Despite ongoing slander by the established church and affiliated media against Shincheonji Church of Jesus, The Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (‘Shincheonji church’ for short) in the Republic of Korea, Shincheonji church is growing rapidly. Since its establishment in March 1984, the number of congregation members has grown from 120 to a current 260,000 worldwide, with the number expected to surpass 300,000 by the end of 2019 and 500,000 by the end of 2020.

The reason for such explosive growth is the fact that Shincheonji church is the promised church recorded in the New Testament of the Bible. It can, therefore, testify to the true meaning of the New Testament promise and its reality according to the five Ws and one H. It teaches solely from the Bible without any external commentaries. Moreover, Shincheonji church puts its Biblical teachings into practice through Shincheonji Volunteer Group (SVG), which has over 200,000 members worldwide serving in disaster relief, blood-giving, war veteran support, regional development, public service campaigns and, not least, peaceful reunification of the Koreas. SVG is unlike any other ‘charitable’ organisation in the sense that the love and service its volunteers give is not based only on an innate desire, but on a certain hope of a better future for all humanity without mourning, death, crying or pain (see Revelation 21:4).

It is because of the recent rapid growth of Shincheonji church that the established church and allied Christian media - particularly the Christian Council of Korea (CCK) and Christian Broadcasting System (CBS) - which are in rapid decline, have been disseminating false information. According to a press release issued by Shincheonji church on July 31st, some Christian media organisations are seeking to pressurise administrative authorities into protecting the vested rights of the established church.

Morever, in spite of several invitations made by Shincheonji Church to the CCK to engage in public discussion on the Bible, the CCK refuses to do so. Therefore, the public’s misunderstandings about Shincheonji church remain unresolved.

The sad reality of Christianity in Korea today is that pastors affiliated to the CCK have been sentenced for 12,000 crimes including fraud, burglary, forgery, defamation, drink-driving, arson and sexual assault since 2008. Within the last four years alone, 550 pastors in Seoul have received such sentences. In contrast, not a single accusation made against Shincheonji church by the CCK has been upheld by a court of law. In fact, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Shincheonji church after CCK broadcast a false documentary entitled Those who fell into Shincheonji.

In contrast to the Christian press, several major national and regional newspapers in Korea continue to spread positive news about the growth of Shincheonji church and their various volunteer activities. They also argue that the reporting behaviour by Christian media is intentional and serves only to promote the interests of the established church in Korea.

A positive wave of interest in Shincheonji church from the general public has recently surged as a staggering 50,000 citizens, of all faiths and none, attended Shincheonji church’s Open Bible seminar held throughout the country. Shincheonji church maintains its channels of communication open with the CCK in the hope that the CCK will agree to public discussion on the Bible.

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