The group especially targets housewives, the poor, and house churches in China, first befriending believers and then slowly trying to convince them that Yang Xiangbin is God incarnate.
If you ever wondered what a Chinese
version of Mormonism would look like, wonder no more. Calling themselves the
Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning, this cult started in China back in 1991 has taken on new life in the social media age. Its founder is a woman named Yang Xiangbin, and along with her partner in crime Zhao Weishan, they oversee cult operations here in the United States since 2000. Xiangbin bills herself as the 'christ' for the Kingdom Age, which she says has already replaced the Church Age.
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." Matthew 24:4,5 (KJV)
The website for the
Church of Almighty God contains dozens of videos and books for sale that serve to 'update' the useless old book known as the Bible that to them has become nothing more than an 'obsolete historical record'. Again, very similar to Mormonism with their "other testament" of Jesus Christ. Like Mormonism, the Church of Almighty God was started by criminals who are running a con game. Their leaders are in the US because they were driven out of China just like
Joseph Smith was driven out of Ohio and Missouri.
So the next time some deluded cult follower of the Church of Almighty God posts their nonsense to one of your social media groups, grab the link to this article and answer them with the truth. Tell them that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour, and that
His shed blood on the cross still saves. Tell them that Yang Xiangbin is not an 'incarnation of God' but is in fact a lost,
Hell-bound sinner headed for the Lake of Fire.
What is the Church of Almighty God?
FROM GOT QUESTIONS? - The Church of Almighty God (Quannengshen in Chinese) is a secretive, theologically aberrant religious movement that started in China in 1991. Although it has been banned by the Chinese Communist Party for its anti-government stance, it continues to grow and is considered an influential doomsday cult.
The Church of Almighty God is also known as Eastern Lightning, a name based on Matthew 24:27: “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.” The group believes that God has again become incarnate, this time as a Chinese woman named Yang Xiangbin, who also calls herself “Lightning Deng.” Yang is the nominal head of Eastern Lightning, but the true leader is probably her “high priest” and lover, Zhao Weishan, the man who first began proclaiming that Yang was divine.
In 2000, Zhao Weishan and Yang Xiangbin moved to the United States, and they currently oversee operations of the Church of Almighty God from New York City. Yang Xiangbin is called “Christ of the last days” and “Almighty God” in the belief that she is the second coming of Christ to finish the work of God. Yang gives utterances that are recorded as God’s word for the last days. (Although Yang is seen as an incarnation of God, she is considered separate from Jesus Christ, who was a different incarnation of God.) The Bible is seen as an obsolete record of God’s work in the past. “It is nothing more than a historical record of God’s work, and a testament to the previous two stages of God’s work, and offers you no understanding of the aims of God’s work” (from Eastern Lightning’s official website). Thus, the Bible is insufficient and must be supplemented by the utterances of Almighty God, or “Christ of the last days.”
The Church of Almighty God has a presence in Hong Kong, New York, and San Francisco, as well as mainland China. There are disturbing reports of the group using sexual seduction, kidnapping, bribes, brainwashing, and blackmail to coerce new members into the group and keep them there. The group especially targets housewives, the poor, and house churches in China, first befriending believers and then slowly trying to convince them that Yang Xiangbin is God incarnate.
In 2002, Eastern Lightning members allegedly kidnapped thirty-four leaders of an underground Christian network, the China Gospel Fellowship, and held them captive for two months. In August 2014, five members of the Church of Almighty God went on trial in Yantai, Shandong, for the murder of a 37-year-old woman in a restaurant—the woman was beaten to death for refusing to join their group. In February 2015, two of the five were executed for the crime.
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