A BRUTAL cult branded “evil” by the Chinese Government is operating in Australia.
That’s according to Sydney-based pastor Andrew Hong who said Eastern Lightning — also known as Church of Almighty God — has been creating “alarm” among church leaders.
“They’ve changed the name but yes they’re operating here. Not in my church but in other churches here,” he told news.com.au.
“It’s very popular because they basically talk to people who have some experience of Christianity and say ‘we can promise you freedom from sin’ but it actually ends up enslaving people to a cult. While it has some similarities with Christianity it’s really nothing of the sort.”
The cult is thought to be behind a brutal bashing at a suburban McDonald’s in China, where six members entered the restaurant and started asking people for their phone numbers.
When 37-year-old mother Wu Shuoyan refused she was savagely beaten in front of her young sons as shocked diners watched on.
She later died in hospital.
Five adult members have been charged with intentional homicide, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua.
They include Zhang Lidong, 54, his partner, two children and his daughter’s friend.
Chinese state media agency Xinhua reports Zhang Lidong followed his daughter to join the cult. The night before the murder she had beaten her pet dog to death thinking it was an evil spirit.
The former businessman later appeared in a video shot in prison, confessing to the murder of Wu Shuoyan, saying: “I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too.
“She was a demon and we had to destroy her.”
Mr Hong said local church groups had organised seminars to warn people about Eastern Lightning’s presence in Australia.
“There’s been reports of people who join a church and seem really enthusiastic, become part of the leadership, and later they discover they’ve been talking about Lightning from the East.”
He said local churches were working to ensure worshippers were who they say they were.
“In our church when people get baptised they now have to produce ID to show their legal name. That wasn’t the case in the past, to try to stop this sort of thing happening.”
The group was founded in the early 1990s by physics teacher Zhao Weishan with the belief Christ had been reincarnated as a woman from central China known as “Lightning Deng”.
