December 3, 2025 • 26 mins
Has Christ returned as a female in China? Believe it or not, this is the shameless assertion of the Church of the Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning. Unfortunately, this is not a fringe group of fanatics, but a cult that is growing globally with millions of devotees and deep pockets. This edition of Hank Unplugged is dedicated to discussing the dangers of Eastern Lightning, what CRI is doing to combat the cults and how you can help make a difference.For further study: CRI Resource: The Eastern Lighting Cult: Christ Returns to Earth as a Female? https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-special-print-issue-48-02-03-the-eastern-lighting-cult-christ-returns-to-earth-as-a-female-hup1225/
As a preview of the extensive and new primary research done on this topic, please see Hank’s From the President column from this issue, “Christ Returns to Earth as a Female — An Exposé of the Eastern Lightning Cult “ https://www.equip.org/articles/christ-returns-to-earth-as-a-female-an-expose-of-the-eastern-lightning-cult/ and also one of the feature articles by Hank, “Contrasting Eastern Lightning Deception and Essential Christian D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E”.https://www.equip.org/articles/contrasting-eastern-lightning-deception-and-essential-christian-d-o-c-t-r-i-n-e/
As a preview of the extensive and new primary research done on this topic, please see Hank’s From the President column from this issue, “Christ Returns to Earth as a Female — An Exposé of the Eastern Lightning Cult “ https://www.equip.org/articles/christ-returns-to-earth-as-a-female-an-expose-of-the-eastern-lightning-cult/ and also one of the feature articles by Hank, “Contrasting Eastern Lightning Deception and Essential Christian D-O-C-T-R-I-N-E”.https://www.equip.org/articles/contrasting-eastern-lightning-deception-and-essential-christian-d-o-c-t-r-i-n-e/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And welcome to another special edition of the handcum plug Podcast,
a podcast committed to being interesting, informative, and inspirational. On
today's special edition of hand Gunplugged, I want to talk
about a special addition of the Christian Research Journal. This
(00:46):
special edition of the journal is devoted to the Eastern
Lightning Cult, a cult that holds to the notion that
Jesus Christ returns earned to Earth in the form of
a female. Now, as we talk about this female Christ
(01:12):
and the cult that she has initiated, I want you
to imagine something with me. Imagine this. Imagine that Jesus
Christ was actually reincarnated as a female on the Chinese mainland.
(01:37):
Imagine a new iteration of the King of Kings and
the Lord of Lords, who self designates as the Truth,
the Way, and the Life. Imagine a woman by whom
all things were created, things in heaven and on earth,
(02:01):
visible and invisible, whether whether thrones or powers, or rulers
or authorities. Imagine Almighty God in the form of a
female poised to kill all who are not in line
with my will, not my words, but the way she
(02:25):
puts it. Imagine further that this Chinese female Christ shamelessly
asserts that the words of Jesus Christ are Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ spoken during his All of It discourse,
that's Matthew twenty four. That these words apply specifically and
(02:48):
directly to her. That the lightning that comes out of
the east and shines even to the west in verse
twenty seven of Matthew twenty four points emphatically to her
reincarnation and to the reality that this Eastern lightning, her mission,
(03:11):
and her ministry will radiate to the West and well
then to the rest of the world. Imagine this woman
and her devotees designating the people of China children of
the Great Red Dragon, and that she, who declares herself
(03:32):
to be Almighty God, will soon cause the whole of China,
the entire country, to be annihilated and laid to waste.
