Eastern Lightning/The Shouters and the Local Church Cult

[InChristAlone]

Today, during the Lord's Table, one of responsible brothers told us about the Shouters aka Eastern Lightning cult in China. The first thing he said was that the cult has nothing to do with the Local Church. However, the members of the cult try to mix with saints from the LC, shouting similar slogans and taking Witness Lee as their teacher and Lord. They teach that the Bible became outdated, therefore there is no need to read it. They also believe that in the modern age, God "speaks" to people through the leaders of the cult. Besides, their behavior tend to be aggressive and they are known for killing people who want to leave the cult.

I have never heard about them but my first thought was Matthew 7:15-16 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" What a spin-off of the LRC and Witness Lee's teachings....

I will share some quotes with links about the cult:

Eastern Lightning's ideas that deny the Trinity developed from Witness Lee's teachings concerning the Trinity. Witness Lee's teachings were twisted in the Mainland and eventually mutated into Eastern Lightning's modalistic doctrine that there is only one God who used different names in different dispensations.

Who was Witness Lee?

Witness Lee was a follower of and co-worker with Watchman Nee. While Watchman Nee was an orthodox and influential Christian leader, he had some unusual views. His most famous unusual teaching was that denominations are wrong and that all believers in an area belong to the same local body. Churches in his group were known as Local Churches (地方教会) or Assembly Halls (聚会处). His group was also referred to as the Little Flock (小群).

Many of Witness Lee's teachings concerning the Trinity sound very much like modalism—the heresy that God was only one person who acted in different modes at different times.

Witness Lee denied that God was three persons. He considered the teaching that God is three persons to border on "tritheism." Witness Lee preferred the term "Triune God" (三一神) to the term "Trinity" (三位一体). He believed that the Father, the Son and the Spirit, though "distinct," were one person. He believed that Jesus was the "Triune God mingled with man." After Jesus' death and resurrection, Jesus became the Spirit. Witness Lee denied that his teaching was modalism. Even if it is not modalism, some of it sounds very close to modalism. Whatever the case, Witness Lee's teachings and the changes they underwent in China were an important factor in the development of Eastern Lightning.

Witness Lee's teachings in China

In 1967 Witness Lee started the "Calling Out" (or "Shouting") Movement (呼喊运动). He said that the Age of the Word had ended, and now it was the Age of the Spirit. Witness Lee taught that believers must "eat the Lord" (吃主) and the way to do this was by calling out or shouting his name (呼喊主名). Calling out his name was the way to release the Spirit in this Age of the Spirit.

After Deng Xiaoping's "opening up" of China in 1979, Witness Lee sent followers from overseas to Wenzhou (a city in Zhejiang Province) to contact believers from Watchman Nee's Local Church movement. They reportedly brought with them large amounts of Witness Lee's books, pamphlets and recordings. Within a few short years, their influence had spread throughout Zhejiang, Fujian, Henan, Guangdong and other places. During their meetings they would shout "Jesus is Lord!" in an attempt to practice Witness Lee's teaching about calling out the Lord's name. This is how they got the nickname "Shouters" (呼喊派).

The Shouters (呼喊派) and the Local Churches (地方教会)

The term "Shouters" is not a precise term. The term "Shouters" covers many true believers. But some have used the term in a narrow sense to refer only to certain groups who have distorted the teachings of Witness Lee and have broken with the Local Churches. Not all Shouters accept Witness Lee's teachings, and not all followers of Witness Lee are Shouters. In particular, many Local Churches that follow Watchman Nee and Witness Lee are law-abiding groups that reject the term "Shouters."

Some Shouters and the Trinity

Some (not all) Shouters took Witness Lee's questionable doctrine of the Trinity one step further and became complete modalists. These groups held that the Father became the Son and was no longer the Father; the Son became the Spirit and was no longer the Son. That is, the Father, the Son and the Spirit are modes by which God manifests himself in different eras. They are not distinct persons.

The "Lord Changshou" sect

One branch of the Shouters held Witness Lee in such high esteem that they began to regard his authority and status as greater than Christ's. They called Witness Lee "Lord Changshou" (常受主) ("Changshou" is Witness Lee's given name). This, of course, goes far beyond the actual teaching of Witness Lee, who never proposed to set himself above Christ. Witness Lee acknowledged the fact that some people had started to worship him and made some attempt to stop it.

It has been reported that in 1995, this branch of the Shouters distributed million tracts in 20 major cities in China declaring that Witness Lee was the living Christ and that he would become the new king of the universe.

This "Lord Changshou" sect believed that you must call upon the Lord Changshou to be saved; that Jesus is someone of the past and will not return to save the world; and that Lord Changshou will return to save the world.

One can easily see how this cult became a pattern for Eastern Lightning. Indeed, the founder of Eastern Lightning was first part of the "Lord Changshou" sect.

http://www.chsource.org/en/articles/...deas-come-from

Section 2 of Where Did Eastern Lightning Come From?, A brief discussion of the origins and evolution of the Eastern Lightning cult

http://www.chsource.org/en/articles/...ders-come-from

Brief Look at Some of Eastern Lightning’s False Teachings

To sum up, around 1993 a member of the cult that worshiped Witness Lee as the "Christ of the End Times" started a new cult that replaced Witness Lee with a young Chinese woman named Yang Xiangbin. The basic idea is pretty similar.

The cult has grown at a tremendous rate in China. It has also been active in Hong Kong, and there have been some reports of activity among Chinese Christians in the West. My personal feeling, though, is that Eastern Lightning will never gain much traction outside of China. I think its ideas and the way they are expressed find a resonance among certain groups in China but will not have much impact on groups outside China. To take just one example, the idea that Christ had to return to China first because Chinese are the worst people on earth will sound ludicrous to most Westerners. But to the Chinese ear it may not sound quite so absurd. Harsh criticism of the Chinese people has a long tradition in China as a respected patriotic activity.

In any case, the cult has had a devastating impact on many, many churches and families across China. I believe that Eastern Lightning, like every other cult, is a Satanic attempt to divert people from the true gospel. While many have joined out of altruistic motives, they have been led astray. It is my hope and prayer that this article might help somebody see the cult for what it is and turn back to our true Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

http://www.chsource.org/en/articles/...gions/item/537