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在東方閃電崛起的初期，我感到她似乎有意進軍歐美，志在全球，所以曾撰文送到《Christian Research Journal》，因該文是英語，而且已經有很多關於閃電的中文資料，所以未有為自己的網站翻譯。最近發現有人把它翻譯了，放在互聯網上。在感謝翻譯者之餘，也把該文的中/英文版本貼在自己的網站上，萬望能提醒所有人，小心迴避這個可怕的邪教。——張逸萍
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勿被閃電欺騙
張逸萍、Steve Bright
中國大陸家庭教會的基督徒現在正面臨另一邪教的威脅，這個邪教是大陸最大的邪教之一，經常利用欺騙和強迫的手段來轉化家庭教會信徒。
這個邪教自稱全能神（又稱實際神，東方閃電），它的信徒相信，根據《馬太福音》24章27節裏所描述的耶穌的第二次降臨，耶穌以一個中國女人的形式回來了，就像“閃電從東方發出”。
關于該組織的規模，有很多說法。《時代雜志》在2001年11月刊登的一篇名為《耶穌回來了，她是中國人》的文章說，全能神聲稱在中國有30萬的信徒，但觀察者認為大概只有幾萬人，“宗教自由中心”2002年的一份報告文件中指出，該組織活躍在中國十幾個省市，欺騙了上千人。基督教使命組織China For Jesus估計，全能神在中國20多個省市擁有數以百萬計的成員，但在中國要計算出任何一個組織的追隨者的數目幾乎是不可能的。
很多中國基督教組織得到的大量的一手資料證實，全能神這個邪教對家庭教會有毀滅性的影響。
“亞洲成就”
（一個負責亞洲地區基督教傳播事務的非營利性組織）的創辦者的創造辦法者保羅·海特威（Paul Hattaway）在一篇研究報告記載了很多基督教徒被欺騙、綁架、洗腦、毆打、下毒和敲詐的實例。中國西北部的一名工人告訴保羅·海特威，中國家庭教會本該有較大發展，但卻因為這個邪教的活動漸漸萎縮，他說﹕“去年我們許多引導人成為全能神邪教組織的目標，有些人受金錢利誘而加入了這個組織。當他們發現加入的並不是恪守聖經的組織而想要離開時，卻不被允許。我們數十名信徒失蹤，更多的人則致殘。那些曾設法擺脫邪教組織魔爪的人，現今仍在躲躲藏藏，為自己的生命擔心。至少有兩個我們的人被殺害了，其他人則徹底消失了。”
2002年4月19日，34位中國家庭教會福音團最高引導人被全能神邪教組織綁架。邪教教徒偽裝成哈該學院（中國的一所引導人培訓學校）的代表，引誘引導人參加一個研討會，然後強行將他們分開，其中一位女性引導人成功逃走並通知了警方。到6月為止，除一些被下了迷藥後活捉回來，繼續遭受著肉體上的折磨外，其他人都成功逃脫或者被釋放。
隱形的閃電
關于這個邪教的發家史有很多版本。很多基督教組織引用《時代》雜志的文章以及機密文件的說法，認為全能神是趙維山于1989年創立的。趙維山原是邪教組織“呼喊派”的成員，他聲稱耶穌基督已經回來了，以一個30歲的、相貌平平的鄧姓中國河南女子肉身顯現！這種教義是基于趙維山所謂的《馬太福音》24章27節的神的啟示。據“亞洲成就”報道，2000年，趙維山在美國以“逃避宗教迫害”為由取得難民身份，並繼續指揮邪教組織在中國境內和世界各地的活動，報告並沒有注明這條消息的來源。而其他傳教組織的報告中並沒有提到趙維山是該邪教的創立者，而是說鄧姓女子將自己樹立成“女耶穌”的形象。幾個定期訪問大陸的中國籍基督徒很熟悉這個邪教，他們對《基督教研究期刊》說，他們聽說過鄧，但是從未聽說過趙維山。而中國方面的資料則傾向于認為鄧躲在幕後，趙維山負責操作。
但是2004年1月一邪教網站的一篇文章否認了全能神這個邪教相信“鄧姓女子曾經被河南鄭州的一個惡魔附身”這一“謠言”，文章解釋道﹕“事實上，上帝成肉身顯現出身和居住的地方根本不在河南，而且也不姓鄧。”但是文章並沒有指明誰是上帝，這就解釋了為什麼全能神不可能被魔鬼附身。事實上，沒有人見過或者拍到過這個被人們稱為“女耶穌”的人，這就很難證實她的身份甚至她的存在。
第二次道成肉身
這個邪教相信，《聖經》已經過時了，那些將神的啟示限定在《聖經》中的人就像是過于堅守舊約拒絕耶穌的法利賽人。邪教要求信徒放棄過去的真理，建立今天的聖靈語言﹕“女耶穌”的著作就是“神的新話語”。
這個邪教出版了很多書，其中包括《道成肉身》和《來自東方的閃電》，在中國分發了幾十萬冊。其中兩本書在美國的中國人教堂發放，分別是《聖靈向眾教會的說話》和《神隱秘降臨的作工》。這些書的內容基本上是雷同的，很多內容都是以第一人稱的口吻說的，就好像是他們的“女基督”寫的，簡潔中帶著威脅的口氣。
“女基督”稱，耶穌是神的第一次肉身顯現，但是祂沒有完成祂的工作，所以神要再來一次，這一次是一個女人。這次“顯現”繼往開來，開啟了一個神6000年拯救人類計劃的新時代。她說，神的計劃包含了三個時代（創造、拯救和毀滅）和三個豁免（律法、救贖和國家）。她說，她來這裡是為了國家能夠得到豁免，所以她的工作就是審判。
她的書裡充斥著赤裸裸、恐怖的對異教徒的詛咒和審判。她說，人類唯一的罪孽就是不接受她是基督，拯救的唯一方法就是跟隨她。她說，“神是沒有人性的”，她承認自己憎恨人類。她在教義中說，耶穌因為我們的罪而死，但卻否認耶穌復活。她強烈反對耶穌第二次降臨這個概念，她告訴她的信徒不要去等“雲朵降下”。
“女基督”不能通過治病、驅魔或者行神蹟來向有可能成功她的信徒之人證明自己的神性。相反，她利用威脅和恐嚇來改變異教徒。她說，她會懲罰或者殺害那些否定她的人，甚至他們的家人都會遭到厄運。另一個邪教網站羅列了887個因為拒絕這個邪教的傳教而死於疾病、事故或者其他不明原因的實例。
摸底鋪路
