Eastern Lightning (Church of Almighty God)

Eastern Lightning (Church of
Almighty God)
The Place of a Controversial Group in the
Spectrum of East Asian Religion
May 28, 2014
• On May 28, 2014, five members of the Church of Almighty God
entered a McDonald’s restaurant in Zhaoyuan City, Yantai, Shandong
Province, where they beat to death a young woman who had resisted
their proselytizing activity. Their activity was caught on multiple
cameras, and they were subsequently convicted of murder and
executed.
Background
• The rise of the Eastern Lightening (aka Church of Almighty God)
requires some attention to the rebirth of Christianity in China
following the Cultural Revolution, especially in Henan Province.
• Three-Self Movement
• Little Flock (Watchman Nee)
• Lord’s Recovery (Witness Lee)
Watchman Nee
1903 – 1972
1921 Creates independent church
movement, informally referred to
as the Little Flock
One of three large Christian church
movements (along with China
Inland Mission and True Jesus
Church)
Witness Lee
1905 – 1997
1949- MovedtoTaiwan
1962- SettlesinLosAngeles.
DevelopsteachingsofLord’s
Recovery
1965- Foundedwhatbecame
LivingStreamMinistry
The Dongyang and Yiwu Incidents (1982)
• Establishing the Three-Self Movement
• Evolving policies at local level
• Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign (1983)
• Designation of Shouters as xiejiao zuzhi (or evil cult) and widespread
arrest of the leadership of those in the Little Flock who acknowledge
the teachings of Witness Lee.
Origin of Eastern Lightning
• Local Church practice of “Calling upon the Name of the Lord”
• Emergence of Cheng Yoe in mid-1980s. Reads writings of Witness
Lee and begins to operate within the Lord’s Recovery groups.
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Local leaders established as “lords”
Believers were baptized in Cheng Yoe’s name
Identified red dragon (Revelation 12 & 13) with China/Communist Party
1987 Cheng Yoe-arrested
1988-A leader in Cheng Yoe’s church, Liu-Bin, goes to Manchuria
(Hiellongjiang) and meets Zhao Weishan. Invites him to Henan. Here he
surrounds himself with a cadre of females to whom are assigned an elevated
status. One of the women is designated as the Messiah.
Leadership
• Zhao Weishan – former physics professor, now residing in the United
States
• Yang Xiangbin – from a family residing in Zhengzhou, Henan (?).
• She is attended by five female devotees who have transcribed her
pronouncements (or utterances), which have been subsequently
published as "The Word of God."
Organization of
Church of Almighty God
Founder’sHome/MessianicResidence(USA)
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Internationalheadquarters(SouthKorea)[Publishingcenter]
Nationalcenters(Taiwan,HongKong)
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Dioceses(12inChinacovering20Provinces)
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DistrictsandSub-districts
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Localspecializedgroups[testimonyediting,full-timeco-workerhomes]
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Localpropagationunits
Eastern Lightning
• An idea that spreads among Asian Christians during and after
World War II.
• For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even
unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24: 27
Christ has appeared
China is the land where the great red dragon inhabits and is the place that
resists God and condemns God most severely throughout history. . . China is
the place where God’s gospel is most difficult to spread and God’s work is
most difficult to carry out. Since the Communist Party of China came into
power in 1949, religious belief in Mainland China had been completely
suppressed and banned. . . Finally by 1981, the church was really revived.
The Holy Spirit began to work greatly in China. . . In 1983, when the church
revival reached the climax, the Communist Party of China started a new
round of cruel suppression. . . The government of the great red dragon only
allowed the believers in God to join in “the Three-Self Patriotic Churches” set
up by the government, attempting to thoroughly do away with the
underground house churches. . . In the stream of the working of the Holy
Spirit, the incarnated Christ appeared in a hidden way and began to work
in some house churches.
Then another sign appeared in
heaven: an enormous red
dragon with seven heads and
ten horns and seven crowns
on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a
third of the stars out of the sky
and flung them to the earth.
Rev. 12: 3
RedDragon
The Incarnated Christ
• Christ was born in an ordinary family in the north. From childhood,
she knew in her heart that there is God. She gradually grew up as an
ordinary person does. In 1989 just when the Holy Spirit was working
greatly in the house churches, Christ gave up her studies and formally
entered the house church. . . Two years later, Christ began to express
words, writing down words in her heart and giving them to the church.
Afterwards, as the words expressed by Christ testified and disclosed,
Christ was known and exalted by people and became the Practical God
venerated and loved and esteemed by mankind. Christ does not only
have a normal humanity, but has a full divinity.
Dispensational View of History
• Era of the Law
• Era of Grace
• Era of the Kingdom
Endtime Work of Judgment
• The Church of Almighty God came into being because of the
appearance and work of Almighty God—the returned Lord Jesus—
Christ of the last days, and also under His righteous judgment and
chastisement. The church is comprised of all those who truly accept
Almighty God’s work of the last days and are conquered and saved by
God’s word. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally, and
is personally led and shepherded by Him, and it was by no means set
up by any man.
The Older Churches
Because the work of the Holy Spirit was transferred, all denominations
and sects lost the work of the Holy Spirit and became a wasteland,
leaving people with no choice but to seek the true way. . . As those in all
denominations and sects who truly believed in God returned in large
numbers, most of the denominations and sects collapsed and have long
since existed in name only.
The Work Ahead
• Now God’s chosen people are spreading His word and testifying His
deeds to every country and place. God’s word will be spread
throughout the whole world, and He will soon appear publicly to all
nations and all peoples. . . . The chosen people of the Church of
Almighty God are a group of overcomers whom God has made in
China. Shouldering the holy mission, they are testifying to God’s work
and proclaiming God’s holy name to all nations and places. . . The
Word Appears in the Flesh is freely available on the Internet for all
nations and places to seek out and investigate. . . More and more
people who thirst for the truth and yearn for the light are seeking out
and investigating Almighty God’s work of the last days.
Key Events
• 1990-Founding
• 1998-Tanghe incident in southern Henan Province
• 1999/2000-Founder and wife leave China and find asylum in United
States
• 2002-kidnapping of 34 leading members of the China Gospel
Fellowship, who are held for two months
• 2012-Groups aligns with New Age predictions around the Mayan 1212-12 prophecy
The Critics
• Christian churches initially opposed its “heretical” teachings
• High pressure proselytizing
• Deceit in proselytizing
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Use of Coercion and Violence brings the government into the issue
Attacks upon and kidnappings of church leaders
CCP as red dragon
Secrecy
• 2012
Re-examining the uses of “cult”
• Cult as rejected category
• Widespread use as simply a derogatory term used for ill-informed
denigration of various new and minority religions
• Continuing question of how do we discuss, analyze, and otherwise
make a place in our studies of groups that are not merely different but
are involved in marked anti-social (most noticeably violent and illegal)
activities
• I would offer a new category—”bad religion.”
Bad Religion
• Religious groups that consciously implement policies that initiate
and/or condone the use of violence against their own members and/or
the general public.
• Groups which use the cover of religious freedoms to develop criminal
conspiracies such as smuggling, the illegitimate accumulation of
wealth by a small cadre of leaders, manufacture and dissemination of
illegal substances, sexual abuse of minors.
• When are such activities justly ascribed to the group as opposed to the
individuals who actually commit them?