This is a brief introduction to the development and beliefs of the Eastern Lightning cult in China. We wish to expose its evil nature, and present its reality to the world.

The Eastern Lightning cult was founded by Zhao Wei Shan in A Cheng in Hei Long Jiang province in 1989. Zhao used to be a member of a denomination called the Shouters. He later broke away with a group of people, and started a new sect called "Church of the Everlasting Foundation," calling himself "The Powerful One." Later on he joined with a woman named Deng in He Nan province. He began to call her "The Almighty God" - the female Christ in the flesh - and the name of the sect was at that time changed to "The Church of the True God." The last name they have adopted for themselves is "The Eastern Lightning" which was taken from Matthew 24:27 in the Bible. At the present time, they have penetrated over 20 provinces in China; they have over a million followers and are attacking and greatly damaging Christian house churches in China.

Antichrist Belief:

The EL denies the Christian faith and the authority of the Bible. They deny the truths of the triune God, salvation through the crucifixion of Christ as well as justification by faith.

Their teaching divides God's work into three stages:

1. The Era of the Law. At this time God was called Jehovah. God worked through His Spirit and revealed Himself to man in different ways: what He said was the Law, and He spoke to men through prophets. Man's responsibility was to observe the Law, but man failed in keeping the Law, and couldn't overcome sin.

2. The Era of Grace. Then God's name changed to Jesus. He revealed Himself to man through the incarnation, and spoke and worked in His physical body. Man's responsibility was to know and believe in Jesus, but instead of believing in Jesus, people who lived in that era condemned and rejected Him.

3. Now is the Era of the Kingdom. God's name is now "The Almighty One" and "the Practical God." Their teaching is that God is a spirit and thus is vague. Although Jesus had been a man, He has already been resurrected and has ascended to Heaven, so He is also vague and distant. Therefore, it is not "practical" to rely on them. The female Christ, however, is here on the earth, doing practical work such as speaking, judging, condemning etc. She is tangible, more substantial, and therefore calls herself a "Practical God." Thus, in the female Christ, God is dwelling in the flesh for the second time. Her work is to reveal God's righteous nature, to speak to mankind, to speak judgments to God's house, to conquer the whole universe, to bring destruction to the world, and to reign over all the earth. The EL has replaced Jehovah the true God with this "Practical God," they have replaced Jesus with their female Christ, and they have replaced the Word of God in the Bible with words spoken by their "Almighty God." Now the responsibility of man is to follow the female Christ, and only if he forsakes his faith in Jesus Christ, tears his Bible in public, calls himself a "son of the devil," is "conquered" by fully submitting himself to the spoken words of the female Christ and thus becomes a "victorious one," can he enter the Kingdom that will be established on the earth by the female Christ.

The EL targets true Christian churches to destroy them. It twists the Bible to deceive people, and is truly an "anti-Christ" cult in the name of Christ.

Immoral Lifestyle:

The EL followers embrace lies and deception as wisdom from God. They curse their parents as descendants of beasts, and they sell themselves for immorality. They say that since it is the Era of the Kingdom now - as their "god" has said - the Era of Grace is over, and therefore marriage and family life should be ended. They promise to match people up with new spouses if they accept their teachings, and thus each member should abandon his or her own family. Those who are not willing to submit in the first place and those who initially submit but later realize their error and try to break away from the cult, will have the lives of their family members and children threatened by the EL. With what little conscience and senses remain in their hearts, many of the deceived people have stayed with the EL to spare their own family members' lives. They are forced (and some have chosen) to exert their full strength to carry out assignments they are given by the EL. Some men and women are assigned to sexually seduce their targets, and they all become "playthings" in the hands of the "teachers." Many of them have caught venereal diseases, syphilis and AIDS as a result of going through what they call the "spirit beds," and many happy families and marriages have been destroyed this way.

Base Means of Gaining "Converts":

They resort to many shameful and lewd methods and their cruelty is inhuman. They justify any means for the purpose of promoting their cult and gaining new converts. They habitually lie; they deceive women with false promises of marriage; they practice sexual seduction, and even use sexual stimulants (drugs) to drag people into immorality and thus undermine their faith. Sometimes they take photos in secret, or even create erotic pictures with computers to blackmail those who don't want to follow them. In all these ways, they deceive and undermine their victims. Groups of EL members design sophisticated traps to capture people, and then they lead their victims into delusion with the use of powerful, mind-altering drugs. They pretend to be ghosts, and they use threats, violence, kidnappings, forced confinement (varying in length of time from 1 month to 3 years) and whatever means possible to overpower people and build their own following.

Strict Terrorist Organization:

Their organization is secret and strict, and tightly hierarchical. With the words of the female Christ as their highest authority and with the restrictions of their rigid rules, demands and controls, the members of the cult are absolutely submissive to their "Powerful One" - Zhao Wei Shan. They maintain their following through drugs, sex and violence. Their aim is to destroy the church, overthrow governments, and bring the whole world into subjection to the female Christ, so that all the "victorious ones" who follow and give their lives to her can reign together with her one day on the earth. Significantly, they have also won over police and government officials in many areas through money and women. Once these officials accept their teaching and become members of the EL, they begin to serve the cult and offer protection in secret. Due to the EL's strictness and the secrecy of their organization, as well as their craftiness in not giving away evidence, the government's efforts to crack down on them have run into many obstacles.

Violence and Terror:

The EL followers are like gangsters and terrorists. Theirs is an evil collage of deception, immorality, terrorist violence, murder, and control through using drugs. They try to murder all who betray them. Many people have been injured, maimed, disabled and murdered in Mainland China. This has created severe harm to our society and brought great threat to people's lives and safety. This has also caused serious panic and damage to the house churches in China as a whole. This cult ignores the state law, treats human life as worthless, and looks upon the maiming and disabling of human bodies as being fun games. They are truly guilty of terrible sins and crimes.

This concludes our brief summary of the historical development and belief system of the Eastern Lightning cult: it is a heretical and dangerous cult and must be stopped!