구춘서 교수 / 한일장신대학교, 예장통합 이단사이비문제상담소장

Part I

Parts of the Minutes of the 80th General Assembly of Presbyterian Church of Korea

Committee on Heretical and Pseudo Religious Groups

The Committee on Heretical and Pseudo Religious Groups recommends that the 80th General Assembly comfirm the following report:

Mr. Man Hee Rhee, the leader of Shincheonji (New Heaven and New Earth) church repeats the wrong teachings of Temple of Tabernacle (then the leader, Mr. Jae Yol Yoo). Mr. Rhee’s views on revelation, God, Christ, salvation, and last things, do not belong to the traditional Christian doctrines. He is heretical. Therefore, it is strictly prohibited to attend Shincheonji church or its free bible study center.

Source: Presbytery Sponsor: Seoul East Presbytery

(November, 29, 1993)

Committee on Heretical Type: General Assembly full consideration and Pseudo religious groups

On this item, the General Assembly acted as follows: Approved the following report on Mr. Man Hee Rhee.

Report on Mr. Man Hee Rhee



1. Introduction

Mr. Man Hee Rhee originally was a follower of the heretical Temple of Tabernacle (then the leader; Jae Yol Yoo). Later, he separated from Mr. Yoo and started his own Shincheonji church at Ahnyang, a southern suburb of Seoul. Mr. Rhee published many books through his church’s publishing company, such as Full Introduction to the Revelation: Eternal Gospel and New Song, The Truth of Revelation: Heavenly Secret, The Truth of the Heaven Book: Secret Revelation. However, these books are anti-Christian on the sense that Mr. Rhee unjustly compares and interprets his own Temple of Tabernacle activities with the eschatological events. Shincheonji’s free Bible center advertizes that free Bible study for everyone is offered. Of course, it is needless to say that the text books and materials used in the Center are from Mr. Rhee, and the center is operated in secret.

2. On Revelation

Mr. Rhee maintains that Matthew chapter 24 and Revelation are the only New Covenant, thus making other books in the New and Old Testaments useless.



3. On Christ

Mr. Rhee denies not only the incarnation of Jesus Christ but also the divinity of Jesus Christ. According to Mr. Rhee’s teachings, Jesus is not the God-incarnated, but a simple human being to whom the Holy Spirit comes.

4. On Salvation

1) Mr. Rhee argues that salvation cannot be achieved by faith in Jesus Christ but by encountering Johnnes Missioner (I am not sure about this name: John's ?) (who is the counselor). To listen and to keep the words of the Johnnes Missioner leads to eternal life, and no one comes to Jesus except through John.



2) Mr. Rhee argues that “a true speaker is spreading out those (some word is missing here) Jesus, who is Holy Spirit, shows and speaks.” Of course, the true speaker is Mr. Rhee himself. Mr. Rhee regards his books as “true revelations” and “Words that Holy Spirit speaks to the church through me.” Mr. Rhee also maintains his books as “the new public open revelation that has been kept secretly by seven Godly seals.”



5. On God

1) Mr. Rhee’s understanding of Trinity is different from the traditional Christian Trinity. Mr. Rhee sees Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a parable of the trinity. He says, “Trinity is: Father, who is a Spirit, gives birth to Son, Jesus (Isaac), Jesus, who is a Spirit, gives birth to a Son, Counselor(Jacob).” He continues, “Holy Spirit unites with Jesus, and the Spirit of the united Jesus comes to the Missioner (Missionary), thus makes trinity.”

2) Mr. Rhee’s view on God turns out as pantheism. Mr. Rhee interprets the events of the Revelation as a battle between the Holy Spirit and an evil Spirit. Thus, he regards the Holy Spirit as not as a Person of trinity but as an opponent of evil spirit. Moreover, he argues that the soul of martyrs is also the Holy Spirit. He also regards, “Counselor not as Holy Spirit(divinity) but a great prophet, who is simply a human.” Thus, his views on God can be regarded as pantheism.



6. On Last Things.

Mr. Rhee argues the final place where the prophecy of Revelation fulfilled will be the Cheanggye mountain, Gacheon, Korea, where his temple of Tabernacle started. He also teaches the final fulfillment of the last things will be on his Shincheonji that is the Temple of Tabernacle.



