On April 16, 2002, there occurred a horrible terrorist event in China. This event was deliberately planned by the top leaders of the Eastern Lightning (EL) cult, and was entirely without precedent in the history of the Chinese Church.

Thirty-four top leaders of one large Chinese house church movement - China Gospel Fellowship - were trapped and kidnapped by members of the EL who had posed as teachers from the Haggai Institute from Singapore offering leadership training. The length of custody imposed on the leaders varied from one week to one month. At present (first week of June), there are still 5 leaders held. We don't know where they are, whether they are dead or alive, or how much longer we will have to wait before they are all released. During this time, their families have being anxiously waiting for their beloved, feeling hurt, weeping, not being able to eat or sleep, being greatly damaged emotionally and financially. Some of their children are not even 10 years old, while some are in middle school, high school or college. When they heard about the tragedy that came to their parents, the children became greatly distressed, and their school performance dropped dramatically. The families' hearts are suffering great pain and torment, grasping every sign of hope they can get and longing for miracles to happen! They greatly desire to see the police clamp down on the EL cult and rescue their beloved family members; this action taken by the EL is extremely rare in the history of the Chinese church.

The EL teaches their "believers" to abandon their families (and form a new one among EL followers) and jobs, and to trap people into their cult fanatically, by fair means or foul. Their practices are contemptible and sinister, knowing no moral restraint. They maintain control over their followers by means of drugs and eroticism. They demand absolute submission, and treat those who oppose them with kidnap, beating, physical disabling and murder. While violent acts done by the EL in mainland China are countless, this time their treatment of the CGF leaders was more civilized, with little physical violence being committed. However, they used many other despicable and base practices.

The EL cult has its origin in the Shouters, a Chinese movement formerly led by Witness Lee. Not only are their teachings against authentic Christianity, but their practices are also a substantial threat to people's lives, property and safety as well as the stability of the state. The strictness of their hierarchy and the maliciousness of their practices demonstrate that they are worse than a cult. Besides this, they have also joined with overseas gangsters to achieve their political ambition of uniting China and the world. With solid financial backing in place, they have started their plot to overthrow the government. They justify all means to develop their cult and strength their force. It is truly a terrifying sight! The fact is, the more EL followers there are, the less peace will China enjoy. The Chinese government should take strong measures against the EL. Restraining the EL is an extreme urgency now, and we cannot afford any more delay. The least neglect can result in endless future damage.

We have collected some true stories here to help the government see the true nature of the EL. We hope the state will pay more attention to this in response to our appeal, and take stronger action against the EL, to root them out and restore peace to our country.

     China Gospel Fellowship

Cases Involving Eastern Lightning

A series of criminal cases conducted by the Eastern Lightning cult have now been cleared up. Two "defenders" of the cult, Liu Shun Ting and Liu Fa Ting, who had committed many severe crimes and caused grievous bodily harm to 9 people, were arrested – the People's Procuratorate of Tang He County in He Nan province was the office that granted the official permission to arrest them.

The Eastern Lightning cult has been growing secretly in Tang He and She Qi. The cult identifies itself with Christianity, but its practices are in clear contravention to Christian doctrines and canons. They attack the government and the religion policy of the state. The cult is strictly organized, using only one-way contact as the means to expand their membership, and they use only aliases in any written material. They have composed a so-called "constitution," published promotional material called "God's Voice to the Whole Universe," and set up offices as "district leader," "sub-district leader" and "church leader," while Liu Shun Ting and Liu Fa Ting are two on the defender's team. Their assignments are terrorist activities, putting all those who oppose or resist the cult on a "black list" and retaliating against them one by one. Within a two month period from October to November 1998, they used the offer of prayer for healing to snare their victims. As soon as they succeeded in getting the victims out of their villages, they would harm them grievously. This included disfigurement, breaking legs, cutting off ears and other cruelty with instruments such as daggers, iron bars and lime. They have committed 8 crimes, stolen 300 Yuan and one bicycle, and grievously harmed 9 people, among whom 6 had their legs broken and one had the right ear cut off. All of these have created terrible damage among the local people.

     Quoted from He Nan Country News, November 1998

This event happened in March 2002 in Bai Shi Du, Yi Zhang county, He Nan province. There was an old lady who loves the Lord very much. She was nearly 80, and had a daughter named Zhang SongYun who joined the EL. She tried to persuade her mother to join too, but the mother discovered it was a trap and refused. Zhang tried to gouge out her mother's eye with her fingers. Although the mother didn't become completely blind, she is still having a hard time recovering her sight. When Zhang learnt that her mother didn't become blind, she sent her son to grandma's home and had him break her arms. The old lady was still receiving emergency treatment in the hospital by the time this report was written. Her church sent people to investigate the event, but people around her refused to disclose anything, but fearfully encouraged them to leave so as not to invite death for themselves. Because the investigators came from over 50 miles away and were very persistent, some people felt sorry to see them come in vain, so quietly told the investigators that this had all been caused by her daughters joining the EL. What a wretched tragedy!

     March 2002

This happened in 2001 in the north suburb of Xi'an, a place called Long Shou Cun. Preacher Dong Xiu Lan was about 40. She was deceived by the EL and was taken to LanZhou to study for one month. The EL not only tried to control their victims with drugs, but resorted to violence, abuse and threatenings to those who refused to accept their teaching. Those who were not submissive were put in sacks and thrown into the river. Sister Dong suffered all kinds of insult and abuse. After a long period of waiting and not seeing her back, her husband took an EL member hostage and thus forced the EL to set her free. Only then was sister Dong released from those evil hands.

     June 2001

This happened in May 2002 in He Jin city, Shan Xi province. After the 36 year old church leader Xue Ming Xue was deceived by the EL, he immediately came home and took his wife and other 6 leaders to XI'an for an EL training. One of the leaders had asked for three days leave from his job but didn't show up again for over 20 days. Later he was fired by his factory.

     May 2002

Zhou Dian Yu was a widow in her 40's, living in the east suburb of Xi'an, Shan Xi province. She and her daughter were very zealous for the Lord, and thirsted after Him with very simple hearts. They both went to a training together and found out it was by EL people. They accepted the teaching anyway and were sent back. Their church talked with them and helped them to regain the truth, so they were willing to leave the EL. Zhou went to return the EL books, and didn't come back that night. The next morning she was found dead in a house, suffocated by coal gas. The police couldn't find out any evidence and gave up. In this way, a life was tragically ended by the EL.

     October 2001

In the spring of 2001, an unmarried young lady about 20 was murdered in the center of Nan Chang city, Jiang Xi province, and another girl about the same age disappeared and has not yet been found. These two pretty girls had been members in Watchman Nee's Little Flock church (the "head covering" group). They were snared by some EL members who had been spying in their church and invited them to a one-month training. The murdered girl had refused to join the EL because she didn't want to lose her chastity. She fled home and was murdered sometime after.

     Spring 2001

Xiao Peng was a 30 year old preacher who lived in Da Fang Ying village, She Qi county. He rejected the EL teaching in October 1998, and also encouraged other believers to defend the truth and resist false teaching. The EL hated him intensely, and one evening they lured him out of his village. The evil doers cut his face with knives, his blood pouring out, staining his clothes in red. They quickly stunned him with steel pipes, and cut off his right ears. Fortunately he was discovered in time and was sent to the hospital. His life was spared, but the disfigurement not only caused great pain and suffering to him, but also caused his family great loss and grievous emotional pain. Such a handsome young man suffered such cruel torture for the sake of the Lord. We can't help our tears, but our hearts are filled with indignation!

     October 1998

中文