Almighty God: The Big Reveal

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my experience of joining the Eastern Lightning group, a Chinese Christian sect that is currently trying to expand through spamming New Zealanders on Facebook, and running online fellowships to introduce new adherents to the religion. I detailed my first few days in the group, working through their “Level 1” lessons, and some of the conversations I had during the love bombing I received on the first few days from multiple church members.

After I had “graduated” from level 1 there was no rest - the very next day I was added to a new Facebook chat group for my Level 2. The next few days of teaching would prepare us for the big reveal that was coming, that the second coming of Christ has happened, and God is walking among us right now. Here's an overview of how they did that (I may not have documented everything under the correct days, as everything became a little bit fuzzy and tiring after a while, and the group leader has since deleted all of the messages in the Facebook chat they were using and renamed the group to “this group is no longer used, we can leave”).

Day 4

A few hours before this lesson started we were told it was “very important”, but then again so was every lesson before and after this one as well. It seems that every message this church imparts to its members, every fellowship and sermon, is especially important, and we needed to be sure we didn't miss them.

In amongst the members of this new group I noticed an account I had been told about - fellow committee member Dan Ryan's fake account that he was using as a pseudonym for his side of our church investigation. It was kind of weird to see that I wasn't the only skeptic in the group, but comforting as well.

The first of Level 2 leaned heavily on talk of “virus disasters” - basically using a fear of COVID to try to scare people into believing that the End Days are here. The leader also mentioned the recent Auckland floods as further evidence that the end is nigh. This reminded me of many of the conversations I have with Jehovah's Witnesses who come to my door, where they lean heavily on the idea that everything we see in the news is evidence of the end times, and the prophecies of Revelation are coming true in front of our eyes.

Day 5

Once again on day 5 we were told that, as Almighty God has now returned to earth, we should trust when He tells us that He is God, and not to trust anyone who tells us otherwise; not friends, family, pastors or the government. Insidious - that's the word that kept going through my head as I listened to the tactics this group uses to turn people against their families, as they slowly prepare them to swallow and regurgitate the “truth” that is likely to cause a lot of strain with those closest to them: the idea that God has returned, and that their new messiah is a very ordinary, very human person.

In a way, I feel kind of sorry for the Christian church here in New Zealand. At the moment this new “Christian” group is actively preying on their members, turning them against the churches they've been members of for years, and warning these new converts to not trust their pastors when they're warned that this new religion is blasphemy. But, then again, I also think that the church has in large part brought this upon themselves. Their existence is based on telling people to trust authority rather than evidence, to reject man's “corrupted” knowledge and instead believe in holy scriptures. And now that same weapon is being used against them, turning their parishioners away from them and towards a new “Truth”. I can imagine the conversations now, with pastors around the country telling people to reject this new religion, and instead rely on their “authority” - it would sound pretty ironic.

At one point during this meeting I couldn't think of a good answer to a question, so I let ChatGPT do the work for me - thanks AI overlords. Here's the question we were asked:

can we enter God's kingdom if we pray often, read bible often, attend meetings, have good deeds, help the poor, sacrifice, work hard and expend themselves for the Lord?

And here's the answer ChatGPT gave me - the part in bold is the part I used:

As a language model, I do not have personal beliefs, but the concept of entering God's kingdom is often portrayed differently across different religious beliefs. However, in many Christian traditions, it is believed that salvation and entrance into heaven is not solely based on religious practices such as prayer, reading the Bible, attending meetings, and good works, but also through faith in Jesus Christ as the savior. It is important to note that every person's relationship with their faith is unique and they should seek guidance from religious leaders or texts that align with their beliefs.

I received a love heart emoji for my answer, but I assume it came from the same piece of software that seems to like every comment someone makes in our fellowship Facebook chats.

A theme that I started to notice running through these Level 2 meetings was that a lot of the work they were doing appeared to be an attempt to undo the usual Christian expectations about what a second coming of Christ would be. We had a song about how we should ignore ethnicity, and a conversation about how the Jews were bad people for not recognising Jesus, with a warning of how this may happen again and we'd need to make sure we recognise God rather than vilify Him.

Day 6

It was finally revealed to us that the second coming of God happened in China. They had biblical “proof” of this, but it all seemed a little bit flimsy to me. Here are three bible quotes that were supposed foretell God's arrival in China:

1. Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles
2. 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.
3. Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

The rising of the sun (in the East) in Malachi, the lightning coming from the East in Matthew (hence one of the names of the church, Eastern Lightning) and mention of a dragon in Revelation, when taken together, apparently show us that God's return is in China. I'm sure there are bible verses that people could pick to support God's arrival in many countries - that's one of the useful points of the bible, it contains so much text saying so many things, many of them contradictory or easy to take out of context, that it's not hard to cherry pick a few verses to support pretty much any thesis you need to “prove” biblically.

After the lesson I was asked about whether I was surprised to hear that God had returned to China, and as I'd said last week I responded in a bit of a cheeky way:

btw, are u surprise that God incarnated in China, my bro?😁

_No, not really._

_It could have been anywhere in the world, and given that China has the largest population statistically it's the most likely country._

_If, however, God had been born in the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region, it would be a little odd. But still, God would have His reasons I'm sure to incarnate wherever He chooses._

One thing that has been hard to hear through the lessons is a lot of antisemitic sentiment. The worst so far has been a passage and accompanying image that together appeared to suggest that the Holocaust is God's punishment for the Jews crucifying Jesus rather than recognising him as God.

