﻿Hello everyone, welcome to The Light of Truth.
I'm your host, Zhiqing.
On June 19th,
during the Thirty-eighth Session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations,
Mr. Thierry Valle,
President of the Coordination of the Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience (CAP LC),
on behalf of 7 NGOs,
gave an oral statement at the Human Rights Council.
This statement calls for attention
to the continuous persecution by the Chinese Communist Party
against The Church of Almighty God
and urges the Chinese government to respect religious liberty
and stop the persecution of CAG.
Mr. Thierry Valle,
President of CAP LC said in the statement,
"The Church of Almighty God,
a new Christian religious movement,
has four million members in China
according to government sources.
The CAG is classified as a xie jiao.
According to Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code,
being active in a xie jiao
is punishable by a jail term of up to three to seven years or more.
There is no clear definition of xie jiao
and, for all practical purposes,
are regarded as xie jiao,
the groups included in the corresponding list,
periodically updated.
Those arrested and incarcerated under Article 300
are not accused of any crime
other than being an active member of a banned organization.
It is a typical case of a crime of conscience,
where somebody is punished for a belief."
"China also promotes a persistent campaign of fake news against the CAG.
They are still accused of crimes they did not commit,
including killing a woman in a McDonald's in 2014,
even though scholars have demonstrated that the crime was committed
by members of a different religious movement,
with a similar name."
Mr. Thierry Valle also emphasized in his statement:
In connection with the Universal Periodic Review of China,
which is to be undergone at the Human Rights Council of the United Nations,
several non-governmental organizations have submitted credible evidence of torture
and suspicious deaths of The Church of Almighty God members
while they were in custody.
Besides, they have also submitted a report,
that is titled: Arbitrary Detention—China,
which has been published on the United Nations website.
This report began with the historical background of The Church of Almighty God:
The movement became known as Eastern Lightning.
China, according to the Church, is where Almighty God has appeared
as the 'Eastern Lightning' mentioned by the Bible…."
The Church of Almighty God is a Christian Church with pure belief.
Citing cases of CCP's arbitrary detention of members of The Church of Almighty God
and research by academics,
this report describes the facts of the CCP's persecution of religious beliefs.
It also strongly condemns the Chinese Communist government
arbitrarily detaining thousands of members of The Church of Almighty God.
It is said in the report,
"Not all decisions of the Chinese courts are published online,
but thousands of them are.
There is a vast number of published decisions where members of a xie jiao,
particularly of The Church of Almighty God,
which has been listed as a xie jiao since 1995,
were sentenced to long jail penalties,
often exceeding seven years
entirely based on Article 300.
In fact,
having been found in possession of literature of the CAG, The Church of Almighty God,
or having tried to convert others to the Almighty God faith,
has been regarded as sufficient evidence of being guilty
of the crime punished by Article 300."
The report, entitled "Arbitrary Detention—China,"
lists 472 examples of The Church of Almighty God Christians who have been detained—
the longest of which is known to be serving a sentence of 14 years.
Also, the CAP LC website quoted a case
from the magazine Bitter Winter:
A CAG Christian fled to Korea due to the CCP's persecution.
She flew back to China in May 2018
for a medical treatment that was too expensive for her in Korea,
but she was immediately detained when she landed in Beijing,
where they cited Article 300.
It is evident that the Chinese Communist government
has not only intensified the persecution and arrests of CAG Christians in China,
but has also extended its dark hand to democratic countries overseas,
by attempting to extradite The Church of Almighty God Christians
who have fled abroad.
The Chinese Communist Party has used films and videos
produced by The Church of Almighty God
to search for Christians who have fled abroad,
and has interrogated, intimidated,
and deceived their loved ones
and family members in Mainland China.
It has also coerced the relatives of certain Christians
who have fled abroad into getting passports,
organizing for them to travel to countries overseas
to create rumors, spread lies,
and blacken the name of The Church of Almighty God
in order to incite people who don't understand the truth to oppose the Church
and extradite these fleeing Christians to China for arrest.
For example, in February 2015,
The Church of Almighty God Christian Zhang Fu
fled to South Korea as a result of persecution.
In May and August 2016, and November 2017,
the Chinese Police compelled Zhang's wife to travel to South Korea
with a government operative on the pretext of seeking her husband,
where they attempted to coerce and trick him into returning to China.
