singapore. They will return testifying of
how much they have been blessed by this man of prayer, whose sermons
are well supported by Scriptures and who loves the Lord Jesus Christ so
much that His name is constantly on his lips. Someone who prays so
fervently, knows the Scripture so well, loves the Lord, and is so
greatly used of God cannot be very wrong. To criticise him would surely
be to touch the Lord’s anointed out of a spirit of jealousy and pride.
But is this man really
used of God as it appears? Does he faithfully expound the Scriptures?
Does he pray as we are taught in the Scriptures? I am afraid not, and I
hope to show it very briefly according to the admonition of the Apostle
Paul in Romans 16:17–18:
Now I beseech you,
brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the
doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such
serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
The cornerstone and
distinguishing mark of Cho’s theology is no doubt the doctrine of "The
Fourth Dimension," which is explained in his book bearing the same
title and published in two volumes by Bridge-Logos Publishers (New
Jersey), 1979 [reprinted 1999] and 1983. Essentially, this doctrine
teaches that man can not only interact in three-dimensional space but,
since there is a spiritual realm and man has a soul, he can also
manipulate what happens in the spiritual or fourth dimension. And
since, according to Cho, whatever happens in three-dimensional space
has its genesis, and is influenced by forces, in the fourth dimension,
Christians who learn to manipulate the fourth dimension can create any
desired objects or circumstance in three-dimensional space. This
manipulation is accomplished by prayer, positive thinking,
visualisation and dreams (see vol. 1, pp. 25–29).
According to Cho, he
first learned this principle when as poor young minister he begun
praying for a desk, a chair and a bicycle. The prayer was not answered
for several months, until one day, he asked the "Spirit": "Where is my
desk, chair and bicycle?" The "Spirit" answered:
Yes, that is the trouble
with you, and with all my children. They beg me, demanding every kind
of request, but they ask in such vague terms that I can’t answer. Don’t
you know that there are dozens of kinds of desks, chairs and bicycles?
But you’ve simply asked me for a desk, chair and bicycle. You never
ordered a specific desk, chair or bicycle? (vo1. 1, p. 4).
From then on, Cho
"ordered these things in such articulate terms that God could not make
a mistake in delivering them" (ibid., pp. 4–5). After several weeks (or
month or years?) of "incubation," he finally had his Filipino Mahogany
desk, American bicycle and roller tipped chair.
This same principle was
later applied to praying for $5 million dollars for his church building
and also for 50,000 members. They all incubated in him until they
became reality (ibid., pp. 17–18)!
What is the "theological basis" of his experience? Let’s hear it in his own words:
- There are three
spiritual forces in the earth. The spirit of God, the spirit of man,
and the spirit of Satan…. All three spirits are in the realm of the
fourth dimension, so naturally spirits can hover over the material
third dimension and exercise creative powers (vol. 2, p. 38).
- God spoke to my heart, "… the third dimension includes and controls
the second dimension, so the fourth includes and controls the third
dimension, producing a creation of order and beauty" (vol. 1, p. 28).
- The only way to carry out dominion over this third dimension
material world is through your imagination, your visions and dreams (vol. 1, p. 42).
- Through visualisation and dreaming you can incubate your future and hatch the results (vol. 1, p. 32).
- We should always try to visualise the end result as we pray. In
that way, with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can incubate that which
we want God to do for us…. If you have not visualise clearly in your
heart exactly what you hope for, it cannot become a reality to you… (vol. 2, pp. 25, 26, 28).
- So men, by exploring their spiritual sphere of the fourth dimension
through the development of concentrated visions and dreams in their
imagination, can brood over and incubate the third dimension,
influencing and changing it. This is what the Holy Spirit taught me (vol. 1, p. 28).
If all these sound
occultic or New Age, they are! Cho frankly admits it! And he claims
that it was the Holy Spirit who instructed him to make use of the
occult power:
The Holy Spirit said, "My
son, man still does not realise the spiritual power that I have given
him." "Yes," I said, realising what God was referring to…. False
prophets had power in the realm of the spirit because they had come to
realise their potential (vol. 2, p. 38).
