This is a small church but very active and aggressive. It is another in a long line of such churches in Korea. My impression is that the “religiously unaffiliated” in Korea have such a negative impression of Christianity due to these highly visible, aggressive, “fringe” churches that Korean Christianity has reached a glass ceiling.
Another such church
had its Bucheon regional headquarters (I think) on the top floor of a particular building at the bottom of which I have often eaten cheap meals. This one proposes that a “God the Mother” is foretold of in the Bible and that she is — yes, a Korean woman, and, yes, alive today. My friend James from California (himself a devout Christian who graduated from a Lutheran college in the USA; previously mentioned here in #128, #178, #212, #225, #227) once went up to that headquarters, at their invitation, and promptly annoyed them by questioning all their premises. One reason cults can succeed in Korea is that you’re supposed to unquestioningly listen to an authority figure. I myself was accosted three or four times on the street by them and shown a video presentation.Jehovah’s Witnesses are also here, but are much more agreeable and rarely if ever aggressive, in my experience. All of these groups tend to “target” Westerners. But one doesn’t: In certain areas of Seoul, you can often see a pair of well-dressed thin young White men, ties and all, carrying books and folders. These are Mormons, and they seem to have quite many missionaries in Korea. I once even saw a pair at a mega-grocery store in Bupyeong, Incheon. I once studied with one a Brigham Young University student who had previously been a Mormon missionary in Korea. I recall that he told me his main strategy during his tour of duty as a missionary was to sit next to old women who were alone on the subway and say something in Korean, which would delight them, and then he had an opening to do the Mormonism pitch. His Korean was very good, especially his speaking. Never have I met a White man who can speak Korean so well. Practice, practice, practice.
But as far as the One Who Overcomes and all other End-Timesians. I completely reject all End Times scenarios. I am not willing to cede intellectual ground on this End Times issue. Any End Times theorizing can only be destructive, as I see it. When End Times thinking outgrows the metaphorical dank cellar of the cult and enters the semi-mainstream and then inevitably intertwines itself with geopolitics, that ought to alarm us. This is one of the problems with the USA’s relationship with Israel, as I see it. Some so-called Christian churches in the USA today preach a kind of worship of Israel mixed in with End Times theories. (Which is cause and which is effect is open to debate.)
I know one person who is a candidate for a Master’s degree in Psychology at Columbia University. I wonder about the psychological motivations of “End is Near” people. I like the “Beginning is Near” more.