The Jewish people listened to the rumors of the Pharisees and nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross. This led to the subjugation of Israel for two thousand years, and many people were slaughtered. This is the outcome of resisting God.

Day 7

Day 7 focused on China and the CCP. We were told that China is the most corrupt and depraved country in the world, and that therefore it makes sense that God would choose to start His work saving the people of China. Natural disasters and COVID in China are proof of this:

Countries that resist God will surely be cursed. China is now experiencing all kinds of disasters: plagues, floods, insects, and then famines, etc. This is God's righteous disposition coming upon it, and this is the fact that it is being punished for resisting God.😰😰😥😥

There was a lot of talk about the Chinese Communist Party, and in-depth attempts to challenge the CCP's narrative of Eastern Lightning being a cult. Cases like the McDonald's murder, which is detailed on the church's Wikipedia page, were discussed in detail, and of course we were told the church is totally innocent in every case, and the CCP is simply trying to frame them.

This felt like it might make sense as a valid tactic to use when preaching within China, and maybe even in Taiwan (where my first two fellowship leaders come from), but I can't imagine it makes much sense or is very relevant to most New Zealanders. I'd be surprised if many of our fellowship group members had any idea about the politics of China or their crackdown on local unauthorised religious groups. Honestly, they would have done much better if they'd just not mentioned the controversies in the first place.

Day 8

On day 8 they tackled the charge that the group is a cult. We were given as an argument against cult status that we can know if the Church of Almighty God is a cult or not by trusting what Almighty God tells us. This seemed like a piece of circular reasoning to me. Here's one of the lesson's multiple choice questions (and of course the “correct” answer was C):

_Dear brothers and sisters, who has the right to judge who is a good religion or a cult?

A: The ruling and powerful people in the world and all the celebrities

B: Religious pastors and elders

C: Only God Himself

D: Not sure_

At one point during this lesson, someone had obviously had enough of being told that God had returned to earth and written a new holy text. They posted the following bible verse from Deuteronomy:

Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

You'll be unsurprised to hear that they were removed from the group immediately - it took less than 30 seconds for them to be ejected. It seems like the many extra admins in each of our study groups are there, apart from anything else, to monitor for and remove dissenters.

Day 9

On day 9, the shift started occurring from talking about “him” to talking about “her” when talking about the second incarnation of God, very shortly before revealing that the body chosen for the new incarnation is that of a woman.

And with that, we had come to the end of our series of revelations, with the final reveal that God has returned to earth as a Chinese woman.

Graduation

After 9 days of joining these hour and a half long meetings (and only one night off in the middle of it all), I finally “graduated” from the level 2 group. Can you spot the typo in my “certificate off achievement”? And god damn it, they put emojis on my certificate, even though I'd told everyone who would listen that I hated emojis!

The next day, one of my leaders messaged me to find out how I'd taken the big reveal. I had to be kind of honest that it wasn't a surprise to me, although of course I didn't mention that I'd done quite a bit of background reading on the church. It kind of felt like the group leaders got a kick out of the shocking nature of their reveal, although it's hard to tell for sure as text-based instant messaging isn't the best medium for picking up on nuances of how people are feeling. Here's my conversation:

btw, how's last night's fellowship? feel shocked?😁

_No, not shocked._

oh really😅you already knew before?

_No, I didn't know, but it felt like the previous lessons had told us again, and again, and again that God could reincarnate in any vessel, and that it would be different.

Also, in the fellowship, Katherine started saying She rather than He for a while before she revealed God's gender.

And both you and Katherine told me yesterday that the lesson would contain a big surprise that would shock me, so I knew that something was going to be quite different.

So, with all of the extensive groundwork you had both done in preparing me, I wasn't really surprised at all._

😁can you accept God incarnates as female this time?

or any confusion?

_I'm happy to accept this, of course. This is God's will!_

Amen thank God brother.

Just as Almighty God says

"📕Almighty God says,“*Each time God arrives on earth, He shall change His name, His gender, His image, and His work; He does not repeat His work, and He is always new and never old. When He came before, He was called Jesus; could He still be called Jesus when He comes again this time? When He came before, He was male; could He be male again this time? His work when He came during the Age of Grace was to be nailed to the cross; when He comes again will He still redeem mankind from sin? Will He still be nailed to a cross? Would that not be a repetition of His work?*”

📕Almighty God says, *“In gender, one is male and the other female, so completing the significance of God's incarnation, and dispelling man's notions of God: God can become both male and female, and in essence, the incarnate God is genderless. He made both man and woman, and to Him, there is no division of gender.”*"

The next thing she said was a little surprising, given how I'd been in the church for less than two weeks by this point:

remember before i ask u if u want to preach together with me? in level 3, 3 times fellowship a week, when we have tralining about preaching, are u willing to join?

I know it's cruel to end on a cliffhanger like this, but this article is probably long enough already so you're going to have to wait for next week to hear about my leadership meeting, and how things were in the hallowed grounds of the Level 3 group.