South Korean pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee, speaking in Hebrew, promised to perform signs and wonders, bring blessings upon Israel, heal its sick, and even eradicate the swine flu virus from the nation.
“You will see that the swine flu will go away from Israel when I pray tonight and tomorrow,” said Lee.
South Korean evangelicals disown Lee, claiming that his teachings are heretical.
One website says he has claimed to sit at the throne of God, command angels and performed every miracle in the Bible except walking on water.
Lee, who cuts a controversial figure even among evangelical Christians, has been accused across the blogosphere and within the South Korean religious establishment of heresy, and of purporting to be sinless and above death.
The largest evangelical Christian association in Jerusalem told The Jerusalem Post earlier in the week it did not endorse Lee’s ministry and would not be associated with it. In 1999 the Christian Council of Korea expelled the Manmin church for “heretical claims,” and leaders of the Korean Ministry Association have accused Lee of being a cult leader.
But Johnny Kim, the director general of Manmin TV, said the ministry was no more controversial than any other evangelical sect and that much of the controversy surrounding it had been invented by groups jealous of their rapid expansion in South Korea and across the world.
“Dr. Lee obeys God, and God has blessed [him] with these powers,” Kim told the Post Wednesday morning. “He is not different than any other man, only in his devotion.”
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