[EBC] Former Chairman Yoo founded the Evangelical Baptist Church?
Author : -관리자- / Date : 2021. 12. 11. 15:31 / Category : [ENG]/English
1. What are the false reports?
There have been several reports on false statements, such as “The Former Chairman Yoo founded the EBC”. These false reports have been deleted or correction reports were published as a result of order from the Press Arbitration Commission or mediation between the respective parties. Examples of false reports are written below.
2. Reports VS Fact
| Former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun founded the Evangelical Baptist Church. |
| ▼ |
| At the time the Evangelical Baptist Church was established in 1981, Former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun was against this idea and there he never even participated as a founding member. Therefore it is untrue that the Former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun founded the EBC. |
3. Related Articles
<YTN Radio 2014 May 21st>
“Reason for interruption by the prosecutors was due to trauma of Odaeyang incident”
-EBC secretary Cho Gye-woong
http://radio.ytn.co.kr/program/?f=2&id=30066&s_mcd=0263&s_hcd=01
Cho Gye-woong:
This is a little difficult. I say this because we held a press conference before, inside Geumsuwon. At the time, there were a few people including a teacher from our church, Mr. Lee Jae-ok, who explained about the relationship between Former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun and the church but the reporters found it very difficult to understand. The reason is that the Former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun said that he himself is not a member of the Evangelical Baptist Church.
Kang Ji-won:
Who said he isn’t? Mr. Yoo Byung-eun?
Cho Gye-woong:
Yes. It’s a little complicated but our church, as an organization, was first established under the name Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship. The main reason we don’t have a hierarchical structure with pastors and elders is that we don’t want to confine ourselves in the formality of such things. According to our motto, anyone can freely participate in discussions and debates regarding the Bible. But once an organization is categorized as a religious organization by the government, the government requires it to be registered. So when we were required to register as a church organization, frankly, there was a disagreement between Pastor Kwon Shin-chan and Former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun. Former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun’s opinion was that there are already countless religious groups and denominations in Korea and we don’t need to add to the number. So he was against the idea of registering as a religious organization. On the other hand, Pastor Kwon Shin-chan’s opinion was that it is also necessary for us to be able to have a name that represents us. This is how the congregation called Evangelical Baptist Church was created. And since this incident, Former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun only sparsely gave sermons in front of the church, to our requests. Until Pastor Kwon Shin-chan passed away, he was reserved in his appearances as a lecturer. Such was his relationship to the church at the time.
<Kyunghyang Paper 1981 December 03>
Inauguration of Laymen's Evangelical Fellowship.
○... A missionary congregation called Korean Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship that has been working as a layman’s missionary group has been inaugurated as a religious organization called Evangelical Baptist Church. There were 248 representatives who came from all over the country and attended the inaugural assembly. At this assembly, Byun Woo-sup emerged as the general president, and Professor Kang Yoon-ho and Professor Kim Jin-ho as clerks.
<Christian News Decemeber 5, 1981>
<September 1991 Issue of New Way Monthly>
Forming and Development of the Evangelical Baptist Church (pp. 55-57)
Establishment of the Evangelical Baptist Church
As the gospel movement became active and the number of born again Christians increased domestically and internationally, a need for an organizational representation through a denomination arose. This was a call to establish a congregational denomination in lieu of operating in the existing missionary group called the Korean Laymen’s Evangelical Fellowship. As a result, on November 21, 1981 at 4pm at the Seoul Church located in Samgakji, representatives from across the nation gathered in the inaugural meeting. They agreed on the 12 creeds of faith and elected Dr. Byun Woo-sup as the first president. However, not all the general members were positive about the inauguration of the denomination called “the Evangelical Baptist Church.” Those who were against it asked “Why create another when there are already many existing denominations?” Among those against this was Mr. Yoo Byung-eun. After the inauguration of the denomination, Mr. Yoo Byung-eun focused on business work. He did not attend any of the denominational meetings under Evangelical Baptist Church, and he refused calls to serve as speaker for the denomination.
The following is the inaugural address of the Evangelical Baptist Church.
