What made you leave? I’ve got a friend who is totally involved in it for 12 months or so now. I’m so concerned. She used to be so close to me. I never hear from her anymore. I’m so upset and wish I could get her out but I know arguing or trying to persuade her will only make things worse. Any advice?
@@arferret My first and most important advice is to remain her friend and have loving understanding for her. The members are manipulated and act accordingly. If you can, read the book by Steven Hassan Combating Cult Mind Control. In it he describes his experience with the Moonies, a similar Korean cult. If you read it, you can understand a bit how she thinks and why she acts the way she does. Steven Hassan also has another book, Freedom of Mind, in which he gives advice on how to help those affected. Both helped me a lot. I noticed at some point that SCJ changed the doctrine (The order of fulfillment of Rev 7, and also the fulfillment of Rev 18). Then I realized that this teaching could not be divinely inspired, and after some research I was able to leave SCJ with a calm heart. To understand the manipulation tactics and learning about critical thinking has helped me very much! There is a subreddit Shincheonji where many exmembers share their experiences and also new information. Probably your friend won't read it because the members are indoctrinated not to read negative reviews. The more you learn about SCJ, the more you can help her. But the most important thing you can do is to be her friend and not judge or criticize her. I wish I could help even more. Maybe when SCJ's chairman, Man Hee Lee, dies, it will make her think. Because according to their doctrine, it is essential that he lives until the first resurrection (supposedly Man Hee Lee will marry with the spirit of Jesus and be physically immortal). If he dies before then, the doctrine is obviously wrong and some members will begin to realize this. Should your friend leave at some point, she will need a good friend to help her. If she has hurt you, always remember that she may not have meant to and only acted that way because of the manipulation. I wish you and your friend a lot of strength.
@@arferretunfortunately they will teach her since you’re not apart of their organization that Satan spirit can use you to pull her away or deceive her so she should be close to her “new spiritual family”. I was in Atlanta region for 5 years and left in April 2023 after experiencing/ witnessing physical abuse so I can testify to her if need be and a lot more experiences. They shun you if you leave and you’re forbidden to return they believe you’re going to hell if you leave so that fear of her eternal life being at risk may keep her there.
@@arferretthey literally start telling us in the beginning that people might start calling this a cult and you have to choose God over that. Then they start saying they have the open word of the New Testament and that is proof that they’re correct. They just started asking me to stop listening to worship music. Send your friends a link to SCJ teachings on parables. Or start reciting them to her so she will realize they are available online and have been for decades because it’s a cult.
Chills. I was in the same exact "program" as you just a few days ago... They gave in-person classes at Emory University, and I attended on Zoom. I was assigned a fake faith friend as well. I was there for 2 months, thank God the Holy Spirit convicted me on time, so I didn't even get to the intermediate lessons.
Hey, do you mind sharing more about your experience? How were you recruited? Were classes held in a school building? Sharing your experience could help stopping them and help the victims realize where they are before it’s too late
Those cultists were the source of a huge COVID-19 outbreak in Korea. Thank you for sharing the experience, since everyone should know that joining such type of cult could be a disaster to oneself and their communities.
so glad you're out!! they are EVERYWHERE!! I'm sharing my experience on this also, they recruited me on insta but i've beach reached out to a bunch of times to join on bumble friends - lots of them are at KSU & GSU i had friends who into these cults @ GSU, i even saw them downtown trying to recruit at the mall saying they were doing a "christian interview" ugh. no idea why they're so prevalent here, but praise God you left!!
I’m a Korean, so my English is not fluent as much as native speakers, but I will say some facts that happened in S. Korea. In South Korea, Sincheonji(SCJ) infiltrate normal churches(not only protestant churches but also catholic churches), take out believers, and make them as their(SCJ) believers. In recently, they evangelize in public places. Like subway stations(or train stations), downtown, etc. The most important thing is they evangelizes in public places, but they conceal who are they. They are approaching to people as they are taking surveys or free counselings or etc. If they succeed at this fraud evangelization to you, then they will preach you to make cult believer. If you finished this course, then you became a SCJ believer. They exploitation their believers. If you are a university student, they will force you to drop out or leave of absence. If you are a worker, then they will force you to resign. If you are a married person, then they will force you to divorce. By this reasons, SCJ is the most infamous cult in S. Korea.
I'm not a native speaker of English, so maybe I made some grammatical error and some errors(vocabulary, context, etc.) in this reply. If you read this reply, you should be careful and spread this fact to many people so that people do not join anti-social social groups.
