A millennial Christian told the story of how he was targeted by the heretical group Shincheonji Church of Jesus or New Heaven and New Earth Church because he liked to visit all kinds of social media platforms and how he finally got out of it.
Xiao Sun (pseudonym) usually likes lifestyle platforms that focus on sharing beauty and skincare knowledge and clothing. One day, she studied skin care knowledge on a platform as usual and accidentally came across a beautiful cartoon picture with Bible verses. She felt very warm as a Christian in an instant. She naturally paid attention to several bloggers who shared such pictures and planned to look at these pictures that made her feel warm every day, but she didn’t expect to be targeted by the heretical Shincheonji at this time.
From that day on, she received many such private letters: “Hello, sister, I see that you are also a Christian. Because of the pandemic, we can’t get together here, so I want to read the Bible with you. Do you usually go to church on weekends?” Xiao Sun, who was not very socially experienced, was not on guard, thinking that they were all family members and that it was also good to share faith with them.
These so-called "sisters" in the Lord often sent Bible verses and invited Xiao Sun to read them together. After a while, they gradually became familiar with them. They also began to collect her personal information and asked Xiao Sun about her age, work, and family situation. One day, one of the “sisters” sent an invitation to Xiao Sun and asked her if she would come to an online gathering. At that time, due to the pandemic, Xiao Sun didn’t attend church for a long time, then she accepted the invitation. Recalling the online gathering, she felt that everything seemed to be the same as an orthodox service, without too many differences. But one thing that puzzled her was that the people who hosted the gathering did not call themselves Christians but always emphasized that they were "believers." In addition, they also revealed through this gathering that those who wanted to study the Bible could participate in group study privately.
Sun also participated in the primary online course under the persuasion of a "sister." She knows the characteristics of heretical organizations, namely, that they do not preach according to biblical teachings. Looking back on her study for a month or so, she found that Shincheonji, a heretical organization, repeatedly emphasized the uniqueness of the Bible, but it distorted the facts by taking it out of context and making it patchwork. She summed up the primary attractive contents of the Shincheonji, such as “Why does God know everything?" “How can he achieve eternal life?" “Why does God save those who believe in him?" “The importance of flesh and spirit," “How to change the fate of life," “True faith and formal faith," “The reason to fear God," “The way to read the Bible," “How to know the voice of God,” and so on. It seemed to be very organized, but it was actually a very systematic process that had already been designed. Throw a question and then piece it together, find a chapter, and force it under your own answer with words from the Bible. People gradually lose confidence in God, paving the way for the final heresy.
After a month of intense brainwashing study four or five days a week, Xiao Sun had a vague idea that something was wrong. During a study, another organization member came to observe her performance, and she finally made up her mind to leave. It also emphasized that people were nothing before God, and if they could not attend the study on time, it meant that Satan was disturbing, and God’s words were sealed by metaphor. She was told, "You can only understand after learning, but you can not live forever if you believed in the Lord. You can only learn words with us. To learn words is to work for God, and everything in the world can be put down except learning words." It was these extreme thoughts that kept Sun from learning anymore.
At present, Sun has returned from heresy. She repented that her poor understanding of the Bible had given heretical organizations an opportunity and regretted that she had failed to discover their trap earlier. Fortunately, however, she had nothing in common with them in real life, and she blacked out their contact information. Can Sun still escape their mercy if this happened in real life? It will make people feel cold.
Here, Sun appeals to all brothers and sisters in the Lord to stay away from all kinds of heretics (including the Almighty God, the Shincheonji, etc.) on various social media and short video platforms and in orthodox churches, with her own painful experiences. Shincheonji has reached a pervasive state, and even they have begun to hang out on dating platforms and game platforms. It is not known where they will extend their events next.
- Translated by Charlie Li
