Turning the Tables

This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, Special Print Issue, volume 48, number 02-03 (2025).

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Please note this was a sidebar article that was included in the original print version in the article, “The Sociological Deviance of The Church of Almighty God“.

​At what is billed by The Church of Almighty God (CAG) as “one of the world’s largest Christian film events,” the movie My Belated Testimony (2024) (also titled My Delayed Testimony in various places)  was nominated for “Best Foreign Language Film.” And in subsequent interviews, it was praised for “its authentic storytelling and emotional depth.”¹

Not overtly divulged was that the God the film extolls is a female fraud. And the Word of God it endorses is a convoluted collection of her dogmatic and dangerous decrees. Decrees including such threats as “I kill all who are not in line with My intentions.”²

While all this is largely hidden from “Christian filmmakers, musicians, and audiences from around the globe,”³ it remains a graphic reality for those who have experienced the iron rod of the counterfeit Christ. I still vividly remember sitting on a stool in a village church in rural Henan province as a Christian pastor recounted being beaten with rods and left for dead by devotees of the female christ.⁴

In the movie depiction, however, the tables are turned. Instead of the iron rod being brandished by the female christ and her followers, it is wielded by Chinese public-security officials. The film opens with the graphic portrayal of a CAG pastor being brutally beaten with an iron rod, as sinister public-security officials seek to extract money from the church: “I don’t like you believers in God,” hisses one Chinese government official, “but I do like money. Give us the church’s money, and everything will be fine. Remaining silent is not an option. We are not going to stop torturing you until we get the church’s money!”⁵

As alarming as the turning the tables tactic is, the even more appalling reality is that Christians from around the world have drunk the Kool-Aid. Not only rank and file Christians! But significant Christian leaders who tout the brilliance of CAG movies.

A case in point is Isaac Hernandez. Hernandez is former Programming Executive of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)⁶ — the world’s largest Christian television conglomerate. Moreover, Hernandez served on the prestigious Christian Film Standing Committee of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB).⁷ Yet despite his credentials as a movie critic, he could not help gushing over a CAG documentary film titled, The One Who Holds Sovereignty over Everything (2018). Hernandez goes so far as to characterize it as “a very good learning tool.”⁸ This despite the reality that the film crescendos with a conflation of the Christian Bible and CAG’s cultic bible for “The Kingdom Age.”⁹

Perhaps Hernandez and others like him can be forgiven for such indiscretions. CAG operatives have proven masters at turning the tables. Of taking the rod out of the hands of the female christ and placing it in the hands of public-security officials. Or of making their bogus bible appear superior to the inspired biblical text.

They proudly boast the production of “over forty films and more than thirty choir and dance videos that have received awards at international film festivals”; that “the documentary The One Who Holds Sovereignty over Everything alone has been nominated at over one hundred festivals and won awards at more than fifty of them”; and that “at many of these events, directors and producers have said these works are powerfully produced, authentic, and emotionally stirring, promoting deep reflection on life, faith, and the meaning of existence.”¹⁰ In truth, however, they are capricious counterfeits.

The Church of Almighty God employs the full force of its treasury to obscure theological and sociological falsehoods. As such, Pascal’s words remain disconcertingly relevant. “Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”¹¹

HANK HANEGRAAFF is president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man daily broadcast and the Hank Unplugged podcast (equip.org). Hank has authored more than twenty books, including MUSLIM: What You Need to Know About the World’s Fastest-Growing Religion (W Publishing Group, 2017), Truth Matters, Life Matters More: The Unexpected Beauty of an Authentic Christian Life (W Publishing Group, 2019) and The Complete Bible Answer Book — Collector’s Edition, revised and expanded (Thomas Nelson, 2024).

NOTES: 

1. “‘My Belated Testimony’ Nominated at Christian Film Festival, Audience Amazed: ‘It’s Truly God-Sent!,’” The Church of Almighty God, May 31, 2025, https://en.godfootsteps.org/news/my-delayed-testimony-movie-church-news.html.
2. “Part One: Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, The Words of the Holy Spirit to the Churches (February 11, 1991 to November 20, 1991): Chapter 103,” in The Word Appears in the Flesh, vol. 1, The Appearance and Work of God, trans. The Church of Almighty God (n.p.: The Church of Almighty God, 2023), emphasis added, accessed September 25, 2024, https://www.holyspiritspeaks.org/the-one-hundred-and-third-utterance/.
3. “‘My Belated Testimony’ Nominated at Christian Film Festival.”
4. See the section ‘Visiting the Victims’ in the article, of which this is a sidebar titled, “The Sociological Deviance of The Church of Almighty God“
5. My Belated Testimony, directed by Li Quanxin, Zheng Lu, and En Dai, screenplay by Mu Chen and Zhi Ming, n.p., The Church of Almighty God, 2024, English dubbed trans. The Church of Almighty God, emphasis added, https://www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/my-delayed-testimony-movie/.
6. “About Us: Isaac Hernandez,” Faith on Film, accessed July 11, 2025, https://www.faithonfilmtv.com/isaac-hernandez.
7. “National Religious Broadcasters Creates New Christian Film Committee,” Movieguide, accessed July 11, 2025, https://www.movieguide.org/news-articles/national-religiousbroadcasters-creates-christian-film-committee.html.
8. “The One Who Holds Sovereignty over Everything Wins Audience Acclaim at Canadian Film Festival,” Eastern Light—Christian Videos, November 12, 2018, YouTube, video, quote at 7:05, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pac8oIOApoM&t=413s.
9. The One Who Holds Sovereignty over Everything (English Musical Documentary), n.p., The Church of Almighty God, August 6, 2018, quote at 1:25:02, https://www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/one-who-holds-sovereignty-over-everything/.
10. “‘My Belated Testimony’ Nominated at Christian Film Festival, Audience Amazed: ‘It’s Truly God-Sent!,’” Eastern Light—Christian Video, May 31, 2025, YouTube, video, quote at 9:21, https://youtu.be/5s_VmInwHP4?si=Tl5EySFFTZWPUk4u&t=560.
11. Blaise Pascal, Pensées, XIV, 864, emphasis added.