Eastern Lightning

The Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning , is a monotheistic new religious movement which was established in China in 1991. Government sources estimate the group has three to four million members.

The group's core tenet is that Jesus Christ has returned to earth and is presently living as a Chinese woman. The name "Eastern Lightning" alludes to the Gospel of 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 movement has been described by Chinese media as the nation's 'most dangerous cult', and the group has been formally banned in China since 1995. Christian opponents and international media have in turn described it as a cult and even as a terrorist organization. In contrast, members of the group deny all accusations and argue they are victims of religious persecution at the hands of Chinese authorities.

History
A woman, whose name is never mentioned in the group's literature, but is believed to be Yang Xiangbin (b. 1973, ), started spreading in 1991 among Chinese house churches, most of them part of The Shouters, mimeographed texts with revelations she said were coming from the Holy Spirit. Chinese authorities state that Yang had a history of mental problems.

Zhao Weishan (born December 12, 1951), a former physics teacher, had a history of membership in a variety of Christian new religious movements. In 1986, Zhao was a member of a Christian house church, and in 1987 he was baptized into a branch of The Shouters, a group within China targeted by the Chinese government as a criminal cult. Zhao rose to a leadership position within the group and, according to Chinese governmental sources, preached that he was himself the "Lord of Ability."

In 1989, the Shouters were labeled a cult by the Chinese government and officially banned. In 1991, Zhao met Yang Xiangbin and quickly became the main leader of her small group, where he was recognized as "the Man used by the Holy Spirit." According to one estimate, by 1991, the organization had more than a thousand members. In 1992, Yang's revelations propagated by Zhao announced that Yang herself was more than a prophetic voice; in fact, she was the second coming of Jesus Christ on earth and the incarnated Almighty God. Since then, Yang was referred to as "he" rather than "she," as she was in fact regarded as Jesus Christ. Chinese media started taking an interest in the sect, and referred to Yang (sometimes also mentioned as "Deng"), as "the female Christ."

In 1995, the group was classified as a cult by China's Ministry of Public Security. On September 6, 2000, both Zhao and Yang entered the United States; they were granted political asylum the following year. Since then, they live in and direct the movement from New York.

Beliefs
Eastern Lightning holds that Jesus has returned as a Chinese woman, worshiped by the sect as Almighty God, hence its official name. The group is non-Trinitarian, and teaches a form of millennialism. The group publishes the revelations of its female Almighty God; most of them are collected in The Word Appears in the Flesh. The group is anti-Communist, identifying the Great Red Dragon of the Book of Revelation with the Chinese Communist Party.

The Church describes human history as "God's six-thousand year management plan," divided in three stages: the Age of Law, when God as Jehovah guided Israel; the Age of Grace, when God as Jesus Christ saved humanity, but did not eradicate its sinful nature; and the Age of Kingdom, inaugurated in 1991, when God in his present incarnation as Almighty God reveals the fullness of truth and works to free humans from their sinfulness. Also, the group mentions a future Age of Millennial Kingdom, in which the earth will enter after the death of the present divine incarnation, and will be transformed into a kingdom of peace and joy.

According to Holly Folk, an associate professor at Western Washington University that has been studying the Church, it does not view the Bible as God's word but as a human work with flaws.

Organization
According to sociologist Fenggang Yang, Eastern Lighting is organized hierarchically, with "inspectors" overseeing regional and subregional leaders, who in turn oversee the leaders of the local congregations. At the local and regional levels, leaders are elected by the members.

Members get together weekly (but not on a fixed day of the week) in what they call "fellowship meetings," in private homes in China and in "community houses," sometimes called "churches," abroad. There, they pray, read and discuss the revelations of Almighty God, sing hymns, hear sermons, and sometimes present artistic performances. Holly Folk, an associate professor at Western Washington University, said that "a lot of their international ministry functions as an internet religion".

Starting in 2001, the group began efforts to proselytize online by creating websites which host church scripture in various languages, links to group chats, and news about online events. The group is also present on social media.

Repression in China
Eastern Lightning is banned in China and proselyting or organizing meetings on its behalf is a crime prosecuted under Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code. The United States Department of State in its Report on International Religious Freedom for the year 2018, published on June 21, 2019, reported claims that in 2018, Chinese "authorities arrested 11,111 of its [Eastern Lightning] members," and "subjected 525 of its members to 'torture or forced indoctrination,'" mentioning that some were "tortured to death while in custody". In its Report on International Religious Freedom for the year 2019, published on June 10, 2020, the same U.S. Department of State mentioned claims that in 2019, "at least 32,815 Church members were directly persecuted by authorities, compared with 23,567 in 2018," and "at least 19 Church members died as a result of abuse (20 in 2018)." The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom reported that "in 2018, the Chinese government harassed and arrested thousands of followers of [...] the Church of Almighty God. Many of those detained during the year [2018] suffered torture and other abuses, in some cases resulting in deaths or unexplained disappearances while in custody."

