On 15^th March 2019, a gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle and shotgun, and motivated by delusional beliefs of superiority, entered two mosques killing fifty men, women and children and wounding dozens of others in Christchurch, New Zealand. Although the global community - of all faiths and none - responded in horror to this sick act, acts of violence are taking place today among believers of the same faith. 

This is especially true within the Christian circle in the Republic of Korea, notably with the Christian Council of Korea (CCK). The CCK claims itself to be ‘orthodox’ and labels other denominations a ‘heresy’, or ‘cult’. Just because one says they are orthodox and another heresy, does it mean that this is the case? What is the evidence? Let’s look more deeply.

For over ten years, the CCK has been implementing "coercive conversion" education. This is a programme whereby CCK pastors target their ex-congregation members and believers of different Christian beliefs. CCK pastors instil fear into parents or spouses, deceiving them into believing that their loved one has fallen into a ‘cult’. Parents and spouses first drug then forcibly abduct them to remote lodgings and subject them to psychological and emotional abuse whereby the victim is coerced by a pastor into renouncing his or her beliefs and signing to accept the teachings of the CCK.

To date, two women have died through the coercive conversion programme: Mrs. Sunhwa Kim was murdered with a hammer blow to the head in October 2007 and 27-year-old Ms. Ji-In Gu was asphyxiated to death on January 9th 2018, triggering a wave of protests in dozens of countries. Both died at the hands of their own family members in their struggles resisting coercive conversion education. In the last ten years, more than 1250 Korean Christian believers have been forcibly subject to this programme, tearing hundreds of families apart. The supposedly democratic and constitutional laws of the Republic of Korea which enshrine ‘freedom of religion’ are completely ignored by the government who have said nothing about this menace because of the corruption between religion and state. In the last ten years, 12,000 pastors affiliated to the CCK have been convicted of crimes including fraud, harassment, drink-driving and sexual assault.

Whether in religion or elsewhere, it is a great sin to label one a 'heresy' as it can sow a seed of distrust and - in the worst case - hatred into peoples’ hearts, reaping appalling consequences. The only solution to man’s actions is to find the one true standard, which is God's standard. Because God is the word/Bible (Jn 1:1) and because Jesus promised that his words - which are recorded in the Bible - would judge man’s actions in the last day (Jn 12:48), only God’s word has the standard and is orthodox. Let's understand the true meaning of what is ‘orthodox’ and ‘heresy’: 

http://cafe.daum.net/scjschool/E4mY/1006

(The Bible, the Standard Between Orthodoxy and Heresy)