The Six Trials of The Church of God Almighty (AKA The Eastern Lighting Cult) 

This article was published exclusively online as part of  the Christian Research Journal, Special Print Issue, volume 48, number 02-03 (2025).

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The female christ began delivering prophetic utterances to members of the underground house churches in China on February 11, 1991. New utterances were issued on a regular basis. But in October of that year, the tone of the utterances grew darker. Judgment began with the House of God. The faux Almighty God poured out a series of six trials, each sent to refine and purify through chastisement and judgment.¹

The Trial of the Service-Doers (October 1991 – February 1992). The false Almighty God labeled devotees service-doers for their selfish motives and drive for blessings rather than genuine devotion. They were denounced as the “ilk of Satan” and the “spawn of the great red dragon.” Service-doers serve God but later will be “cast into the bottomless pit.”²

The Trial of Death (February 1992 – May 1992). The counterfeit Almighty God calls out devotees who had dreams of entering the heavenly kingdom while still alive. Since the flesh of the chosen belonged to Satan, they ultimately must die.³

The Time of Loving God (May 1992 – February 1993). The pseudo-Almighty God denounces devotees as being “numb and dull-witted,” and “unable to perceive His [i.e., her] loveliness.” They were too “profoundly corrupted by Satan” and “incapable of loving God.”⁴

The Trial of the Foils (March 1993 – May 1993). The spurious Almighty God labeled devotees as “foils” for being “backward-thinking, low of humanity, and poor of caliber.” Their “opposition and rebelliousness toward God was most grievous of all.” Living in the country of the great red dragon (China) left them incapable of recognizing their satanic disposition and they were deluded in thinking themselves as good people who were after God’s heart.⁵

The Trial of the Descendants of Moab (May 1993 – November 1993). The specious Almighty God next labeled devotees as “Moab.” They understood Moab to be “lowborn, evil, and corrupt.”⁶

The Trial of the Offspring of the Great Red Dragon (Beginning in 1997). The apocryphal Almighty God revealed to devotees that by virtue of having been born in China, the land of the great red dragon, “Satan’s nature was firmly rooted deep within them, and a mere handful of trials were not enough to cleanse them of it.” They collated a list of over one hundred examples of the great red dragon’s poisons. Despite being “God’s chosen,” the devotees realized they all manifested the poison of the great red dragon, and “they were indeed the offspring of the great red dragon.” Devotees would be subject for the rest of their lives to the judgment and chastisement of the faux Almighty God.⁷

The six trials expose the malevolence of the faux Almighty God. Not only does the deity of Eastern Lightning chasten and condemn the wicked of the world, like China’s secular state, but the very “chosen people” of this false god are addressed with the harshest verbal assaults, such as being called the offspring of the great red dragon. Each trial brought upon devotees considerable psychological distress. Some “cursed themselves to hell,” “slapped themselves across the face,” and felt “unfit to live.”⁸ Some assumed a “pallid” appearance, visibly marked by “anguish and torment.” They were “disgraced.”⁹ But the trial of the great red dragon altered their perception such that they presently “wish for His judgment and chastisement to be with them for the rest of their lives.”¹⁰

The alleged cleansing and purification of the devotees of The Church of Almighty God through the female christ’s judgment and chastisement is a horrific counterfeit grace. These trials expose the unambiguous violent disposition of the faux Almighty God.

WARREN G. NOZAKI is a researcher at the Christian Research Institute. He holds a Master of Divinity from the Talbot School of Theology.

NOTES: 

1. See “Chapter 3: The First Six Trials of the Work of Judgment Beginning with the House of God,” in “Picture Exhibition of the Appearance and Work of Almighty God,” trans. and published by The Church of Almighty God, 2025, Gospel of the Descent of the Kingdom, accessed March 31, 2025, https://www.holyspiritspeaks.org/special-topic/pictureexhibition/ six-trials-of-God-s-judgment-work.
2.  “I. The First Trial Launched by Almighty God, When He Appeared and Worked Among the Churches — The Trial of the Service-doers,” in “Chapter 3: The First Six Trials.”
3. “II. Trial of Death,” in “Picture Exhibition,” accessed March 31, 2025, https://www.holyspiritspeaks.org/special-topic/picture-exhibition/six-trials-of-God-s-judgment-work/thetrial-of-death.
4. “III. The Time of Loving God,” in “Picture Exhibition,” accessed March 31, 2025, https://www.holyspiritspeaks.org/special-topic/picture-exhibition/six-trials-of-God-s-judgmentwork/the-time-of-loving-God.
5. “IV. The Trial of the Foils,” in “Picture Exhibition,” accessed March 31, 2025, https://www.holyspiritspeaks.org/special-topic/picture-exhibition/six-trials-of-God-s-judgment-work/thetrial-of-foils.
6. “V. Trial of Moab,” in “Picture Exhibition,” accessed March 31, 2025, https://www.holyspiritspeaks.org/special-topic/picture-exhibition/six-trials-of-God-s-judgment-work/trialof- descendants-of moab.
7. “VI. The Trial of the Great Red Dragon’s Offspring Plunges the Chosen People into a Long Period of Judgment and Chastisement,” in “Picture Exhibition,” accessed March 31, 2025, https://www.holyspiritspeaks.org/special-topic/picture-exhibition/six-trials-of-God-sjudgment-work/trial-of-great-red-dragon-s-offspring.
8. “II. Trial of Death.”
9. “V. Trial of Moab.”
10.  “VI. The Trial of the Great Red Dragon’s Offspring.”