I want you to imagine one more atrocity. Imagine that
(03:52):
this Chinese deity and her millions of devotees are now
being legitimized in the West as a Christian group unjustly
persecuted by the Chinese government. Imagine that Eastern Lightning, also
dubbed the Church of Almighty God, is very much a
(04:15):
Christian tradition and not just a Christian tradition, but a
Christian tradition in a responsive dialogue with other Christianities, not
an evil cult, but more palpably, a new religious movement. Well,
(04:36):
there's no need to further imagine. All of this is
very real, and that's why in our special edition of
the Christian Research Journal, we help you to come face
to face with one of the most insidious cults that
you could possibly imagine, cult that has gone as far
(05:03):
as to publish a lurid volume provocatively titled Typical Examples
of Punishment for those who Resist Almighty God. In other words,
for those who resist the Chinese woman who claims to
be the very one who spoke and the universe leapt
(05:25):
into existence, the woman who as the initiator of Eastern
Lightning arrogantly describes her towd Rey publication as a collection
of typical examples of people from various religions and denominations
who were punished, who were cursed by God to having
(05:51):
resisted her do to having resisted her work as the
God of the Last Days. And there are many examples
that could be given. A classic example of punishment for
resisting the female Christ is the example of a fifty
(06:16):
four year old pastor who refused to convert to her
culta commune. Consequently, this pastor was brutally dismembered as proof
that the Chinese woman was none other than God Almighty,
(06:36):
and that having the temerity to resist her is a
ready prescription for suffering a gruesome death. And there are
numerous accounts that validate the vicious use of iron rods
by which to intimidate, to punish, to kill those who
(07:01):
oppose the false female Christ. And not only that, but
spouses divorce and children become estranged from parents in accordance
with the strict instruction of this female Christ. The danger
(07:23):
imposed on people by the Church of Almighty God are
such that being arrested by public security officials appears to
pale by comparison. Adherents of the China Gospel Fellowship are
(07:44):
classicase in point, they assert that they would rather be
arrested by public security officials in China than fall into
the clutches of Eastern Lightning operatives. Why well, it should
be obvious because violating Chinese law might lead to imprisonment,
(08:08):
but falling into the hands of Eastern Lightning devotes may
well pretend death. Tragically, the theological and sociological threats posed
by the female Christ are no longer relegated to mainland China.
(08:30):
Like Islam, the Church of Almighty God is using the
full force of its financial and creative resources to spread
pernicious dogmas to far flung places across the globe. An
Oxford University Press publication actually provides a list. It's a
(08:53):
partial list, but it's a list of countries that now
boast Eastern Lightning devotes. This list includes so many countries,
South Korea, Taiwan, the United States of America, Canada, Japan, Australia.
(09:18):
I went to Australia to do some of the primary
source research work, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands where I was born, Italy, France, Germany,
even Greece. Not long ago I came back from a
trip to Greece. Hard to believe that this cult would
(09:40):
be in Greece, Finland, Spain, even Hungary. And not only that,
but Eastern Lightning has established cultic communes in places like
the Philippines, in Hong Kong and even Zealand New Zealand. Collectively,
(10:02):
these cultic conclaves are home to multiplied millions of adherents,
and that's why we did this primary source research project.
This is a cult that's multiplying worldwide, and the lives
of millions of people are being devastated in many of
(10:29):
these countries. The notion that the Church of Almighty God
is just another persecuted Christian group has become well, it's
become the prevalent narrative. Now. I want to make something clear.
I do not, for a moment minimize the reality of
Christian persecution. But while I do not minimize Christian persecution,
(10:59):
the Church of Almighty God is not Christian. It is
both sociologically a subversive group and doctrinely a deviant group,
and as such it exacerbates rather than alleviates the reality
(11:22):
of Christian persecution. In one of my articles in this
special edition of the Christian Research Journal, that's an article
that is titled the Sociological Deviance of the Church of
Almighty God, I recount my interview in China with a
church leader who would rather die than surrender to the
(11:44):
sociological deviances of the Church of Almighty God. This pastor,
a pastor by the name of Pastor Shuhai, is the
spiritual leader of a group of churches in Hunan Province,
and I still remember vividly sitting on a small stool
in his village church, surrounded by his family, where this
(12:07):
pastor recounts being savagely beaten with rods and then left
