June 24, 2025 • 18 mins
Make sure to listen to this special message as Hank Hanegraaff reflects on the fiscal year’s end, he underscores Christian unity and global missions while warning of The Church of Almighty God (Eastern Lightning), which claims a Chinese woman is the reincarnated Christ and fulfillment of Jesus’s Olivet Discourse. Doctrinally deviant and sociologically subversive, this group masquerades as a persecuted Christian movement to advance dangerous dogmas. In CRI’s special issue of the Christian Research Journal, believers are equipped to recognize and confront such cults. Hank shows how your prayers, partnership, and generosity make an eternal difference in fulfilling the Great Commission. Donate Now to Receive this Special Issue of the Christian Research Journal! Click here.
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https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-special-print-issue-48-02-03-the-eastern-lighting-cult-christ-returns-to-earth-as-a-female-hup0625/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Well, Hello, this is Hank Antigraph, president of the Christian
Research Institute and host of the Bible inswer Man broadcast
as well as the Hank Unplugged podcast. I mentioned that
at the outset of what I want to talk to
you about, because both those outreaches continue to have a
(00:46):
very significant impact around the world. Of course, if you
go to equip equip dot org you can see a
plethora of resources so that you will be built up
in the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
But that's not what I want to primarily talk to
(01:06):
you about today. I want to talk about the end
of another fiscal year. We have a calendar year, but
we also have a fiscal year. Our fiscal year ends
June thirty and I am reminded every single year at
this time of how transcendently critical your support is in
(01:30):
the task of global missions. And I'm also reminded that
I ought to be deeply grateful for people like you
that make an eternal difference. Through your support. You are
touching the lives of people that you will likely never
(01:55):
see until you commune with them for all eternity in
the presence of God. You know, it's been well said
that there's a direct connection between the oneness of Christians
in the image of the Holy Trinity and the missionary
(02:16):
mandate of the Church. The Church, after all, is a
mystery of mutual, trinitary and love, and the Church is
true to itself only when that circle of love is
continually expanded, only when you and I are dedicated to
(02:43):
the great commission giving to us by our Lord Jesus
Christ just prior to ascending to his Father in Heaven.
Now it's obvious that not all of us can go
to mission fields around the world, but all can facilitate
(03:08):
the commission that Christ gave us, and do so through
their support and through their prayers. All can have a part,
All can participate in bringing the Gospel to those who
have not yet heard the name of Jesus Christ. And tragically,
(03:35):
the unreached are measured not merely in thousands, but in
multiplied millions of souls. And as I speak, I'm likewise
reminded of the reality that the ever growing kingdom of
(03:57):
the cults, which has been aptly described as the unpaid
bills of the Church, meaning that they proliferate in part
by seducing people who have not yet been rooted and
grounded in the faith continues to expand all over the world.
(04:17):
I was just recently in China doing a primary source
research project, and that project was with respect to an
insidious cult. And I use that term insidious advisedly because
this is a cult that has literally seduced millions upon
(04:39):
millions of people into the idea that Jesus Christ. Now
this may be hard for you to grasp, get your
mind around, millions and millions of people have been seduced
into the belief that Jesus Christ has been reincarnated as
(05:01):
a female on the Chinese mainland. Imagine, imagine this Chinese
Christ shamelessly asserting that the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ spoken during the all of the discourse in Matthew
twenty four apply specifically to her. In other words, that
(05:24):
the lightning that comes out of the east and shines
even to the west points prophetically to her reincarnation in
the east, and to the reality that this eastern lightning
will radiate to the West and then to the rest
of the world. And yet this is precisely what is
(05:47):
even now happening worldwide, people doing for a lie what
oftentimes Christians aren't willing to do for the truth. So,
like the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Days Saints,
the Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning,
(06:07):
is using the full force of its financial and very
substantial financial as well as creative resources to spread pernicious
dogmas to far flung places now across this world. An
(06:27):
Oxford University Press publication provides at least a partial list
of the countries now boasting Eastern Lightning devotees. Think about this.
