The purpose of this Reddit post here is to have it translated into various languages.
Video Translation from French to English
Do you see all these people? They are moving for one thing, to be part of the 144,000 future priests who will reign in the world when the prophecies of the apocalypse (Revelation) will be fulfilled. But to have a chance of being in this elite, you have to be designated by this man.
He is their leader, he proclaims himself a messiah and claims that Jesus Christ appeared to him. His name is Lee Man-hee and today we are going to talk about his Shincheonji movement. All the images we have shown you from the beginning come from South Korea.
But you should know that Shincheonji also took root in France. The real light in the religious world, new sky, new earth, Shincheonji, Church of Jesus. The problem, it has been reported several dozen times in the media for sectarian derives.
Shincheonji stole my innocence. At the time, I was someone who trusted people. Today, I can even doubt the good day of someone because I ask myself, what are your intentions?
What do you want? There is something psychologically that has been broken.
She is Laura. And at only 18 years old, she joined the organization she left just a year ago.
I will stay two and a half or even three years if my care is good at Shincheonji.
If she wants to remain anonymous, it is because she does not want to be recognized by her parents, still very affected by the impact of Shincheonji on their family.
I lied to them so much that my parents were even afraid of me. I was a professional liar.
Before telling you her story, we still have to go back to the basics. What is Shincheonji? Already, the movement is presented under several names.
Shincheonji, Church of Jesus, New Heaven, New Earth, or Temple of the Tabernacle of Testimony. The former members we contacted are unanimous, no recruiter tells you about Shincheonji at the beginning.
I was just told that it was a Bible Study Seminar, that we were learning the Bible from Genesis to the Revelation, and that’s how I joined Shincheonji.
[Narrator] (1:44 – 1:53)
At the origin of Shincheonji, yes, we will say it a lot in this video, there is Lee Man-hee. He is 93 years old (as of 2025) and founded the organization in 1984 in South Korea.
[Laura] (1:53 – 1:58)
The first pastor is this person that we must follow to be able to have salvation and eternal life.
[Narrator] (1:58 – 2:01)
And he built a real cult around his personality.
[Laura] (2:01 – 2:10)
He even took on the role of Jesus, because we made praises to his name, there were songs where we talked about him, I mean, he was really the main character.
[Narrator] (2:11 – 2:16)
And it was Lee Man-hee himself who would choose the 144,000 elected among all his faithful.
[Laura] (2:16 – 2:19)
It’s really the best of the best, it’s really the superiors, the people who will reign.
[Narrator] (2:20 – 3:02)
The hiccup is that no one knows who will elect them, nor when, by the way. And that’s how he keeps his followers in the movement. Today, Shincheonji claims more than 300,000 members in more than 100 countries.
In France, the movement was officially established in 2021. On Instagram, the French account totals more than 11,000 followers, but the number of faithful would be inflated according to our various witnesses, because Shincheonji would count those who left the organization. Wait, Shincheonji has 300,000 members, but only 144,000 will be elevated to the rank of Grand Priest?
So why are there so many to stay? In addition to the 144,000, there is what they call the great white multitute. They will also be saved, but beware, this role is much less prestigious.
[Laura] (3:03 – 3:24)
Once, I remember that I said to myself, whether it’s a great white multitude or 144,000, as long as I’m saved, I’m fine. And there was a girl with whom I was discussing, she said to me, I lack ambition. No, you have to aspire to be 144,000.
The competition is tough between the followers. We are all fighting to be 144,000. Even denouncing the others.
We watch each other in the organization. We balance a little between us.
[Narrator] (3:25 – 3:33)
But then, why and how did Laura join the organization? When Shincheonji approached her, Laura, disappointed by the church she was attending at that time, didn’t give up.
[Laura] (3:34 – 3:43)
It’s better to live your life twice, alone, at home, because churches rob people, they steal money. I said to myself, in fact, is it really done for me?
[Narrator] (3:43 – 3:59)
This is where a friend offers her to take some online courses. Laura takes a liking to it. She is asked for her identity card.
It was in 2021 and she didn’t know it yet, but she joined Shincheonji. In addition to the many hours of biblical courses she takes scrupulously, Laura must recruit new members.
[Laura] (3:59 – 4:28)
The goal is that everyone has a mission. Everyone must evangelize, everyone must bring someone back. It’s not even debatable.
For those who are in Île-de-France, they had to go to places of evangelization, so what they call fields. So there is Châtelet, Gare du Nord, Gare de Lyon, Saint-Lazare, really all the stations where there is a lot of influx, etc. And Shincheonji even recruits on social networks.
