Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (Shincheonji) has already held its third ‘100,000 Graduation Ceremony’. A whopping 108,084 students graduated through the Shincheonji 100,000 Graduation Ceremony held at Daegu Stadium on the 12th November.

The Shincheonji Graduation Ceremony is an event commemorating the completion of a six-month Bible study course through the Zion Christian Mission Centre, the Bible education institution of Shincheonji. To be eligible for graduation, you must complete all courses at the Centre as well as score 90 points or higher on the graduation exam. It is certainly not unusual for more than 100,000 people a year to go through such a difficult process and join Shincheonji, which is considered taboo by the established religious denominations.

Before COVID-19, Shincheonji was trapped in the ‘cult-framing’ imposed by the established religious denominations. In South Korea, the societal view of Shincheonji has been so severe that it is considered natural that if it is discovered that someone attends Shincheonji, they will be ostracised from home, school, work, and society. As this is already the third Shincheonji '100,000 Graduation Ceremony' held despite such prejudice and persecution, the religious community as well as society are now looking at 'Shincheonji' again.

When Shincheonji held its first '100,000 Graduation Ceremony' in 2019, before the coronavirus, religious circles in the media and pastors in Korea looked at the '100,000 Graduation Ceremony' with suspicion, wondering if it was somehow a manipulation. The following year, in 2020, when Shincheonji was accused of being the main culprit in the spread of the coronavirus, the prevailing mood in religious circles was that “Shincheonji is over.” However, seeing Shincheonji hold another '100,000 Graduation Ceremony' last year, the doubts of the religious community and pastors changed to 'surprise and envy.' And now this year, Shincheonji, which produced a huge number of graduates, ‘108,084’, is proving that it is now ‘setting a trend in the religious world.’

It is also worth noting that the number of pastors and seminarians among the graduates was 6274, which is more than 10 times more than last year's number of 522. Pastors who had rejected Shincheonji are also flocking to Shincheonji. The fact that pastors are flocking to Shincheonji, which has been criticised as a ‘cult’, means that there is something special about Shincheonji.

Hyeon-mo Jeong, who presented his testimonial as a representative of the graduates this time, said that he took both the Shincheonji Bible study course and the doctoral theological thesis at the same time and objectively compared the doctrines of both. He then described the established theology, which is biased toward the Old Testament, and the revealed theology of Shincheonji, which conveys the true meaning and reality of the Book of Revelation, as “the difference between heaven and earth.” Fellow graduate students also seemed to empathise with his comments.

Shincheonji has already held its third 100,000 graduation ceremony, overcoming the harsh persecution of today's world, where all religions are corrupt and on the path to decline. Shincheonji says the reason for its rapid growth is “because God the Word and Jesus are with Shincheonji.” Even if it is difficult to determine whether this statement is true or not, it is an undeniable truth that Shincheonji is the only denomination in religious history that has held 100,000 graduation ceremonies three times.