From house church to exile: A brief history of Eastern Lightning

First, a disclaimer. The Church of Almighty God (全能神教会) aka Eastern Lightning (东方闪电; EL) has made a big enemy out of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).While it initially avoided the official xiéjiào/邪教/cults list, EL was identified as a heterodox teaching organisation) in 1995 before receiving its official designation as a dangerous organisation in 2017.

Its placement on the list is second only to Falun Gong.

This is not a case of simple animosity. Chinese media have not hesitated to report mass arrests of EL members, but discerning the legitimacy of any accusation or claim against EL is difficult. Compounding the problem are the many little enemies EL has made of various official and unofficial mainstream Christian churches, many of whom have accused EL of beatings and brainwashing. It is possible that these accusations are false and a symptom of the various internal tensions that exist within China's Chrisitan community, distaste over EL's heretical belief that God has incarnated as a woman, or frustration at EL's main recruitment tactic to poach believers rather than convert non-believers. This shared antagonist has brought forth the development of a strange alliance between the CCP and Christian groups that allows believers some increase in freedoms in return for their cooperation in suppressing fringe sects like EL.

For example, this little ditty written by one or more christian churches outlines the many rumours about EL:

_Eastern Lightning employs bad tricks,

Misleading people and telling lies.

They deceive Protestants who love the Lord,

Using false names and addresses.

They feign devotion to gain trust,

And change their material frequently.

They have the gall to tamper with the Ten Commandments;

If you refuse to follow them you will be harshly criticised.

They speak recklessly of the day of judgment,

And buy allegiance - how outrageous!

They use marriage to pull people in,

And their promiscuity is frightful.

They fake exorcisms to hoodwink people;

Their acting ability is really not bad.

Hold fast to the truth and refute Her,

Believers who belong to God shall defeat her._

(Fangbei Bianbo Yiduan)

EL's secretive nature and questionable internet behaviour (which ranges from the annoying to deeply problematic) have not made them sympathetic figures. One is required to take everything they, and their supporters, say with a grain of salt.

Thus, this article is a collection of rumours and allegations about EL and their leaders, Zhao Weishan and Yang Xiangbin.

Context

Well, this section is one of the few wholly factual sections in this entire piece.

While the CCP is characterised as an atheistic organisation, they have long had a hand in the state-control of religion. On the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, prominent Protestant leaders came together to publish a manifesto that was in support of the CCP overseeing the church at the demand of Zhou Enlai, Premier of China. This led to the formation of a parachurch organisation called the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) in 1954. There was resistance to this alliance, and many christians wanted to remain independent of politics. With many pastors being persecuted, practitioners took their religious practice underground, often meeting in homes or fields. This practice gave rise to the name House church.

However, during the cultural revolution, any expression of religion in China, including TSPM, was banned. Obviously this drove more groups underground, and the practice of Chinese house churches exploded, especially in the countryside.

The end of the Cultural Revolution brought with it changes in religious policy. Amongst those changes were the recognition of five official faiths: Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and Taoism. However, churches and temples were required to apply for a license to operate, and were prohibited from opposing the CCP; a requirement that continues to this day, and has created a divide between registered churches and the unregistered catholic and protestant house churches.

The TSPM was also reinstated, and protestant congregations that did not register under them are now deemed house churches. The role of the TSPM is to protect and promote”...five basic tenets of Christian faith — the Trinity, Christ being both human and God, the Virgin Birth, Death and Resurrection and the Second Coming”; but it is also used to support the government when it has cracked down on house churches.

While small congregations are tolerated, the practice of house church is seen as illegal, with pastors being fined or jailed. Others have avoided prosecution by cooperating and sharing information with the government. Nevertheless, the house church phenomenon has evolved from strictly independent groups to networks that utilise missionaries, both national and internationally.

One of the “groups” to develop in the early 80s was known as The Shouters sect. In 1982 a series of conflicts erupted between Christians and members of the TSPM, which led the TSPM to refer to the participants as The Shouters. Current understanding is that The Shouters were not a formal organisation, but a loosely connected group of people who followed the teachings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Regardless, the Shouters were deemed counter-revolutionary and heretical, which led to persecutions to maintain social order, and the eventually term came to refer to all persons who were members of unregistered house churches.

This would be the environment in which Zhao Weishan would come to prominence.

The story of Zhao Weishan

Information for this section mainly comes from 2 sources: Here and here. Consider everything in this section as alleged.

Zhao Weishan was born on December 12, 1951 in Yagou Town (now called Acheng District, Harbin City) to parents who worked for the local railway. He was initially named Zhao Kun and was the third eldest of 10 children. Zhao did not have a reputation for being a studious student, and had a habit of playing pranks that continued into adulthood. International media sometimes refers to him as a physics teacher but it's more likely that he was a blue-collar worker with minimal formal education.

