Kohima, Nov. 22: The Nagaland government has deployed heavy security at Dimapur District Sports Complex Stadium, the venue of the venue of Bible Crusade organised by Good News Mission, which began here today.
The move was prompted after several Church organisations, including the Nagaland Baptist Church Council protested against the crusade organised by Good News Mission from South Korea headed by Ock Soo Park.
The Baptist churches in Nagaland claimed the Mission was a “heretic group” which does not preach according to the Bible. The Dimapur district administration said adequate security measures have been taken to ensure that no incident takes place during the crusade.
The crusade will conclude on November 25.
Though the Mission is part of the Baptist Church, the Nagaland Baptist Church Council and Baptist Church organisations in Korea have termed Park’s group “heretic”.
To clear their position, the Mission had invited leaders of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council for discussion tomorrow but the invitation was turned down.
The Nagaland Baptist Church Council has appealed to Christians in Nagaland not to attend the proposed Bible Crusade.
The Nagaland Baptist Church Council’s general secretary, Rev. L. Anjo Keikung, said Park was trying to lure Naga people to become his followers. Park had also organised a Bible Crusade last year in Dimapur despite strong protests and opposition from the Baptist churches in Nagaland.
The Council said ever since its counterparts from Korea alerted it last year, it had investigated the teachings of the Mission and had met several leaders from the Korean Baptist Convention.Keikung said the Council believed in upholding mutual respect for other Christian groups. However, it was also deeply concerned at the rise of numerous controversial Christianity-related groups many of which originating from Korea.
The Naga separatist group, Federal Government of Nagaland (Singnya), has also strongly opposed the crusade. It said members of the Mission have come to Nagaland to propagate heretical teachings in order to woo innocent believers to its fold.
The group has urged the Church to defend the faith.
Rev. Jae Kyeong Lee, president, the Foreign Mission Board of the Korea Baptist Convention, in a letter to the Council has expressed concern over the Mission, which is also known as “Guwonpa” (or salvation sect).
“Pastor Ock Soo Park, pastor Sin Chan Kwon and pastor Yo Han Lee are the major leaders of the Mission,” Rev. Lee said.The Christian Council of Korea, an association of Evangelical church denominations in Korea, has confirmed officially that the Mission or Guwonpa is a heresy according to the Baptist Church of Korea.
“We cannot work or cooperate with heresies such as Guwonpa. We cannot accept their wrong doctrines, applications and activities, which divide churches and destroy families,” Rev. Lee said. He said there were some serious fallacies in the preaching of Park and his followers.
Even though they are using the name of Baptist but their doctrines and interpretations are quite different from rest of the Baptist churches in the world.GNM is one of the representative heresies of Christianity and started its activities around 1960s amidst the great confusion and the social and cultural changes in Korea, according to the Korea Baptist Convention.
Rev. Lee said, the origination of GNM was not from Korea but was imported from the US. Later, it spread its roots in Korea through the Korean followers who conveyed the doctrine and teaching of the foreigners from the US and the Netherlands. “These foreign missionaries have reared their followers with a viewpoint that there were seldom any gospels and redeemed pastors within the existing churches,” Rev. Lee said.