So I had to go on Instagram and I had to see people, for example, who have a Christian bio, or who have a biblical verse.
[Narrator] (4:29 – 4:31)
There, the manipulation would begin to take effect.
[Laura] (4:31 – 4:41)
And so I start writing to this person, and when I’m already a little good in the conversation with this person, I propose to her to join the Bible Study Seminar.
[Narrator] (4:41 – 4:51)
One thing particularly caught our attention in the various testimonies we have collected; all are unanimous on the profile of people sought by the movement in France of black people.
[Laura] (4:51 – 4:59)
According to what the Koreans told us, they first evangelized white people. But they realized that white people did not adhere to these precepts.
[Narrator] (4:59 – 5:03)
As time went on, Laura constantly felt scrutinized by Shincheonji.
[Laura] (5:03 – 5:05)
You start to isolate yourself, quite simply.
[Narrator] (5:05 – 5:07)
Until you lose the link with your family.
[Laura] (5:07 – 5:35)
Before joining Shincheonji, I was very fusional with my parents, we got along really well. I started to distance myself from them. We are taught that all those who are outside Shincheonji, God considers them as beasts.
We must not tell our loved ones that we are in the organization. Because in fact, it’s a secret, as they say, and that God does not give his secrets to everyone. I didn’t even think about lying anymore.
It means that I almost poured the lie into my veins. Because we were taught that as long as it’s for the right cause, as long as it’s for Shincheonji, it’s acceptable.
[Narrator] (5:35 – 5:43)
To focus more on Shincheonji and on the advice of his evangelist, Laura decides to leave the family home. Now, she is asked for money.
[Laura] (5:43 – 5:54)
My salary was 490 and a few euros. My rent was 300 euros, not counting the electricity. Sometimes I ended up with 60 euros of electricity.
[Narrator] (5:54 – 5:59)
What she has left to live in the month, that is to say, a small hundred euros, Laura gives it to Shincheonji.
[Laura] (6:00 – 6:15)
When I joined the church, you are told that you must not steal God. And once, the head of the Department of Finance came to write to me on Telegram and told me, so much, you promised to give such a sum. So very quickly, I collapsed on the invoices.
[Narrator] (6:15 – 6:33)
You must not steal God. But in 2021, Lee Man-hee himself was sentenced to prison with a fine by the Korean justice for embezzling nearly 4 million euros from his organization. Information that can be easily found on the Internet.
Moreover, there are a lot of articles that criticize Shincheonji. So why didn’t Laura leave the movement earlier?
[Laura] (6:34 – 6:43)
At first, we were shown a video of a snake and how the venom of a snake acts. We are told, you see how the venom acts, it’s like that. They teach us that the Internet is poison.
[Narrator] (6:44 – 6:46)
Especially since there, they are taught one thing.
[Laura] (6:46 – 6:54)
There is Shincheonji and there is hell. And as there is this fear of hell, because outside of Shincheonji, it’s hell. Even if you have doubts, you don’t understand everything.
I say to myself, I stay.
[Narrator] (6:55 – 7:00)
After two and a half years in prison (Shincheonji), Laura finally gets out of the organization thanks to Netflix.
[Laura] (7:00 – 7:32)
That night, I opened my computer and I said to myself, I’m going to watch a series. And in my Netflix feed, I see a documentary. And I say to myself, wait, isn’t it a documentary?
The more I advance in the documentary, the more I tell myself, they don’t talk about Shincheonji, but in everything they do, I have the impression that it is Shincheonji. There, it’s the click. I collapsed.
I started crying. I really cried all the tears of my body. How, knowing all this, can I stay in this place?
Can I bring people back to this place? For me, it was not possible. And I made the decision to leave.
[Narrator] (7:32 – 7:35)
The psychological impacts on Laura are violent.
[Laura] (7:35 – 7:56)
I had to relearn to live. I had to relearn to think for myself. I remember, even to eat, I often asked my mother if I could eat.
I had to have the courage of someone to do something. I saw psychologists. There was something psychologically that was broken.
There was a lot of trauma. We know that we enter these organizations, but we don’t know when we leave.
[Narrator] (7:57 – 8:21)
When she finally left the movement in early 2024, Laura made a statement to the Mivilud. And she is far from being the only one. As a reminder, the Mivilud is the inter-ministerial mission of vigilance and fight against sectarian drift.
The Mivilud informs us of having received, at the end of 2024, nearly thirty requests for information and reports on this church, and that half of these reports are recent and some are currently under analysis.