@@KLushed_Up in Korea, they use much more aggressive tactics they don’t use in the western countries because they know using the same forceful tactics would immediately raise a red flag among people in western cultures where freedom is much more valued than it is in Korea. In Korea, obedience is already deeply ingrained in the culture and there is much less resistance when people are asked to sacrifice their own wellbeing for the sake of their group. Of course not everyone in Shincheonji quit school or jobs, but some members do. Shincheonji uses different tactics.
@@mvj1153 they tell you that if you leave you’re “betraying” God. That’s the word they use over and over. They instill a lot of fear in you and even after leaving you wonder if you’re wrong and “what if” they’re right. The manipulation within that short amount of time I was there was very deep. After leaving, it literally ruined my faith. I slowly started losing faith and my belief in God. Then this girl I thought was my friend made it seem like she was also new. Turns out she was pretending and lying the whole time. That’s what they do. They place people in your life who pretend to be starting with you but they are members of the church. After I left, she blocked me. I wanted to remain friends with some of the people. Like if you’re truly from God you would not stop being friends with someone because they’re not going to your church.
What’s funny is that they not only contradict what the Bible says and they pick and choose verses they can “use”, but they also contradict their own teachings a lot of times 😂 and they try their best to be as evasive as possible to your questions. They CANNOT (and refuse to) think outside of their doctrines, they never want to use critical thinking they love use to criticize everyone else other than themselves. Having critical questions and trying to find out whether their claims about the reality of “the fulfillment” are true is considered unfaithful and “evil” because doubt means betrayal against God according to their doctrines. They never want you to investigate about their claims about the fulfillment yet they demand you to accept it as the truth and commit your life and have complete submission. What a bs!
@@LifeMessagesfromGodif I’m not mistaken in one of our classes was mentioned about a guy many years ago proclaiming to be the messiah.. but at the time of the final test I was told who the overcomes was, I said I should of have followed the Puerto Rican one 😂😂😂
They almost got me too... two and a half years ago, when I was new to Christ. I think they join other Christian groups on Facebook and look to see if someone says that they are new to Christ because I was hit up in my DM's by one asking me to join a Zoom Bible Study. I joined for a probably a month but then started noticing weird behavior...like they were extra extra chirpy and friendly... Like too friendly. My God given discernment kicked in. I felt the weirdness. And they were being vague with the actual name of the Church. They would tell you the name of the Bible Study and that it is Non Denominational but not the name of what the actual Organization the Bible Study is coming from. I Googled the name of the Bible Study and and found out it was a Cult. Thank God. Since then I made it a point to read the Bible on my own before someone deceives me with false doctrine. Please warn others and if you have friends that are in Shincheonji, please try to get them out.
Thanks for this! As a white guy who grew up in a diverse church, I was at first impressed by how diverse the meetings were. Drawing everyone in to discuss the Bible. It was only when I got deeper in that I started to notice red flags(like claiming Revelation is the new covenant, saying you have to understand it to be saved) that I started to do some digging and realized who they actually were.
Okay. I just have to say I’m in the same position you were in! I met a gal on meetup a couple of years ago that was doing a fellowship group on meetup so her and I were doing a bible study together. Just normal stuff about the four fields parable that Jesus spoke of and stuff that’s deeper but still checks out. Then she invited me to a group zoom Bible study back in July 2023 and I didn’t think much of it except that were called to meet together as believers and study the word. I found it profound and interesting to learn deeper meanings of things and even talked with fellow Christian’s I know about the teachings and it all checked out. How the field represents a persons heart and we can be on a path like field or thorny or rocky field. I mean as you said it takes months to even get through this part of the series. We just this week took a test for the first time and they’ve been talking about being sealed but I just thought oh yah that makes sense. The new John thing has come up the past couple of months though and really made me start wondering when they were saying “this new john” has had the open word for about forty years now. They still haven’t given the name of this person in the class but as a person who does my research I googled new John of revelation since 1984 and found this and it was speaking of exactly everything this group talks about. It’s hidden in there through parables that are correct. They throw these incorrect things in very sneakily. No name of it has come up yet either. It’s just been our Tuesday Friday Bible study and then they just added Saturday afternoons a few weeks ago. So I have had nothing to go off of up until this point when I was given just enough info to google this “new john” even though they’ve never given a name for the group or the name of this new John just yet. They just said today the parables portion is over soon and we will be going into the next section. Ugh I hate when people try to manipulate others. I also thought it was odd they denied the trinity and tried making it sound normal to not believe in it like satan made up the trinity. Denying the trinity means to deny Christ
Yeah they tried ro get me through the Christian dating app Upward. I lasted about 5 months before i started questioning the doctrine. Thanks for sharing and we all have to be vigilante as they are very subtle and start off very biblical
It is spreading, and growing day by day unfortunately. If we counter that with the true word of christ and salvation, we can possibly overcome, good wins over evil.