Since 2017,
nine The Church of Almighty God Christians are known
to have been arrested after returning to China—
and two of them are still in custody.
From what was just reported, it is evident
that the CCP has tried every means at its disposal
to persecute The Church of Almighty God.
In the report "Arbitrary Detention—China,"
we found another interesting detail.
"The Chinese Communist party
had already begun their persecution of the Church several years
before the alleged crimes are said to have occurred.
This confirms
that the persecution was not in fact motivated by accusations of crimes,
but by the doctrine of the Church,
which is regarded as incompatible with Communist ideology."
So what exactly is the ideology of the CCP?
Zheng Mingrui is a member of the Church
who served as a lieutenant colonel in the Chinese Navy
and was responsible for party affairs in a state-owned enterprise.
He believes
the ideology of the CCP is evil and reactionary.
In a recent interview with Eastern Light, he said:
The main ideology of the Chinese Communist Party is Marxism—An Atheism.
It has publicly declared that "there's never been any Savior,"
and its ruling program is "the Party commands all,"
and "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
Its slogan is to eliminate all capitalism,
eliminate all religious beliefs,
make communism a reality,
and make China, even the world,
into a territory without God.
Its evil intent is to have all Chinese people forever in its grasp
and lord over the world.
It has always boasted itself as "great, glorious, and correct"
in all of its internal and external propaganda.
All democratic countries, races, and groups with different beliefs,
and parties, groups or individuals with different political views and perspectives
are regarded as wrong, reactionary,
and a threat to its rule,
so it resorts to unscrupulous means
to attack, condemn, and even eradicate them.
Soon after taking power,
the CCP began to manically oppress and crack down on a wide array of religions
including Christianity.
It condemned Protestantism and Catholicism as cults,
confiscated and burned countless copies of the Bible
after condemning it as a cult book.
They arrested famous Christian leaders and preachers,
and sentenced some to prison for over 20 years.
The Christians beaten into disability,
even to death are countless.
Following the Chinese economic reform in 1980,
Christianity actually grew very rapidly in China,
and the CCP stepped up its wanton arrests and persecution of their house churches.
Since Xi Jinping came to power,
the CCP has called for the "Sinicization of Christianity."
Not only has it rampantly persecuted and cracked down
on house churches of Protestants and Catholics,
but it's also forcibly destroyed state-sanctioned Three-Self churches.
Countless crosses from the atop buildings of churches have been forcibly removed,
and copies of the Bible have been banned from listing with online big book stores.
It seems that its aim is to eliminate Protestantism and Catholicism.
Some Western religious scholars have pointed out
that the Chinese authorities are engaging
in an anti-Western, and anti-Christian cultural war,
an ideological war, a religious war.
Right now,
the number of Christians in CCP's prisons is the highest it's ever been.
The Christian families that are brutally persecuted
and Christians who can't return home are just countless.
The 2017 annual report published by The Church of Almighty God
reports that, according to rough statistics,
in just two short years between 2011 and 2013,
the number of The Church of Almighty God Christians
arrested, detained, and sentenced by the CCP amounted to over 380,000,
of which 43,640 members were subjected to various methods of torture,
including 13 members who were persecuted to death.
As of the end of 2017,
there are already 60 well-documented cases of the CAG Christians persecuted to death.
When it comes to the number of the CAG Christians arrested and persecuted,
these statistics are only the tip of the iceberg.
The universal values centered around the concepts
of freedom, equality, democracy, as well as human rights
are the mainstream ideologies of democratic countries
and the core of human civilization.
The ideology of the CCP is a direct departure from these universal values.
All ethnic groups, countries, religious groups, and dissidents
who are different from the CCP's ideology
are the targets of continued persecution—
and none have been persecuted more than The Church of Almighty God.
The actions and ideology of the Chinese Communist government have clearly demonstrated
that it hates the truth, opposes God,
and actually considers God an enemy.
Therefore, it is not qualified to criticize matters concerning faith,
much less is it qualified to make charges
against any group or church that believes in God.
The CCP's charges against The Church of Almighty God
attempt to turn black into white;
they are untenable.
We all know
that to understand a religious group's faith,
we must first endeavor to understand their teachings.
So what are the teachings of The Church of Almighty God?
