Sounding the Alarm – Shincheonji A New Cult in our Area
These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
(Acts 17:11)
Yesterday morning, I was at our church building with my family.
I was getting ready to leave to go see my fellow pastor friend, Ray, out in New Jersey.
Then in walk these three nice looking young men. Each man wore a mask, was dressed well, they were polite and presented themselves well.
They introduced themselves as from a church in the Long Island City area of Queens.
They wanted to network with churches in the area in order to bring them together for the same cause.
All sounded good and normal.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
Target acquired
They then asked, “Are you the pastor?”
I replied as I oftentimes do, “Yes, I’m one of the servants here.”
They then proceeded to perk up, and to quickly gather around me.
I realized I was their “target” they were seeking.
A discernment was arising
They began telling me how their church teaches the entire Bible and that their organization graduated over 100,000 students recently.
Inside I’m thinking, “Okay…I’ve been in New York City for about 20 years and it’s extremely rare to find a church that teaches through the entire Bible here. You’ve got over 100,000 students? Wait a minute. How come I’ve never heard of you before?!”
It just didn’t sound right!
Within me, something was not sitting right.
Let me just say, something inside me was growing with a great discomfort.
One of the men said, “We want to teach our word.”
I thought he made a mistake. As in, he didn’t say he wanted to teach God’s Word. But he said, “Our word.”
And then he said it again, that they wanted to “teach our word.”
The Comforter (the Holy Spirit) was not giving me His comfort in this conversation. More like a chaos within.
I wasn’t discerning they were “brothers” in the same born again faith.
I started to sense that they were trying to set me up to get involved in whatever their project was.
The spiritual discernment was rising more and more within me.
Normally, when I’d meet a Christian brother who’s doing a church plant, I’d get excited for the man and want to pray for them before they go on their way.
However, this was very different.
They came off in a “cultish” way.
They were polite, but tried a few times to make an appointment with me to be able to discuss their project.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
(1 John 4:1)
I praise the Lord who gives discernment, warnings and wisdom – especially right when I need it!
They wanted to show me a video of their many students. I politely declined, as I was getting ready to leave for New Jersey to see a friend.
These men were very aggressive in wanting to book an appointment with me to discuss more, and offered to even meet with me in Zoom.
Imagine three salesman pouncing on you at a used car lot.
Yah, it was sort of like that, but in a pseudo-Christian sort of way.
They kept prodding and asking questions about me and the church.
I now know that they were gathering information. They weren’t trying to build a valid relationship.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
What they didn’t know
What they didn’t know is that the Lord has had us slowly going through Acts 17 in the last several weeks.
God had already prepared us.
The Lord has been convicting my heart to help train Christians to be like the Bereans who “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
To show Christians how to “search the Scriptures” so they can “test all things.”
We even started up a Facebook group called Bereans At The Cross two Sundays ago and have been taking a group through how to do more in-depth Bible Study and Research.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Abstain from every form of evil.
(1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)
They handed me a flyer (see the link below) and I told them I’d check out their church, and I would get back to them if I was interested in hearing more about their project.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
The Lord commands us to “Test all things” and further commands us to “hold fast what is good.”
In other words, “keep firm possession of” what is valid and comes from God.
The next command is to “Abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:22)
Within context, here’s what this means.
This means that upon the testing of something, what our searching of the Scriptures has found to not be “good” (not from God), we are commanded to reject. It’s “evil.” It’s not from God when put through the test of Scripture.
I’ve been very sensitive to “Test all things.” Especially lately as we’ve been focused on preaching and practicing this.
When I was about to leave the church building, I told my wife and another sister to please, “Pray for me to have more discernment. Those guys seemed cultish.”
A cult that’s targeting pastors right now
As I got into the car, I read that their flyer is targeting church pastors.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
It says, “Dear pastor and fellow servant of God and Jesus Christ.”
Their flyer mentions they’re called Shincheonji Church of Jesus (New Heaven New Earth).
I noticed Got Questions has a great brief article on Shincheonji (Read it here).
Their founder is a Korean man named Lee Man-hee.
This is the group that was big in the news in 2020 for the South Korean coronavirus outbreak.
I was astonished to find that not only are they a cult, but this group is actually bold enough to directly target church pastors!
I know this first hand, because they just tried to recruit me!
So, apparently their tactics are working in the New York City area.
This is extremely sad and very alerting that they’re able to have success at targeting and fleecing church pastors.
Yet, because most pastors around here are not teaching through the entire Bible, many Christians are probably not aware that this group is a cult.
You see, if church pastors are not giving people “All Scripture,” then Christians will never be fed enough to “be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Upon reading their flyer, pastors would probably just need to read the headline about “CHURCH REVIVAL AND CHURCH GROWTH.” That’s probably enough to get many pastors to sign up.
In targeting pastors around here, they know who they’re marketing to.
They claim to offer – “Tools to grow and revive your church.”
Their flyer mentions, “Keys to boosting youth involvement.”
Their sales pitch also offers, “Guidance on overcoming pastoral concerns.”
This is marketing and they know the buzz words to attract the attention of what many pastors are thinking about.
“The Fulfillment of Revelation”?
I then noticed that their flyer says, “Presentation on the Fulfillment of Revelation.”
Yes, you read that right. They believe Revelation is fulfilled. That is, that Revelation is specifically being fulfilled through them.
As for Calvary Chapel At The Cross, we just finished teaching through the entire book of Revelation only 15 days ago.
The book of Revelation is still fresh in my heart and mind.
So, hey, reader – know that Revelation has not even come close to being fulfilled!
Their flyer alludes to their belief that we are actually in the “time of the Great Tribulation” right now.
And Shincheonji is definitely not the 144,000 that God prophesies about in Revelation. Read more about that here.
(See the flyer they gave me in English and Spanish here)
The church needs to wake up, search the Scriptures and pray!
Please pray for our church and pray that other church pastors in New York City start teaching through the entire Bible.
The Bible is the only way that born again Christians can be informed, educated and equipped about cults like this.
As a shepherd, I’m simply sounding the alarm that there are wolves masquerading as sheep in our midst.
Christians need to search the Scriptures daily to test all things!
Let’s pray that this cult gets disbanded, that the members get saved and that pastors and Christians around us wake up.
Pastor Drew Segawa
For more information and help on how you can “search the Scriptures” to “test all things,” we have a free Facebook group called Bereans At The Cross. Where Christians can learn how to do their own in-depth Bible Study and Research. Our first phase runs from now until just before Thanksgiving 2021.