for dead by devotes of the Female Christ. As to
remember him raising his right pant leg and showing me
the scarring left by broken bones. When I asked him
(12:31):
why this group would have been motivated to beat him,
he forthrightly communicated that had he been wholly incapacitated, he
would not have been able to walk to surrounding villages
to tend to his flock, and had he been killed, well,
(12:56):
the shepherd would not only have lost with a cult,
but the sheep would have become easy prey to cultic
wolves in sheep's clothing. I also vividly remember interviewing a
young man named Gie, a young man who dropped out
(13:21):
of school after being convinced by Eastern lightning devotes that
the current world order was about to end another apocalyptic
kind of a cult. In time, he embodied the counterfeit
Christ's mandate to become absolute in his compliance to the cult,
(13:45):
to refrain from analyzing right from wrong, and then believe
it or not, to relinquish the ability to think rationally
and critically. Over time, disciples of the Church of Almighty
God abandoned virtually all their social obligations. They commit themselves
(14:07):
to spreading the culturally subversive message of the counterfeit Christ,
and that extends even to the rending a part of
the family unit. In graphic terms, the false Female Christ
exhorts her devotes to leave their families and to wholeheartedly
(14:29):
commit to the mission of gaining new converts. Those who
fail to do so well, she explicitly renders worthless and
just as destabilizing as their sociological defenses are the spiritual
seductions of the Eastern Lightning cult. In an article that
(14:54):
I title The Theological Travesties of the Church of Almighty God,
the Female Christ's explicit disparagement of the Christian Bible. I mean,
it's hard to believe the words she used. She called
(15:16):
it outdated, a low and moldy old book. She's talking
about the Bible, and not only that, but Eastern Lightning's
most authoritative tone blatantly asserts that the Triune God simply
does not exist in other words, the trinity of Father,
(15:40):
Son and Holy Spirit simply is mythological, and in place
of resurrection, the female Christ proliferates a variant of reincarnation,
the kind of reincarnation which some people will continue to
be human while others will become animals. Moreover, she overtly
(16:07):
denies the bodily resurrection of Our Lord and Savior of
Jesus Christ, how by asserting that she is his reincarnation
and the vernacular of the counterfeit Christ. Had Jesus only
come as a man, not even a single woman would
be saved. Even their preferred moniker, Eastern Lightning, is patently perverse.
(16:38):
To assert that they are the Church of a mighty
God is tenemount to avowing that a female from China
is the very one who spoke and the universe leapt
into existence. In an article titled Contrasting Eastern Lightning, Deception
(17:02):
and Essential Christian Doctrine, I lay the straight stick of
Christian doctrine next to the Eastern Lightning counterfeit. Why because
I always say that contrast is the conduit to clarity,
and by contrast you can observe its crookedness. The unique
(17:24):
deity of Jesus Christ is compromised by the profane pontification
that he is now a Chinese female. Original sin. Original
sin is compromised by the perverse assertion that the corruption
(17:45):
of Adam and Eve was not due to their original sin, rather,
their corrupt nature originates entirely from Satan. The canon of
Holy Scripture is supplanted by the blasphemous extra biblical revelation
(18:05):
that purports to eclipse the Ten Commandments with ten administrative decrees.
And these are administrative decrees or declarations, in which the
female Christ warns devotees that it is her prerogative to
kill all violators, and the Trinity will. The Trinity is
(18:29):
deemed incoherent, a mere figment of satanically corrupted imagination. Resurrection
I've alluded to this already is malevolantly compromised by the
outrageous assertion that the female Christ is the reincarnation of
the first Christ, and incarnation, while incarnation is debased by
(18:54):
the profined assertion that Jesus Christ failed to do the
work of completely gaining man, and the scintillating truth that
if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation is
compromised by the counterfeit concoction of eternal estrangement from God
(19:17):
and eschatology. Will Eschatology, which I always call the thread
that weaves the tapestry of Scripture into a harmonious pattern,
is ignominiously sullied by a largely incoherent Eastern Lightning escheological charade.
And yet, despite the horrific social and theological consequences of
(19:38):
Eastern Lightnings perversions, an increasing number of Western academics are
unwilling to designate them occult. The word cult has been
largely abandoned in favor of other well less judgmental terms
(20:00):
new religious movement, or alternative religion, or novel religion or
minority religious group. So let me conclude this special edition
of the handcum Plug podcast with a few thoughts concerning
why why would I travel all the way to China?