I'll take off a few South Korea, Taiwan, the United
(06:50):
States of America, Canada, Japan, Australia, Switzerlandium, where I was born,
in the Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Finland, Spain, and
(07:10):
the list goes on. Other countries in which Eastern Lightning
has established churches include the Philippines, Hong Kong, New Zealand,
and other places worldwide, and appallingly, in many of these countries,
the notion, and this is a very important point that
(07:32):
I want to make, the notion that the Church of
Almighty God, in other words, followers of the Female Christ,
is just another persecuted Christian group that's become the prevailing narrative.
In other words, the narrative is not about about the
(07:52):
pernicious sociological and theological deviances of this cult, and it's
now cast as a Christian group unjustly being persecuted. Well,
in truth, this sociologically subversive cult induces its disciples to
(08:13):
abandon their social and familial obligations and then commit unreservedly
to spreading the culturally subversive message of the counterfeit Christ,
and that extends even to the tearing a part of
the family unit. So let me give you an idea
(08:33):
of what this amounts to. This cult, in very graphic language,
is a cult, through the words of their counterfeit Christ,
that exhorts devotees or followers to leave their families and
(08:54):
wholeheartedly commit to the mission of gaining new converts. That
means that women leave their babies, or their four year
olds or their five year olds, and they are induced
to make new converts while neglecting their own family, and
(09:19):
those who fail to do so the female Christ explicitly
renders worthless. The theological travesties are equally disorienting and dangerous.
So it's not just about the sociologically deviant behavior of
(09:42):
these cultists. But it's also about the theological aberrations. So
let me give you just a rundown of some of
these aberrations. As I've already sort of alluded to. They
begin by denying the unique deity of Jesus Christ, and
that's done by the profane pontification that he is now
(10:05):
reincarnated as a Chinese female that is present on earth today.
Have aout original sin, Well, that's compromised by the perverse
assertion that the corruption of Adam and Eve was not
due to their disobedience, but rather originates entirely from Satan.
(10:33):
And what about the Holy Bible, Well, the Holy Bible
is supplanted supplanted by a blasphemous extra biblical revelation that
purports to eclipse the Ten Commendments with ten administrative degrees.
These are declarations in which the female Christ warns devotes
(10:56):
that it is her prerogative to kill everyone one who
violates her administrative decrees. What about the Trinity, Well, the
Trinity is deemed incoherent. It's described by the female Christ
as a figment of satanically corrupted imagination. Let's talk a
(11:21):
moment about the capstone in the Arch of the Christian
faith the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Christ is not raised,
our faith is feutile. That's what Saint Paul says. But
the resurrection in Eastern Lightning is malefinitely compromised by the
(11:43):
outrageous assertion that the female Christ is the incarnation of
the first Christ. In other words, of Jesus christ incarnation. Well,
it's debased by the profane assertion that Jesus Christ failed
to do the work of completely gaining man. Imagine that
(12:04):
Jesus' work is deemed incomplete, and so now this reincarnation
of Christ has to tidy up what Jesus Christ didn't do.
And then the scintillating truth that anyone in Christ's a
new creation is compromised by the counterfeit concoction of eternal
(12:26):
estrangement from God. Think about that. And then the eschatology,
which I've often described as the thread that weaves the
tapestry of scripture into a harmonious pattern that is ignominiously
sullied by a largely incoherent Eastern Lightning eschatological charade. Well,
(12:52):
much more can and will be said in a very
special edition of the Christian Research Journal. In fact, it
will be out shortly and on its way to your home.
It's an issue of the Journal that is presently being
translated into many different languages and will be made available
(13:15):
throughout the world. This special edition of the Christian Research Journal,
along with other CRI resources, will equip you and those
confronted by counterfeits around the globe to become ever more
familiar with the truth, so that when a cult like
Eastern Lightning looms on the horizon, you'll recognize it instantaneously. Well,
(13:41):
there's much more I could say, but I want to
summarize by simply saying thank you, Thank you from the
core of my being for the difference your prayers, the
difference your partnership, the difference your or your generosity makes
in standing against dangerous ideological battles, battles that we dare
(14:06):
not lose, And for being willing to do for truth
what cults such as Eastern Lightning are doing for a lie.
