Seven years ago, Sister Zhou almost fell into the snare of the Korean cult “Shinchonji”, and this story remains fresh in her memory.
Back then, she eagerly hoped her son to return to the Lord. She found a church with a majority of young people who came through many inquiries and made great efforts to contact a girl surnamed Wang who was a schoolfellow of her son. After chatting on QQ and getting to know each other initially, Sister Zhou felt that Wang loved the Lord, so she let her guard down.
Zhou learned that Wang's church would go to Tsinghua University on weekends to preach the gospel and “sweep the building”, which meant going to each student's study room and distributing questionnaires. The purpose of this so-called “sweeping the building” was to get the students' information in order to further contact with these “little lambs”. Sister Zhou immediately applied to participate in it. To be cautious, she asked to go to Wang’s church to attend a Sunday worship, listen to the sermon first, and feel it. Wang agreed to her request.
On the Sunday morning, Sister Zhou arrived at the church ahead of schedule. It was actually an large room about 80 square meters in an office building. The young people who came to the gathering accounted for more than half, which made Zhou very happy. She imagined that one day, her son could return and believe in the Lord. With these peers he would definitely get along quickly.
Sister Zhou felt that everything was alright with the following Sunday worship procedure, praise, sermon, witness and other links, except that the young attendees were rather dull, and some of them never smiled. Maybe it's because they were under too much academic or work pressure, thought Zhou.
After the service, Wang and some young attendees took Zhou to the student dining room at Tsinghua University for a meal. After that, they went separately to “sweep the building” (to distribute questionnaires), and hardly missed a classroom. The general content of the questionnaire was to simply answer a few questions, such as “Have you ever heard of Christianity?”, “Are you a Christian?”, “Which generation of Christians are you?”.Then they asked the students to leave their contact information. Most students filled it up truthfully out of courtesy.
At the end of the day, hundreds of valid answers were received. In Sister Zhou's opinion, these young attendees were not only well trained but also hardworking and conscientious.
After that activity, Zhou returned to Wang’s residence, a three-bedroom apartment in the downtown area. Wang shared the apartment with two other girls, one room for each of them. During chat, Zhou learned that their expensive rent is paid by the higher authority.
Then, Wang told Zhou about her experience of believing in the Lord. For more than an hour, Wang was as logical as if she had been professionally trained. While Zhou was listening to this, a thought suddenly flashed in her mind: “How come it feels so similar to MLM(multilevel marketing, as well known as pyramid sales system)?” Later, Wang was quite proud to say that she had been continuously promoted because of her remarkable work achievements, and she also got a bonus from the headquarters, which was used to pay her tuition. Sister Zhou was confused, but she did not ask any more questions.
Later, Wang posted a fund-raising link on QQ, saying that the rent was about to expire, and there was still RMB 80,000 yuan left. After Sister transferred her RMB 200, Wang quickly replied that the rent had been fully provided by the higher authority. Later, Wang blocked Sister Zhou on QQ.
Now, after reading many reports, Zhou knows that she was almost involved in the “Shinchonji” cult that year. According to the report of the Global Times, the Korean cult has an organized and systematic management to attract young people who has got lack of faith by "caring" for them. By taking advantage from the pressure of young people who cannot afford to buy a house or get married, “Shinchonji” vigorously advocate for them to become believers to be redeemed. The ultimate goal of “Shinchonji” is to master student groups from universities, which is more effective than street work. As inexperienced college students, freshmen, and newly graduated young people have pressure in their studies and employment, so they are easier to be contacted and preached.
Zhou told her personal experience to the church pastor, who said that in the face of heresy such as “Shinchonji”, the church should focus on the truth, not heresies. The more believers understand the truth, the less susceptible they will be influenced by the heresy. The more believers study the truth attentively, the less likely heresy is to work.
Then, her church set up a youth fellowship to strengthen the teaching of the basic truth. On weekends or holidays, the full-time co-workers in the church would lead the young people to go out for activities, such as spring and autumn trips, picnic, rock climbing, etc. These trips will help to establish stable relationships with young people to understand their actual needs, to care for them and help them through the difficulties.
At this point, Zhou felt sorry for the young people like Wang, and also thanked God for keeping herself and her son from falling into the snare of “Shinchonji”. She stopped looking for the church, but instead she devoted herself to the study and ministry of the church.
(This is a contributionc article written by a freelance author, who is a seminary student in Yunnan.)
- Translated by Oliver Zuo
