My experience with Shincheonji and how they got to my sister
About a year ago, I was invited by my sister to a Bible study group that she has been attending at our university.
She’s been going there for weeks now and she was invited by her friend to join so they can learn about the Word of God.
My sister also later quit her job for the sake of this Bible study group.
When she invited me, I was obviously very suspicious of what was happening because I don’t really do Bible studies.
But I still went to check it out because what could go wrong?
When I got there, everyone seemed really nice.
We had an instructor (I will call him D) who told us that we would be learning about the secrets of the Bible because the Word of God was “sealed”.
I didn’t really see anything wrong with that at first.
It all started getting weird when D started talking about how only us, the members of the Bible study groups, are the ones who know what the true meaning of the Bible is.
He kept on emphasizing that the Bible was full of a figurative language that only he and the Bible study group knows about and that we should be careful of who to trust because a lot of the world’s pastors are actually controlled by Satan.
A lot of what we were taught focused on the figurative language.
D also told us about the parables in the Bible and that we should take care of the “seed” (the secret of the Word of God) so we can become figurative “trees” that the figurative “bird” (the Holy Spirit).
He also told us about the how the pastors were the “leaves” and that it was the “leaves”’ duty to spread the Word.
He also mentioned a figurative “tabernacle” and a spiritual “Mount Zion”.
Near the end of EVERY meeting, D would tell us that we should be in class as much as possible because the Bible’s pastors and prophets will not hesitate to attend this Bible study.
I started getting uncomfortable but I still attended.
D also talked about the “promised pastor”.
He never told us a specific name, only that the “promised pastor” will come.
D was also very anti-Semitic.
He kept on talking about how we shouldn’t be like the “Jews” who persecuted Jesus Christ.
I would always criticize him for that.
Whenever I do, he tells me that I was thinking about it through an intellectual lens and that I shouldn’t be “overthinking” because what he is teaching is the Word of God so I should not question what D says.
D also sometimes embarrasses me in class.
There were times when I forgot my Bible because I was in a hurry to get ready.
When he sees that I forgot my Bible, he would be passive-aggressive in front of the entire class and basically say that the rest of the class shouldn’t be like me.
He didn’t say my name but it was obvious that he was talking about me.
I was in the “intermediate” stage of training at this point.
There were potlucks where all the Bible study class groups in our university would gather.
We would play games and eat and it was pretty fun. But I was still uncomfortable.
I was uncomfortable whenever I went to a study because of the way D treated me.
I would try to skip class as much as possible and I didn’t want to do one-on-one meetups with them.
I was also trying to balance all my college assignments and so going to Bible study wasn’t my first priority.
D’s TA (I’ll call her A) kept on contacting me trying to ask me to come but at this point I wanted to avoid the two of them as much as possible.
I was busy with homework so sometimes I forget to answer their texts.
But there were also times when I ignored their texts.
It got to the point where D himself texted me asking me why I wasn’t answering and that I was being rude to him (which was true).
I told him that I was busy with classes and my schedule also was not compatible with the meetings.
I decided that it was time to leave the group.
So I told him that it was because I wanted to focus on my studies first and that I can’t attend the group meetings anymore.
He tried to manipulate me.
He replied with two questions.
He asked me if I thought that me leaving is something that God would want and if my decision to leave was going to be good for my spiritual life.
He was obviously expecting no as an answer.
I snapped.
I told him that I was leaving because he was such a passive aggressive teacher to me and that he should do better in the future.
I blocked him and A and I cut off all contacts from the Bible study group.
I never finished the study training.
Months later, my friend and I were walking around campus when my sister and her friend saw us.
My sister told me that her friend needed help with a project or something and asked my friend and I if we could answer a very quick survey.
Some of the questions in the survey were about our current knowledge of the Bible and what knowledge was the OT and NT written in.
I was getting a bit suspicious about it but I decided to answer because it was probably just something for her class.
After we finished, that same friend asked my friend and I if we were interested in attending this upcoming webinar her club has about religion which confirmed that my sister’s friend is also part of the Bible study group.
I pretended not to know anything about it and I asked her what the club was about.
She talked about how it was an “open-minded” Bible study group where we learn about what the Bible means and that anyone from any religion can join this group or something.
I personally think that last part was complete bs.
Eventually, my sister got into trouble with our parents because of the study group.
Every meeting, she would come home late evening, probably 10-10:30 p.m which was very suspicious because when she was trying to get our mom to attend my sister never mentioned that the night classes were going to be that late.
So our parents told her that it was best that she should stop going to these meetings.
But months later I found out my sister still kept going in secret, this time through video calls.
She was now an instructor in the group.
I never heard of Shincheonji until she started talking to these news stations telling them about how her friend knows someone in Shincheonji and that the South Korean government was targeting this church.
Months later, She also called news stations talking about how Shincheonji members who recovered from COVID donated their blood plasma for other members.
She even asked me to ask my other friend if he knew any broadcasting stations she can talk to.
I was starting to get suspicious about this Shincheonji church so I looked it up last Thursday.
That’s when I found out it was actually a religious cult.
A lot of what they taught us in the Bible study group was exactly the same as what’s being said in Shincheonji.
Since my sister is currently an instructor, this is what she does: When she’s done teaching her students about the “sealed” Word of God, she would go on this video call with other instructors and the main instructor.
She lists down all the information she has on her students (their personal circumstances, what they thought of the lectures, etc.)
This allows the instructors to change tactics so they can convince students to stay in the group.
We confronted her last night about the reason why she kept on calling news stations about Shincheonji.
She told us that she was helping her friend with a class project.
But the thing is it doesn’t make any sense for my sister to be the one calling stations.
It’s not HER project so there’s no point in her personally going out of her way to call other people.
She kept on saying that it’s because she wanted people to pick up the story and broadcast it.
My dad knew what the story process was for news stations and what she is doing is not something that makes any sense.
She’s clearly directly involved in it and it’s not just a “class project”.
She also stopped eating three meals a day.
Ever since she started attending these online Bible study meetings (started months ago during summer) she would always spend most of her time talking to them.
She also doesn’t eat breakfast anymore because the meetings start at 8 am.
She doesn’t leave our room at all.
She’s putting her health at risk all for this Bible study group which I now know is involved in Shincheonji.
I told our parents what I was learning and when they talked to the two of us my sister basically kept on saying that I was the one who was wrong because what I was saying was also written in the Bible.
That’s probably another tactic they use to make people not believe testimonies: That everything this Bible study group teaches is okay because it’s all in the Bible and so I’M the one who’s not making any sense because I’m saying they are a cult.
Some advice: don’t just trust your “leaf”/ study buddy asap because sometimes they tell the instructor behind your back about what you said to that “leaf”, ESPECIALLY if you’re having second thoughts about joining the study group.
The instructors all work with each other to find a way to make you stay in the Bible study. If you think of leaving your group your instructor will ask you trick questions like if God would want you to leave Bible study.