To this end, Eastern Light interviewed Mr. Zhang Jin,
a CAG Christian,
to discuss the actual teachings of The Church of Almighty God
and the reasons why it has always been oppressed and persecuted by the CCP.
Several of the world's major religions have their own doctrines,
for example, Judaism bases its doctrine on the Old Testament,
Protestants and Catholics, on both Testaments.
The Bible arose due to the appearance and work of God in different ages.
The Old Testament
was written down and edited by men who were actually used by God,
recording Jehovah God's words during the Age of Law,
so the Old Testament is the doctrine of Judaism.
The Four Gospels,
edited by the disciples of the Lord Jesus,
record the Lord Jesus' words during the Age of Grace,
so the New Testament is the doctrine of Protestantism and Catholicism.
In the last days,
the incarnate Almighty God has appeared
and expressed the entire truth to judge, purify and save mankind,
doing the work of judgment beginning with the house of God.
All who hear the voice of God come before Almighty God,
and The Church of Almighty God was thus born.
The majority of Almighty God's words are recorded in the book
The Word Appears in the Flesh.
The Word Appears in the Flesh
is the doctrine of The Church of Almighty God.
The Word Appears in the Flesh
fulfills the prophecies in the Book of Revelation:
"the scroll opened by the Lamb"
and "what the Spirit says to the churches."
The New Testament is established on the Old Testament.
The Word Appears in the Flesh is established on the New Testament.
The Word Appears in the Flesh
is a record of God's judgment work in the last days
during the Age of Kingdom.
Those words are the words that God incarnate has expressed
in order to bestow them upon the whole of humankind
after the work in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace.
Why has the Chinese Communist government carried out
nationwide suppression and persecution of The Church of Almighty God?
Because the incarnate Almighty God appeared and expressed all of these truths,
shaking the whole world of religion,
people from every denomination like Protestantism and Catholicism
who saw the truth expressed by the incarnate Almighty God,
heard God's voice and returned before God's throne.
Over the past twenty years,
several million people in mainland China have returned to the name of Almighty God.
The rapid spread of The Church of Almighty God
left the CCP in a constant state of panic—they're afraid.
And what are they afraid of?
What they fear the most is that
The Church of Almighty God will reunite all religions,
and all denominations will become one,
which they think will threaten their political power.
This is what's key, and it's what they fear most!
In order to maintain their dictatorship and make China a land without God,
the CCP issued secret documents many times calling for
the complete purge of The Church of Almighty God,
and instituted nationwide suppression and crackdowns
against the Church on multiple occasions.
The Chinese Communist Party has held numerous special work meetings
about banning and suppressing The Church of Almighty God
and has issued confidential, secret and top secret documents,
which emphasize the urgency of suppressing the Church—
exposing its panic over the rapid growth of the Church.
For example, on September 14, 2000,
the CCP held a project coordination meeting for the suppression of the Church,
in which Bi Rongsheng,
Deputy Director of the Public Security Department of Hebei Province,
said that the Church "has reached a considerable scale."
He said that, despite constant suppression,
its "activities remain relatively serious."
Prior to the meeting, Jia Chunwang,
then Minister of the Ministry of Public Security,
said that they would "quietly destroy it without making a sound."
In June 2014,
the CCP re-emphasized in a nationwide teleconference
that "the deployment of a 'Hundred Days Battle'
aimed at attacking the Church across the country
was not launched 'actively,'
but had been 'forced by the circumstances.'"
It was also pointed out
that the Church had "shown rapid growth in China;
according to analysis,
it has at least four million members."
Simply for believing in Almighty God,
gathering to read the words of Almighty God,
and peacefully spreading the gospel
while testifying to the appearance and work of Almighty God,
Christians from The Church of Almighty God
have been arbitrarily arrested and detained by the CCP.
Some have been tortured, subjected to brutal interrogation—
and have even been killed or disabled.
From the above facts, it can be seen
that Christians from The Church of Almighty God
are in a perilous situation.
We are very concerned for the safety of Christians
who have been arbitrarily detained by the CCP,
and we are worried about those and many others who have been displaced
or who had their families torn apart by the CCP's persecution.
We hope that the international community
will understand the facts of the CCP's arbitrary arrest,
detention, and brutal persecution of CAG members,
to bring attention to their plight,
as well as the issue of asylum for Christian refugees forced to flee overseas.
That's all for today's program.
Thanks for watching. Till next time.