I almost joined as well I completed the whole 9 month course and decided not to join because of their actions and tendencies and could see that it was a cult. This was in November of last year.
The reason they did not give you push back it’s because you aren’t technically a member until you graduate . Once you’re a member and exit then you become a betrayer.
Thanks for sharing your experience! Mine was very similar I was feeling OK about the class, until they revealed “New John” Could not get the verses to match up, and did research (against their rules not to) because I figured, hey if it’s the truth, I’ll find out After learning how a cult works and also the flaws of their doctrine, I quit. Lost some time but not much else, worried about my course mates though, as I have no way of contacting them
I was in it for 4 month before I was like hol’ up…. What you say? Run that back expeditiously! Very manipulative and deceiving. Glad you’re out! God bless
What’s stopping you? And what about the faithful and wise servant? It’s a long story but to keep it short, they were very controlling, deceptive and manipulative. The final straw was when the instructor casually says, “everyone knows Jesus isn't God" and then moved on. When I asked for clarification later, she went on about the Trinity being a lie and promoted Lee Man Hee as some kind of savior. I thought it was a normal Bible study, just very organized! Lee Man Hee? Never heard of him! She claimed the internet was the "enemy's" tool to keep people from God, discouraging research. Well, I researched anyway, and let me tell you, things got clear fast! I was angry and hurt by the deception. But this experience taught me a valuable lesson: I need to be well-versed in my own faith to avoid manipulation like this.
@@Elisee__I’ve been studying since January. Had no idea what Shincheonji was until last week when the teacher claimed JTB betrayed Jesus. When I looked further into it after class. I came across all these videos about the cult and a guy named Lee Man Hee. I’m very disappointed that they are not up front about their beliefs.
@@yungwun1252 yes it’s true deception! But they try to justify it by using scripture. I’m so glad you found the truth and got out. And I pray this experience doesn’t discourage you.
You remind me of an experience I had while I was at Georgia; me & my Big brother we’re doing some filming,video and a homeless artist who was a poet approached us. The poem was constructed quite well, they were just some odd things about this man such as he claim to talk to angels (Michael) whom he called by different name, and when Travis offer to pray for him he would decline it asking him rather to quote Aarons prayer, and post it online.
Fam I’m currently in it now! And from Day 1 I saw red flags but I was desperate in wanting to know more of the word. 😭 But truly this is such a shame smh. Can WE talk?!? And somehow get Stephen in on the convo?? 😩🙏🏾
Specifically SCJ Atlanta church which is really in GWINNETT!! covered up physical abuse and that is why I left when it’s supposed to be “sea of glass” naaa
In the time of Jesus first coming. Many called him cultist and even being possessed with demon. If you called a place cult, you should show a vivid evidence of occultic practices which are convincing
They claim that a Korean man named Lee Manhee is the only true pastor of this era (they claim “the time of Jesus’ 2nd coming), God showed him everything and only speaks through him, so everyone must only listen to Lee Manhee and be 100% submissive to him, otherwise, you belong to Satan. And they will start demanding you to do more and more. They use psychological manipulation to make people obey whatever their leader say. The group is very hierarchical and allow their members very little freedom. The members are constantly sleep deprived and suffer chronic fatigue due to too much duties and responsibilities placed on them. They have to be obedient to their leader and what the group commands them to do, otherwise they won’t be among 144K who will resurrect.
There are so many videos of other ex-members’ vivid testimonies on youtube that match the definition of a mind controlling cult. The most clear evidence is that they isolate you from outside information and resources. If you are asked to make a decision only based off selective/fabricated information provided by the group, your decision is not really yours. I recommend you read the book, Combating Cult Mind Control, by Steve Hassan.
The doctrine is flawed. Read the verses they suggest in their full context and see if the connections they draw are true. They usually aren’t. And there is no Biblical basis for a New John Also, do some research. This group follows a tried and true pattern Christians believe their beliefs to be self-evident, regardless of what other people say or what they research. Shincheonji is terrified of members doing research because they will find it to be bogus
Honestly, how to convince people from the cult to leave? Can we spread more awareness to those who are in, those who are trying to get out, and those who are leaders that want to get out?
