Eastern Lightning: Examining its Cult Characteristics

I'm still a member of the Eastern Lightning, aka the Church of Almighty God religion, along with Mark Honeychurch, and it has been a fascinating experience learning how this religion ticks. We discussed the group on a recent episode of the NZ Skeptics' “Yeah…Nah!” podcast, and I mentioned that I was unsure if they're actually a cult, but I felt that they checked many of the cult checkboxes. Others agreed that they crossed the threshold, and are probably a full-blown cult. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also calls them a cult. But are they?

During our Level 2 church training sessions, Katherine Lewis, the group leader, addressed rumours surrounding the Church of Almighty God, and attempted to dispel them. The first one she spoke about was that the church was “a cult”. According to her (or more precisely, what the church allows her to say), the term "cult" simply refers to a religious group that leads people astray, and she questioned who had the authority to judge which religions were good or bad. Katherine stated that only God could define what constitutes a cult or a good religion, and emphasised that a religion's authenticity should be based on its God's words, as well as the work of the Holy Spirit. She also noted that a religion's positive or negative impact on mankind could determine whether it was a good religion or a cult. Katherine claimed the CCP was a satanic regime, unqualified to comment on faith or condemn religious groups believing in God, and she then labelled the CCP as a cult.

So, this church seems to have its own definition of a cult, and convinces its members that their religion is good and positively impacts humankind, and therefore isn't a cult (at least within their own definition of one).

My Cult Checklist

After a lot of reading (spanning various websites, papers, and books), I have compiled a list of ten common points often associated with cults. With this list in hand, we can now examine the Church of Almighty God and evaluate whether or not it displays any of the characteristics commonly found in cults:

1. The group follows a charismatic prominent leader (or leaders) who claims a divine or special mission, and demands obedience and loyalty.

Yang Xiangbin, aka Lightning Deng, is the "Almighty God", aka the return of Jesus, but she has been hidden from the public and church members for many years now. Instead, Zhao Weishan oversees the group's global operations, is the main author of the group's teachings, and is the current spokesperson for the Almighty God.

It has been claimed by the church that Yang, as God, has the authority to save or condemn all of humanity, and that her writings are the new word of God, superseding the Bible. The Church also teaches that Zhao, as her mouthpiece, is blessed by God to speak divine words of wisdom on His behalf.

These claims of both divinity and special status mean the Church most definitely ticks this first box.

2. The group recruits and controls members through deception, guilt, shame, or brainwashing techniques and suppresses dissent.

The Church of Almighty God is not above lying to recruit new members. They boost their group numbers with admin accounts and fake new members. They said they would give a hard copy of their holy book, “The Word Appears in the Flesh”, to all members entering the final level 3 group. Every inquiry about it, they simply ignore - it has been months, and nothing. They also guilt people for activities they believe are sins, and kick out anyone questioning their beliefs. They call ‘social trends' evil and say they come from Satan. They gave examples to us of Tik Tok, TV dramas & TV shows, gaming - especially online games - celebrities, clothing styles, makeup, music stars, magazines, and even novels. Basically, they put the guilt of sin on members for doing anything fun.

3. The group dictates members' thoughts, feelings, actions, and relationships in every aspect of their lives; restricts their freedom and autonomy; imposes unrealistic expectations; controls their fate; and cuts them off from their loved ones.

Members of the church are expected to follow the rules, including what they wear, watch, and the activities they participate in; otherwise, they are living in sin. They also have unrealistic expectations that members should be sin-free. Since members can easily be kicked out of the church group, they must be careful about what they do and say. The church says they are the only way that leads to heaven; therefore, leaving the group means going to hell.

At one meeting, they shared a story of one of their sisters visiting hell while at the hospital for emergency treatment. The story listed examples of sins that caused her to go to hell:

“On September 5, 2022, brothers and sisters called to invite me to a gathering, but I was feeling down from family pressure, and didn't attend. On September 10, 2022, I skipped a gathering and didn't answer brothers' and sisters' phone calls, not wanting to see them. On October 5, 2022, I dropped out of all gathering groups and cut off contact with other church members. On October 6, 2022, I walked away from God in favor of worldly trends and having fun.”

As you can see, these are such minor reasons, and it's all about control - not answering members' calls and keeping in contact, skipping church meetings, and having fun. The church dictating its members' lives in this way clearly ticks this box.

4. The group isolates members from outside contacts and adopts an elitist and us-versus-them mentality that causes conflict with the broader society.

Warning: this section contains talk of suicide.