Hank Hanegraaff, in Christianity in Crisis
(Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 1993), declares that Cho’s concept
of fourth-dimension is "nothing short of occultism" and is a "departure
from historic Christian theology and his entry into the world of the
occult" (p. 353). He summarises this departure very well:
Cho is well aware that
pagan religions harness this power. He claims that God told him that
Buddhist and Yoga adherents work miracle cures because they, unlike
their Christian counterparts, had more fully developed their
fourth-dimensional powers. Referring to the Buddhist version of a
"name-it-and-claim-it" cult called Soka Gakkai, Cho says that while
they belong to Satan, their fourth-dimensional acumen has provided them
with dominion over their bodies and circumstance. By "repeating phrases
over and over again… these people are creating something" and
performing "miracles," says Cho. "But if the devil could do these
things, why should not the Church of Jesus Christ do all the more" (pp. 82–83, with reference to The Fourth Dimension, vol. 1, pp. 25–29, 1.48, 1.26).
Cho claims repeatedly
that the doctrine of the fourth dimension is taught to him by the "Holy
Spirit." If that is the case, it appears to me that that cannot be the
same Spirit who said:
There shall not be found
among you… that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an
enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar
spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things
are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the
Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be
perfect with the Lord thy God (Deut 18:10–13).
Cho may claim: "We
harness the Holy Spirit’s power, not the power of Satan!", but where
are we specifically taught in the Scriptures that we are to harness the
power of the Holy Spirit by occultic methods? And did not the Holy
Spirit inspire Paul to write: "What concord hath Christ with Belial?…
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" (2 Cor 6:15–16)?
Where in the Scriptures do we find the glorious and omnipotent Holy
Spirit presented as some sort of a semi-divine Santa Claus who is
unable to deliver one’s wishes unless the specifications are precise and complete? Did not the Lord say,
(For after all these
things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye
have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof" (Matt 6:32–34).
Somehow visualising and brooding over to incubate some material things yearned for does not agree with our Lord’s teaching.
It is not surprising
therefore that in the doctrinal statement of the Yiodo Full Gospel
Church (which must have been penned by Cho or his assistants), in which
it is claimed that the church teaches a fivefold Gospel, the doctrine
of substitutionary and propitiatory atonement of Christ is not
mentioned at all. Instead we are told:
The reason Christ lived
in such poverty while on this earth was so that we could live well and
to remove us from the law of the curse [sic]. If we do not claim our
rightful blessings as children of God, we are wasting the life of
poverty which Christ led while on earth (under §4.2 "Redemption on the Cross and Blessing").
It seems to me that the
closest the doctrinal statement got to the orthodox justification by
grace through faith is the statement under §1.1, "The Way to
Regeneration," in which it is asserted:
As was prophesied, Jesus
Christ became the living sacrifice for the salvation of all mankind.
Salvation made available through the suffering and the death of Jesus
on the cross has four meanings. First, the suffering and the death on
the cross shows man the result of the sin of man (Isaiah 53:5). Second,
it shows mankind the extent to which God loves the mankind (Romans
5:8). Third, it shows mankind the true value of each man (Matthew
16:26). Fourth, it shows mankind the cost of reconciliation (Isaiah
53:6).
I believe even Arminians
would shy away from this universalistic and powerless concept of
atonement. It is hard to believe that the "Jesus Christ" of Cho is the
Son of God revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Perhaps this is why, the
"Jesus" of Cho is helpless without man, and must be controlled by Cho’s
visualisation technique:
You create the presence
of Jesus with your mouth. If you speak about salvation, the saving
Jesus appears. If you speak about divine healing, then you will have
the healing Christ in your congregation. If you speak the miracle
performing Jesus, then the presence of the miracle performing Jesus is
released. He is bound by your lips and by your words. He is depending
on you (The Fourth Dimension, vol. 1, pp. 64–65).
This is just a tip of the
ice-berg of Cho’s heretical theology. I have no doubt that Cho’s gospel
is "another gospel: which is not another" (Gal 1:6–7). Cho is a
pseudo-Christian syncretistic health and wealth,
"name-it-and-claimed-it" advocate. Let Christians beware!