Controversies
Eastern Lightning has been described by Chinese media as the nation's "most dangerous cult". The group has been tied to, and accused of condoning and supporting, acts of violence.

1998 Nanyang attacks
From October 30 to November 10, 1998, two alleged members of Eastern Lightning, Liu Shunting and Zhao Fating, committed a series of assaults and robberies across Tanghe and Sheqi Counties in Nanyang, Henan. Liu and Zhao, using knives, steel poles, and lime powder, beat, stabbed, blinded, and robbed 9 people over a 12-day period, reportedly for refusing to join or provide funds to the church. Of the 9 victims, 6 had their legs broken and 2 had their right ears cut off. On March 7, 2000, the Nanyang Intermediate People's Court sentenced Liu and Zhao to 18 years' imprisonment and 17 years' imprisonment, respectively, on charges of intentional injury and robbery.

2002 mass kidnapping
In 2002, The Church of Almighty God was accused of staging a campaign of simultaneous kidnappings across multiple cities to capture thirty-four leaders of the China Gospel Fellowship (CGF). Eastern Lightning denied the accusations.

Scholar Emily Dunn concluded in her 2015 book that rogue members of the sect, acting without the approval of the leaders, might have been responsible for the incident, writing that, "While Eastern Lightning's leadership evidently does not condone the use of violence, it may be unable to impress this upon some followers." Massimo Introvigne in his book published in 2020 suggested that China Gospel Fellowship members described as "kidnapping" what was in fact "deception," as they were invited, and went (voluntarily, according to Introvigne), to training sessions without being told that they were organized by Eastern Lightning.

2012 doomsday riots
Some members of Eastern Lightning embraced the so-called Mayan prophecy and predicted the end of the world for 2012. The authorities accused them of causing riots and even crimes around China. According to Emily Dunn, the 2012 predictions were accepted by some sect members "without sanctions from [Eastern Lightning] authorities," who pointed out that in their theology there is no end of the world, and reprimanded and even expelled members who insisted in spreading the Mayan prophecy. Immediately prior to the supposed doomsday date of December 21, 2012, the Chinese government arrested 400 members of Eastern Lightning in central China, and as many as 1000 from other provinces of China. Chinese authorities also claimed that a certain Min Yongjun, who stabbed an elderly woman and 23 students at a school in Henan province, was motivated by the 2012 prophecies, and after the incident occurred pointed out that Eastern Lightning members were among those propagating these prophecies.

2014 murder of Wu Shuoyan
Wu Shuoyan (1977–2014), a 37-year-old woman from Zhaoyuan, Shandong, who worked as a salesperson in a mall clothing store, was waiting after work to meet her husband and seven-year-old son in a nearby McDonald's. While Wu was there, a group of six persons (including a 12-year-old), entered the restaurant. They announced that they were "missionaries." After presenting their religious message, they demanded that customers supply their cell phone numbers for future contacts. Wu was twice asked to provide her phone number. She refused.

Wu was then beaten by two of the "missionaries", who used mops the group had brought with them. A chair was thrown at Wu, and her head and face were stomped. One attacker screamed "Go die! Evil spirit!" while another shouted at customers: "Whoever interferes will die!". The attack was captured on camera, with footage widely shared online. Wu died from her injuries at the scene.

The attackers were arrested and identified by the government as members of Eastern Lightning. Representatives from Eastern Lightning publicly condemned the murder, claiming it had been committed by "psychopaths" who had nothing to do with them. In the wake of the murder, authorities in China engaged in widespread arrests of Eastern Lightning's members. The five adult attackers were found guilty at trial, with two of the murderers being executed for their role in 2015.

Covering the trial and the confessions of the accused assassins, reporters for the Chinese daily The Beijing News wrote that the perpetrators were in fact not members of Eastern Lightning at the time of the murder: they recognized as the living incarnation of God, rather than Yang Xiangbin, their own two female leaders, regarded as one divine soul in two bodies, and claimed that Eastern Lightning was a cult while theirs was a legitimate religious group. Some Western scholars who wrote about Eastern Lightning also concluded that the perpetrators at the time of the murder were members of a group different from Eastern Lightning. In 2017, Chinese authorities announced that two of the assassins had been successfully "re-educated" in jail. Although they maintained that theirs was a group based on the belief that the two female leaders of their movement, not Yang Xiangbin, were the real Almighty God, they also blamed books and Web sites of Eastern Lightning for having "ideologically corrupted" them in their youth.

2019 Israeli election
In weeks before the 2019 Israeli election, as reported by BuzzFeed News, Twitter suspended dozens of Hebrew-language accounts run in The Church of Almighty God's name that were amplifying right-wing religious and political messages. The BuzzFeed article reported the opinion of Holly Folk, that the political activity was "outside the pattern of CAG's [Church of Almighty God's] typical behavior," and the accounts might have been created by Chinese agencies to discredit Eastern Lightning.