In the interest of peaceful co-existence, mutual prosperity
By Editor Lee Sam-sun with Reporter Son Da-som
The Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (SCJ), led by Chairman Lee Man-hee, has recently issued a statement where he called upon the Christian Council of Korea (CCK) to join the Christians in Korea who try to improve relations among the different Christian organizations.
Chairman Lee, as in the case of many other peace-loving peoples in Korea and around the world, appears to wish to be genuinely good friends with all the peoples in Korea and around the world.
Shincheonji is the nation of God, created by Him to fulfill what is in heaven on this earth in today’s time, states Chairman Lee. Furthermore, he says, it is a holy temple where the priests and people of God, who will receive salvation within God, the creation that He has been working to gather for 6000 years, belong to. Shincheonji Church, he says, strives to heal the nation by following God’s will of testifying the revelation, what the church has heard and witnessed.
Shincheonji is the abbreviation of ‘New Heaven and New Earth,’ and it signifies the new tabernacle and new saints (2 Pt 3:13; Mt. 13:31-32; Rev 14:1-5; Rev 15:2-5).
Just as Moses built a tabernacle on earth based on the patterns God had shown him from heaven, the creation of Shincheonji here on earth today is also said to be based on what the Promised Pastor had seen in the spiritual realm. This is God’s Kingdom, which is created here on earth as it is in heaven, and its name is Shincheonji, stresses Chairman Lee.
Church of Jesus means that the Lord of the Temple of Shincheonji is Jesus as it is indicated in its name.
The Temple of Tabernacle of the Testimony is the temple of those have seen, heard and testify the Revelation.
It is also referring to the holy house where saints worship God. In addition, the Temple of Tabernacle of the Testimony is the promised temple where all nations must come to be healed and worship the Lord (Rev 15:4-5).
The Promised Pastor
The Promised Pastor: "I Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches" (Rev 22:16)
According to Director Yoon Joo-mok for Communications at the Shincheonji Church, the God's Kingdom of Jesus who Came in the Name of God 2,000 years ago, at the time of the first coming, God dwelt within Jesus, who came in the name of God. Yoon said, “The Bible states that seeing Jesus was the same as seeing God.” (Jn 5:43, 12:44-45, 14:9).
Yoon has a rather long story to tell:
It is written that the Counselor, who comes in the name of Jesus, is the Spirit of Truth (the Word) and will teach what Jesus proclaimed (Jn 14:26, 16:14-15). Hence, this Counselor is the teacher who protects and teaches with grace.
The Promised Pastor whom the Counselor is with Jesus, whom the Holy Spirit of God was with, says Yoon, was referred to as the one who spoke on behalf of God – the Counselor. Similarly, the person whom the Counselor (the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent) is with, is the pastor promised in the New Testament and also the one who overcomes (Rev 2-3, 10).
Currently, the pastor of Shincheonji is creating God’s kingdom of heaven here on earth, exactly as he witnessed it in heaven, says Yoon.
Similar to how Jacob had created the 12 tribes of Israel through his 12 sons (Gn 49), he became the new spiritual Israel who created the 12 tribes which bear 12 crops of fruit every month. This is proof that he is the one who overcomes (Mt 19:28; Rev 22:1-2), Yoon says.
Recently, according to Yoon, a total of 20,000 students graduated and up until now, 85,000 students have graduated. As a single religious organization, the Zion Christian Mission Center of Shincheonji has been turning out the greatest number of graduates in the world.
According to Yoon, the number of members of the Shincheonji churches continuously grows while the number at other churches decreases.
Yoon enumerates instances which tell apart between Shincheonji and other churches.
According to Yoon, Chairman Lee of Shincheonji has no plan to ‘bequeath’ the church to his offspring as is frequently done at other churches in Korea and Shincheonji is conspicuously growing in the number of members, especially the young worshippers.
“The number of believers attending the church on Wednesday and Sunday alone total somewhere around 300,000 persons,” Yoon assured.
In addition, says Yoon, it has approximately 300 center overseas, including 15 countries such as the United States of America, China, Japan, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, Austria, Italy, Australia, South Africa, India and the Philippines.
Hundreds of pastors, who have acknowledged the truth that Shincheonji teaches, have renounced their ordainment, discloses Yoon.
