Shincheonji Church of Jesus

Shincheonji
신천지
Shincheonji Headquarters located in Gwacheon
ClassificationChristian new religious movement
LeaderLee Man-hee
Associations
[1][2][3]
RegionSouth Korea and abroad
FounderLee Man-hee
Origin14 March 1984
South Korea
Tabernacle Temple Church
Members317,320 (According to the Health Ministry of South Korea)
245,605[4]
Other name(s)Shincheonji (accepted common name)
Official websiteshincheonji.org
Korean name
Hangul
신천지
Hanja
Revised RomanizationSincheonji
McCune–ReischauerSinch'ŏnji

Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (SCJ), commonly known as Shincheonji Church of Jesus or simply Shincheonji (Korean: 신천지; Hanja: 新天地; lit. New Heaven and New Earth; IPA: [ɕintɕʰʌndʑi]), is a new religious movement established in South Korea by Lee Man-hee. It is considered a pseudoreligion or cult by mainstream churches.[5][6]

Shincheonji's teaching claims that their founder, Lee, is the pastor promised in the New Testament,[6] and that the Book of Revelation is written in secret metaphors (parables), which only Lee is capable of deciphering.[5] Before founding his own religious movement, Lee was a member of a controversial group called the Olive Tree, a new religious movement which spawned the first countercult movement in post-war Korea,[7] although this connection is not present in Shincheonji's biography of Lee.[8]

Shincheonji teaches that it is the true faith with its members receiving salvation at the time of final judgment. Everyone not in the group will be denied forgiveness and destroyed.[9]

In 2020, the group became the center of intense scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea. The outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Korea was initially centered in the city of Daegu after a 61-year-old Shincheonji member known as Patient 31 infected other church members causing the pandemic to surge in Daegu. As the disease spread among Shincheonji's members and thousands of others, there was a national outcry against the group and by 22 February 2020, over 1.3 million South Korean citizens signed an online petition to the Blue House requesting the government to disband Shincheonji entirely.[10] On 12 August 2022, the Supreme Court in South Korea upheld the acquittal of Lee Man Hee on charges that he obstructed the government’s response to COVID-19 outbreaks in 2020.[11]

  1. ^ "'평화' 내세운 신천지 위장단체…"실제론 종교활동"". No Cut News. 18 March 2020.
  2. ^ "신천지 의혹 프렌드(priend)". hyundaejonggyo.
  3. ^ "신천지 유관단체들". hyundaejonggyo.
  4. ^ (보도설명자료) JTBC 등 신천지 신도명단 보도 관련 (PDF) (in Korean). Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 27 February 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  5. ^ a b Rashid, Raphael (9 March 2020). "Being Called a Cult Is One Thing, Being Blamed for an Epidemic Is Quite Another". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 June 2020.
  6. ^ a b McKay, Hollie (20 August 2020). "Conservative church claims South Korea's government is persecuting them by blaming members for coronavirus spread". Fox News.
  7. ^ Kim, David W.; Bang, Won-il (2019). "Guwonpa, WMSCOG, and Shincheonji: Three Dynamic Grassroots Groups in Contemporary Korean Christian NRM History". Religions. 10 (3): 212. doi:10.3390/rel10030212. hdl:1885/204914.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference birthstory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference PRI-2017-07-11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "[DEBRIEFING] What is the Shincheonji Church of Jesus and who are its members? And more importantly, what are its links to the coronavirus?". Korea JoongAng Daily. 17 March 2020.
  11. ^ Yonhap (12 August 2022). "Supreme Court upholds acquittal of Shincheonji leader". The Korea Herald.