Eight years ago, I paid a heavy price for falling into a cult by accident. In order to get a non-existent "Paradise Residence Booklet", not only did I lost the means to make a living, but also I was cheated out of all the hard-earned money that I had saved for more than a decade. Today, I summon up the courage to tell people about this experience of mine, hoping that they can learn from it and will never make such foolish mistakes.
My name is Fan Shuguang. I was born in 1979 in Aru Kerqin Banner, Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. When I was young, I dropped out of high school because of my poor academic performance. Later, I was introduced by my relatives to a hotel in Shenyang where I worked as an apprentice chef to earn a living. During the period, I fell in love with Zhao Jing, a girl who was also working there in the canteen, and we got married in 2002.
After the marriage, my wife and I went back to our hometown and opened a restaurant in early 2007 with our savings of more than 100,000 Yuan，aiming to build up our own business. Fortunately, our small business prospered through our hard work and the cooking skills I had learned over the years. A few years later, we bought a house and a car in our county urban area with the money we had earned while running the restaurant, living an enviable and happy life.
Dragged into the mire by an unfamiliar woman
The turning point came during the Spring Festival of 2011. One day when I was driving back home from my relatives, there occurred a car accident, which broke my sternum, ribs and thighs, nearly killing me. It was during my convalescence that a woman in her 50s who claimed to be "Sister Liu" came into our lives.
Picture from the Internet
As Sister Liu came to our restaurant regularly for dinner, we gradually became familiar with each other. She always found some topics to discuss with my wife and tried to make friends with her. Sometimes, she and my wife exchanged views about society and life, and some of her views are quite distinct, thus leaving a good impression on my wife. Seeing that my wife was very fond of her, Sister Liu lost no time in warmly introducing "Female Christ" to my wife. Also, by citing some 'cases', she vividly narrated various miracles of the "Female Christ".
Finding that my wife was somewhat convinced of her words, Sister Liu seized the opportunity to give my wife several books, such as The Word Appears in the Flesh and Almighty God You Are So Kind. She told my wife to read them carefully, saying that many things were written in these books and they were easy to understand.
So, being roped in by Sister Liu step by step, my wife walked into the door of Almighty God with the wish of "having our whole family protected".
At that time, I stayed at home, nursing my injuries. To persuade me to join the cult together with her, my wife brought Sister Liu to our home to chat with me from time to time, in the name of helping me "alleviate the trouble". Every time Sister Liu came to our home, she would kneel together with my wife, chanting words like "Almighty God, please bless the child" or "Bless him with a quick and miraculous recovery". Their behavior, though strange to me, seemed to be well-intentioned and nothing serious, so I did not interfere with them.
Thanks to my wife's meticulous care, coupled with my young age and physical quality, I recovered very quickly, with my bone injury almost cured in less than a year. Afterward, in order to show my gratitude to both my wife for her selfless care and Sister Liu for her kind help at the time of my misfortune, I went with them perfunctorily to a household in the suburb of Tianshan town and attended several gatherings at their repeated entreaties.
I hadn't expected this thoughtless action would have disturbed my way of thinking. With increasing attendance in such gatherings, I had gradually grown from disbelief to uncertainty, and then to deep belief in heresies such as "The Second Incarnation", "Three Stages of God's Work" and "Doomsday", as well as other false "testimonies" and "miracles", all spread by the "Almighty God" cult. Finally, I willingly wrote a pledge that I would "obey the call of God, give everything to the God, and accept God's punishment for violation of the canons". Moreover, at the implicit suggestion of Sister Liu, I handed in nearly 2,000 Yuan as "devotion money" to show my gratitude to God.
Money is the "residence booklet" leading to paradise
Later, Sister Liu brainwashed my wife and me now and again with the "End of The World" heresy. She always said seriously that the "End of The World" would come soon, the earth would be destroyed, and human beings would perish. According to her, only those who sincerely believed in the "Almighty God" would be protected by God and have their families free from disaster. In addition, Sister Liu played mysteriously for us a private video about the horrible sight when the "End of the World" arrived. After watching the video, we began to believe in the advent of the "World Doomsday" without any doubt.
On December 7, 2012, Zhao Weishan instructed his followers to conduct their activities openly around the country and told them to spread the news about the "End of the World" everywhere, claiming that there would be nine consecutive nights starting from December 21 before the catastrophe would come and that only believers of the Almighty God could be protected. He also claimed that money was the residence booklet leading to paradise and that only by giving all the money to the "God" could one's whole family go to paradise when the earth was destroyed.
Having been brainwashed repeatedly, we believed that we should give more money to win God's trust and ensure the reliable access of our whole family to "paradise." To show our piety, my wife and I put our whole heart into the Almighty God, hoping to get the blessing of "God" as soon as possible. Early in 2012, my wife and I transferred the ownership of our restaurant at a low price and handed in 150,000 Yuan of our restaurant transfer fee to the "Almighty God" group, regardless of the strong objection from family members, relatives and friends. Meanwhile, we continued "devoting" our belongings such as our private car to the group. Every day, we read books or watched video CDs about the "Almighty God" together with Sister Liu, and were busy going around to church gatherings to interact with each other.
In the days leading up to December 21st, we lived in great fear that our whole family was going to paradise. Thinking that it would be no use keeping money, I "devoted" another 80,000 Yuan, which was all the remaining savings from our family, to the Almighty God group, waiting to go to paradise when the “Doomsday” came.
On the morning of December 22 which I had been nervously waiting for, the sun rose in the east once again, and the "World Doomsday" proclaimed by the "Almighty God" hadn't come. It was only then that I, as if awakening from a dream, suddenly realized that we had been deceived, but it was too late to repent.
The experience with the "Almighty God" has ruined our family and dissipated our fortune totally. Today, I sincerely hope that everyone will learn a lesson from me and never listen to, or believe in the rhetoric of any cult. If anyone spreads the beliefs in any cult to you, you must take up the law as a weapon to fight against them, so that those cults have nowhere to hide, no longer harming people and society.
