As we near the end of yet another fiscal year, I am reminded of how critical your support is respecting the task of global missions. I therefore remain deeply grateful for the eternal difference the support of Christians like you continues to make in the lives of people worldwide.
As has been well said, there is a direct connection between “the oneness of Christians” in the image of the Holy Trinity and the missionary mandate of the Church. The Church, as “a mystery of mutual Trinitarian love,” remains true to itself only when its “circle of love” is continually expanded. Only when you and I are dedicated to the Great Commission given to us by Jesus before He ascended into heaven.
While not all can go to mission fields around the world. All can facilitate the Commission Christ gave us through their support and prayers. All can have a part—can participate—in bringing the gospel to those who have not yet heard the name of Jesus.
And tragically the unreached are measured not in thousands but in multiplied millions of souls.
As I write, I am likewise reminded of the reality that the ever-growing kingdom of the cults has been aptly described as “the unpaid bills of the church.” Meaning they proliferate in part by seducing people who have not been rooted and grounded in “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
I just recently returned from the completion of a primary-source research project in China respecting an insidious cult. A cult that has seduced millions upon millions into the belief that Jesus Christ has been reincarnated as a female on “the Chinese mainland.”
Imagine this Chinese christ shamelessly asserting that the words of our Lord spoken during His Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) apply specifically to her.
That 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 the rest of the world.
And tragically this is precisely what is happening worldwide!
Like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Church of Almighty God (aka Eastern Lightning) is using the full force of its financial and creative resources to spread pernicious dogmas to farflung places across the globe.
An Oxford University Press publication provides a partial list of the countries now boasting Eastern Lightning devotees, including “South Korea, Taiwan, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Finland, Spain, [and] Hungary.”
Other countries in which Eastern Lightning has established churches include the Philippines, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and elsewhere worldwide.
Appallingly, in many of these countries the notion that The Church of Almighty God (i.e., followers of the female christ) is just another persecuted Christian group has become the prevailing narrative.
In truth this socially subversive cult induces its disciples to abandon their social and familial obligations and commit unreservedly to spreading the culturally subversive message of the counterfeit christ.
And this extends even to the tearing apart of the family unit.
In graphic language the counterfeit christ exhorts devotees to leave their families and wholeheartedly commit to the mission of gaining new converts. Those who fail to do so she explicitly renders “worthless.”
Theological travesties are equally disorientating and dangerous!
To begin with, the unique Deity of Jesus is compromised by the profane pontification that He is now reincarnated as a Chinese female.
Original Sin is compromised by the perverse assertion that the corruption of Adam and Eve was not due to their disobedience but rather “originates entirely from Satan.”
The Canons of the Holy Bible are supplanted by a blasphemous extra-biblical revelation that purports to eclipse the “Ten Commandments” with “Ten Administrative Decrees”—declarations in which the female christ warns devotees that it is her prerogative to kill all violators.
The Trinity is deemed incoherent—a figment of Satanically corrupted imagination.
Resurrection is malevolently compromised by the outrageous assertion that the female christ is the reincarnation of the first Christ.
Incarnation is debased by the profane assertion that Jesus Christ failed “to do the work of completely gaining man.”
The scintillating truth that anyone in Christ is a New Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) is compromised by the counterfeit concoction of eternal estrangement from God.
And Eschatology—the thread that weaves the tapestry of Scripture into a harmonious pattern—is ignominiously sullied by a largely incoherent Eastern Lightning eschatological charade.
Much more can and will be said in a special edition of the Christian Research Journal. An issue of the Journal presently being translated into many different languages and made available worldwide.
This Special Issue 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 truth, so that when cults such as Eastern Lightning loom on the horizon you will recognize them instantaneously.
In sum, thank you from the core of my being for the difference your prayers, partnership, and generosity make in standing against dangerous ideological battles we dare not lose. And for being willing to do for truth what cults such as Eastern Lightning are doing for a lie!
…because Truth Matters, Life Matters More,
President
P.S. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14–16)
P.P.S. Your gift today will not only ensure that you receive this special issue of the Christian Research Journal, it will also help CRI to continue the critical task of equipping fellow believers 24/7 to proclaim and defend biblical truth.