這個邪教欺騙性的傳教做法非常有名。
“三自愛國教會”（中國政府認可的教會）官方雜志——《天風》，就撰文揭露過該邪教組織利用金錢或者禮物做誘餌引誘別人的事實，如果對方接受了禮物但是沒有加入的話就會遭遇暴力甚至是被殺害。
China for Jesus的一篇報告揭示了該邪教使用的四個步驟﹕第一步只是單純的送書和錢給基督傳教士；第二步他們會利用比較激進的手段，包括暴力和強迫；第三步，用性誘惑作要挾。
第四步叫做“摸底鋪路”，邪教將他們滲透進家庭教會的這一手段稱為“摸底鋪路”。邪教指示信徒們混入家庭教會，確定誰是虔誠的基督教徒，誰是教會的核心人物。他們將目標瞄準那些早到遲退、查閱聖經很有效率的教徒。邪教成員會和這些人套近乎成為朋友，將自己扮演成虔誠的、尋求真理的人以獲得信任。一旦這些滲透者成功得“摸清”了這些教徒的底，他們就開始問各種問題動搖他們的信仰以為後來的行動“鋪路”。他們會邀請這些基督徒“學習《聖經》”，問各種問題來對這些基督徒進行狂轟濫炸而非真的學習《聖經》，例如“天堂在哪裏？是在地球嗎？”或者他們會質疑“教會被提”這個概念，這是這個邪教強烈否認的教義。最後，向他們傳教，即神第二次化為肉身。China
for Jesus的作者曾撰文預測，這個邪教現在會開始使用未知的第五步，這一步會在近幾年被揭露出來。
邪教否認全能神邪教綁架了人，強迫基督徒去接受他們的教義。Hidden-advent網站上的一篇文章指出，手冊指示信徒不要去說服那些不相信上帝的人，因為教會不需要這種“沒有價值”的人。文章又說，單單1999年一年時間，教會就開除了七八萬“行為不當、違抗教會規則”的人。全能神更喜歡將目標對準正宗的基督教家庭教會，而不是那些遊移不定的基督徒或者異教徒。根據邪教內部的指示，他們不會去向那些不崇拜耶穌基督、不學習《聖經》的人下手，如佛教徒、道教徒、穆斯林以及其他很多中國的東正教和羅馬天主教徒，非基督教徒甚至是全能神的家庭成員都不是傳教的對象。
大陸有一本關于異端邪說的書，由基督教和中國研究中心撰寫，在台灣出版，記載了一個中國家庭教會成員怎樣逃脫出這個邪教的事例。他說，這個邪教從來不進行公開活動，他們的活動總是非常隱秘地組織起來，“無論他們去哪，他們總能以驚人且獨一無二的手段分裂甚至摧毀教會”。其他人則視這個邪教為魔鬼，認為它是由美國的撒旦崇拜主義者資助和運作的。
志在全球
東方閃電的“女基督”這個概念和韓國文鮮明牧師創立的統一教的概念如出一轍。文鮮明於1971年來到美國，聲稱基督還沒有完成祂的救世計劃，1992年宣布他和他的妻子是“彌賽亞”，是“真父母”，將會帶領人類進入“成約時代”。
而“女基督”聲稱她的顯現是作為新的彌賽亞的身份帶領世人完成神的救世計劃的最後一步。在邪教網站之一Hidden-advent上，她說；“這項任務已經擴展到中國以外的地方。現在，這項工作的任務是收服各個國家墮落的人。這項工作不僅帶領中國人，更是帶領全球的人。你現在看到的只是我們在中國的工作的那部分，其實它已經開始向全球擴散。”
2001年，托尼183¡¡蘭伯特在《從東方來的閃電，一個新的邪教組織》中指出這個邪教已經將總部搬到了紐約和多倫多。《基督教研究期刊》還收到了一些來自巴黎和阿姆斯特丹的基督徒的報道，說這個邪教也進入了歐洲。西方的資料顯示，這個邪教已經通過網絡和中國教堂的停車場發放書籍、小冊子和CD，並且還花錢請人將書籍翻譯成英文以進行更好的傳播。
（轉自：“華人基督教專家稱全能神是欺世的邪教組織”，http://www.kaiwind.com/hwzs/xzyl/201305/31/t20130531_904594.htm
）
Deceived by the Lightning
Article ID: JAL130 | By: Lois Chan and Steve Bright
This article
first appeared in the News Watch column of the Christian Research Journal,
volume 28, number 3 (2005). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian
Research Journal go to: http://www.equip.org
Christians in
mainland China’s “underground” house churches have faced persecution from the
country’s Communist government for years. They now face another threat from one
of the mainland’s largest cults, which frequently uses deception and coercion to
gain converts from among house churches.
The cult
calls itself “The Church of Almighty God.” The Chinese government refers to it
as the “Real God” cult. Chinese Christians call it “Eastern Lightning.” Its
followers believe that Jesus has returned in the form of a Chinese woman, like
“lightning that comes from the east,” according to the description of His second