I am again eternally grateful because that is not a cliche.
(14:31):
That is a reality that transforms lives, that rescues people
out of the clutches of dangerous cults of world religions
and then brings them to the Light of Christ, not
(14:51):
a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, but the real Christ who
came into the world so that we might have life
and have it to the full. And you, you, dear friend,
are the light of the world. As Jesus put it,
(15:13):
a city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do
people light a lamp and put it under a bull.
Instead they put it an extent gives light to everyone
in the house. In the same way, let your light
shine throughout the world before men, that they may see
your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven. Your
(15:34):
gift today, your gift next month will not only ensure
that you receive this special edition of the Christian Research Journal,
but it will also help the Christian Research Institute to
continue the critical task of equipping fellow believers twenty four
(15:57):
to seven to stand for truth, no matter the cost,
to proclaim and defend biblical truth. Only one life soon
twill be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.
(16:19):
Let me leave you with this thought. Someone that's worked
with me for almost four decades, a person that was
in the gym all the time, a person that that
was incredibly gifted, physically, strong, vibrant, suddenly had a stroke.
(16:50):
I went to visit him. He was sitting in a wheelchair,
a hard time speaking. A few months later, he's absent
from the body present with the Lord. So he's run
(17:13):
the race. He's fought the fight, and now there is
laid up for him that crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the Righteous Judge, will award to those those that have
been faithful, but not only to them, but also to
all who've been faithful. He's absent from the body present
(17:35):
with the Lord. But we are still on planet Earth,
and we're still in the position to lay up for
ourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt,
and where thieves do not break and steel frist. Jesus
put it where your treasure is there, your heart will
(17:55):
be also. So we're asking you to invest in a ministry,
but ultimately the ministry is just the conduit, because the
investment is in the lives of people that we will
know for all eternity. Thanks for listening. I hope you
(18:16):
support the ministry. I pray that you support the ministry faithfully, financially, prayerfully,
and will continue to light a light around the world
that continues to shine and make a difference in dark
places that you and I may never have the opportunity
to visit. Thanks for tuning in
Well, Hello, this is Hank Antigraph, president of the Christian
Research Institute and host of the Bible inswer Man broadcast
as well as the Hank Unplugged podcast. I mentioned that
at the outset of what I want to talk to
you about, because both those outreaches continue to have a
(00:46):
very significant impact around the world. Of course, if you
go to equip equip dot org you can see a
plethora of resources so that you will be built up
in the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
But that's not what I want to primarily talk to
(01:06):
you about today. I want to talk about the end
of another fiscal year. We have a calendar year, but
we also have a fiscal year. Our fiscal year ends
June thirty and I am reminded every single year at
this time of how transcendently critical your support is in
(01:30):
the task of global missions. And I'm also reminded that
I ought to be deeply grateful for people like you
that make an eternal difference. Through your support. You are
touching the lives of people that you will likely never
(01:55):
see until you commune with them for all eternity in
the presence of God. You know, it's been well said
that there's a direct connection between the oneness of Christians
in the image of the Holy Trinity and the missionary
(02:16):
mandate of the Church. The Church, after all, is a
mystery of mutual, trinitary and love, and the Church is
true to itself only when that circle of love is
continually expanded, only when you and I are dedicated to
(02:43):
the great commission giving to us by our Lord Jesus
Christ just prior to ascending to his Father in Heaven.
