Shincheonji Vs. The Jehovah’s Witnesses

Both Shincheonji and the Jehovah Witnesses are apocalyptic high control groups, where through fear, guilt, shame, and manipulation and other forms of coercion found in the BITE model, the members are pushed through the fear of living on the precipice of the end of the world happening within their lifetime.

They are both doomsday sects that are awaiting judgment, and both cults have a 144,000 doctrine where the followers of respective sects would be elevated, whether it being to a “high priest” for Shincheonji, or having a spirit body to dwell in heaven for the Jehovah Witnesses, which often ensures competition between members and more blind obedience.

Both groups expect obedience to their “faithful and wise servant”, whether through the Witnesses it was originally through Charles Taze Russell as the faithful and wise servant which eventually became the Organization, or through Lee Man Hee. Questioning their authority is like questioning God. The Jehovah Witnesses also have a saying when it comes to having worldly thoughts: “Avoid independent thinking”.

Both groups make the claim that their set of leaders give “food at the proper time” – the Governing Body for the Witnesses – and both claim to have the fulfillment of Revelation and the Kingdom of God in their respective organizations.

View of Christ:

Both deny:

• the deity of Christ and the Trinity
  • SCJ believes that Jesus is a prophet or “Promised Pastor” of the Old Testament
    • Also believes that Jesus was only a created being that came into existence at his virgin birth.
  • JW’s believe that Jesus was created as Michael the Archangel and was just a perfect man who did the will of the Father and came to earth to perform a “ransom sacrifice.”
• The bodily resurrection
  • The Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus was resurrected as an “invisible spirit creature”
  • Shincheonji believes that Jesus’s resurrection was partially physical at first, but when he returned to Heaven and his body was covered in a cloud, Jesus’s body became spiritual.
• Both believe that Jesus has returned in spiritually and is currently fulfilling Revelation through their respective organizations
  • Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914.
  • Shincheonji believes that Jesus has come back in the work of Lee Manhee in beginning his work of fulfilling Revelation in 1966 in South Korea, and that since the establishment of Shincheonji in 1984, the 1000 year millennium has begun.
    • God will fulfill Revelation through Lee Man Hee, as Lee Man Hee is the Faithful and Wise Servant (Matthew 24:45) and the “Pillar in God’s temple” (Revelation 3:12).
    • Eventually, SCJ members will also become immortal through the “1st resurrection”, where the spirits of Heaven (which is filled with Martyrs) will “spiritually marry” the members of SCJ and allow them to become immortal.

Salvation is no longer through faith in Christ, but instead faith in Christ and in the respective organizations.

• For the JWs:
  • Commitment to God’s Organization
• For SCJ:
  • Faith in the testimony of Lee Man Hee and how SCJ fulfills the “New Heaven New Earth”
• Both groups require heavy recruitment (JWs with their “pioneering”), heavy internal and external reporting, and deception. JWs are allowed to lie with their “theocratic war strategy” and the SCJ does it through “the wisdom of hiding.”
  • Ex: both claim that Jesus is the “Son of God”, and yet both groups deny the deity of Christ and the Trinity.
    • To a Christian, Jesus being the son of God has a very different meaning than what a SCJ member or Jehovah Witness would believe.
• Both groups believe that Christianity is in darkness and will be judged or destroyed, where SCJ calls other churches “Babylon” while the JWs derogatorily speak of them as “Christendom.”
  • SCJ believes that God will carry out a “spiritual” judgment against Christianity with Lee Man Hee’s word of Testimony
  • JW’s believe that God will destroy the world and “Christendom” with Armageddon.

Failed Prophecies and “New light”

• Jehovah Witnesses believe that “the light is becoming brighter” where prophecies can be updated at the will of the Organization (Proverbs 4:18)
  • Some examples include: the world was supposed to end in 1925, but when 1925 came and nothing happened, the Watchtower announced that “It is to be expected that Satan will try to inject into the minds of the consecrated the thought that 1925 should see an end of the work, and that therefore it would be needless for them to do more.” The Organization said it for years and Now it is the fault of the members.
  • World was also supposed to end in 1975 and several other times, yet nothing happened.
• Shincheonji is also able to update their prophecies at will:
  • Shincheonji divides the world into 12 tribes
  • Before: Per tribe, 12,000 members sealed (meaning they had the knowledge of the doctrines of Shincheonji to the point of becoming a priest), making the 144,000 then after this the Great Tribulation began.
  • After: COVID-19 was the start of the Great Tribulation (February of 2020), yet 7 of the 12 tribes did not have 12,000 sealed members, one of the tribes did not have 12,000 members to begin with.
    • As of September 2022, 5 out of the 12 tribes do not have 12,000 members to begin with.
• Issue with this: Lee Man Hee claims to have seen and heard “all of the events of Revelation”, including its physical fulfillment.