coming in Matthew 24:27.
Estimates of
the group’s size vary. A November 2001 Time magazine article titled
“Jesus is Back, and She’s Chinese” said followers numbered themselves at
300,000, although observers estimated only tens of thousands. A 2002 report
produced by the Center for Religious Freedom, which contained copies of seven
confidential documents from a Chinese government report on religious cults, said
that the group had active organizations in more than 10 provinces and cities and
was deceiving thousands. China For Jesus, a Christian mission organization,
estimates that the cult has more than a million members in 20 provinces. Fear of
government persecution has driven religious groups in China underground, making
an accurate head count of any group’s followers virtually impossible.
According to
the secret security documents, the public security minister, Jia Chunwang,
called for increased action against the cult, saying, “We need to work more,
talk less to smash the cult quietly.” Security officials are concerned by the
cult’s declaration that China is the Great Red Dragon of the book of Revelation
who faces destruction. Beijing police arrested more than 2,000 followers of the
cult prior to 2002, but they were not able to destroy the group.
Scores of
first-hand accounts received by Christian organizations working in China confirm
the devastating effect that the Eastern Lightning cult is having on the house
churches. A report titled “When China’s Christians Wish They Were in Prison,” by
Paul Hattaway, director of the mission organization Asia Harvest, contains
accounts of Christians being deceived, kidnapped, brainwashed, beaten, poisoned,
and blackmailed by the cult. One worker in northwest China told Hattaway that
the Chinese house churches that usually experience phenomenal growth had been
declining due to the cult’s activities. He explained, “In the past year many of
our leaders were targeted by the Eastern Lightning cult. Some were attracted by
their financial inducements and joined them. Later, when they discovered what
they’d joined was not biblical, they were not permitted to leave. Dozens of our
believers are missing, dozens more crippled. Some who have managed to escape the
cult’s clutches are in hiding, fearing for their lives. At least two of our
people have been murdered. Others have simply vanished.”
