House churches in China are often the target of government crackdowns, but there is also another threat targeting Christians in China – a cult known as Eastern Lightning, also known as The Church of Almighty God.
House churches that are connected with BTJ have reported attempted infiltrations by the violent cult group, Eastern Lightening. “During the pandemic, we had a couple that came to our church. They were recommended by another member of our group,” Sister Deborah (not her real name) reported. “I saw that the wife was acting strange. She would suddenly jump up and down for no apparent reason during our meetings and then try to take over the meeting by speaking over the teacher.”
It didn’t take Sister Deborah long to discover that the new couple were members of the deadly cult. Eastern Lightning is a pseudo-Christian cult that believes that Jesus has returned as a Chinese woman named Yang Xiangbin. Yang now lives in America, but her following targets churches in China by joining home groups, posing as fellow believers and then slowly taking over from within. They are taught how to infiltrate churches posing as pleasant and harmless believers and then to take over using extremely dangerous methods.
Eastern Lightening have been known to use violence, extortion, and sex to get Christians to convert, as they did to Pastor Shen Xiaoming, a pastor of ten million believers. Pastor Shen was kidnapped by the murderous Eastern Lightning cult after being lured into a supposed Bible conference. The methods they used can be found in the book KIDNAPPED BY A CULT.
“I had to ask them to leave,” Sister Deborah said after she confronted them. “It was the hardest thing I have ever done.”