(20:25):
Why would I travel to other parts of the world
to do a first rate primary source research project. Why
did we take the time to produce a special edition
of the Christian Research Journal, a journal devoted to a
(20:46):
cult emanating from the Hunan province in central China's Yellow
River Valley. Well, answering that question, let me first say this,
cults are the unpaid bills of the church. Put another way,
(21:06):
the church has largely failed Christ's great commission, and as
a result, cults have stepped into the vacuum created by
our reculcion church. Furthermore, if truth matters, and it most
certainly does, the church must take the task of Christian
(21:29):
education seriously, not editain, but educate, equip ourselves and our
children to always be ready to give an answer to
everyone who asks you, to give the reason for the
hope that you have, and of course to do that
with gentleness and with respect. We ought to do for
(21:52):
the truth what cults like Eastern Lightning are willing to
do for a lie. Also want to mention that, alongside
the Christian Research Institute's commitment to primary source research, remains
our steadfast commitment to equipping the leadership of churches worldwide.
(22:14):
I'm not just talking about America, but in places such
as India and Africa and Asia, domains in which multiplied
millions of new believers are vulnerable to the kingdom of
the cults, vulnerable to the world of the occult. In evidence,
(22:35):
during the last year alone, we've had users that have
accessed our web site equipped dot Org from more than
two hundred and thirty countries, and therefore they have benefited
from our vast reservoir of unrestricted resources, and that includes
(22:56):
a lot of resources. The Bible answer Man Broadcast, the
handcom Plug podcast, the Bible answer Man YouTube channel, Daily
e Truths, the Christian Research Journal Online, which by the way,
is freely available to anyone anywhere worldwide. This special edition
(23:18):
of the Christian Research Journal is probably the largest edition
we've ever done. It has a spine, it is so big,
but it's easy to read. It's divided into articles. I've
written a lot of these articles, but we have many
other authors that have contributed to this edition of the
Christian Research Journal. And I think, as I mentioned earlier,
(23:45):
contrast is the conduit to clarity. So by contrasting error
and truth, you become ever more familiar with the assents
of the historic Christian faith, in fact, so conversant that
(24:06):
when a counterfeit looms on the horizon, you will be
able to identify that counterfeit instantaneously. But above all, in
seeing firsthand the devastation wreaked by this cult, I became
committed to doing this project. We need to be willing
(24:31):
to stand for truth no matter the cost, and I
am deeply grateful to those who stand with me prayerfully
and financially in the process of making a difference. While
there's yet time, you can get your copy of the
special edition of the Christian Research Journal by going to
(24:54):
equip dot org. You can also write me at Post
Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carol Mine as
IF code two eight two seven to one, And as always,
I am deeply grateful for those of you who make
this ministry an ongoing reality in the lives of people worldwide.
We've been doing this for over forty years at least
(25:17):
since I've been around, and even before that, so it's
a ministry that's made an enduring difference for time and
for eternity. And we thank you because friends like you
you stand with us facilitate this ministry as it continues
(25:39):
to make a difference for time and for eternity. Thanks
for tuning into this special edition of the handgun Plug Podcast.
Look forward to seeing you next time with more s
And welcome to another special edition of the handcum plug Podcast,
a podcast committed to being interesting, informative, and inspirational. On
today's special edition of hand Gunplugged, I want to talk
about a special addition of the Christian Research Journal. This
(00:46):
special edition of the journal is devoted to the Eastern
Lightning Cult, a cult that holds to the notion that
Jesus Christ returns earned to Earth in the form of
a female. Now, as we talk about this female Christ
(01:12):
and the cult that she has initiated, I want you
to imagine something with me. Imagine this. Imagine that Jesus
Christ was actually reincarnated as a female on the Chinese mainland.
(01:37):
Imagine a new iteration of the King of Kings and
the Lord of Lords, who self designates as the Truth,
the Way, and the Life. Imagine a woman by whom
all things were created, things in heaven and on earth,
(02:01):
visible and invisible, whether whether thrones or powers, or rulers
or authorities. Imagine Almighty God in the form of a
female poised to kill all who are not in line
with my will, not my words, but the way she
(02:25):
puts it. Imagine further that this Chinese female Christ shamelessly
asserts that the words of Jesus Christ are Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ spoken during his All of It discourse,
that's Matthew twenty four. That these words apply specifically and
(02:48):
directly to her. That the lightning that comes out of
the east and shines even to the west in verse
twenty seven of Matthew twenty four points emphatically to her
reincarnation and to the reality that this Eastern lightning, her mission,
(03:11):
and her ministry will radiate to the West and well
then to the rest of the world. Imagine this woman
and her devotees designating the people of China children of
the Great Red Dragon, and that she, who declares herself
(03:32):
to be Almighty God, will soon cause the whole of China,
the entire country, to be annihilated and laid to waste.
