Shincheonji special lesson 86: the work of fulfillment at the second coming!

Where SCJ’s reading conflicts with the Bible

After months of study, this lesson finally names what the course has been pointing to. The fulfillment of Revelation took place “in Gwacheon, a small town just south of Seoul,” at the Tabernacle Temple. “This is New John, whose name is Lee Man-hee.” He is called the one who overcomes and the male child, and Mount Zion is “a church – not a building, but people gathering worldwide,” named Shincheonji, founded March 14, 1984. The date (3.14) is tied to pi: “Even mathematics points back to God.” Students learn they belong to the tribe of “the person who invited them to the Church,” and are told not to share the material early, “like revealing the ending of a movie someone hasn’t watched yet.” They’re warned that online research about people who “left with hardened hearts” can lead them to “fall away from the word of truth.” The lesson argues Korea was chosen because “the last place to receive the gospel is where the end will take place,” and that the 1,600 stadia of Revelation 14:20 equal “the distance from Seoul to Busan.” It insists, “No one is compelled or forced, as this isn’t God’s way.” Here is what Scripture says about each claim, and about how this information was delivered.

1. 1. The name comes after months of preparation

   For roughly 85 lessons, students were taught to look for a promised pastor, a new John, Mount Zion and twelve tribes, while the group and its leader went unnamed. Only now are they told who and where.

   • Paul wrote, “we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not behaving with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God” (2 Corinthians 4:2).
   • Jesus said, “I have spoken publicly to the world … I have said nothing in secret” (John 18:20).
   • “No one is compelled or forced” is only meaningful if people know from the start what they’re being asked to join. Students now hearing the name for the first time are entitled to take time, ask questions and research for themselves before going further.

2. 2. Jesus warned about “the inner rooms”

   The lesson presents the second coming as fulfilled in a particular town, through a particular man, whose identity was revealed privately in stages.

   • Jesus foresaw exactly this: “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe him. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Remember, I have told you ahead of time. So then, if someone says to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe him” (Matthew 24:23-26).
   • “For just like the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so the coming of the Son of Man will be” (24:27).

3. 3. John, the male child and the overcomer aren’t a modern man

   • John signed Revelation: “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things” (Revelation 22:8). There’s no second John in the book. (See Lesson 39.)
   • The male child “was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne” (12:5). Jesus says he “conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne” (3:21). (See Lessons 55 and 73.)
   • In Revelation, “the one who conquers” (3:21) is every believer: “who is the person who has conquered the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5). (See Lesson 45.)
   • “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

4. 4. Saying Korea is “one of the last places to receive the gospel”

   The lesson reasons from Matthew 24:14 that “the last place to receive the gospel is where the end will take place,” and that place is Korea.

   • Jesus said, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). He names no place where the end happens. The point is that the gospel reaches all nations first.
   • Historically, Korea wasn’t one of the last places to hear the gospel. Catholic faith entered Korea in the late 1700s, and Protestant missionaries arrived in 1885. Many regions and people groups were reached much later, and some are still being reached today.
   • By the lesson’s own logic, if peoples are still hearing the gospel for the first time, the end hasn’t come yet.

5. 5. 1,600 stadia and Seoul to Busan

   The lesson says Revelation 14:20’s 1,600 stadia equal “the distance from Seoul to Busan, which is 300 kilometers, representing the whole country.”

   • Revelation 14:20 says “blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles for a distance of almost 200 miles” (Revelation 14:20). It’s an image of the vast scale of God’s judgment on “the vineyard of the earth” (14:19).
   • Many places on earth are about 300 kilometers apart. Matching the number to one country’s dimensions after the fact isn’t fulfillment. It’s selection.

6. 6. Zechariah 4:10: Small beginnings

   • God’s word to Zechariah was about rebuilding the temple after the exile: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this temple, and his hands will complete it” (Zechariah 4:9). “For who dares make light of small beginnings?” (4:10). It encouraged returning exiles not to despise a modest rebuilding project. It isn’t about Korea.

7. 7. Deuteronomy 18 and 13: Apply both tests

   The lesson says Deuteronomy 18:22 is the test, “if their claim does come true, we should pay attention,” and says true messengers “don’t make predictions about future events.”

   • Deuteronomy 18:22 is a real test: “whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it” (Deuteronomy 18:22). Apply it to SCJ’s own claims about the future, not only its claims about the past. Former members widely report being taught things about the founder and the completion of the 144,000 that have not come to pass. Students should ask SCJ directly about these and weigh the answers by this verse.
   • Deuteronomy 13 adds a second test. Even if “the sign or wonder should come to pass,” when the message leads to “other gods,” “You must not listen to the words of that prophet” (Deuteronomy 13:1-3). The question isn’t only whether something matches. It’s whether the message matches the gospel already given (Galatians 1:8).
   • Saying only “This is what God has already done” makes the claims harder to test, not more reliable. (See Lesson 82.)

8. 8. Treating opposition as proof that God is working

   The lesson says, “Persecution is the evidence that God is not with a person,” and the place facing the most opposition “should grab your attention as God must be working in that place because Satan is fighting them the hardest.”

   • Under this rule, any criticism of SCJ, including from family, former members or other churches, confirms SCJ.
   • Scripture distinguishes suffering for Christ from suffering “as a troublemaker” (1 Peter 4:15). Criticism can be deserved or not. It has to be weighed on its content. (See Lessons 6 and 77.)

9. 9. Warning students not to search online

   Students with “itchy hands” are warned that people who “left with hardened hearts” can cause them to “fall away from the word of truth.” They’re told to keep to Scripture, citing “Do not go beyond what is written.”

   • 1 Corinthians 4:6 in full reads, “so that through us you may learn ‘not to go beyond what is written,’ so that none of you will be puffed up in favor of the one against the other” (1 Corinthians 4:6). Paul was warning against exalting one leader above others. That warning fits this lesson’s claims about one man.
   • “The first to state his case seems right, until his opponent begins to cross-examine him” (Proverbs 18:17).
   • People who once studied and served in SCJ know things a student doesn’t. Hearing them isn’t falling away. It’s what any careful person does before a major commitment (Proverbs 14:15; 15:22).

10. 10. Belonging to the tribe of “the person who invited them”

    • Paul wrote, “What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe … I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow” (1 Corinthians 3:5-6). Believers don’t belong to the people who brought them. They belong to Christ (Galatians 3:29). (See Lesson 60.)

11. 11. Calling Shincheonji Mount Zion

    • Hebrews told first-century Christians, “you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem … and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 12:22-24). Mount Zion was open to believers two thousand years ago. (See Lessons 44 and 63.)

12. 12. 3.14 and pi

    • The founding date of March 14 is tied to pi to show that “Even mathematics points back to God.” Pi is an irrational number that begins 3.14159 and never ends. Any date can be connected to some number. This is numerology, not evidence.

13. 13. Small discrepancies

    • The notes say the destroyers “entered the tabernacle in 1980.” SCJ’s own book says they “had already entered” when the author arrived after the fall of 1977 (The Creation of Heaven and Earth, p. 210).
    • The notes call Babylon the “mother of dragons.” Revelation 17:5 says “the Mother of prostitutes” (Revelation 17:5).
    • These matter in a course that says its testimony is exact.

14. 14. Saying “real faith is actually based on knowledge”

    • Faith does rest on truth God has revealed: “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). The revealed truth that saves is Jesus: “these are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).