Shincheonji Church of Jesus

Did You Know?

• Lee Man-hee was previously a member of the Olive Tree, a new religious movement that influenced the first anti-cult movement in postwar South Korea.
• In 2022, a court ruled Shincheonji's practice of deceptive evangelism—teaching doctrines while hiding affiliation—illegal.
• In 2020, China banned Shincheonji, and 21 members were arrested in Singapore for congregating as an unlawful society.

Organization and structure

The church’s structure has a chairman at its center, viewed as the Promised Pastor from the New Testament, supported by 24 administrative departments. Seven directors handle education, while twelve tribe leaders—each named after one of Jesus’ disciples, with Matthias replacing Judas—oversee groups of smaller churches. Shincheonji claims this setup mirrors the heavenly organization in Revelation 4. Each tribe controls a specific region in South Korea: for instance, the Thaddaeus tribe covers North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu, while the Andrew tribe includes South Gyeongsang Province, parts of Busan, Ulsan, and Jeju Island.

Seasons and festivals

Shincheonji observes four official seasons each year, most of which are tied to Old Testament religious observances and are held on specific dates. The Founding Anniversary commemorates the date Lee Man-hee founded the church. The Feast of Tabernacles, based on Leviticus, is celebrated not with physical booths but by viewing members as spiritual booths where the Holy Spirit dwells, symbolizing a journey into the group's teachings. The Feast of Ingathering, derived from Exodus, is a spiritual harvest festival thanking God for gathering members into God's kingdom, with its date chosen as the anniversary of the laying of the Holy Temple's foundation as extrapolated from Haggai 2.

Controversies

The group has faced accusations of political influence. A former member alleged that Chairman Lee created the name of the Saenuri Party, but the prosecutor's office found no evidence of this in November 2020. Lee Nak-yon, a former Democratic Party leader, lost a defamation lawsuit against a YouTuber who claimed ties between him and Shincheonji. Members have been accused of infiltrating other churches to recruit converts. In South Korea, members were reportedly seen at Myeongdong Cathedral pretending to be pious; in 2024, a PR director was caught posing as a former member to spy on an anti-Shincheonji organization. Similar activities have been reported in Australia, Colombia, and India, where a Baptist convention warned worshippers about the group's deceptive practices.

Association with the coronavirus outbreak

Shincheonji became a focal point of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea after a 61-year-old member known as Patient 31, who was infected with SARS-CoV-2, attended church events in Daegu. A dozen Chinese members from Wuhan were also connected to the outbreak. On February 18, 2020, the church announced Patient 31's confirmation and closed its churches and affiliated buildings. On February 20, it submitted a list of Daegu members to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for contact tracing. By February 23, over 300 cases were linked to Shincheonji attendees or their families, more than half of all South Korean cases at that time. On February 24, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency requested a full congregant list, which Shincheonji submitted the next day after a one-day delay to clarify the legality of providing citizen registration numbers and privacy protections.