What helped you to make the decision of leaving?

I studied with a Shincheonji-affiliated campus ministry during 2020. I was just a student in a small group class and in the introductory lessons, not an actual member of Shincheonji, as I left the campus ministry before I could even complete the small group class and start taking a large group class afterward. In the few weeks I studied with SCJ members, I got confused by some of the teachings of SCJ that I soon found out were unbiblical right before I left the SCJ-affiliated campus ministry, and during that time I spoke to several people I know about my experiences and what I was learning in that campus ministry and they advised me to leave the group if the group was not willing to help me or support me or if they were part of a cult or a cult itself. I also prayed to God, and also asked some others to pray for me, regarding this campus ministry, especially so that God, through the Holy Spirit, would convict the teachers and other members of that campus ministry of any false teachings they have and correct them of such teachings if they had any false ones. I planned to stay longer with the SCJ-affiliated group until I started seeing more signs that they were either affiliated with a cult or had major false teachings, so I didn't initially listen to the advice of those who advised me to leave the group until I heard more false teachings being taught by SCJ members. What helped me leave that campus ministry was that during my last few weeks with the campus ministry, I was getting confused by some teachings I was hearing, and I tried to share the truth with some of the members and asked them questions, but they didn't help me much and they expected me to agree with everything their group was teaching, and they decided to end their lessons with me when they saw I couldn't accept any false teaching I was hearing from the group. What also helped me leave the group was that I could not genuinely become friends with anyone in the SCJ-affiliated group, especially after I pointed out to the members that their group itself could be teaching false doctrines and when I told them I got confused by some of SCJ's teachings, which was most likely why they started changing their tone towards me and didn't seem as interested in being my friends as they used to before I started seeing more unbiblical teachings. After I found out the ministry was affiliated with Shincheonji I gave thanks and praises to God that I left the Shincheonji-affiliated ministry, and I learned later that everyone the campus ministry that I met online in that campus ministry was a Shincheonji member. I haven't heard back from any SCJ member ever since.

Hope this helps others make up their mind:

Reasons for Leaving SCJ:

1. Glorification of the “Promised Pastor”

e.g. Songs praising him. Lyrics (correctly translated) are as follows: “Thank you, the One Who Overcomes, I will praise your name eternally.”

2. Constant Blatant Use of Lying and Deception

Some examples include the ff:

a.) Instructor and TA lying when mentioning there was no pressure to evangelize (even Head Instructor contradicted this and admitted that there was pressure to evangelize) and that the only requirement was service.

b.) Instructor and TA lying when mentioning that posting of daily reports (which included reports of prayers, evangelism, and education) will cease after NFME

c.) TA lying when mentioning she forgot to say that there was another option where you could just report prayers (truth was she was just following command from the head instructor, also even the head instructor admitted that it was his fault and not the TA’s)

d.) Head Instructor lying when mentioning that he did not ask congregation to post content of prayers. All 5 members of the cell group plus the TA interpreted it that way.

e.) Head Instructor lying about the correct translation of one of the worship songs which says to praise the name of the OWO eternally

Note: While there may be verses in the bible which seem to support deceptive means of evangelism, there are none which support consistent use of lying.

3. Consistent Use of Brainwashing/Mind Control Techniques in Center/NFME

a.) AWFULLY long lectures belaboring amazingly simple points carefully designed to drain your mind and energy

b.) Requiring conformity all the time (example: HW must be handwritten, during exams you cannot leave until everyone else is finished, profile picture must look the same in app)

c.) forcing people to smile and telling them when to smile

d.) consistently reminding people to focus and look at him

e.) emphasizes “following” NOT “thinking” (Examples: Instructor advising congregation not to engage in research about SCJ, Exams are all about memorization (parroting), etc.)

f.) requests for daily reports on prayers, education, and evangelism; wants to know your schedule and what you are up to constantly, wanting to know what your thoughts are after every lesson, asking what your greatness weakness is

g.) emphasizes breaking your own thoughts, desires, and ideologies

h.) imposing of ways on how to dress, act and refer to leaders (titles)

What helped me make the decision to leave SCJ after so many years was to see this video: https://youtu.be/-0zCQbMykL0 I was afraid that there will be nothing for me if I left because I was not sure if I could continue to believe in God and the bible. I was not sure if there was a truth. I was scared that I would become an atheist. Now I have hope I can recover my relationship with Christ and take small steps to learn the basic of my faith once again. It helped me see that what I was feeling others just like me who had left felt too. SCJ takes away your hope. I was able to find hope and encouragement through this video just in the right moment. Praise the Lord!

What really helped me was talking to others who left Shincheonji or are experts for cults.

First, I felt alone because no one I know outside of SCJ is aware of this cult. So it seemed I got no one to talk to.

Searching on the internet i found the subreddit for SCJ. It reassured me to see that I am not the first person who thinks about leaving them. There I saw different posts about people who left Shinchonji and explained how they did.

The people from Shincheonji tried to isolate me from my friends and family, pretending they are my real friends. This made it difficult to leave them, but knowing others will support me with my decision helped a lot.