Editing Olive Tree (religious movement) (section)

==Origins==
Park Tae Son was born in Yup nam ri, Duk Chon, [[North Pyeongan Province (Republic of Korea)|North Pyeongan]] province of present-day [[North Korea]] in 1915.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://busan.grandculture.net/Contents?local=busan&dataType=01&contents_id=GC04201395 |title= 박태선|access-date=21 June 2024|publisher=부산역사문화대전 }}</ref> He was raised as [[Presbyterian]] in a poor family that could only allow him to receive a primary school education. To improve his life, he went to [[Japan]] where he worked as a milkman and newsboy during the day and was able to complete Technical High School through evening courses.<ref name="Moos 1967">{{cite journal|last=Moos|first=Felix|date=1967|title=Leadership and Organization in the Olive Tree Movement|journal=Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch|volume=43|pages=11–27}}</ref> According to American anthropologist Felix Moos, Park felt discriminated against in Japan as a Korean, which explains why he maintained a strong anti-Japanese orientation in later life.<ref name="Moos 1964">{{cite journal|last=Moos|first=Felix|date=1964|title=Some Aspects of Park Chang No Kyo—A Korean Revitalization Movement|journal= Anthropological Quarterly|volume=37|issue=3|pages=110–120|doi=10.2307/3316952|jstor=3316952|hdl=1808/1133|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

In 1944, Park returned to Korea where he started attending a Presbyterian church near [[Namdaemun|Namdaemun gate]] in [[Seoul]] and became a moderately successful businessperson by launching his own Korea Precision Machine Company.<ref name="Moos 1967" /> In 1954, he became an elder in the Presbyterian Church and started conducting revival services. In 1955, he was one of the main preachers at a large [[Camp meeting|Presbyterian revival meeting]] organized at [[Namsan (Seoul)|Namsan Mountain]] near Seoul. There, he claimed to have instantaneously healed a man who had been a cripple for thirty years.<ref name="Choe">{{cite book|last=Choe|first=Joong-Hyun|date=1993|title=The Korean War and Messianic Movements: Two Cases in Contrast |location=Syracuse, NY|publisher=PhD Diss, University of Syracuse}}</ref>

The incident converted Park into a nationally well-known preacher, and in April 1955 he formed the Jesus Christ Congregation Revival Association of Korea ({{lang|ko|한국예수교전도관부흥협회}}), originally as part of the Presbyterian Church. The latter saw it as a potentially schismatic organization and was suspicious of Park’s claim of supernatural powers and messianic status. Park was tried for [[heresy]] and expelled from the Presbyterian Church in 1956.<ref name="Calgary" />

No longer a Presbyterian, Park started his own church. He gathered thousands eager to be healed through a ritual he called ''anch’al'' (laying on of hands), a sort of strong massage supposed to transmit divine energy from Park to the infirm. Even the water with which Park’s feet had been washed was drunk by his devotees for healing and spiritual purposes.<ref name="Moos 1967" />

Park revealed that he was one of the [[two witnesses]] mentioned in the [[Book of Revelation]] and called "Olive Trees"<ref name="Kim">"{{cite journal|last1=Kim|first1=David W.|last2=Bang|first2=Won-il|date=2019|title=Guwonpa, WMSCOG, and Shincheonji: Three Dynamic Grassroots Groups in Contemporary Korean Christian NRM History|journal=Religions|volume=10|issue=3|page=212|doi=10.3390/rel10030212|doi-access=free|hdl=1885/204914|hdl-access=free}}</ref> or perhaps both of them in one person,<ref name="Moos 1964" /> hence the name "Olive Tree" popularly designating the movement. Park also claimed to be the "righteous man from the East" mentioned in the [[Book of Isaiah]] 41.2 and identified "the East" with Korea. His followers at that time believed he was not God, but the last prophet of God before the millennial kingdom and God’s only authorized spokesperson on Earth.<ref name="Calgary" />