As I said above, the Church of Almighty God believes that only their religion's members will go to heaven, while all others will go to hell. They believe that Satan is everywhere, so you must be watchful of anything outside of the church. They've published a book called “Typical Examples of Punishment for Resisting Almighty God”, full of people who get punished by God if they go against the church. It's hard to say if these are real examples, as they have just used the first names of people in China from 20 years ago. Many examples of people suffering are given, sometimes in disgusting details, and then usually dying:

“Wang's left foot began to go numb. The skin of his foot peeled off in layers, and he lost sensation in it… it festered and oozed pus. In October 2000, his left leg was also amputated. However, he still did not wake up and continued resisting God's work even in his wheelchair. Later, the amputated stump of his left leg grew bones. The pain was unbearable and he had to have another operation. Unable to endure the torments of the disease, Wang attempted to hang himself, but did not succeed. In May 2001, Wang also got alcoholic liver disease. Overwhelmed by all this suffering, he poured kerosene on his quilt and lit it to kill himself, but still did not succeed. Wang wanted to die, yet death stayed away from him. From April 2002, Wang has had to drink a bottle of liquor every night to numb himself, living in torment all day long. Now Wang's right hand and foot begin to go numb too and they turn dark purple, and his right foot begins to blister… he may not know even if his flesh dies, his soul will be punished more severely. At that time, it will be more excruciating for him to suffer”

This type of thinking makes outsiders appear dirty, and it serves to isolate church members and keep them with the church's flock.

5. The group justifies unethical or harmful actions to achieve its ends; it may have a history of violence or criminal activity.

Other points cover this one well - they engage in unethical practices to recruit new members, such as creating fake profiles and pages, which they use to spam messages and comments to recruit. Over 109 Facebook pages linked to them were found; 66% were made this year.

Here is an example of one of their spam bots breaking on one of their FB pages, and churning out multiple messages in response to someone's comment:

From what I've seen, the group puts a lot of pressure on leaders to keep new members coming in, so they will try any method (unethical or not) to get those numbers up.

6. The group convinces members that there is no life outside the group and that leaving will harm themselves or others.

Members of the church are taught that they need to ‘drink and eat' God's words whenever possible, as the end of the world is coming soon, and there are no second chances. Some people were apprehensive when there was flooding around New Zealand. The church believes that Satan is everywhere, and that members must stay with the fellowship to learn and be tested.

The church consistently spreads many doomsday messages, and members must prepare for end-times at any moment. You would apparently still be doomed if you stayed within the church, but left the church's fellowship group.

7. The group has an authoritarian and hierarchical structure with no accountability for the leader(s), who have absolute or unchallenged authority.

Zhao Weishan is at the top of the Church of Almighty God hierarchy, and there is a strict chain of command. Inspectors supervise regional and subregional leaders. There is no accountability for the leaders at the top, and they hold significant power and control over the actions and beliefs of their members.

8. The group has strict rules and rituals, secret scriptures or doctrines that only the leader(s) can interpret or change, and claims to be the only source of truth or salvation.

Church members are expected to read God's word, regularly attend meetings, sign up new members, obey the leaders, live sinless lives, and reject other religions. Only Zhao Weishan has the authority to interpret and explain the group's teachings. He can also revise or delete parts of it as he sees fit. The church sees itself as the only source of truth, and the only path to salvation.

9. The group is preoccupied with recruiting new members or making money.

The Church of Almighty God is relentlessly focused on recruiting new members. Thankfully they do not ask for money from their new recruits. But, looking at their NZ Charity records, they may expect a tithe/donations from their members eventually:

10. The group requires members to devote most of their time and resources to the group and its activities.

For members, there are three weekly online meetings that usually go on for at least 1 hour 30 minutes, sometimes nearly 2 hours. Members are expected to engage in regular readings, attend in-person study groups, and watch their hour-long videos. The leaders of the church appear to dedicate most of their free time to church-related activities, often working well into the night, as well as irregular hours. I spoke to my Level 1 leader, Henry John, about this, and he stated that he devotes the majority of his free time to the fellowship group, allocating only three hours a day to work for his family's financial needs.

So, is the church a cult?

The church is only online most of the time, so it could be argued that their hold over members isn't that strong. But their recent push towards in-person meetups could have a more potent effect on their members. Based on the ten points I've used to identify cults, The Church of Almighty God religion exhibits many cult characteristics, so I'm going to have to agree that they have hit the threshold here, and I'm happy to call them a cult. But cult or not, this secretive religion has shown it can cause harm, and so continuing to shine a light on them will hopefully avoid them from getting worse.