◎ As Jesus said, “when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me...to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8), the history of the Christian gospel that started 1,900 years ago in Israel spread from Asia Minor and Rome to European countries such as Germany and England, as far as Korea in the far East. However, during this process, the purity of the gospel did not last long in any one area and deteriorated into different forms, resulting in Christianity merely in its outward form, secularized, lacking any inner life. Christianity, in the medieval times, existed in largely two different forms: the Roman Catholic in the Western Church and Greek Orthodox in the Eastern Church. This was until the Reformation, initiated by Luther and Calvin, who experienced being born again. Furthermore, the forefathers of faith, including John Bunyan, George Muller, and Charles Spurgeon of England; Count Zinzendorf of Germany; and Charles Finny and D. L. Moody in the US, were all born again through the gospel and contributed significantly to history in the grand revival of the Protestant Church.
◎ The first protestant missionaries who came to Korea had become believers by experiencing being born again through the Presbyterian or Lutheran churches. The gospel they spread also centered on salvation by experiencing being born again. But under Japanese oppression, Christianity became the center of the ideology of the Korean people and deviated from its essence of spreading the gospel of being born again, which leads to the salvation of the spirit. After independence, along with the wave of freedom, Christianity expanded in surprising numbers and size. On the other hand, there were increased numbers of believers who never experienced being born again, which bears responsibility for the salvation of the spirit, manifesting the essence of Christianity. As a result of this increase, attending church services became considered the entirety of the Christian faith. Accordingly, many denominations and churches turned to influencing politics or liberation theology without realizing it.
◎ Of course, we do believe there are some true believers among them. In particular, there were those who were seeking truth, struggling between skepticism and conflicts, who eventually understood the gospel and obtained salvation. Such a history of salvation started 20 years ago and formed an independent gospel movement led by laymen. As all Reformation movements began with the history of salvation, a spiritual experience, this movement also started not through rules or formality but began naturally with a new spiritual life. Although this movement has only continued among the laymen, we are at a moment in reality that requires a denominational name and activities under such representation. As our activities span across the nation and extend across the globe, we realize we can no longer remain in this status quo. Hence, on November 21, 1981 at 4pm, at Seoul Church located in 1-ga Hangang-ro Yongsan-gu, Seoul, a total of 248 national representatives assembled and agreed on the following creeds of faith in the augural meeting of the Evangelical Baptist Church. This denomination’s only doctrine is the Old Testament and the New Testament. (Doctrine and the Creeds of Faith are omitted.)
November 21, 1981 President of the Evangelical Baptist Church, Dr. Byun Woo-sup
4. Related Correction and Rebuttal Reports
<The Hankyoreh, November 3, 2014>
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/662638.html
[Correction and Rebuttal Regarding Evangelical Baptist Church and former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun]
This internet news published a report on April 22, 2014 in the social section of the homepage titled <Is Billionaire photographer Ahae the de facto owner of Chonghaejin Marine Co, Yoo Byung-eun?>. We reported that “Former Chairman Yoo, who worked in trade, established Semo in 1979 and, in 1981, along with his father-in-law, pastor Kwon Shin Chan (died in 1996), established the Evangelical Baptist Church, which is considered a religious cult among prostestant churches.” However, after confirming with the Evangelical Baptist Church, we have verified that the Evangelical Baptist Church denomination was established in 1981 and that former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun did not participate in establishing the denomination. Hence, we are publishing the corrections for the related report.
<Newsis, December 15, 2014>
http://www.newsis.com/ar_detail/view.html?ar_id=NISX20141210_0013349182&cID=10201&pID=10200
[Correction and Rebuttal Regarding Evangelical Baptist Church and former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun]
However, an investigation by the Incheon District Prosecutor’s Office revealed that there was no connection confirmed between the Odaeyang incident and the Evangelical Baptist Church or former Chairman Yoo, as well as no connection between these parties and the 5th Republic of Korea government. Former Chairman Yoo was not among the inaugural members of the Evangelical Baptist Church when it was established in 1981. Also, we were informed that Kim Hye-kyung, chief of Hankook Pharma, is neither a former secretary of former Chairman Yoo Byung-eun nor his wife. We hereby correct the related article.
본 게시글은 지난 2014년 4월 중순부터 9월 중순까지 310여 곳의 언론사들이 보도한 16,000여 건의 오보에 대한 정정 및 반론 보도 중에 해당 부분을 발췌한 글입니다.
