Testimonies against Shincheonji
After Shinchonji, I no longer practice religion
After Shinchonji, I no longer practice religion - Testimonies Against Shincheonji
Continue Reading →This is the blog of those who fell out from “heaven” and are now firmly grounded in reality.
We pray this website will help expose the truth about Shincheonji and help people to leave.
What’s the truth and what’s fiction about this mysterious church, Shincheonji? Is it a cult? Is it misunderstood? A definitive source of truth vs lies about Shincheonji from a former member.
Starting from my parents and aunt, to my boyfriend, everyone in my life was getting sucked into Shincheonji. Naturally, I did too. I chose to walk away and not be religious at all today. But I want everyone to know what kind of place Shincheonji really is and expose its underside.
Also called New Heaven and New Earth outside of Korea, Shincheonji is an international church that mainly brings in those who are seeking for God, or dissatisfied with their current church.
Shincheonji is an international Christian church that is difficult to categorize along with regular Christian denominations. They don’t prescribe to any denomination and denounce the existence of denominations as “the devil’s work”. They describe themselves as a church promised in the Bible and that they are God’s kingdom here on earth.
Shincheonji (pronounced more like Shin-chun-jee in my opinion) is based on Chinese characters that mean “new heaven and new earth”. They are also referred to as Zion or the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony. It’s often abbreviated as “SCJ”. They claim that their name is the one promised in the Bible and that these alignments are proof that they are legitimate.
This is the first thing people think of when they hear “Shincheonji”. That’s what I thought first too. To define, a cult is “a religion regarded as unorthodox”. Shincheonji definitely does not follow the doctrines or practices of other Christian denominations and churches. In that sense, Shincheonji is the most unorthodox religion out there. But is this wrong? Their teachings and practices are based on the Bible; so who’s wrong: the orthodox who don’t follow the Bible or the unorthodox who follows the Bible?
At its core, Shincheonji is a church and a group of people who want to carry out a life of faith. Some people are very fervent. Some people are not. You’ll find people, as in any church, who want to devote all of their life to it and are all about it, and you’ll find people who are just going with the flow and check-off their attendance. It’s different, depending on who you talk to. The people there are sincere and the doctrines aren’t off, but some are too fervent that it can veer on scary or overwhelming. I felt too busy, too guilty about being too busy for God.
Shincheonji Church is divided into 12 tribes: one according to each of Jesus’ 12 disciples. So the tribes each have their name, a color, and a jewel that’s associated with them. They have churches all over the world, including countries that you would never have thought about such as Singapore, Australia, South Africa, and the Philippines. The churches are connected together and they all receive the same instruction for the basics of operation: to make sure that people are carrying out the work of harvest (evangelism, proselytizing).
Who is Shincheonji led by? The common thought is that LMH leads Shincheonji on his own. They call him “Chairman”, which sounds very Mao-like to me, but they insist that it is from the Bible and represents that he is the head of the assembly gathered of Shincheonji people. The true leader is not even LMH though. The true leader of Shincheonji is found in the name:
the true head of the church is Jesus.
Shincheonji believes there is more to the Bible than what we can read on the surface. They push people to understand the Bible rather than just read verses or take away bits and pieces of things they like about it. They make you confront the harsh reality of ourselves that we can in the mirror of God. They teach about parables or secrets in the Bible and they claim to be the only ones that have the correct interpretation. I think this is something everyone should check and verify for themselves.
Shincheonji demands are a lot. Because their demands are what God demands from people in the Bible. When it says in the Bible to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, and to love God with all of our hearts and minds, Shincheonji takes these words seriously and people always try their best to become better. They always talk about faith and prayer and habits of faith, and are obsessed with knowing a lot about the Bible. So the commitment to devote yourself to faith is high and many people have a hard time with not being able to provide excuses to get away from serving God.
What does SCJ really teach in their Bible studies?
How are SCJ teachings different?
After Shinchonji, I no longer practice religion - Testimonies Against Shincheonji
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Continue Reading →There’s a lot of claims about secrecy and lies, and questions about Shincheonji.
This is a space where we honestly try to answer as someone who’s had these questions before too.
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Continue Reading →Shincheonji is big and international. Although it only started in 1984 in the small country of the Republic of Korea, Shincheonji is now international and has almost 300,000 members world wide. They are the only religious group and cult that grows at the pace that they do and many people have come to hear of the church today. This is due to their fervency in evangelism and sharing the Word and every member contributing in sharing the Word. Literally every member.
People who join Shincheonji are pretty normal people. That means SCJ people can be around you at any time and you wouldn’t even know it just by interacting with them. They have jobs, they go to school, they have families, like anyone else. I think they fall because they get approached at a time when they are seeking for understanding or faith or something — maybe friends? But in the end, they all say they say because of the Word.
SCJ definitely thinks Christians should know the Bible more than they do and members get very excited when they find a Christian or Catholic person who wants to learn the Bible with them. My cell leader always told me even people in other religions will soon come and want to learn with Shincheonji and I was encouraged to evangelize to anyone who wants to listen, not just church goers.
Revelation is the book of Jesus and it is about his return. It is the only book left for the future in the Bible, if you believe the Bible is real. So they are very forward looking and always thinking about how we can be considered righteous when Jesus comes. I’ve never met people who are more obsessed about Jesus and his words than the people of Shincheonji. It is crazy how everything is about God and Jesus and their words and promises. Very tunnel-visioned.
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