Oh noo!! I return back cus I was so desperate to learn Gods word and the way the teach it is so different and interesting to me! But now am like ugh idk 🤷🏽♀️ am confused 🤔 now I don’t see other churches the same now idk what to believe!! Cus they say other churches are there thoughts not of Gods! They use scripture to show proof so they leave me quiet cus idk what to say back!! Pls help
Hey hun, I too was briefly involved with this group in Atlanta and experienced the same things you are now faced with. I felt a heavy sense of confusion and spiritual oppression while in this group. But the Holy Spirit freed me from it and I am still strong in my faith in Christ. I want to encourage you & also remind you that the word says God is not the author of confusion 1 Corinthians 14:33 and that we are instructed to test the spirit to know if it is from God 1 John 4:1-3. Just because it sounds like God does not mean it is. One thing this group does alot is read half the scripture & then give their own interpretation. They never allow for questions and never encourage reading of the full chapters for complete context & content. If your concern is understanding the word fully and wanting revelation, I assure you the Holy Spirit is able to reveal all things 1 Corinthians 2:10. God’s desire is not to have you oppressed and confused or lost about the truth of HIS word. Also the work Christ did is a finished work. There is nothing that is hidden that God will not reveal to his children and it does not require a pledge or sacred oath to any group. We are already in covenant with God through our faith in Christ and there is no need to make any new covenants with man.
I was tricked into a Bible study of there’s no knowing what it was as soon as they said they learned from a new John I was like wtf I’m out of here lol blocked them all
Thank you for sharing this. Someone very close to me has been part of this church for 2 years now and I’ve been trying to tell them it’s a cult but with no avail. Do you have any social media for me to reach out further about this?
Hi, I used to attend their bible studies and thankfully got out earlier this year. The best way to help someone out of SCJ is to not force them, come at them in aggressive ways, or tell them they're wrong. It will pull them deeper into the cult because one of their main points is that they will be "persecuted" for their belief (a twist on Matthew 5:11-12). The best we can do is to pray they get out and for them to be in an environment that supports critical thinking with true biblical scripture. I would say people in this cult are in a similar situation as Paul before he found Christ. Like many people, our hearts are in the right place, wanting to grow closer to God and learn more about the Bible. But SCJ preys on vulnerable people and lies to them. If it's possible for them to attend a church or a different Bible Study that isn't based on lies, it'll eventually help. It might take time though and it will be confusing for them. I don't know if this is helpful but I pray that person gets out. There's always hope.
Bro, I’m in the same mindset as you rn, I go to the meetings but my mama is telling me I should stop. Here’s what I think. So far Mr Lee man Kun hasn’t been mentioned yet, but I think the lessons so far have been very insightful. Bro the main thing is that they teach Jesus Christ is the saviour which is the whole point of Christianity essentially (what Paul did). I think they may have different interpretations and ideas of the bible but if they teach Jesus is the way to eternal life (which they do) then all your faith friends should be okay and you’ll should be seeing them in heaven 🙏🏻 by his grace. That’s just me tho 😅 (Also thank you for the video, I’m extremely curious now)
Watch out. Any cult can say Jesus is the Savior, but if anyone claims that he himself is the ONLY one who has the same authority as Jesus, and so everyone has to listen to only him, that’s WRONG. They are not just different but they are wrong. They will eventually demand you to choose between them (Shincheonji) and the essential belief of whole Christianity (=what they called “the world of Satan”)
It breaks my heart that people call this place a cult, they 100% pray and worship Jesus Christ and no other. I no longer go to the lessons anymore but I still continue to pray for them every day I made good friends that I’ll never see again. I don’t believe that they think the man is the saviour, they think he is the new John or something not a saviour. Their truth is warped but by the grace of God they are not too far off from it. If they believe Jesus is the key to eternal life they should be okay, I pray God will have mercy on his people that have been misled. 🙏🏻
@@KLushed_Up hey brother, i also have some dear friends in this group, so i’m praying for them too. If you really love and care about someone, you should tell them when they are on a wrong path. We should feel heartbroken not because they are called a cult but because of the fact that they are being misled by the false pastor, Lee Manhee, who is knowingly and intentionally misleading people. They try their best to avoid explicitly calling Lee their savior, but if you really understand their doctrines, that is exactly what they are programmed to believe in their heart. For example, what does it mean that Jesus is our Savior? Doesn’t it mean that salvation is only through the Christ Jesus our Lord? But Shincheonji teaches that believing in Jesus is NOT enough. It gave you salvation in the past, but NOT anymore, because there is New John who you also have to accept to get salvation. Accepting Jesus no longer is the only true way to God but accepting New John is. According to their teachings, the entire belief of Christianity is wrong because the gospel of Jesus, which the apostles and many believers sacrificed their lives for, has been “expired” and no longer works. Now you need the gospel of Lee Manhee the New John to get salvation, and this is the ONLY TRUE way.