Now it's obvious that not all of us can go
to mission fields around the world, but all can facilitate
(03:08):
the commission that Christ gave us, and do so through
their support and through their prayers. All can have a part,
All can participate in bringing the Gospel to those who
have not yet heard the name of Jesus Christ. And tragically,
(03:35):
the unreached are measured not merely in thousands, but in
multiplied millions of souls. And as I speak, I'm likewise
reminded of the reality that the ever growing kingdom of
(03:57):
the cults, which has been aptly described as the unpaid
bills of the Church, meaning that they proliferate in part
by seducing people who have not yet been rooted and
grounded in the faith continues to expand all over the world.
(04:17):
I was just recently in China doing a primary source
research project, and that project was with respect to an
insidious cult. And I use that term insidious advisedly because
this is a cult that has literally seduced millions upon
(04:39):
millions of people into the idea that Jesus Christ. Now
this may be hard for you to grasp, get your
mind around, millions and millions of people have been seduced
into the belief that Jesus Christ has been reincarnated as
(05:01):
a female on the Chinese mainland. Imagine, imagine this Chinese
Christ shamelessly asserting that the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ spoken during the all of the discourse in Matthew
twenty four apply specifically to her. In other words, that
(05:24):
the lightning that comes out of the east and shines
even to the west points prophetically to her reincarnation in
the east, and to the reality that this eastern lightning
will radiate to the West and then to the rest
of the world. And yet this is precisely what is
(05:47):
even now happening worldwide, people doing for a lie what
oftentimes Christians aren't willing to do for the truth. So,
like the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Days Saints,
the Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning,
(06:07):
is using the full force of its financial and very
substantial financial as well as creative resources to spread pernicious
dogmas to far flung places now across this world. An
(06:27):
Oxford University Press publication provides at least a partial list
of the countries now boasting Eastern Lightning devotees. Think about this.
I'll take off a few South Korea, Taiwan, the United
(06:50):
States of America, Canada, Japan, Australia, Switzerlandium, where I was born,
in the Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Finland, Spain, and
(07:10):
the list goes on. Other countries in which Eastern Lightning
has established churches include the Philippines, Hong Kong, New Zealand,
and other places worldwide, and appallingly, in many of these countries,
the notion, and this is a very important point that
(07:32):
I want to make, the notion that the Church of
Almighty God, in other words, followers of the Female Christ,
is just another persecuted Christian group that's become the prevailing narrative.
In other words, the narrative is not about about the
(07:52):
pernicious sociological and theological deviances of this cult, and it's
now cast as a Christian group unjustly being persecuted. Well,
in truth, this sociologically subversive cult induces its disciples to
(08:13):
abandon their social and familial obligations and then commit unreservedly
to spreading the culturally subversive message of the counterfeit Christ,
and that extends even to the tearing a part of
the family unit. So let me give you an idea
(08:33):
of what this amounts to. This cult, in very graphic language,
is a cult, through the words of their counterfeit Christ,
that exhorts devotees or followers to leave their families and
(08:54):
wholeheartedly commit to the mission of gaining new converts. That
means that women leave their babies, or their four year
olds or their five year olds, and they are induced
to make new converts while neglecting their own family, and
(09:19):
those who fail to do so the female Christ explicitly
renders worthless. The theological travesties are equally disorienting and dangerous.
So it's not just about the sociologically deviant behavior of
(09:42):
these cultists. But it's also about the theological aberrations. So
let me give you just a rundown of some of
these aberrations. As I've already sort of alluded to. They
begin by denying the unique deity of Jesus Christ, and
that's done by the profane pontification that he is now
(10:05):
reincarnated as a Chinese female that is present on earth today.
Have aout original sin, Well, that's compromised by the perverse
assertion that the corruption of Adam and Eve was not
due to their disobedience, but rather originates entirely from Satan.
(10:33):
And what about the Holy Bible, Well, the Holy Bible
is supplanted supplanted by a blasphemous extra biblical revelation that
purports to eclipse the Ten Commendments with ten administrative degrees.