7. Conclusion.

Mr. Man Hee Rhee repeats the wrong teachings of Jae Yol Yoo, then the leader of Temple of Tabernacle. His views on Revelation, God, Christ, Salvation, and Last Things, are heretical, and are not on the side of traditional Christianity. Therefore, General Assembly strictly prohibits its members to attend Mr. Man Hee Rhee’s Shincheonji church or his free bible study center.

Part II

Parts of the Pamphlet Published by the Committee on Heretical and Pseudo Religious Groups (PCK), titled An Emergent Warning on Shincheonji: Shincheonji seduces Korean Churches

It has been long time in Korean church that many heretical groups have hurt Korean church by seduced its regular members.For a long time the Korean church has been hurt through the seduction of its members by heretical groups. Among the heretical groups, the Shincheonji group, of which headquartered in Gacheon, a southern suburb of Seoul, is the most vicious group. Thus many immediate responses, such as revealing their identity, counseling and education of church members, announcements, are urgently required. Their threats are serious.

Shincheonji Temple of Tabernacle stared on March 14th, 1984 by establishing 12 tribes. It is reported that it has around 60,000 members, and its number are rapidly increasing. It vigorously seeks to grow by seducing the institutionalized church members. Till now, many Korean heretical groups used home visiting, mass rallies, distribution of pamphlets, posters, cultural and sport activities, questionnaires, as its growth strategies. However, Shincheonji group secretly sent its so-called “harvest reaper” into churches and carried on its seducing mission. Recently, some churches have lost their buildings and property to the Shincheonji group, due to its “Transporting Mountain(here means church)” strategy. Thus, Shincheonji is the most dangerous heretical group Korean church ever had. Therefore, this little pamphlet is about taking necessary measures against the Shincheonji’s seducing strategies.



1. The Doctrinal Strategy of Shincheonji

1) Shincheonji maintains a wrong conditional eschatology that once it reaches the 144,000 membership, its members will unite with God and have an eternal life without bodily death.



2) Shincheonji uses “metaphor theory” to seduce institutionalized church members. “Metaphor theory” of Shincheonji is that without knowing the metaphor of the Bible, one cannot know the secret of the hidden Bible. Thus, once one is seduced by the “metaphor theory”, one is easily moved to the next step. Therefore, it is important not to be seduced by the “metaphor theory” or “parable theory.” It is needless to say that the parable of Matthew chapter 13 does not apply to all Biblical interpretations, but only what Jesus said using parables.

3) The Revelation is used for the last stage of Shincheonji’s seduction.



4) Shincheonji maintains “every Bible verse has pair” based on Isaiah 34: 16, “None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate.” (Though the recent trend is decreasing using this argument, but still it is reported that many use it.) However, the mate here is not what Shincheonji means as biblical pair, but the mate of animal.



5) The order of the second coming of Jesus Shincheonji argues is Rebellion, destruction, and salvation based in II Thessalonians 2: 1-2. The first rebellion is John the Baptist.



6) Shincheonji maintians that the East is Korea, especially Gwacheon. However, according to its argument, Garden of Eden, (Genesis 2: 8), the site of Babel (Genesis 11: 2) are in Korea, and moreover, Job (Job 1: 3), and the Magi from the East(Matthew 2:1) are also Korean. This kind of Biblical interpretation is ridiculous.

2. The Seducing Strategy of Shincheonji.

1) Shincheonji seduces traditional church members to have a Bible study outside of their churches. Therefore, it is very important for a church member to report one’s pastor if someone introduces a Bible Study outside of church. Even though the bible study is reliable, still it is encouraged to report to the pastor.



2) It is well known fact that Shincheonji selects its target among those who are not satisfied with the preaching of the pastor or who are thirsty in spiritual activities in the church.

3) It is reported that Shincheonji seduces those who complain about church especially about pastors.



4) Often Shincheonji chooses to be a regular church member by being invited through many cunning methods.



5) Shincheonji rationalizes telling a lie as “strategy.” Shincheonji encourages its members to tell a lie and even trains its members to cry and to pretend to restore the traditional faith.

