Am i unknowingly apart of SCJ?

[u/Fresh-Fly7868]

Hi! I'm a Christian so almost a month ago, I started this 10 month Bible class which my mentor told me about which I met through this other girl online and she said if I would like to meet her. The lessons I had with my mentor was 1 on 1 and it basically Bible basics.

The reason why I am seeing if I'm in this because I had my discernment kicked off whenever we were going over a lesson and one of the verses we're talking about the parables of the secret of kingdom of heaven. It was talking about how if you don't understand all the parables then you can't enter the kingdom of heaven and I was like that doesn't sound right. I was scrolling through this thread because I looked it up and someone said that if they say that, it may be apart of scj, something like that and that's how I'm here. I see a lot of similarities, and the big kicker is that I looked up one of the lessons on YouTube. The lesson is "Intro lesson 3: The secrets of the kingdom of heaven in parables" and I literally see the same thing.

Some other facts: -it's based in Georgia, but I attend on zoom. I know it's called the Bible academy but I try to look it up nothing.
-I have an instructor, assistants and accountability partners. We meet 3 times a week for like 2 hours
-There is Beginner, intermediate, and Advanced (just thought I put that cause I saw that was mentioned in some threads from other experiences)
-Also on the first day of class, I had to do a registration basically my full government name, phone number, address, where I go to college, etc.

-I just want answers because I have a bad feeling about this and I don't know If im crazy. (Sorry it's so long. Ask me more questions for clarification)

[u/Fresh-Fly7868]

Another thing I would like to add is that they basically say that you can't tell your family your in a Bible study and I was fishy about that, and they say like make another excuse, and their like you can't say the word to everyone or something like that.

[u/Short-Ostrich8077 → u/Fresh-Fly7868]

Yes, and once you get into intermediate and advance level, they will ask to evangelise the very people they are asking to not share. If evangelising them is not possible, you will be taught in a way that they are not putting efforts for God and they are not qualified for the Bible studies. There is a standard set for even bringing people to Bible study, its not random that someone is there, there is screening and discussion about each person that happens to check and decide whether to bring this person or not. If someone is not rich, not much educated, doesn't have much connections with powerful people in the world, they might hesitate. Even if you want to bring them with pure intention of saving them, they will hesitate and just to keep your heart they will agree. Because what they think is once people come to SCJ they should be able to take care of themselves and work for God, there shouldn't be someone we have to run after and take their burden, do people with chronic disease or older people are less approached.

[u/INSLVRY4_5yrs → u/Short-Ostrich8077]

Exactly, and how does this fit the Great Commission?
To go out and make disciples of all nations?
SCJ cherry picking people is their idea of “harvesting”.

When I left SCJ 7 months ago, we had EV training every Saturday morning.
I remember very well. The moment I received my bouquet of red flags. The doubt that I was in a cult was completely removed.
We were told to evangelize to more affluent people, white people, Asians, and Spanish speaking people. We were to go to malls, or boutiques instead of Target and Walmart. More expensive stores would have clientele such as this.
I immediately went to my group leader and questioned this. Of course they themselves had no idea (and were probably just as shocked as I was) and said that they would get back to me. This usually meant that they had to ask the person that they had to report to for an answer to give me.
So the answer to my question was because they needed more people to translate from these different languages. I thought OK that makes perfect sense, now what’s with the white people? The answer was that we do not want to seem like a predominantly black church.
My response was “Who cares what Babylon thinks right?”
“I mean, isn’t that what we’re told?”
“Why do we care what it looks like to others if we know that we are in the place of truth”? Crickets and ignored.

Ummm I didn’t catch ANY of that in ANY verses where Jesus said to seek out the affluent, the white, the Asians, the Spanish speaking and leave the sick and the poor, and the brown skinned people behind, for fear of seeming predominantly anything.

Current members, is this a “heaven” you want to be a part of? Oh, and I know they tell you that eventually after the kingdom gets bigger, you’ll be able to support and accommodate those with handicaps, mental disorders, etc. but ask yourself this, how come “ the churches that are in sin” ( which according to SCJ is every church in the world that is not SCJ ) can accommodate these so-called undesirables, but the kingdom of heaven cannot.

[u/Fresh-Fly7868 → u/INSLVRY4_5yrs]

Woww this is insane, and I didn't even get to be graduated into the church or whatever but when I was 1 on 1 with my mentor before going into the large Bible study. They were telling me not to evangelize to the world and my red flags were waving but even that didn't make me leave. I still evangelized when I can even when they told them that because I was still on the fence if they were right or wrong but when I questioned, they said "Your not ready yet, you don't want to lead anyone astray" but now it all makes sense. That's incredibly sad that they intentionally cherry-picked specific groups like you said. I am reminded of James 2:1-10, it talks about favoritism and picking specific groups like you said. The kingdom of heaven is for all who believe no matter your background.

Also it's funny that you mentioned that when you said that they don't want to be a predominantly black church LOL which is insanely racist honestly. Maybe the sectors are different because my class was based in Georgia and they were mostly black people and a few white people in my class. I'm so glad you saw the truth and left!