These are declarations in which the female Christ warns devotes
(10:56):
that it is her prerogative to kill everyone one who
violates her administrative decrees. What about the Trinity, Well, the
Trinity is deemed incoherent. It's described by the female Christ
as a figment of satanically corrupted imagination. Let's talk a
(11:21):
moment about the capstone in the Arch of the Christian
faith the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Christ is not raised,
our faith is feutile. That's what Saint Paul says. But
the resurrection in Eastern Lightning is malefinitely compromised by the
(11:43):
outrageous assertion that the female Christ is the incarnation of
the first Christ. In other words, of Jesus christ incarnation. Well,
it's debased by the profane assertion that Jesus Christ failed
to do the work of completely gaining man. Imagine that
(12:04):
Jesus' work is deemed incomplete, and so now this reincarnation
of Christ has to tidy up what Jesus Christ didn't do.
And then the scintillating truth that anyone in Christ's a
new creation is compromised by the counterfeit concoction of eternal
(12:26):
estrangement from God. Think about that. And then the eschatology,
which I've often described as the thread that weaves the
tapestry of scripture into a harmonious pattern that is ignominiously
sullied by a largely incoherent Eastern Lightning eschatological charade. Well,
(12:52):
much more can and will be said in a very
special edition of the Christian Research Journal. In fact, it
will be out shortly and on its way to your home.
It's an issue of the Journal that is presently being
translated into many different languages and will be made available
(13:15):
throughout the world. This special edition of the Christian Research Journal,
along with other CRI resources, will equip you and those
confronted by counterfeits around the globe to become ever more
familiar with the truth, so that when a cult like
Eastern Lightning looms on the horizon, you'll recognize it instantaneously. Well,
(13:41):
there's much more I could say, but I want to
summarize by simply saying thank you, Thank you from the
core of my being for the difference your prayers, the
difference your partnership, the difference your or your generosity makes
in standing against dangerous ideological battles, battles that we dare
(14:06):
not lose, And for being willing to do for truth
what cults such as Eastern Lightning are doing for a lie.
I am again eternally grateful because that is not a cliche.
(14:31):
That is a reality that transforms lives, that rescues people
out of the clutches of dangerous cults of world religions
and then brings them to the Light of Christ, not
(14:51):
a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, but the real Christ who
came into the world so that we might have life
and have it to the full. And you, you, dear friend,
are the light of the world. As Jesus put it,
(15:13):
a city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do
people light a lamp and put it under a bull.
Instead they put it an extent gives light to everyone
in the house. In the same way, let your light
shine throughout the world before men, that they may see
your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven. Your
(15:34):
gift today, your gift next month will not only ensure
that you receive this special edition of the Christian Research Journal,
but it will also help the Christian Research Institute to
continue the critical task of equipping fellow believers twenty four
(15:57):
to seven to stand for truth, no matter the cost,
to proclaim and defend biblical truth. Only one life soon
twill be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.
(16:19):
Let me leave you with this thought. Someone that's worked
with me for almost four decades, a person that was
in the gym all the time, a person that that
was incredibly gifted, physically, strong, vibrant, suddenly had a stroke.
(16:50):
I went to visit him. He was sitting in a wheelchair,
a hard time speaking. A few months later, he's absent
from the body present with the Lord. So he's run
(17:13):
the race. He's fought the fight, and now there is
laid up for him that crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the Righteous Judge, will award to those those that have
been faithful, but not only to them, but also to
all who've been faithful. He's absent from the body present
(17:35):
with the Lord. But we are still on planet Earth,
and we're still in the position to lay up for
ourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt,
and where thieves do not break and steel frist. Jesus
put it where your treasure is there, your heart will
(17:55):
be also. So we're asking you to invest in a ministry,
but ultimately the ministry is just the conduit, because the
investment is in the lives of people that we will
know for all eternity. Thanks for listening. I hope you
(18:16):
support the ministry. I pray that you support the ministry faithfully, financially, prayerfully,
and will continue to light a light around the world
that continues to shine and make a difference in dark
places that you and I may never have the opportunity
to visit. Thanks for tuning in
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