Just as God fulfilled his promise to Abraham at the time of Moses (Ex 12) and how God fulfilled the Old Testament at the first coming of Jesus (Jn 19:30), the New Testament is being fulfilled, and Shincheonji is testifying the physical fulfillment of the word (Rev 1:2; Rev 10, 22:16).
This precious word, according to Yoon, is priceless and untradeable even if the whole world was given in exchange. Due to this reason, the teaching is without charge.
Like the tree of life in Rev 22 that has 12 branches and bear fruit every month, there are over 1000 students graduating every month throughout the 12 tribes of Shincheonji. In Jn 15, Jesus is referred to as the tree of life. People who graduate from the Zion Christian Mission Center are born by the world of life and are the first fruits.
In accordance to God’s will, students did not graduate from seminaries of the world, but learned the word of heaven and graduated in heaven, states Yoon.
There are many different Christian churches in Korea, as in many other parts of the world, which include the Christian Council of Korea (CCK).
Co-existence, co-prosperity with other Christian organizations
The SCJ issued the statement on Dec. 21, 2018, which claimed that preachers of some existing churches tried to force two believers of the SCJ to change the church of their belief and, in the process, caused them both to die. The SCJ statement called upon the preachers of the existing churches to stop the religious persecutions and to make an apology. Details of the statement of the SCJ follow:
Some religious organizations indulge in all ‘mud-slinging’ against other churches, including Shincheonji for the past 36 years since its inception, including indulgence in mud-slinging, persecution and violation of human rights. In particular, such a church caused two women believers of the SJC to die for the cause of changing their religious belief in 2007 and 2018.
Some of such religious organizations, according to Yoon, even offered prayers to the Goddess of Japan at the Shinto shrines of Japan in Korea during the Japanese Occupation of Korea (1932-1945), and even donated money for the construction of fighter aircraft for the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces naming the aircraft ‘Josen (Korean) Christian Plane’ while at the same time leading a campaign to recruit Korean youths to forced labor for Japan.
Such organizations, according to Yoon, however, are not repenting for these wrongdoings of the past and people consider such organizations as being running counter to the interests of the country, society, church and the peace-loving peoples in Korea and around the world.
In addition, says Yoon, some churches also supported the late former President Park Chung-hee in 1969 in his effort to change the Constitution to make possible his election to the Presidency for a third consecutive term and to carry out the Yusin Constitutional Revision of the late President Park as well as playing the role of a stooge for the sake of the Park Chung-hee Regime.
There are numerous instances of law violations by such churches which breached the provisions of Article 20, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution Law of the Republic of Korea, which stipulate separation of politics from religion—and vice versa.
Some pseudo ‘Christian churches’ exist and need improvement
There still exist such pseudo religious organizations in Korea which pose as a Christian religious organization and they are still free from being eradicated. On the contrary, says Yoon, such religious organizations are far from being dispelled, but have become a political force, and continue to live in Korea.
These religious organizations CCK refuse to believe in the truth of the Commandments of God to love, forgive and to be true. These churches even carried out a forced religions conversion upon people, which ultimately incurred homicidal instances. This is one of the worst cases of heresy.
There have been proven disclosures that the leaders of such religious organizations bought their positions with money at the time of their election. And there also were instances of the sale of certificate of ordainment of the ministers.
The ministers who call themselves ‘Cult Consultants’ indulge in various ill practices where they, for the purpose of monetary gains, kidnap, confine and use violence against people for the purpose of forcing them to change their religious beliefs, discloses Yoon.
In this process, there occurred two cases of death forced upon the believers.
These responsible persons hid themselves behind the name of ‘family’ and shifted all the blames to the families of the victims—freeing themselves from any kind of punishment.
In the past 10 years, a total of 12,000 ministers and other religious leaders of such a religious organization and other similar religious associations have committed all sorts of law violations, and were convicted. The law violations included homicides, swindling, embezzlement, sexual abuses, and various other acts of crimes stipulated as such in the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Korea. For this reason, such religious organizations are being criticized as being a criminal association.
Some government officials, politicians and Christian journalists who, in collaboration with such misbehaving religious organizations, have obstructed the innocent construction of the SCJ churches, peaceful events and cultural activities, must also repent for their wrongdoings, disclosed Yoon.