Examining Prophecies--Melchizedek

A continuing look at the prophecies the World Mission Society Church of God uses to prove Ahnsahngong as God, the second coming Christ. Remember, the goal is to see if the prophecies point to Ahnsahnghong as the unique one to fulfill them....

When Christ returns for the second time
He will come in the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 7:1-4
"For this Melchizedek ... without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually."

The WMSCOG says this means that the second coming Christ will fulfill these prophecies:
1) He will bless us with eternal life through the Passover bread and wine.
2) He will be born among unbelievers ("without father or mother").
3) He will be born of Gentiles ("without genealogy").
4) He is God ("without beginning of days or end of life").
(These are taken straight from the church website: http://english.watv.org/truth/christ_melchizedek.html)

Looking at those points one by one:
#1 about the Passover—I’ll look at that separately with the prophecy about “restoring the Passover.”

#4 about being God, without beginning of days or end of life…well, we know that Ahnsahnghong was born and then died here on earth and no one saw him alive again. So to say that he fulfilled this part of the prophecy already assumes that he is God. The conclusion of examining these prophecies will show whether he is God or not.

#2 and 3 are similar—he will be born to Gentile unbelievers. We can discuss whether this is an accurate interpretation since reading the rest of Hebrews 7 gives a much clearer idea of what being a “priest in the order of Melchizedek” means, and there are serious ramifications of having God raised by unbelieving parents (Was his family Buddhist? As a child did he honor his parents and worship a false god?!?!).

However, just going with it for now… yes, Ahnsahnghong fulfilled that interpretation of the prophecy, but let’s estimate how many other people would also fulfill this prophecy. A conservative estimate of the world’s population is 6.6 billion. We’ll take the large estimate of 18 million Jews and 2.1 billion Christians. That still leaves more than 4 billion people. Even considering that there were fewer people in 1948 and that not all of those people are “from the east”, that is still an enormous number! Even if you consider South Korea only, the population who are not Jewish or Christian still numbers about 25 million!

But what does it really mean to come "in the order of Melchizedek"? The WMSCOG frequently takes verses out of context. If you read all of Hebrews chapter 7, you can see clearly that Paul was showing all the ways Jesus as a priest was similar to the priest Melchizedek. By law, the priests were to be from the tribe of Levi, but Melchizedek was not. The idea is NOT that the Christ needs to be from a non-Israelite (Gentile) family, but that he is from a non-Levite family.

Hebrews 7:16
"who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life."
(He was not a Levite, but He did raise Himself from the dead.)

In other words, in Hebrews 7, Paul is talking about the Jesus who lived, died and rose again, not another, different second coming Christ.

You can see how easy it is to start with the assumption that Ahnsahnghong is the second coming Christ, and then look for all the “prophecies” he fulfilled. It’s much harder to start with the prophecies (even the WMSCOG interpretations), and use them to pinpoint Ahnsahnghong as the only one who fulfilled them. But I'll keep looking for a more specific prophecy...