Zhao followed his parents and became a railway worker in the 1970s, and although he failed at his first job he found success when he found a job closer to home and took up carpentry. During this time it is said that he dabbled with Buddhism and Catholicism, before meeting a christian missionary named Hao Zhenfang who inspired him to get into preaching. During this time, Zhao changed his name to Zhao Weishan, to the upset of his family. In 1977 he married Fu Yunzhi, and they would have a daughter in 1979. In 1983, Zhao gave up his railway job in order to have more time to preach. He initially transferred to a printing company, and then to a sugar factory in 1985. In 1982, it is alleged that he had joined a TSPM church, but soon quarreled with the elders, finding them incompetent, and went to start his own home church, which he operated from 1984-1985.

While meetings were held in his home, a former follower claims that Zhao was having sexual relations with the 15 year-old daughter of a member. At this point, Zhao was teaching his followers that the holy spirit had testified that he was the Lord, and many families referred to him as Almighty Lord. His control over his followers was believed to be so absolute that they would let Zhao ride on them when the meeting prayer hit their climax. Some sources claim that Zhao colluded with The Shouters at this time, and he is reported as testifying that Witness Lee was the christ of the end times.

Tragically in 1985, while Fu and Zhao were preaching, their daughter (who was 5 at the time) and Zhao's parents died due to carbon monoxide poisoning from their charcoal fire. Zhao is reported to have not seemed emotional or sad during the funeral of his family members, and soon returned to his preaching and founded the Yongyuan True God church, which grew to 1000 followers between 1986-1991. Fu is said to have divorced Zhao in 1987.

On May 8th, 1991, a group from Henan were detained by police at the Harbin railway station. They were on their way to see Zhao, and were carrying printed materials referring to Almighty Lord. Zhao's church was soon deemed illegal, but Zhao was allegedly able to avoid arrest for 5 years.

The introduction of Yang Xiangbin

Despite being in hiding, Zhao still maintained influence over his members, but his message started to change. In either 1991 or 1993, he was introduced to Yang Xiangbin. Little is known about Yang. Yang was 22 years younger than Zhao, between 17 to 20 years of age, and had suffered a mental breakdown after failing the national college entrance exam. Yang's distress was such that demon possession was suspected at one point, but with medical treatment not forthcoming, she was taken under the wing of some Christians and improved under their attention. Initially a believer and supporter of Witness Lee, Yang was writing her own religious text titled God's Word. She met Zhao during a church meeting, who identified the potential Yang had to attract more followers. They soon became romantically involved. Yang claimed that she was moved by the Holy Spirit as Zhao once was, and soon Zhao was presenting Yang as Almighty God instead of him, the Almighty Lord. Yang is said to now be referred to as he rather than she.

Zhao supposedly honoured 5 other women with new spiritual names: All-Complete, All-Prepared, All Glory, All-Victorious, All-Knowing, All-Reverence and All-Worthy; Yang was referred to as All-Almighty. Zhao, Yang, and the five women would pray together and record their words, which was allegedly collected in a book called Utterances of the Seven Spirits. An alternate version of this story is that God-himself is divided into those parts, with Yang being All-Complete and Zhao as All-Authority.

Unbeknownst to their followers, Yang and Zhao married in 1993, and had a child in 1995. They also wrote the cornerstone doctrine of EL, The Book of the Word Appears in the Flesh, which formalised the Church of Almighty God.

Zhao was arrested in 1997 and sentenced to reeducation through labour, but soon after his release in 2000, Zhao, Yang, and their son fled to New York with some core church members. How they were able to reach the US is unclear, as it is claimed by police that the family traveled on falsified documents. Other stories include Weichan receiving an invitation from an American agriculture company, and later seeking political asylum due to religious persecution.

According to Emily Dunn in her book Lightning from the East: Heterodoxy and Christianity in Contemporary China, there are some Protestants who do not believe that Yang ever existed, and think that she is a piece of fiction or has died. Others thought that the female Christ was an unmarried woman named Deng, aka Lightning Deng. EL denied the Deng rumour, which nevertheless circulated until 2012 when Yang was identified as the female Christ by Chinese media. Dunn and others feel that it is more likely that Yang was involved in the early years of the group, but has since become more reclusive. The rationale for the secrecy is just as likely to be a matter of security as it is a matter of doctrine: keeping Yang anonymous protects their privacy, while maintaining the concept of a female Christ as a symbolic one.

After 2000

Zhao and Yang continue to live in self-imposed exile in Queens, New York, but that hasn't stopped the group from causing some sort of chaos for the CCP. The Eastern Lightning Wikipedia page gives a reasonable summation of the 2002 mass-kidnapping, the 2012 doomsday riots, the 2014 MacDonald's murder, and their attempt to interfere with the 2019 Israeli election. It is worth noting that the frequently quoted Massimo Intorvigne, author of Inside The Church of Almighty God: The Most Persecuted Religious Movement in China, is the founder of the Center for Studies on New Religions. CENSUR is a controversial group due to its defense of Scientology, The Order of the Solar Temple, and Shincheonji Church of Jesus. You might find the academic work of Emily Dunn to be more balanced.