How far have you gotten in the lessons? They keep saying you will learn everything about the fulfillment at the end, but the truth is, you never will. In fact, the instructors themselves don’t fully know about the details of the fulfillment. They are just trained to bluff that they know because by the time students get to the point where they learn about the fulfillment part, they are all so sold that they don’t really care about the details anyways and or care to investigate whether the events actually happened as Lee claims. By then, they would just unquestioningly accept whatever they are told. This is exactly why this group is a cult. Mind control. I highly recommend you read the book “Combating Cult Mind Control” by Steven Hassan. This book is not about Shincheonji, so you don’t have to worry about feeling attacked or prosecuted. I’m Korean, so i have access to lots of Korean resources including Lee’s old books and teachings that Shincheonji now so desperately want to hide from their members. All the information you are given by Shincheonji is very intentionally selected and sometimes fabricated. I highly recommend you do your research. I know the instructor tells you not to, but wouldn’t it be so foolish to make a decision about life or death for yourself based off of biased information? Think about other cults and why their members remain in their groups and believe what are clearly lies and bs to people outside their groups. Are they dumb? No. Are their hearts not as pure as Shincheonji members? It’d be arrogant to judge that. The biggest reason members of ANY cult group fall prey to false doctrines and lies is that they don’t do their research and they only depend on the inside information and guidance. I know I can’t just tell you to leave, it’s not going to work that way. But i’m only asking you to think critically, please.
@@jjj0401 okay, thank you. I understand. I’ve stopped going to the lessons literally a few days ago, I wasn’t too far in. The last lesson I did they said was the last day of the beginner stage or something along those lines. You know way more than I do that’s for sure and I can recognise that. Did you ever go to the lessons? If u did how’d you get out?
Would love to connect with you Stephen I was doing the class with the Atlanta group for 3 months until they finally revealed who they were. Scary stuff. Wonder if you had instructor Michael or any of the same people. "Simon tribe" I'm pretty sure my "faith friend" was actually already a member. Regardless glad we got out.
Essa é frase chavão que eles treinam aos seus prosélitos quando desmascarados. Essa tática não prova que são verdadeiros, já que na internet todos são confrontados. Mas as seitas sempre assumem que são perseguidos
Imagine you are a cult leader trying to deceive people. What would you tell people so they will never find out about your lies? You would probably say, don’t look up on the internet, people are spreading bad rumors about me, so don’t listen to them. Just listen to what i say. = what SCJ says. Imagine you are a true witness of something that actually happened and you are confident you have all the proof. What would you do if people call you a lier? You would simply show them hard evidence, and you would confidently say, hey, do your research and investigation because i have nothing to hide. = what SCJ can NEVER say. If something is true, and especially it involved several individuals and actual places, there MUST be evidence besides just one person’s testimony. How do we know that Jesus died and resurrected? There were hundreds of witnesses, and even non-Christian skeptics investigated and found evidence throughout history that they could not disprove. Why are SCJ members so afraid to investigate the “reality”?
Because they distort the Bible. And because they say this man named Lee Manhee is the only true pastor of this era, God showed him everything and only speaks through him, so everyone must only listen to Lee Manhee and be 100% submissive to him, otherwise, you belong to Satan.
They have very wrong theology glad you were able to get out . Hope you’ve been able to find a true Bible believing church that doesn’t twist God’s word
Bro can we talk about this I am joined that zoin Bible study course luckily God is with me Thank you almighty God for saving me Whenever I try to attend this class at 6:30 my phone stopped working exactly that time things like this happened for 10 to 13 days i never got chance to attend fully their class on 15 or 16 day i attend their lecture Fully on concentration very first time and that very same day they reveal their church name I have i don't know but why feel like to search related them on internet and yes I get know about them everything I blocked them God is always with us ❤
You better believe inwhat you say bro? How is it a cult?? Just knke even Jesus was persecuted so be careful with your videos it'll lead to your downfall and you'll regret speaking trash about God's staff