This movement, theologically a cult of Christianity, is also known as Church of Almighty God. Some media reports have referred to it as Lightning from the East.
Faith healers, who claim that God has anointed them to heal the sick and — in some cases — to raise the dead as well, have been notably absent lately. Are they scared of Ebola?
Also: China’s anti-cult efforts predictably also target Christians worshiping in house churches.
China has executed 15 members of an underground Protestant sect after a feud that resulted in the deaths of several members of a rival religious group.
The leader of a Chinese Christian sect and at least 11 of his subordinates have been executed for ordering the murder of members of a rival religious group, as authorities sought to suppress big underground churches that they deemed cults.
BEIJING (Reuters) – China sentenced three members of a local Christian sect to death for the murder of followers of a rival group and ordered likely life sentences for three other members of the controversial underground religion. The court in Shuangyashan in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province ordered the execution of Xu Shuangfu, the 60-year-old founder of the “Three Grades of Servants,” or Church of Truth, and members Li Maoxing and Wang Jun. Three others were given death sentences with a two-year reprieve, a sentence that usually leads to life in prison. Eleven other followers received prison sentences from three to
Weekends in Beijing reveal sharp differences between tourists and residents of the sprawling Chinese capital. On Saturdays and Sundays, Beijing’s most famous sights — the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square — are crawling with visitors, making even Disney World at high season seem serene. Beijingers, meanwhile, flock to the flashy new shopping malls just east of Tiananmen, full of latte-swilling yuppies jabbering on mobile phones, and massive supermarkets offering everything from Parmalat milk to Peking duck. Growing numbers of Beijingers also pack into a different kind of structure on the weekend. On Sundays, the capital’s government-registered Protestant
HUAIDE, China – Kuang Yuexia and her husband, Cai Defu, considered themselves good Christians. They read the Bible every night before bed. When their children misbehaved, they dealt with them calmly. They did not curse or tell lies. But when Zhang Chengli, a neighbor, began hounding them last year to leave their underground religious sect and join his, it seemed like a test of satanic intensity. He scaled the wall of their garden, ambushed them in the fields and roused them after midnight with frantic calls to convert before Jesus arrived for his Second Coming and sent them to hell.