I want you to imagine one more atrocity. Imagine that
(03:52):
this Chinese deity and her millions of devotees are now
being legitimized in the West as a Christian group unjustly
persecuted by the Chinese government. Imagine that Eastern Lightning, also
dubbed the Church of Almighty God, is very much a
(04:15):
Christian tradition and not just a Christian tradition, but a
Christian tradition in a responsive dialogue with other Christianities, not
an evil cult, but more palpably, a new religious movement. Well,
(04:36):
there's no need to further imagine. All of this is
very real, and that's why in our special edition of
the Christian Research Journal, we help you to come face
to face with one of the most insidious cults that
you could possibly imagine, cult that has gone as far
(05:03):
as to publish a lurid volume provocatively titled Typical Examples
of Punishment for those who Resist Almighty God. In other words,
for those who resist the Chinese woman who claims to
be the very one who spoke and the universe leapt
(05:25):
into existence, the woman who as the initiator of Eastern
Lightning arrogantly describes her towd Rey publication as a collection
of typical examples of people from various religions and denominations
who were punished, who were cursed by God to having
(05:51):
resisted her do to having resisted her work as the
God of the Last Days. And there are many examples
that could be given. A classic example of punishment for
resisting the female Christ is the example of a fifty
(06:16):
four year old pastor who refused to convert to her
culta commune. Consequently, this pastor was brutally dismembered as proof
that the Chinese woman was none other than God Almighty,
(06:36):
and that having the temerity to resist her is a
ready prescription for suffering a gruesome death. And there are
numerous accounts that validate the vicious use of iron rods
by which to intimidate, to punish, to kill those who
(07:01):
oppose the false female Christ. And not only that, but
spouses divorce and children become estranged from parents in accordance
with the strict instruction of this female Christ. The danger
(07:23):
imposed on people by the Church of Almighty God are
such that being arrested by public security officials appears to
pale by comparison. Adherents of the China Gospel Fellowship are
(07:44):
classicase in point, they assert that they would rather be
arrested by public security officials in China than fall into
the clutches of Eastern Lightning operatives. Why well, it should
be obvious because violating Chinese law might lead to imprisonment,
(08:08):
but falling into the hands of Eastern Lightning devotes may
well pretend death. Tragically, the theological and sociological threats posed
by the female Christ are no longer relegated to mainland China.
(08:30):
Like Islam, the Church of Almighty God is using the
full force of its financial and creative resources to spread
pernicious dogmas to far flung places across the globe. An
Oxford University Press publication actually provides a list. It's a
(08:53):
partial list, but it's a list of countries that now
boast Eastern Lightning devotes. This list includes so many countries,
South Korea, Taiwan, the United States of America, Canada, Japan, Australia.
(09:18):
I went to Australia to do some of the primary
source research work, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands where I was born, Italy, France, Germany,
even Greece. Not long ago I came back from a
trip to Greece. Hard to believe that this cult would
(09:40):
be in Greece, Finland, Spain, even Hungary. And not only that,
but Eastern Lightning has established cultic communes in places like
the Philippines, in Hong Kong and even Zealand New Zealand. Collectively,
(10:02):
these cultic conclaves are home to multiplied millions of adherents,
and that's why we did this primary source research project.
This is a cult that's multiplying worldwide, and the lives
of millions of people are being devastated in many of
(10:29):
these countries. The notion that the Church of Almighty God
is just another persecuted Christian group has become well, it's
become the prevalent narrative. Now. I want to make something clear.
