Memorable World History/Authors

Eastern Lightning: Zhao Weishan

Eastern Lightning (simplified Chinese: 东方闪电; traditional Chinese: 東方閃電; pinyin: Dōngfāng Shǎndiàn), which prefers to use the name The Church of Almighty God, is a new religious movement 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: "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, a position supported by some Western scholars.

Sources

Scholars who have tried to study the group have complained that due to its "secretive" nature and the fact that in China it operates underground, researching Eastern Lightning is difficult, and media coverage is only partially reliable.

Two books on the group were published by Western academic presses. Brill published Lightning from the East by Emily Dunn in 2015, and Oxford University Press published Inside The Church of Almighty God by Massimo Introvigne in 2020. Holly Folk, a professor at Western Washington University, reported in 2020 that she is observing Eastern Lightning through a participant observation study since 2016.

Due to the growing influx of refugees from Eastern Lightning who seek asylum abroad, some national authorities have published reports on the group. In 2019, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada published a compilation of its interviews with scholars about Eastern Lightning. In the same year, the National Commission for the Right of Asylum of the Italian Ministry of the Interior published and shared with the other European Union countries through the European Asylum Support Office a report on "Persecution for religious reasons in China: Church of Almighty God."

History

A woman whose name is never mentioned in the group's literature but is believed to be Yang Xiangbin (b. 1973, Chinese: 楊向彬; pinyin: Yáng Xiàngbīn) started spreading in 1991 among Chinese house churches, most of them part of The Shouters, roneotyped texts with revelations she claimed were coming from the Holy Spirit. Chinese authorities claim that Yang had a history of mental problems.

Zhao Weishan (simplified Chinese: 赵维山; traditional Chinese: 趙維山; pinyin: Zhào Wéishān; 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 which venerated their leader Witness Lee as "Lord Changshou". 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."