In April
2002, Eastern Lightning members kidnapped 34 leaders of the China Gospel
Fellowship, a network of house churches. Cult members posing as representatives
of Haggai Institute, a leadership training school in China, lured the leaders to
attend a seminar where they were separated and held against their will. One
woman managed to escape and alert the police. By June all the others had escaped
or were released, although some who were drugged while being held captive
continued to suffer physically.
Invisible Lightning.
There are a
several versions of the cult’s history. A number of Christian organizations cite
the Time magazine article and the seven secret security documents that
say that the cult was founded in 1989 by a man named Zhao Weishan, a former
member of a Christian sect called the Shouters. Weishan proclaimed that Jesus
had returned in the form of a 30-year-old, plain-looking Chinese peasant woman
named Deng from the province of Henan. This teaching is based on revelation that
Weishan claims he received from God regarding Matthew 24:27. Asia Harvest
reports that in 2000 Weishan was granted refugee status in the United States,
where he continues to run the cult’s activities in China. The report does not
cite the source of this information.
Reports from
other missions organizations do not mention Weishan as the founder but say,
rather, that the woman Deng set herself up as the “female Christ.” Several
Chinese Christians who regularly visit the mainland and are familiar with the
cult told the Christian Research Journal that although they had heard of Deng,
they had not heard of Weishan. Chinese sources favor the theory that Deng hides
herself, while Weishan runs the cult’s operations.
An article
dated January 2004 on one of the cult’s Web sites (www.hidden-advent.org),
however, denies as “rumor” the reports that Almighty God’s Church believes in “a
woman with the surname Deng who was once possessed by a demon in Zheng Zhou of
Henan province.” The article explains, “Actually, the place of birth and
location where God became flesh is not in Henan province at all. Furthermore,
the surname is not Deng.” The article does not, however, identify someone other
than Deng as the Christ; rather, it explains why “the flesh of the Almighty God”
could not be demon possessed. The fact that no one has ever seen or photographed
the woman they call the “female Christ” makes her identity or even her existence
difficult to confirm.
The Second Incarnation.
The group
believes that the Bible is out-of-date and that those who limit God’s revelation
to just the Bible are like the Pharisees who held on to the Old Testament and
rejected Christ. Followers are told to give up the truth of the past and build
their foundation on the Holy Spirit’s word for today: the writings of the
“female Christ,” which are “God’s new word.”
The cult has
published numerous books, including The Word Becomes Flesh and The
Lightning Comes from the East, and distributed hundreds of thousands of
copies in China. Two of the books that are distributed among Chinese churches in
America are titled The Holy Spirit Speaks to All the Churches and God’s
Work through His Secret Appearing. The content in these books is nearly
identical. Much of it is written in first person, as if by their “female
Christ,” and is terse and threatening.
The “female
Christ” states that Jesus was God’s first incarnation, but that He did not
complete His work; therefore, God needed to come again to finish the work, this
time as a woman. This “appearing” ends the previous age and begins a new age in
God’s six-thousand-year plan to save all humanity.
God’s plan,
she says, has three ages (creation, salvation, and destruction) and three
dispensations (law, redemption, and kingdom). She claims that she comes for the
kingdom dispensation and therefore her work is judgment.
Her books are
filled with explicit and horrific pronouncements of damnation and judgment on
unbelievers. The only sin is not to accept her as the Christ, she says, and
salvation is possible only by following her. She states that “God is inhumanly
cruel” and she admits that she hates humankind.
She teaches
that Christ died for our sins, but denies that He rose again physically. She
ardently opposes the concept of the second coming of Jesus and tells followers
not to wait for a “white cloud descension.”
The “female
Christ” doesn’t prove her divinity to potential believers by healing the sick,
casting out demons, or performing miracles; instead, she uses threats and
intimidation to persuade converts. She says that she will punish or slay those
who repudiate her, and even their family members will meet with misfortune.
Another of the cult’s Web sites (www.godword.org) lists 887 cases in which
people allegedly died of sickness, accident, or unknown causes after rejecting
the cult’s evangelistic efforts.
