I received a letter and a phone call from a relatively new convert to the 新天地 group, which is called Shincheonji Church of Jesus in English. Perhaps I’ll go into more details sometime in the future as to what this group believes and practices, but I want to concentrate on my interaction with the young convert and the material that I was presented…which gave me an important observation into the formation of cults.
So, I tried to be as loving and kind to the new convert as possible. I think this person was in a rough spot, was pulled into the cult and had been trying to be a good “Christian”, which means writing letters and contacting as many people as possible. My guess is that this work had become all encompassing…and I just wanted to present an alternative that is truer and freer than what she was experiencing. But the person also directed me to some messages of their leader, whom I can’t remember off the top of my head, but in essence, it was the “second John”. According to the message, only two people have ever entered into heaven and seen it….Jesus and John (John in Revelation). So, the leader of this group is that John who ascended into heaven and now can speak the truth because he had literally been to heaven (thus, complete authority). But besides that, there was a great emphasis on the “blood of Jesus”. Generally, the “blood of Jesus” usually means the work of Jesus on the cross as an atoning sacrifice (1 John 4 ). In other words, it is not that we actually need bottles of blood of Jesus and that this has a kind of supernatural quality about it…but rather “blood” is another word for “life” in certain contexts. In most contexts, that is the natural understanding of how it is used. But this group began using the word “blood of Christ” in an unusual way…their leader, who is the only one who had access to heaven and the truth, learned the secret meaning of blood of Christ, and it is only through this secret meaning that people are saved…so, the words “blood of Christ” or similar phrases in the New Testament, change to mean the “teachings of leader so-and-so”. Thus, people will then read the same passages as anyone else could, but come away with totally different understandings due to language games. I later noticed something similar with the Unification church. There is a change of language from God as “Father” to “Parent” and then extracting “female” and “male” understandings from “parent”, thus almost making God into a literal male and female. This is done to deify not just Rev. Moon, but his wife as well, since there would need to be two people in order to reflect the “masculine” and “feminine” aspects of God. Regardless, the subtle changes of meanings of words and vocabulary can dupe people into very strange ways.
So, words are important. We need to always ask what does someone mean by “such and such”, and see how they come to such conclusions as well. A lot of times people nod their heads because we know all the words that are used, but really deep down, we have no idea what they are talking about…yet we feel foolish to question and ask for explanation. And we can then go along, little by little, being led by a person charisma and nothing more (perhaps also dark powers?) As a Christian, we should always be questioning for our own understanding and as acts of discernment…
Quinby 