6) Shincheonji brainwashes its members to do anything for its leader, Mr. Man Hee Rhee.



7) Shincheonji establishes many pseudo charitable institutions. Many of the notorious institutions are “Mannam(encountering, leader Ms. Nam Hee Kim)” Good Day (Heavenly Dance group), Soul Keeper, Meeting of Beautiful People Town Cleaners, etc. These institutions carry out many activities such as blood donation, helping your neighbour campaign, helping North Korean children campaign, kimchi preparing for poor neighbour activities, collecting rice contributions, collecting old clothes, collecting milk packs, and many other questionnaires activities.



8) Shincheonji even establishes many fraud churches and fraud prayer houses. Shincheonji takes advantage of the ex-pastors and speakers from the regular churches to establish fraud churches. Shincheonji churches use “Korean Presbyterian” to cover their true identity. The often used names are “Blessed Church” “Love Church” “Living Water Church,” etc. The fraud prayer houses host many fraud activities such as revival meetings, healing ministries, speaking other tongue meetings, praising revival meetings.

9) Shincheonji establishes many fraud institutions: continuing education centers, cultural institutions, and cafes. Shincheon establishes many fraud cultural institutions such as a “Research Center for living culture” and “Where love stays” and offers many cultural programs such as “Knowledge ground” “Health ground” “art and graft ground” “morning seminar” etc. It also offers “art psychology therapy” “diagram analysis” “lecture for psychological therapy” etc. through its fraud cafes.



10) Shincheonji uses many fraud college clubs and especially fraud internet cafes to seduce church members. Among them are RCY (a blood donation club), Academic club, job clubs, self development club, gospel club, Christian club, meetingg club, charity activity club, pop club, English club, global challengers, etc. There reported many fraud internet cafes.



11) Shincheonji uses various questionnaires to seduce. Home visiting, and college campus, park, and streets are the places for Shincheonji questionnaires. They introduce time keeping seminar, drawing diagrams, Christian movies, counselling using gestalt, art therapy, character type test, enneagram test, blood donation, read palm line, etc.



12) Shincheonji uses its fraud mass media. Shincheonji changes its secret Christian Interdenominational News Paper into Heaven and Earth Daily News after its indenty is revealed. It also changes All That News, an internet news media into Heaven and Earth News. These kinds of mass media will continue to appear.



13) Shincheonji uses two groups of harvest reaper to seduce regular church members: the inquiry harvest reaper who just collects information, and the raid harvest reaper who actually carries out the seducing activities. When these harvest reapers enrol in the church they secretly hide their identify using false name and addresses. Recently it is reported that even though their identities are reveled, they choose not to leave the church but stay in the church to collect information of church members.



3. How to Cope with Shincheonji

1) First of all, lay leaders and ministers need to know Shincheonji’s strategies of seducing especially its way of interpreting the Bible. Shincheonji does not read the Bible as a whole, but reads parts of the Bible to support its false doctrines.

2) Let the church members be familiar with the strategies of shincheonji’s “harvest reaper” so that the church members can pick out who the secret shincheonji harvest reapers are in the church. These harvest reapers do not want to tell their identifies and insist that their pictures not be taken. They also do not want to be visited, and are absent on Sunday evening services, or Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday daytime meetings, because they attend Shincheonji’s gatherings.



3) Don’t be fooled by harvest reapers’ deceiving acts such as crying, telling a lie, and other pretending actions.



4) Be reminded that those who are seduced into shincheonji’s faith are not easily coming back to traditional faith. A professional help is needed for the victim of Shincheonji to restore the traditional faith.

5) It is advised to announce to the church lay leaders and group leaders about shincheonji. Protection from the shincheonji is the best way and indifference is the worst enemy in coping with shincheonji.

6) Don’t be deceived by shincheonji’s fraud institutions, such as fraud churches, prayer houses, cultural institutions, college clubs, cafes, and mass media. It is prohibited to participate in the activities of these institutions and to read news of these medias.



7) If possible, it is desirable to cope with shincheonji with the help of other churches, presbyteries and even the supports of other denominations.



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