This is a testimony of a member of Shinchonji Church of Jesus. I was inspired by how the Spirit is working through this person's life.

I followed this word of testimony to the place where God and Jesus were revealing their words to a pastor at this time.

I would like this testimony to direct honor and glory to God, with sincere gratitude to those who prayed for me, a second-coming "Pharisee," and helped teach me the Bible truthfully - and ultimately from what was revealed from the one who received the open word. Below is my account: Isa 2:22: "Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?"

Up until three years ago (when I entered SCJ), I trusted in man, in the teachings of man (Isa 29:13), and judged my life upon what commentaries in my Bibles or from what my own family determined to be the truth in God's word. The word had been sealed to me (Rev 5), but with my lips I claimed that I could see and discern the truth from the lies, although I myself believed in lies and endorsed falsehood to others.

I must clearly state that I was not brainwashed or bribed into believing that the one who overcomes or SCJ appeared according to the prophecies of Rev. My closest chums know that I have a stubbornness to question and interrogate until I feel satisfied that I have heard and confronted all sides of an issue. I also graduated summa cum laude in high school and at my university, receiving strictly high A's in high school and at my university. High scores on tests, unfortunately, fail to transfer over to an automatic understanding of the Bible. I would gladly trade those scores for Ds and Fs, if I could have understood this testimony years earlier!

In high school I was a member of the AWANA Bible quizzing program at church and I memorized entire books of the NT, including Matthew, John, Romans, the Corinthians, Hebrews, James, and the books of Peter. If I had been alive at the time of the first coming, I would have surely been part of those who had diligently studied scriptures but did not come to Jesus to receive life (Jn 5:39) because I already understood the Bible in my own mind. Although I memorized Matt 24, Matt 25, 1 Cor 15, I felt as if my memorization was sufficient knowledge in itself of those passages.

I had firmly believed in the rapture since childhood. I was forced to watch end times movies, which gave me nightmares for years well into my early teenage life. I remember talking with my friends about how we could survive the end times if we were forced to receive the mark. I read fiction and what was presented as non-fiction on how the end times would take place.

Until I left for my university, I depended upon my family for my faith and self-assurance of justification before God. I established my own righteousness just like Paul claimed the Israelites did at the first coming (Rom 10:1-3). At my university, I was a member of every Christian organization on campus and I evangelized to students. I met regularly to challenge members of a group, well-known in the States as a "cult" in the Christian world. It was a piece of chocolate cake to stab the flaws in others' teachings, but to direct someone to the place with true doctrine on the Bible . . . I could not at that time.

Christians often feel grace upon hearing praise and worship songs that uplift their emotions or when a message finds appeal to them, but I know now that the greatest act of grace God has ever bestowed upon me was meeting someone who had once studied the revealed word at SCJ and had learned from the one who overcomes.

With using only the Bible, this person explained the meaning of Jesus coming with the clouds (Matt 24:30), thus exposing the errors of the concept of the rapture. Upon first hearing it though, I lashed back, spewing commentaries and even a few passages from the Bible. I was very livid that a belief that had guided my life of faith perspective had been attacked. The firm biblical explanations from this person were shockingly clear to me and I felt the field of my heart shake, yet I refused to believe and left the first meeting scarlet-faced. Why did my heart shake? If the rapture was not true, then I realized that I was entirely in the dark, with no understanding.

But my hunger for the truth drew me to meet that person again. Once again, I combated. As the person used scriptures upon scriptures to explain clouds (again) and other events in Matt 24, I smirked and did not acknowledge it, but felt self-assured and dismissed the explanations by saying, "Well, your interpretation is quite plausible, but it does not matter for salvation if I know about the end times or not."

With great patience, the person opened the scriptures both literally and spiritually as we turned to Matt 7:21-23. Upon reading additional passages - Matt 13:19; Dan 12:10; Eph 5:17; Matt 25:1-13; 1 Thes 5:1-7 - I realized then that belief in Jesus was, of course, required but I also needed to understand that to believe in Jesus also included the need to believe in his words, meaning his teachings and prophecy.

Understanding all parts of the Bible was necessary in order to have the proper faith and actions in God and Jesus. From those first two discussions with that person, I felt God had slowly opened my eyes and I desired to study more. Not only were and instructional content explained to me, the content of prophecies was being explained transparently with other Bible passages. I learned in Jn 16:25 that the figurative language in which prophecies of the NT were written (Matt 13:34-35) could only be explained at that time of the second coming. But why was I able to hear such clear explanations of prophecies at this time, when I had read books upon books on end times in the past?

In nature, if one follows a river upstream, one will locate the source. In the figurative language of the Bible, water refers to the word (Deut 32:2; Amos 8:11) and rivers are assistant pastors or evangelists transporting the word. A spring is a pastor. I followed this word of testimony to the place where God and Jesus were revealing their words to a pastor at this time.

Just as I recommended to my family and friends, I also recommend that you should not merely accept or reject this revealed testimony based upon my words presented in a few paragraphs, but please carefully and intently research into this revealed explanation of the Bible. Is it really the word of truth or just another doctrine emerging since the time of Jesus' first coming? Don't you owe it to God and to your spirit to at least look into this teaching at this time? Or do you think the end times will happen exactly according to the ideas of your mind?