The cult
demands complete obedience and sacrifice. Adherents must turn their material
possessions over to the organization and follow orders, otherwise they will be
punished. They are urged to leave their families, to live in a commune, and to
spread the message of the “female Christ.”
Spying and Paving the Way.
The cult is
known for its deceptive evangelization practices. An article in Tianfeng,
the magazine of the Chinese government–controlled Three Self Patriotic Church,
says the cult entices people with money or gifts, but will turn to violence or
even murder if a person accepts their gifts but fails to join.
A report from
China for Jesus describes four stages of strategy that the cult has used. The
first stage was simply to send books and money to Christian preachers. In the
second stage they adopted aggressive tactics, including violence and coercion.
In the third stage they used sexual temptation and entrapment as a means of
blackmailing prospects.
The fourth
stage is called “spying and paving the way,” the name the cult gives to their
process of infiltrating a house church. Followers are instructed to mingle with
church members in order to identify those who are strong Christians and core
members of the church. Likely targets are those who arrive before a church
meeting and stay after, and who can look up Bible passages efficiently. Cult
members will try to befriend such people and to act like sincere truth seekers
in order to gain their trust. Once the infiltrators have successfully “spied”
these people, they begin to “pave the way” by asking questions to shake the
Christian believer’s faith. They may invite the believer to a “Bible study,” for
example, where instead of studying the Bible they badger the believer with
questions such as, “Where is heaven? Is it on earth?” Or they will question the
concept of the rapture of the church, a doctrine the cult ardently denies.
Ultimately, they turn to preaching their message, which is the second
incarnation of God. The author of the China for Jesus report predicted that they
will begin to use an unknown fifth strategy now that this latest one has been
exposed in recent years.
The cult
denies that Almighty God’s Church kidnaps people and forces them to accept its
message. An article on one of their Web sites (www.hidden-advent.org) states
that regulations instruct followers not to pressure those who are not willing to
believe in God, because the church doesn’t want “worthless” members who do not
really believe. The article claims that in 1999 alone the church dismissed 70 to
80 thousand people “who were guilty of misconduct and disobedience to the
church’s regulations.”
Eastern
Lightning prefers to target orthodox Christian house churches rather than fringe
or heretical groups. According to the cult’s own internal instructions, they are
not to evangelize those who do not worship Jesus alone and do not study the
Bible, such as Buddhists, Taoists, and Muslims, as well as many Eastern Orthodox
and Roman Catholics in China. Non-Christians and even family members of Eastern
Lightning followers are also excluded from being evangelized.
A book about
heresies in mainland China, published in Taiwan by the Christian and China
Research Center, contains the testimony of a Chinese house church member who
escaped the cult. He says that the cult never acts in the open, but that their
activities are always covert and organized. “Wherever they go, they destroy and
scatter that church with incredible speed and unmatched means.”
Even though
the central Chinese government denounces the cult, some Chinese Christians view
the cult’s behavior and financial strength as indications that it is being
supported by individual local Communist officials who are seeking to disrupt and
destroy house churches. Other Chinese Christians see the cult as satanic and
believe that the Satanic church in America is behind it.
Global Vision.
The message
of the “female Christ” of Eastern Lightning resembles that of Rev. Sun Myung
Moon of the Unification Church. Moon came to America in 1971 claiming that
Christ had not completed His mission, and in 1992 he declared he and his wife to
be the Messiah, the True Parents, who would usher in a “Completed Testament” age
of world peace.
The “female
Christ” declares that her appearance as the new Messiah ushers in the last stage
of God’s plan. On one of the cult’s Web sites (www.hidden-advent.org) she
confirms that its work has already expanded beyond the borders of China: “At the
present time, the work is one of conquering the deeply corrupt people in the
nations. Moreover, it is not merely a work of guiding people in China, but one
of guiding the entire universe. You now only see the work being done in China,
but actually it has already started to extend overseas.”
In a 2001
article titled “Lightning from the East” in the China Insight Newsletter,
researcher Tony Lambert reported that the cult now has centers in New York and
Toronto. The Journal has received reports from Christians in Paris and Amsterdam
that the cult has reached Europe as well. Sources in the West have reported that
the cult has been distributing books, tracts, and CDs through the Internet and
in the parking lots of Chinese churches. It has also advertised a paid position
to translate their books into English.
（原网址：
http://www.equip.org/articles/deceived-by-the-lightning
）
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