I do not, for a moment minimize the reality of
Christian persecution. But while I do not minimize Christian persecution,
(10:59):
the Church of Almighty God is not Christian. It is
both sociologically a subversive group and doctrinely a deviant group,
and as such it exacerbates rather than alleviates the reality
(11:22):
of Christian persecution. In one of my articles in this
special edition of the Christian Research Journal, that's an article
that is titled the Sociological Deviance of the Church of
Almighty God, I recount my interview in China with a
church leader who would rather die than surrender to the
(11:44):
sociological deviances of the Church of Almighty God. This pastor,
a pastor by the name of Pastor Shuhai, is the
spiritual leader of a group of churches in Hunan Province,
and I still remember vividly sitting on a small stool
in his village church, surrounded by his family, where this
(12:07):
pastor recounts being savagely beaten with rods and then left
for dead by devotes of the Female Christ. As to
remember him raising his right pant leg and showing me
the scarring left by broken bones. When I asked him
(12:31):
why this group would have been motivated to beat him,
he forthrightly communicated that had he been wholly incapacitated, he
would not have been able to walk to surrounding villages
to tend to his flock, and had he been killed, well,
(12:56):
the shepherd would not only have lost with a cult,
but the sheep would have become easy prey to cultic
wolves in sheep's clothing. I also vividly remember interviewing a
young man named Gie, a young man who dropped out
(13:21):
of school after being convinced by Eastern lightning devotes that
the current world order was about to end another apocalyptic
kind of a cult. In time, he embodied the counterfeit
Christ's mandate to become absolute in his compliance to the cult,
(13:45):
to refrain from analyzing right from wrong, and then believe
it or not, to relinquish the ability to think rationally
and critically. Over time, disciples of the Church of Almighty
God abandoned virtually all their social obligations. They commit themselves
(14:07):
to spreading the culturally subversive message of the counterfeit Christ,
and that extends even to the rending a part of
the family unit. In graphic terms, the false Female Christ
exhorts her devotes to leave their families and to wholeheartedly
(14:29):
commit to the mission of gaining new converts. Those who
fail to do so well, she explicitly renders worthless and
just as destabilizing as their sociological defenses are the spiritual
seductions of the Eastern Lightning cult. In an article that
(14:54):
I title The Theological Travesties of the Church of Almighty God,
the Female Christ's explicit disparagement of the Christian Bible. I mean,
it's hard to believe the words she used. She called
(15:16):
it outdated, a low and moldy old book. She's talking
about the Bible, and not only that, but Eastern Lightning's
most authoritative tone blatantly asserts that the Triune God simply
does not exist in other words, the trinity of Father,
(15:40):
Son and Holy Spirit simply is mythological, and in place
of resurrection, the female Christ proliferates a variant of reincarnation,
the kind of reincarnation which some people will continue to
be human while others will become animals. Moreover, she overtly
(16:07):
denies the bodily resurrection of Our Lord and Savior of
Jesus Christ, how by asserting that she is his reincarnation
and the vernacular of the counterfeit Christ. Had Jesus only
come as a man, not even a single woman would
be saved. Even their preferred moniker, Eastern Lightning, is patently perverse.
(16:38):
To assert that they are the Church of a mighty
God is tenemount to avowing that a female from China
is the very one who spoke and the universe leapt
into existence. In an article titled Contrasting Eastern Lightning, Deception
(17:02):
and Essential Christian Doctrine, I lay the straight stick of
Christian doctrine next to the Eastern Lightning counterfeit. Why because
I always say that contrast is the conduit to clarity,
and by contrast you can observe its crookedness. The unique
(17:24):
deity of Jesus Christ is compromised by the profane pontification
that he is now a Chinese female. Original sin. Original
sin is compromised by the perverse assertion that the corruption
(17:45):
of Adam and Eve was not due to their original sin, rather,
their corrupt nature originates entirely from Satan. The canon of
Holy Scripture is supplanted by the blasphemous extra biblical revelation
(18:05):
that purports to eclipse the Ten Commandments with ten administrative decrees.