According to Immigration decisions made in NZ and Australia, members and Immigration staff identify the 2014 murder as the turning point for intense scrutiny from the Chinese government and increased persecution.

Lightning Strikes New Zealand

While early 2023 was the date when Eastern Lightning made its mark on New Zealand, documentation of their presence here can be confirmed to at least a decade earlier. In this 2017 Refugee and Protection decision, the appellant arrived in New Zealand in 2016 where she was greeted by two established church sisters. One sister, pseudonym GG, was granted refugee status to NZ as a member of the church in 2015; at the time she met the appellant, she was in charge of the cultivation of new church members, and by 2017 was the new leader of the church. The other follower, FF, had also received refugee status as a church member in 2015, and had been the leader of the church at the time the appellant arrived. In a different decision, one witness stated that when she arrived in New Zealand in 2013, she had been greeted by established church members.

CESNUR published a letter sent to the EU Parliament in 2019 claiming that 100% of asylum applications made by EL members in New Zealand are successful. As of 2021, Massimo Introvigne reports that of 61 applications made between 2015-2021, 59 were successful and no rejections were reported. Introvigne shares briefs on recent favourable cases. However, this report does not take into account whether initial claims were denied or deportation commenced.

In 2016, The Church of Almighty God registered as an incorporated society in New Zealand, with Dan Liu as president of the church. The rules of the society, which are uploaded and publicly available on the register, could double as a bible if you left yours at home. Excluded from membership in the church are politicians, atheists, wicked people, anyone who has committed a serious crime or is politically motivated, suffering from hysteria or mental illness.

Your membership can also be discontinued for a variety of reasons:

Dan Liu was still listed as the president in 2018 when they registered the group as a charity, and as of 2019 financial filings. Interestingly, though, the charities register listing has restricted access, and does not publish the details of its officers. As of 2021, it does not appear that the group is flush with cash: they claimed only $11,983 dollars in fees, subscriptions, and other receipts from members, with only $572 in surplus and an additional $295 in bank accounts and cash. The church states they have no employees, but 30 volunteers that put in 1200 hours per week.

Whether Liu is a president in a traditional sense is unclear. The aforementioned immigration documents refer to national leaders, and the Rules of the Society document refer to the position of the Chair/President alongside two church leaders.

The Operation of Eastern Lightning between 2000 and 2023

There are accusations levelled at Eastern Lightning that they extort from the poor and bribe the rich; this contradicts of their rules, and still needs to be corroborated.

Before other cults caught on, Eastern Lightning could be seen as the pioneers of google-bombing, with multiple websites including godword.org, truthwaylife.org, thealmightyhasreturned.com, voicefromthethrone.org, holyspiritspeaks.org, hidden-advent.org and endtimeworkofgod.org. However, academic Emily Dunn notes that in the late 2000s, these websites did not offer opportunities for members to meet, nor linked to other, similar organisations - hinting at both the doctrinal isolation of EL, and the precarious status of even its overseas members. While the NZ branch has a physical address as per the Societies register, as of 2015 they claim not to have met in person. The current, live version of the EL website refers members only to Gospel hotlines.

Members of Eastern Lighting have stated that they do not use their real names on social media, and use a combination of western and china-based apps to communicate with fellow members and family. There is wariness about cell phones, due to fears that they are being tapped.

While news out of China claims that most of EL's members are uneducated women from rural areas, who find appeal in the links Zhao has made to folk beliefs, Western academics suggest that EL membership is actually more representative of middle-class, urban populations. Immigration documents appear to support the claims of the latter, with appellants demonstrating sufficient literacy in their chosen language to be able to teach EL materials, and are able to attain an overseas education or support their children to do so. EL have also amassed a catalogue of well-produced, if not necessarily well-written, videos; many of which are produced in South Korea. Again, this points to a congregation that is appealing to persons with technical and artistic skills. Further, both NZ and Australian immigration decisions refer to entire families that are part of EL; indeed, a church handbook instructs adherents to focus on winning over friends and family rather than strangers. Still, the group has not escaped accusations of using flirty fishing tactics or, like a skeezy MLM, bribing house church leaders with cash in return for their loyalty.

Final thoughts

There is no question that members of EL face persecution in China. For Skeptics, the nuances of internal squabbles between EL and other Chinese Christian groups can seem irrelevant or downright ridiculous.

Still, through immigration documents and financial statements, there is evidence that there is an invisible community of overstayers who are vulnerable to exploitation due to their extra-legal status. Persons who continue to work on EL's behalf, receiving only room and board but no income. It's a perilous existence to have in the name of a bogus cosmology.