“Zhao Weishan, a big scammer, deceived me by the 'Church of Almighty God' cult, leading me into a terrible pit. I gave the best ten years of my youth, only to end up with nothing!”, A-Ling, who has come to her senses, shared her experience of falling into the depths of the cult with anti-cult volunteers while weeping bitterly.
My name is A-Ling. I am 28 years old. I was born in a rural family in Jieyang, Guangdong Province. My parents are all farmers. I have five siblings, and I am the eldest. My father has always been in poor health, frequently needing to visit the hospital. Although my parents did their utmost to support the family, we were sometimes so strapped for cash that we had to borrow money from neighbors just to buy a notebook for school. I was eager to change my destiny through education, so I studied very hard and always ranked among the top of my class. Unfortunately, after completing junior high school, my parents could no longer afford the educational expenses for all their children, forcing me to quit school to alleviate the family's financial burden. My dream of continuing education was thus shattered. At that time, I felt immense pain in my heart, seeing no hope in my life and often hiding in corners to cry alone.
Later, driven by the need to make a living, I had no choice but to pack my bags and go out to work. Coming from the countryside and having seen little of the world, I was naive about human relationships due to young age and lack of life experience. During my working time, I suffered a lot of mockery and bullying, and endured hardships that many of my peers had never experienced. My desire to change my fate grew even stronger.
Cult’s Tactic 1: "Laying the Groundwork" to Win People Over
One day in 2012, a woman I had just known came to chat with me. This elder sister, like a confidante, was kind and warm to me, showed concern for my well-being, and patiently listened to my troubles and dreams. We had a very happy conversation that afternoon, and I opened up my heart to her without reservations.
During our conversation, the elder sister asked me a question: "Do you believe that there is a God in this world?" I nodded. Then, she started to talk about how God created mankind, saying that people should prostrate and worship God and so on. I had never heard these topics before, so I was utterly fascinated. The elder sister said to me: "Don’t you want to change your fate? Believing in God can change your fate. Once you believe in God, you will have no troubles at all." I felt as if a ray of light had shone into my gloomy life. Driven by the strong belief that "believing in God brings blessings", I fell into the trap of the "Church of Almighty God".
It was only after I came to my senses that I realized this older sister was actually a "gospel spreader" (recruiter) for the "Church of Almighty God", using the so-called "laying the groundwork" method (gaining trust through building relationships with people and then changing their beliefs) to deceive me into joining the cult.
Cult’s Tactic 2: Spreading Doomsday Fears to Scare People
When I first joined the "Church of Almighty God" organization, I would attend "fellowship gatherings" (referring to the meetings of believers of the "Church of Almighty God") whenever I had free time, listen to Zhao Weishan’s recorded sermons, pray to "God", and "communicate" with brothers and sisters (called by believers of the "Church of Almighty God" to each other) to share insights. At the end of 2012, the "Church of Almighty God" proclaimed that the "end of the world" was imminent with three days and nights in darkness, and that only those believing in the "Church of Almighty God", the one true God, could survive. Moreover, one had to "do one's duty" to finally be "saved". Those who did not believe in the "Church of Almighty God" would not have "God's" protection and would ultimately go to hell to be punished. During the "fellowship gatherings", they also showed us hellish scenes painted by a Korean female artist and videos of great tsunamis and disasters. I was extremely panicked, feeling as if the "end of the world" was about to arrive. I even urgently went to preach to my father, hoping to persuade my family into believing in "God" to avoid the disaster, but was flatly rejected by my father. My father advised me not to be superstitious and to stay away from the people of the "Church of Almighty God", but I, already deluded, simply wouldn't listen.
Cult’s Tactic 3: Employing Every Trick to Ensnare People
In subsequent gatherings, the brothers and sisters often persuaded me to quit my job to "fulfill my duty". Considering that my younger siblings still needed money to attend school and that my family really needed my salary to alleviate our financial burden. I kept delaying leaving the current job I liked to "fulfill my duty". Seeing that I was reluctant to leave my family to "fulfill my duty", the other brothers and sisters targeted my emotional attachment during every "fellowship gathering" to "correct" me with words from the "scriptures": "God comes to break up families. Parents only give birth to their children but have no power to control their children's fates. Fulfilling one's duty is the best way to distinguish a person. Those who fulfill their duties are truly believing in God and can receive God's gifts; those who do not fulfill their duties are not loyal to God and will be eliminated by God and will never be saved..." Under their repeated attacks, I finally gave in. In order to make me more determined to leave home and "do my part", they made me swear that I would be hit by a car if I did not do my duty. They even broke my mobile phone card and threw it away. At that time, I was very afraid that I would suffer punishment if I could not do what I had sworn, so I finally decided not to contact my family again. Soon I quit my job and left home to "do my part".
Cult’s Tactic 4: Brainwashing with Heretical Teachings to Harm People
During the "Fulfilling Duty" period, Zhao Weishan continuously brainwashed believers with heretical teachings such as "A great disaster is coming; the end of the world is near; the work of God is about to end". He demanded that believers persistently pursue a change in disposition, practice the "truth", fulfill their duties to accumulate good deeds for themselves to satisfy "God", and offer themselves entirely for the work of "God". I am a person who loves family. Whenever I misses my family and wanted to go home, they would "communicate" with me by using the words from "scriptures" such as "Those who are unwilling to abandon the world, cannot give up their parents, and cannot forsake their own physical pleasures are rebelling against God and will be destroyed". They required me to let go of my emotions and stay away from my family. Under the psychological intimidation upheld by Zhao Weishan that "the work of God is about to end" and the desire of "being blessed and saved", I abandoned my family and career to fully devote myself to this cult organization in order to satisfy "God's" will, to be cared for and blessed by "God", and so as not to be "eliminated".
Now a whole decade has passed. How many decades does one have in life? If it weren't for the rescue by the police and the help of anti-cult volunteers, I wouldn't know how many more years I would have been deceived by Zhao Weishan. My family has also suffered great mental distress because of this.
Due to my sudden "disappearance from the world" without any news, my family reported to the police multiple times after exhausting all efforts to find me only to no avail. My mother almost cried her eyes blind. My father, who used to be very thin, became even more emaciated. The atmosphere at home was gloomy and oppressive, devoid of any laughter or joy. My younger sister said that because I was missing, our family hadn't taken a family photo in ten years, as my parents were always waiting for the day I would reappear and return home. I myself didn't receive any "blessing". Not only did I waste the best ten years of my youth, but I also abandoned the pursuit of love, gave up a decent job, and became an older single woman economically poor. Zhao Weishan claims every year that "great disasters" and the end of the world are coming soon, always saying that the work of "God" is about to end. These words are all lies, which are used by Zhao Weishan and his "Church of Almighty God" to control the followers, with the aim of making all followers devotedly serve him and his organization.
I sincerely hope that those believers who also have been deceived by the "Church of Almighty God" and have lost contact with their families can recognize the true face of this cult as soon as possible and break out of it, and then join me in exposing the ugly face of the liar Zhao Weishan.