And these are administrative decrees or declarations, in which the
female Christ warns devotees that it is her prerogative to
kill all violators, and the Trinity will. The Trinity is
(18:29):
deemed incoherent, a mere figment of satanically corrupted imagination. Resurrection
I've alluded to this already is malevolantly compromised by the
outrageous assertion that the female Christ is the reincarnation of
the first Christ, and incarnation, while incarnation is debased by
(18:54):
the profined assertion that Jesus Christ failed to do the
work of completely gaining man, and the scintillating truth that
if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation is
compromised by the counterfeit concoction of eternal estrangement from God
(19:17):
and eschatology. Will Eschatology, which I always call the thread
that weaves the tapestry of Scripture into a harmonious pattern,
is ignominiously sullied by a largely incoherent Eastern Lightning escheological charade.
And yet, despite the horrific social and theological consequences of
(19:38):
Eastern Lightnings perversions, an increasing number of Western academics are
unwilling to designate them occult. The word cult has been
largely abandoned in favor of other well less judgmental terms
(20:00):
new religious movement, or alternative religion, or novel religion or
minority religious group. So let me conclude this special edition
of the handcum Plug podcast with a few thoughts concerning
why why would I travel all the way to China?
(20:25):
Why would I travel to other parts of the world
to do a first rate primary source research project. Why
did we take the time to produce a special edition
of the Christian Research Journal, a journal devoted to a
(20:46):
cult emanating from the Hunan province in central China's Yellow
River Valley. Well, answering that question, let me first say this,
cults are the unpaid bills of the church. Put another way,
(21:06):
the church has largely failed Christ's great commission, and as
a result, cults have stepped into the vacuum created by
our reculcion church. Furthermore, if truth matters, and it most
certainly does, the church must take the task of Christian
(21:29):
education seriously, not editain, but educate, equip ourselves and our
children to always be ready to give an answer to
everyone who asks you, to give the reason for the
hope that you have, and of course to do that
with gentleness and with respect. We ought to do for
(21:52):
the truth what cults like Eastern Lightning are willing to
do for a lie. Also want to mention that, alongside
the Christian Research Institute's commitment to primary source research, remains
our steadfast commitment to equipping the leadership of churches worldwide.
(22:14):
I'm not just talking about America, but in places such
as India and Africa and Asia, domains in which multiplied
millions of new believers are vulnerable to the kingdom of
the cults, vulnerable to the world of the occult. In evidence,
(22:35):
during the last year alone, we've had users that have
accessed our web site equipped dot Org from more than
two hundred and thirty countries, and therefore they have benefited
from our vast reservoir of unrestricted resources, and that includes
(22:56):
a lot of resources. The Bible answer Man Broadcast, the
handcom Plug podcast, the Bible answer Man YouTube channel, Daily
e Truths, the Christian Research Journal Online, which by the way,
is freely available to anyone anywhere worldwide. This special edition
(23:18):
of the Christian Research Journal is probably the largest edition
we've ever done. It has a spine, it is so big,
but it's easy to read. It's divided into articles. I've
written a lot of these articles, but we have many
other authors that have contributed to this edition of the
Christian Research Journal. And I think, as I mentioned earlier,
(23:45):
contrast is the conduit to clarity. So by contrasting error
and truth, you become ever more familiar with the assents
of the historic Christian faith, in fact, so conversant that
(24:06):
when a counterfeit looms on the horizon, you will be
able to identify that counterfeit instantaneously. But above all, in
seeing firsthand the devastation wreaked by this cult, I became
committed to doing this project. We need to be willing
(24:31):
to stand for truth no matter the cost, and I
am deeply grateful to those who stand with me prayerfully
and financially in the process of making a difference. While
there's yet time, you can get your copy of the
special edition of the Christian Research Journal by going to
(24:54):
equip dot org. You can also write me at Post
Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carol Mine as
IF code two eight two seven to one, And as always,
I am deeply grateful for those of you who make
this ministry an ongoing reality in the lives of people worldwide.
We've been doing this for over forty years at least
(25:17):
since I've been around, and even before that, so it's
a ministry that's made an enduring difference for time and
for eternity. And we thank you because friends like you
you stand with us facilitate this ministry as it continues
(25:39):
to make a difference for time and for eternity. Thanks
for tuning into this special edition of the handgun Plug Podcast.
Look forward to seeing you next time with more s
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