Family Member of Almighty God Victim Recounts: ‘Almighty God Followers and My Parents Plotted to Kill Me’
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“For every person who has gone missing because of the Church of Almighty God, there is a corresponding family that has suffered as victims,” said Li Rui (a pseudonym), who has endured years of pain as the child of the sect’s followers.
The Church of Almighty God, also known as “Eastern Lightning,” was founded by Zhao Weishan in the 1990s. Zhao is alleged to have established the group by exerting psychological control over a woman named Yang Xiangbin, whom followers regard as the “reincarnated Christ.” The organization was officially classified as a cult by the Chinese government in 1995, and churches in many regions have also deemed its teachings to be inconsistent with orthodox Christian doctrine.
A Family Torn Apart by a Misguided Faith
When talking about his parents’ behavior during their time with The Almighty God, Li Rui described them as having “lost their humanity.” Over more than a decade, he grew from a high school graduate into a middle-aged man. When he and his younger sister faced crucial life choices, their home ceased to be a home. The pain of his parents’ deaths due to their failure to seek medical treatment affected his entire life. Even more heartbreaking was that when he repeatedly tried to save his parents, they allowed the believers to plot his murder.
Now over forty, Li Rui is a typical northern man: not tall, sturdy, with a tanned face and slightly chapped lips, his face exuding a simple and honest charm.
From the “Association of Disciples” to the Church of Almighty God
Li Rui recalled that in 1997, his parents became followers of the Association of Disciples, also known as “Three-Redemptive Christ.” At the time, he had just graduated from high school, and his family of four lived in a rural area of northern China. He noted that more than 100 people in the village adhered to the Association of Disciples, and his parents, “influenced by the superstitious atmosphere in the village,” also joined the group.
Initially, Li Rui believed the association was similar to Christianity. However, he soon grew concerned when its teachings forbade followers from taking medication, leading his parents to refuse treatment. Three years later, his parents came into contact with the Church of Almighty God, which was actively recruiting believers across various regions, including within the Association of Disciples.
Fear and Manipulation: The Psychological Trap of Cults
Li Rui explained that the Church of Almighty God recruits followers by first targeting their relatives and friends, feigning concern, catering to their preferences, and then gradually indoctrinating them once trust is established. When his parents first joined, they were young and healthy. He said the church lures believers with promises of “future wealth” while simultaneously exaggerating threats of “death judgment” and the “end of the world,” claiming that true believers will not die and that any death is a punishment from God. Those who do not believe, or whose faith is deemed insincere, are said to face judgment even in life.
Li Rui noted that the church exploits natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, and plagues to instill fear. It frightens believers into thinking that disbelief leads to death—striking directly at most people’s innate fear of death, including that of his own parents.
He recalled, “The Church of Almighty God issued numerous doomsday prophecies in 1999, 2000, 2012, and 2014. The most famous was in 2012, when they cited Mayan prophecies, ‘spread the gospel’ in the streets with gongs and drums, and vandalized police cars.”
The church also distorts biblical concepts, claiming that followers in a so-called “millennial kingdom” will live at least 1,000 years, while those who die earlier are cursed. They warn that betraying the church, like Judas betraying Jesus, will lead to similar punishment. Their teachings invoke the parable of “wheat and weeds,” portraying believers as the wheat and nonbelieving family members as the weeds, destined to be burned. Nonbelievers are also regarded as incarnations of the devil, exemplified by the shocking 2014 McDonald’s murder case in Zhaoyuan, Shandong.
Li Rui also recounted absurd stories spread among believers, such as a man returning home to find his wife transformed into a dog. Such teachings disrupt common sense, leading some to believe that, with enough faith, a peach tree could bear watermelons.
The Son’s Resistance and the Parents’ Awakening
To save his parents, Li Rui began exploring the Christian faith. He found that Christianity teaches belief in God and emphasizes reverence and love, whereas the Church of Almighty God replaces God with human authority, masking control as devotion. In Christianity, the object of faith is Jesus Christ, but within the Church of Almighty God, Yang Xiangbin is regarded as the Second Coming of Christ, while Zhao Weishan serves as the “High Priest.”
When his parents became involved with the sect, Li Rui was in his early twenties, and his younger sister was still in middle school. He recalled that their home life had fallen apart since his teenage years, with his parents often disappearing for ten days at a time. By the height of their involvement, they had lost the ability to think rationally.
During this period, his parents persistently tried to convert Li Rui and his sister. Desperate to make them awaken, he even resorted to cutting his wrists and pretending to drink pesticide, but nothing worked.
In 2011, Li Rui decided to feign belief in Almighty God to get closer to his parents. At the time, the “2012 doomsday prophecy” was widespread, and the Church of Almighty God was using it to aggressively recruit followers and solicit money. Li Rui outwardly agreed with his parents’ beliefs while secretly observing other local believers. He used this as leverage, warning, “If you keep dragging my parents into this, I’ll report you.”
Not long after, his parents even consented to a plan by fellow believers to kill him—a practice known within the sect as “punitive retribution.” They viewed Li Rui as a devil opposing God. “My parents eventually came to their senses,” he said. “After leaving the group, they confessed to me, ‘We wanted to kill you—we had already found the people and bought the tools.'”
The Rest of Life After Faith Collapsed
When his parents could no longer go out, Li Rui spent much of his time talking with them. He believed the greatest barrier for followers of the Church of Almighty God was their fear of questioning their own beliefs.
His mother had shown clear signs of illness for several years, but because she believed that true followers of Almighty God would never die, she refused medical treatment or medication. Li Rui tried to reason with her using real examples: “There were people who believed even more devoutly than you—why did they still die?” Gradually, his parents began to waver.
“When my parents finally broke through that mental barrier and dared to think for themselves, the teachings of Almighty God became riddled with contradictions,” Li Rui recalled. They realized they had followed a false faith, but the blow was devastating. “They felt that everything they had done was meaningless—it was like falling from the sky.”
“In the end,” he said, “my parents believed in nothing at all.”
In 2015, his mother, not yet 60, passed away from an illness left untreated for too long. That same year, his father died of depression. “After realizing that what he had believed in for more than a decade was a lie, he couldn’t bear it,” Li Rui said. “There was a vacant look in his eyes—he was completely lost.”
For more than a decade, his home had ceased to feel like a family. The struggle to bring his parents back was long and exhausting, but Li Rui never gave up. “If I gave up,” he said, “it would be like giving up on myself.”
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